Regular readers of The Screaming Alpha know that in my opinion the best zombie miniatures currently on the market are produced by a relatively new UK company named Studio Miniatures. Studio seemingly came out of nowhere earlier this year and has rapidly acquired quite a reputation for excellence among zombie enthusiasts.

Like a lot of Studio’s customers, I was curious about just who was behind these excellent zed models, so I sent an inquiry and Studio Miniatures owner John Hamilton was gracious enough to agree to an interview.

The Screaming Alpha: How many people in your operation, who are they, and who does what jobs? Is Studio a full-time gig or a side project?

Mr. Hamilton: At present Studio Miniatures comprises emm well ME!! It is a part-time project that I run after I finish my day job (50hrs a week) so you can tell I’m doing this for the love but hopefully it will become a full-time business within the next two years, if not I will always run it as my passion.

TSA: How long have you been in business?

Mr. Hamilton: We started trading on 1^st February 2009 but have been planning the range and company for almost two years before that.

TSA: How have sales been going? Well, I hope. Have you been pleased with the reception your work has received?

Mr. Hamilton: Sales have been better than expected and the reception and feedback received has been GREAT, it makes it all worth while when customers email you to tell you how happy they are with their miniatures and can’t wait to buy the next set.

TSA: How’d the company get started?

Mr. Hamilton: Miniatures have been a hobby for me since school, so I decided that I was going to do a range of minis that I wanted, and if the quality was there that other people would want them too.

TSA: What’s your gaming background? How did you first get into the miniatures hobby?

Mr. Hamilton: A friend at school introduced me to Napoleonic wargaming and as I am a big history buff I was hooked. World War 2 and British colonial being my main historical periods.

TSA: Do you get to play any tabletop games with your own minis? Do you have a favorite rule set, zombie-related or otherwise?

Mr. Hamilton: Unfortunately not at the moment but I’m hoping that will change later in the year. As for rule sets I’m sure everyone else has their favourites so would want to comment but next year may see the release of a set of rules to go with my minis, Dan is playing about with a set in his head just now.

TSA: I’ve noticed that there seem to be quite a lot of little one- and two-man makers in the UK turning out terrific work. Does the urge to produce one’s own minis run particularly strong in the English blood? Or maybe it’s something in the ground water?

Mr. Hamilton: Oops, looks like someone didn’t check google maps today, but I’m sure most people in Britain would love to run their own business whether they are in England or Scotland .

[Editor’s Note: Mea Culpa on the geography blunder. I’m not as helpless as a lot of my countrymen on that score, but like a lot of colonials I have a tendency to slap a big tag that says “England” on everything in the UK.]

TSA: The style on your minis seems really consistent. Do you have a single sculptor? If so, who is he and what’s his background? Where’d he learn to sculpt so well? What else has he done?

Mr. Hamilton: At the moment I only use one sculptor and his name is Daniel Pacey. Dan and I have been friends for 7 years so when he became available to sculpt for me it really was a no-brainer. His previous work includes sculpting for companies like Games Workshop, Black Tree, Urban Mammoth as well as being the original sculptor and creator of the Project X range now done by North Star. 99% of the range at present and probably 100% of future releases will be done by Dan. Although three of the first sculpts done were by Chris Jackson (Col. McCluck – zombie chickenman, Cole and Mia) and if I ever get to the position of being able to employ a second sculptor he will be top of the list.

TSA: Who paints your zeds? They do one heck of a good job.

Mr. Hamilton: Finnish painter Vesa Mäkelä does our studio painting, check out his other work at his website.

TSA: Why zombies? It seems like everybody has a different reason for finding zombies interesting.

Mr. Hamilton: I have always loved good zombie movies and for me the attraction wasn’t always the gore but how people would cope and survive. Geeky fanboy that I am but I’m surely not the only person to watch a zombie movie or read World War Z etc and wonder “what would I do”, “where would I seek refuge” and “how would I defend myself”. I also decided that I wanted to bring out a range of zombies that could hold its head up high when placed next to “normal” minis by other companies like Hasslefree, Perrys, and Artizan, too many zombie minis already available had poor sculpting, detail and proportions. It seemed the old adage was true….if you can’t sculpt, then sculpt zombies!

TSA: Obviously you’re a zombie fan. What are your favorite zombie films? Any other inspirations for your line of zeds?

Mr. Hamilton: Romero’s Dead series of course, I even really like Land of the Dead (but don’t hate me too much for that), Resident Evil 1-3, REC, 28 days/weeks but I would have to say my favourite would be Zach Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead, even though it contains fast zombies. Again like minis though there are TOO MANY bad zombie movies, just watch Zone Horror and you will see most of them.

TSA: The video-style packaging was a masterstroke. How did that come about?

