Zombies, Aliens, Humans, and a Banana Man

Hi guys!

Apologies for the delay in getting a Blog out there and for not getting around the blogs as much as I should!! I've been very busy with personal things as well as the business stuff.

I have been up to quite a bit, which most of you probably know already through newsletters or Facebook, but here it all is for the past month-ish with some future plans:

New Releases since the Werewolves: Click photos to zoom!

1) The Tenderiser

2) 4 Resin Vehicles

3) Bexi Warrior Princess (painted and unpainted)

4) Space Ranger

Coming in July/August:

5) Latest additions from Crooked Dice: "Time Lost Detectives".

6) Zombie Bust (possibly)

7) Some Sci-Fi plastic miniatures... but more on those closer to the time :P

8) Extended Bioblyte range: Will include runners with claws, and alien army with guns.

Ok, so that's the plan for the next couple of month/releases. I'll send out a news letter as and when they are available.

No photos for number 7 and 8, and it's a little top secret and 7 isn't 100% confirmed yet, but hopefully will be soon.

All items can be found on our website: www.grekwoodminiatures.co.uk

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Win a Painted Hasslefree Resin Master for Charity:

Finally, but by no means least, Hasslefree have donated a resin master figure and Ben Brownlie, has painted it up (to a very high standard) and is now auctioning it off in memory of my brother Gareth (aka Grekwood). All money raised will go to the CGD (Chronis Granulomatous Disorder) Society Charity, which deals with research into cures and medications to help people with CGD.

CGD is a rare immune system disorder which leaves the individual unable to fight certain infections and can often be life threatening.

A £5 donation gets you 1 ticket in the "hat", and a donation of £10 or more gets you 3 tickets. Auction will take place on the 24th of June (i think), but you have until the 23rd to donate.

All donations can be made here: http://www.justgiving.com/Gareth-K-Sutherwood

PLEASE leave your name and/or blog name so we can contact you if you win.

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Before I sign out, I would just like to wish Bryan (aka Vampifan) a speedy recovery, and I hope we will see him back very soon!

Cheers everyone :)

This Months Releases!

It seems like ages since I have posted anything here, but I guess it was only about 2 weeks ago!

I have a few announcements, so here I go:

1) All 4 interchangeable werewolves have now been released on the website. They retail at £7 each or £6 if all four are bought. They are priced so because they are 40-45mm in height and quite "bulky" in build. They are meant for 28mm scale, so in real life terms they are about 8 to 9 feet tall...so big and scary!

Bottom photo has a typo.. it should say "4" not "3".

2) 15mm Hospital and some roads have been released. I thought it was about time I got those all up on the site.

3) Major news... well it is in my opinion, today I finally received the production lot for "Bexi Warrior Princess", "The Tenderiser (Hammerman), and Aliwen Space Ranger and some more casts of the Grekwood mini!

I am pleased to finally announce that The Tenderiser will be released tomorrow (Monday 13th May). He will retail for £8.25 as he is the biggest figure (weight/metal wise) on my website!

Bexi and the Space Ranger will be up either later this month or early June. This is because I am going to paint up some of the Bexi character as commissions for some people who are not really into the hobby, but would like one as they know the person it is based on (so cosplayers).

4) Umm..what else... I have some 28mm scale resin/metal vehicles which I will also put online soon. So stay tuned for those. They are from a range called "28mm moderns". There will be a small tank, and a few people carrier ones with a few guns here and there. Here's one of them. It's a Pinzgauer. This particular one was painted by my brother Gareth. He also put transparent sheets onto it for windscreens. Oh and to the right is my poor attempt at painting the werewolves...and a base I made for one of them :)

Ok, think that's all for now........... yep, can't think!! As always, sorry for not getting around the blogs, I don't seem to come on here much any more as I tend to do a lot of updates through Facebook, but it's something I don't want to abandon as it's a great community here.

Grekwood Miniatures 1st Birthday!

