Hasslefree Miniatures Newsletter – New Releases

Remember that whole '2014 starts now' thing? Well since that last newsletter our automated email broke so nobody got their 'thanks for registering' or 'thanks for ordering' emails for a while, then our website decided it didn't want to show up on mobile phones for a while and just to top it off the new flat my wife and I moved to had a roof leak and it just might have rained a tad :)

So let's try that again shall we... 2014 starts now! *touches every bit of wood in the room*

This week we have a very special guest mini that was delayed somewhat from last year, another new release and some new resin masters. It's a short one this week while we await restocks from beleagured casters, so on with the pretty pics!

In the middle of last year I had a weird notion, there was a very convoluted reason behind it but that's not important, what it led to was an email exchange with a man called Jay Maynard. You may know him better as 'Tron Guy'.

For those of you who don't know him, Jay is basically a fan of Tron who decided to make his own costume for cosplaying at cons etc. and put photos up on his website. Now there were a couple of issues led to this being a non-everyday occurrence, the first is that the costume was fairly skin tight and the second is that Jay is not exactly svelte. The internet did what the internet does and Jay could have just passed into the night as a guy the internet made fun of for 5 minutes. The reason he didn't is that he turned out to be a pretty cool guy and joined in with the ribbing and became a minor celebrity for a while. If you're very lucky you can still see him at conventions :)

Clip of Jay on Tosh.0 HERE (Probably not safe for work, Tosh swears :))

So this email exchange led to me asking him if he minded us making a mini of him, and not only didn't he mind, but when I mentioned that I'd like it to be a sort of 'cosplayer after the zombocalypse', instead of looking at me like I was a nutter, he came back with the awesome reply of "Nothing about a zombie apocalypse a remington shotgun can't solve". And so 'Jay' was born.

(The reason he was delayed in release is that we were thinking of holding him over for a project we have in the works but that has now been moved down the list in favour of the sci-fi powered armour so we're releasing him now).

Our next new release is another result of Kev being bored and us not noticing we hadn't prodded him with his to do list in a while :)

Weeping Willow is a crying mutant zombie best left to her own despair as when disturbed she is incredibly fast and much stronger than she looks.

Fans of our diminiutive copper will have noticed that his additional armoury went away for a while. Well he's all nice and fresh from a new mould and fully kitted out once more.

Nick once again comes with a choice of shotgun or suppressed MP5 for his right hand and pistol or nightstick for his left.

This fearsome, Dark Dwarf is fully armed in plate and chain complete with a striking, chaotic rune encrusted, belly plate. Armed with a runic broadsword and wearing a wolfskin cloak he's stands ready for his next challenge.

Ok, this seems like an appropriate place for a bit of info. There are multiple ways we come up with minis here at Hasslefree. Either myself, Sal or Kev come up with an idea for one and we decide whether it's a good idea and then sometimes bribe Kev to also decide ti's a good idea. There's Kev being inspired by something he's seen online or on tv or read in a book etc. and so he makes something along those lines normally modified by suggestions from me or Sal to fit in with things we already sell. We sometimes take suggestions from customers.

There are two final ways that we end up with a mini, one of which will be in the next newsletter, and that's where something goes wrong with a resin master (an air bubble, it breaks being pulled out of the mould, someone drops it or whatever) and so I keep those and every now and again send Kev a bag of them. Normally Kev just puts them in a drawer, but sometimes he randomly decides he'll do a 'b' version of it. As I said, one of those will be in the next newsletter.

The final way is where everyone is busy and so nobody checks on Kev or  prods him in certain directions etc. This leads to me turning up at Kev's to drop something off and being handed a dwarf.

...

(Feel free to tell him to do his own thing more often HERE)

After a successful test of the armour and helmet design in MalePrototype 1, Kev has gone for a slightly more 'actiony' pose on this second one and also tested out the aesthetics of adding gear to the outfit.

You can let us know what you think about the gear, or the design in general, now you have 2 versions to look at, on this thread HERE.

A couple of people mentioned that they hadn't noticed the metal release of these guys because of both the size of the last newsletter and that the resin releases were in the same one. So this is basically a quick heads up in case anyone else missed them.

(We've also been asked a number of times when Jholkar will be available in metal, he 'is' available in metal :) The resin master came after the metal release)

Next newsletter we should have even more new releases, we're on a bit of a roll for the next couple of months leading up to Salute.

I'll be including a new section in various newsletters form now on called 'The Painters of Hasslefree', so obviously it's about the weather.

We're working hard to catch back up after a torrid January so I'm leaving the newsletter short and sweet this time around. Plus I'm off home to sunny Wales for a for a few days so everyone wish me luck (Or barring that just wish I somehow mutate some gills).

'til next time,

Arty.