Mr. Hamilton: Well I’d like to tell you that hours and hours of thought went into that but cost was the main motivator to be honest, it was cheaper to buy the video cases then have inserts printed than to have pre-printed boxes made-up for the range. The idea had always been to make the range as professional looking as possible from the start so boxes were the only way to go rather than grip seal bags.

TSA: Offering the minis in both resin and metal is fairly unusual. I can’t recall ever seeing it done before. Why did you decide to do it that way? What’s the breakdown (roughly) between sales of metal figs vs. resin?

Mr. Hamilton: I like resin as a medium for painting, I feel it gives sharper edges but knew not everyone feels the same plus you can’t dismiss the nice feel metal has in your hand. The only option then was to offer both and let the customer choose, the ratio of metal to resin sales is about 95% metal 5% resin but I see no reason to stop offering both mediums. Another reason behind resin is that for conversation work Dan finds it easier to work with resin masters than metal ones, and before the first minis were released I had developed a method of going from resin master casts straight into black rubber production moulds without the need of producing a metal master mould. Griffin Moulds and Grey Matter Figures have been a big help in this area as I use both companies for my production runs.

TSA: So what lies ahead for Studio? More zeds?

Mr. Hamilton: Yep, more zeds to come over the rest of the year. With the release of Zombie Mob 3 in July and Zombie Mob 4 in August we will have 34 different zombies available. October, November and December will see more zeds so by the end of the year we should have almost 60 different zombies available. Zombie Mob 3 and 4 are what I would call rank and file zombies, each one is different just as in Zombie Mobs 1 and 2 but nothing too individual. Zombie Mobs 5 and 6 though are different with Mob 6 being eight unique characters, but if I tell you anymore I’d probably have to kill you!

TSA: I’ve heard rumors that you have some survivors in the works. Any truth to that?

Mr. Hamilton: Yes we already have released our first two survivors, Cole and Mia. Our main focus for survivors will be character minis rather than generic man in shirt type survivors and with two human survivors released every three months we will slowly be adding to that section of the range but as you need more zombies than survivors we will be focusing on zeds for most of this first year.

TSA: Any time frame for your next releases?

Mr. Hamilton: The plan is to release something new every month, we had a slight delay May/June that put us back a bit but now we are back on track to stick to that plan.

TSA: Any more “special” zeds like Chicken Man in the works? How about a zombified Peter Griffin to go with him?

Mr. Hamilton: As I mentioned earlier Zombie Mob 6 is full of characters and early next year will see the start of more zombie character minis, these will come in smaller boxsets or individually and will allow you to add even more colour and variety to your zombie hordes. As for a zombie Peter Griffin, you never know watch this space!

TSA: I noticed mention of U1:EVE as a setting. Do you have plans to develop a game or maybe RPG sourcebook for it? When do we get to find out more about the world of EVE?

Mr. Hamilton: The U1:EVE universe will form the background for these and future releases with Z-CLIPZ only the first in a trilogy of ranges set that universe. As the range expands this year I will put more of the background on the website, there’s even talk of a small black and white comic to go with it.

TSA: Have you thought about what your next EVE-related project might be? If it’s not zed-related could you give us a hint?

Mr. Hamilton: The next part of the U1:EVE story involves the planet of EVE itself and their first contact with Earth, as EVE is approx 100 years more advanced than Earth you can expect futuristic troops (but strongly based on new and next generation Earth weapons/technology), AI’s and just the slightest hint of Manga.

TSA: Are we going to see some more previews or WIP shots on the Studio Website? People seem really interested in what you’re working on.

Mr. Hamilton: Yes preview photos will go back up on the website, the delay in May meant that the new minis were being released straight away without a chance to preview them. Now that we are back on track that will allows us to preview new greens in the future.

TSA: Summer is convention season, will you be at any cons in the UK or Europe?

Mr. Hamilton: Unfortunately not but both Artemis Black and The Hobby Box will be attending conventions for us.

TSA: Any chance of you getting distribution in the USA? I know it’s especially tough for smaller UK makers.

Mr. Hamilton: Armorcast currently stock our minis but we are currently exploring the avenue of a US distributor that will in turn supply US based stores.

TSA: Without meaning any disrespect to my fellow Americans, it does seem that most of the truly excellent miniature zeds are coming from the UK these days. As somebody who’s part of that group, any idea why the British makers seem to have such an affinity for zombies?

Mr. Hamilton: I honestly couldn’t say but it is strange since most zombie movies/comics come from the US maybe it is because we have always been outnumbered in wars in our past that we love the idea of the few against the many.

Thanks very much for taking the time to answer my slew of questions. I’m sure my readers join me in wishing you the best of luck in the future.

Popularity: 14% [?]

No related posts.