It's apparently been over two weeks since my last post... crazy! I just thought I would talk a little about what will be going on in Grekwood Minaitures over the next few months. Before I start, here's a fun photo some of you may not have seen:

Click to zooooooom

Recently I launched the expansion pack for the hospital. It's been a long time waiting so I am happy it is finally out there! I also uploaded the mini dinosaur I sculpted to the website. He can be found in the "Critters" section.

Birthday!
On the 27th of this month it will be Grekwood Minaitures 1st birthday! To celebrate this, I will be releasing the "Grekwood in a Fez" tribute figure (sculpted by Inso) on Monday the 22nd. It will be a perfect way to celebrate the 1 year birthday and it will also serve as a reminder to everyone of why Grekwood Miniatures is here.

£1 from each sale will go to the CGD Society.

Grekwood Minis is Growing!
I have quite a few figures coming out over the next few months. These include the one's mentioned above, along with "The Tenderiser" (marketed as "Hammerman"), Bexi Warrior Princess, and Alliwen the Space Ranger!

I also have 4 werewolves which can be interchanged. I am still trying to work on a price for them. They cost quite a lot to produce because they are quite large and chunky. They are meant to be for 28mm scale figures, but they are 40-45mm tall (equivalent of 8 or 9 feet tall). I plan to bring out more arms for them at some point.

I am also working on some extra figures for the Bioblyte range. This will involve one pack of figures similar to the armless guys, but this time less bulky torsos, and arms which have claws on the end. A second pack will be like the Bioblytes themselves, but holding weapons rather than them being integrated. They will also be less bulked out.

15mm Buildings and Roads
I am finally working on building/altering the buildings for 15mm scale. This means reducing the files sizes by roughly 60%, and then tweaking the files to make them more suitable. As the walls are not as long, it means some walls can be connected together making less parts. They will be based on 3mm foam board which is weirdly super cheap on eBay. I found 10 A3 sized sheets for £9.99 (bargain!).

So if you know of anyone who is wanting some 15mm stuff, then send them our way!

Ok that's all for now, cheers for reading!

28mm Hospital *Extended Cut*

Bit of a short blog, but for those who have not seen on Facebook, I have been working on the "Hospital Extended Cut" PDF, and we (my dad and I) put together the following building the other day:

The extended cut includes:

1) New end sections
2) New Centre Entrance
3) New hallway section including a lift and stair entrance.
4) Stairs and Lift compartments.
5) Fire Escape sections on the end of each ward.

Here is a promo photo from above. I have put the car park and some roads out around the hospital to make it look "real".








I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out. hopefully it'll be ready in the next week or two :) I still have to take some photos (tomorrow) as the battery ran out whilst photographing it the first time.

Ok, that's all I have to talk about at the moment, apart from... HAPPY EASTER!!! and if you don't celebrate it, then have a great weekend as always!

My next blog will hopefully have some info about up and coming figures ...

New Miniatures and Super Store Ideas

In an attempt to get back into the whole blog thing here is another blog post!

Last week I began talks with Crooked Dice to stock a few of their figures, 18 of them to be exact. So on the website you should notice that they are scattered around there. I am attempting to get more on the website, but that depends on companies co-operating or not. So if they don't I will move on to something else, either way, someone is getting my money haha

Here is a little promo picture I made of some of them:

On another note....

Today I spent a few hours working out how the large super store could be built. It will be constructed in a modular system, similar to the way the hospital was built in sections.

Here is a photo of what we came up with as a base plan. It measures 4 square by 5 (each square is 6" x 6").

The 4 squares on the left with the figures on represent the butcher, fish monger, bakery, and deli. Each square would be it's on area.

The top 4 squares would be a warehouse, office, and canteen area.

The other 3 square by 4 square area will be the main shop with the entrance being in the bottom right corner where the white square with the figure on it is.

So, this is quite a big building, but it's meant to be for playing games in, and not just another piece in a town...also...it's going to look really cool haha

Ok that's all for now!
Comments always welcome!

Up and coming Stuff...

Welcome new followers!!

It's been a while (again) since I last posted a blog, so here one is!

