Wednesday 10 December 2014

Grekwood Miniatures Werewolves

I'm going to be reviewing a lot of my werewolf miniatures over the next few weeks. I am well aware that werewolves are not part of the undead but I do see them very closely related to the horror genre and I just couldn't ignore them. I have already showcased my West Wind werewolves on my blog (see here - http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/west-wind-werewolves-01.html ) but I own a lot more than just them. I thought it was long overdue that my Lupines share the limelight. So today, I'm going to review four of my newest werewolf figure purchases and these beasts came from Grekwood Miniatures. They were co-sculpted by Keith and Carl Sutherwood.
What is not apparent from my photos is just how tall these creatures are. They stand roughly 43mm tall from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads. This is not a case of scale creep. These are meant to be larger than life. They are meant to be tall (roughly 8-9 feet in real life), powerful and menacing. Each figure comes in four parts - upper body, lower body and two arms. I drilled and pinned the arms to the bodies and used superglue to attach the arms. However, I used two-part epoxy glue to stick the two halves of the body together. Their bases are 30mm diameter plastic slottabases. The gaps between the body parts were filled in with Green Stuff modelling putty. Carl very kindly and very helpfully supplied a small amount of Green Stuff with the figures along with instructions on how to fill the gaps and create the fur effect. Now that is good customer service!
The poses are from left to right, walking, standing with arms outstretched, jogging and running. For more variety you could mix and match body halves and/or arms. As soon as I saw these figures I knew I wanted to paint them with black fur. It's an easy option, I know, but it works so well. I normally paint my werewolves with gloss black eyes but I felt that would not be a good idea with these having black fur. So, I gave them demonic red eyes, which provides a nice contrast. They were relatively easy to make (for an experienced modeller like me) and very simple to paint.
I see these as part of my shock troopers in my tribe of werewolves. When I did my review of my West Wind Werewolves I wrote this - "anyone who has played White Wolf's Werewolf: the Apocalypse role-playing game will know that this figure represents a lupine in Crinos form, the most powerful of their five forms, ranging from human (Homid) to wolf (Lupus). The other two forms are Hispo (a dire-wolf) and Glabro (a human with wolf features)." This statement applied to an even larger werewolf figure but it still apples to these four Grekwood werewolves. Carl's four werewolves are clearly shown in their most powerful Crinos form. Try to keep these terms in mind as I will be referring to them as I continue my reviews of my collection of werewolf figures.
The figures cost £7.00 each but you can buy all four for just £24.00, saving you £4.00. This is what I did. Also note that Carl will supply some Green Stuff to smooth over the arm and body joins. They are also supplied with 30mm diameter slottabases. I can highly recommend them.

19 comments:

  1. I thought these were mythical yet you state "be tall (roughly 8-9 feet in real life)," Now you are scaring me. No more lonely walks on the moors or dressing as a sheep for Halloween for me.

    Nice job mate. £7 each is games workshop prices (well nearly) so too steep for me but I have enjoyed seeing them.

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    1. Clint, if you want to see a werewolf of this size in action watch the film "Underworld - Awakening" as Selene the vampire battles one of these huge monsters.

      If these were GW figures they'd easily be twice the price that Carl is charging. Do bear in mind, they are 40mm+ figures and not 28mm sized figures. Plus they are multi-part. If you buy all four at once the price drops to £6.00 per figure. I really don't thinks that's too bad.

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  2. Terrific posting Bryan. Your stuff never disappoints and a couple of weeks of posting were-packs sounds great. I must confess its not until you scroll down to see some of your other models with your trademark background, that you realize just how tall these beasties are though. Love the colour scheme with the eyes, teeth and tongue. How's the SDE minis coming along? Looking forward to your Kobold piccies :-)

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    1. Many thanks, Blax. These just tower over a normal 28mm scale figure and would scare the crap out of most people (me included!).

      My SDE figure painting is coming along tremendously well. I don't want to post anything until after I've painted everything from the basic boxed game. I'm busy painting the last 10 Kobolds, which are also the last figures to paint from the basic game. They are about 75% completed and I reckon come January I'll be ready to show you lots of fantasy goodies. Be patient, young Padawan, all will be revealed soon!

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  3. Nice job Bryan!
    Not my thing in terms of gaming but I do like the Underworld franchise. I think it's because we fouģht too many of these back in the day, whilst playing Vampire: The Masquerade. They're tough SOBs.

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    1. Bob, I LOVE the Underworld films. Selene is my favourite movie vampire... well at least until someone makes a decent Vampirella film. I disown that travesty of a Vampirella film starring Talisa Soto in the title role.

      I played a LOT of Vampire: the Masquerade games and we occasionally had to fight Werewolves. They certainly were tough opponents.

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  4. They're excellent and a good size. Nice to see you get the putty and instructions marvellous idea of Carls!

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    1. Thanks, Simon. Yes, Carl really knows how to look after his customers.

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  5. £7 each is a bit to steep for me! But you made a great job painting the buggers anyway Bryan!

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  6. I can see why you'd like these, though werewolves really aren't my think. If I had any criticism, I'd say that the mouths look a bit too bright?

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    1. Maybe, but I'm not changing them. Thanks anyway, Hugh.

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  7. It's nice to see some of the Carls sculpts painted! I have a nice werewolf from Black cat bases that is smaller than most of my humans, so I can only compliment their size!

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    1. Thanks, Mathyoo. I've seen the BCB werewolves but I don't have any of them. Werewolves can come in many sizes, as I will show over the coming weeks.

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  8. Yay! It's cool to see someone else paint these up (I rarely see stuff I sell!). Thanks for the nice review, you've done a great job with them!

    I thought I would just comment on the price (based on some comments). The price is based on the amount of metal used. They take about 3 times as much metal as a regular 28mm figure. Therefore, going by that, they should be 3 times as much (so £3 becomes £9... which is crazy), so £6 - 7 for them wasn't too bad since they are interchangeable. Anyway, that was my thought process :D

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    1. Thanks, Carl. I'm so glad you like them. I certainly think they are very reasonably priced - more so if you buy all four at once.

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