Grekwood Miniatures' Zombies 01

Grekwood Miniatures is a new kid on the block in the field of miniature figure companies. It was founded by Carl Sutherwood, aka Rovanite, which he set up in memory of his brother, Gareth "Grekwood" Sutherwood who sadly passed away, far too young, in July 2011. I knew Grekwood from the Forum of Doom and we were good friends. So, I have more than a passing interest in the success of Carl's new venture. His first releases in his range of 28mm scale zombies were four sets of four hospital zombies - doctors, nurses and patients.

First up are the zombie patients, two female and two male. The female zombie at the far left of my photos above and below was either obese or pregnant, going off the size of her belly. I'm guessing pregnant as there is something deeply disturbing about a pregnant mother turning into a zombie. I couldn't resist painting her groin all blood-soaked to hint at some unseen horror. What if she was killed just before she gave birth? Is her undead baby trying to wriggle its way out of her womb? Perhaps it's best we don't know.
The female next to her has her right arm in a sling. I painted her in slippers and white socks. I like the fact that Carl has sculpted ID bracelets on all of the patients. It's a little detail that could so easily have been overlooked. Both females are having trouble with their hospital gowns covering up their backsides. Epic fail! She is heavily blood-stained but not all of it is hers..

And yet the two male patients show how wearing a hospital gown should be done without any sign of bum cleavage! The first male patient, in the middle of the group, has a plaster cast on his lower right leg and foot, although his toes are visible. I painted his left foot as if he was wearing a slipper. The blood around his chin, neck and upper chest is from a victim he has fed upon.
The figure at the far right of this group is much, much older than the previous three, with balding grey hair. Note the bloody hand print on his backside. He still clutches on to his wheeled stand with the IV drip still attached to his arm. Once again, it's a nice touch that makes him stand out from the crowd, although it's not a totally unique concept. I know of at least two other zombie figures holding onto their IV drip stands. 

Theses next two photos (directly above and below) show the doctors who would be in the front line when the zombie apocalypse kicked off - surgeons in scrubs. Again, there are two males and two females and it is refreshing to see a 50/50 split between the sexes. Too many companies ignore the female species. The doctor at the far left of the group has arranged her ponytail to the left side of her head, which gives her a very interesting look. I like it. She has been bitten in both legs and arms.
Her female colleague to her left looks a mess with blood all over her, but how much is hers and how much is from other victims? Note the name tags on the chests of theses figures. Another welcome little detail that could have been overlooked. I like the way her training shoes have turned out. They are quite chunky and I mean that as a compliment.

By painting the third doctor in line with grey hair, I have made him a senior consultant. He has a vicious bite wound on his right leg. I thought his nose looked a bit small, so I decided that the tip of it had been bitten off. Before painting any zombie I always take a close look at them to see where, if anywhere, their wounds are. Some are obvious, like missing limbs. In this case, I'm not even sure if this was meant to be a "proper" wound, but what the heck, it works for me.
The doctor at the far right of this group is bald-headed, making it harder to age him, although I'd say he's older rather than younger. I painted most of the blood on him around his neck area to suggest he was bitten in the throat. Upon reflection, I'm thinking that such a wound would have produced far more blood and thoroughly soaked the front of his jacket. So perhaps this blood is from a victim he has fed upon.

Still sticking with the doctors, this next set shows doctors in long coats. More specifically, long, WHITE coats, which are ideal for showing off blood stains! Once again, there are two female zombies and two male zombies in this set. At the far left of the group, the black-haired female has been bitten in the lower stomach and upper left arm. Blood can be seen dribbling from her mouth.
The second female doctor in this set also wears a cool pair of training shoes. Note the stethoscope draped around her neck. She appears to have died from a gunshot wound, just below her left breast. The exit wound in her back is quite large. As with most "blonde-haired" women I see nowadays, her black roots are showing.

The male doctor standing third in line is the only one to have buttoned up his coat. I think that he's another zombie with more blood on him from victims than from himself. I gave him a cut to the side of the head and a bite wound on his lower left arm.
The doctor at the far right of this group was painted as an African/American with darker skin than my other zombies in this set. I painted his skin as I would a normal Caucasian zombie but finished him off with a Citadel Devlan Mud ink wash. It's a simple way to do dark skin tones on a zombie. He, too, has a stethoscope draped around his neck. He wears a yellow tie, which has been loosened at the neck.

Finally, we come to the four nurses, and these are different to the rest of this range in that these are based on villains from a computer game. I forget which one, as I don't take too much interest in computer gaming. What makes these different from the others is that they are all armed (and know how to use their weapons) and all wear bandages around their heads, in the style of an Egyptiam Mummy. In fact, these might not even be zombies but demons (see later for more information). From a distance the bandaged heads aren't that noticable and when viewed on the tabletop, they look just like normal zombies.

I don't how it happened but I forgot to take a rear view photo of these nurses. it was only when I transferred my photos from my camera to my computer that I realised what a cock up I'd made. So, I hastily corrected my error. I used my flash gun on this photo rather than my usual set up with daylight lamps. You can see that the colours don't exactly match up with my standard photos and the flash has caused some shadows to appear. Apologies for this, but you still get a fair idea of how they look.

The nurse at the far left holds what looks like a sledgehammer to me. It must be heavy because she is struggling to lift it.

Next to her, this nurse brandishes a knife in her right hand with evil intent.

To make the third nurse in line just slightly different to the others, I altered her skin tone to make her an African/American using the same technique as the doctor mentioned above.

The nurse at the far right is advancing slowly with her knife held by her side.

Due to numerous requests, Carl has resculpted these as "normal" zombie nurses without the weapons and bandaged heads. They will replace this set as part of the Hospital Zombies deal . This set will be moved to the Monsters and Demons range, which is why I thought they might be demons. I'll review the new zombie nurses as soon as I get them and paint them.

I am a big fan of these figures. The quality of the sculpting is very good and for 28mm scale figures none are over-scaled, which is a good thing. Hospital zombies were such an obvious choice to make with staff and patients certainly being amongst the first to succumb to the zombie plague once it started. To tie in with this range, Carl is working on making resin cast hospital beds and a card model hospital, which will be available to buy as a PDF file. Personally, I can't wait for his new stuff to be made available.

The four sets are available separately for £9.50 each. If you want all four sets, Carl offers a discount deal, which will cost you £34.00, giving you a saving of £4.00. Note that when the new zombie nurses become available they will replace the bandaged headed nurses in the deal. We all know that there certain miniature figure companies that we admire and trust implicitly and sadly, some that we just want nothing to do with. Take it from me, Carl is one of the good guys and his company deserves to succeed and flourish. Please support him by buying his products.