The local store PDF is now available on the website (click here). Here is a photo for you to see:

 

I also have a car park which works with out buildings/roads, so that is coming out hopefully in the next week. I just need to finalise a few things before I can do that.  So in case you haven't seen it yet, below is a photo of the WIP version. As I said, it's designed to work with our roads (or others I guess), so the "T junction" would be from another road pack, and not the car park pack, as you can't have a car park without roads. In the road sections there are "yellow line stoppers", which allow you to end yellow lines appropriately. The tile by the T junction also has changed. I have also go white arrows going around the carpark (two versions, one for driving on the left, and one for the right).

 

 

Umm...what else... oh yes, I finally finished the dinosaur I started last year (it didn't take that long, but I put it aside and forgot about it). So here's a photo of that:

 

 

 

Finally... I will be contacting the caster about a couple of figures. Do you remember Hammerman, Grekwood in a fez, the sci fi alien with guns, and the "not dr who" dalek princess? Well I will hopefully be getting them back soon *fingers crossed*... assuming they don't break in the mould again! Oh I might rename Hammerman as "The Tenderiser", as he's a mix of a butcher and an executioner...and he has the worlds biggers meat hammer lol

 

Ok, I think that's enough for now. Oh if you know anyone who needs sculpting putty, then it might be useful to know I have dropped the price to £10 for Green Stuff, and £7.50 for Procreate. I think this is "one of" the cheapest deals you can find online in the UK, so that's all cool...share it...share it share it haha

 

Oh and congrats to the Welsh Rugby Union team who beat England 30 points to 3 for the "Six Nations Championship". Not a bad end to the day!

 

Comments always welcome! and apologies once again for not getting around the blogs. I seem to spend most of my Grek Minis time updating our facebook page!

 

Cheers for reading...

 

Photography and other stuff

It's been over a week since my last blog, so I thought I would write one!

Local Store:
I have almost finished the local store. I have been taking ages building up the shelves, so they have individual items on them. I have only put basic furniture in some rooms, like a table/desk, and maybe a cabinet or two as I don't want to clog up the rooms too much because of the size, and also I'm not the best at making tiny furniture! The main building and shop is the main focus anyway, so that's the main thing!

Sculpting:
On a sculpting note, my next couple of ranges (releases) won't exactly be zombie related. The current figures I'm working on are some sculpts my dad started work on a year or so ago, but they go put aside and kind of forgot about as new things popped up. I've been working on them for a couple of days now, so hopefully towards the end of this month I will be able to send them off. I don't want to add photos yet as I don't want people to become board of them before they are out. They won't be everyone's "cup of tea", but then not everything is! They are of a "fantasy/horror" theme though, and there have been a few movies about them or including them in the past.

My second range I am working on has a more fantasy/medieval twist to it. There will be some undead guys in it, but they are not technically zombies. They could still work as" fancy dress" zombies who have been to a "dress up" party or something.

Photography:
I have been looking through my photos this morning on my facebook photography page, and thought I would share some here. I haven't really done much photography in the past year or two, I have just been focussed on other things. So here's some of my photos.

Below left: Photos of Kate. Below right: Kate holding one of my other samurai swords. It's a display model (so made to look pretty but not for slicing!). Below right: Nathan Wyburn, known for his marmite art work on toast! he was on Britains Got Talent, and has done many pieces of art for famous people. I photographed him before he really got "famous".

 

Below: Fireworks as Disneyworld, on Halloween night.

 

 

Below left: Light photography. Kate made the star, Carmel made the tree, and Gareth made the blue box. Middle: A chimp from Drayton Manor. Right: A lily in my parents fish pond.

 

 

Below: Infrared image of a lake near my parents house. The infrared camera makes all greens white. It also makes people look a bit demonish haha

 

 

Finally, a "Banana vs Skittles War". I was feeling creative. I borrowed a Hasslefree (I think) gun from my brother, and made this diorama!

 

 

I have taken way more images, but these are just some I decided to share. more can be seen on my photography page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carl-Sutherwood-Photography/239146450525

 

Ok that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed looking at the pics!

 

Cheers all!