About Us and our philosophy
Why are you called 'Hasslefree Miniatures'?
Information about setting up your own miniature production business
A history of Kevin James White
About us and our philosophy
Hasslefree Miniatures was established in January 2004 by Kevin and Sally White. Kev has a history in the miniatures industry dating back to the early 90's ( there is a complete page about it if you are really interested!) and Sally (who didn't know there was such a thing as a miniatures industry until she met Kev) is trained in fine metal/silversmithing.
We have quite a simple philosophy and that is to provide fast and efficient service (sometimes even with a smile!). I am quite old fashioned and feel that there is nothing wrong with courtesy and remembering that it is the customer that is important. Basically our customers enable Kev to have fun making toy soldiers and working for himself has made him happier than he has been in years.
I also believe in speedy comms as it is really frustrating when someone takes your hard earned money and then doesn't answer any emails!
Sometimes if i am ill or the children are ill etc things slow down slightly but we know you will understand afterall even though we try to be super-human ..... we aren't! Family restrictions mean we run HF mainly part-time fitting it in as much as we can around the needs of the children and my illness, this means that the office is only open on a monday, tuesday, thursday and friday which is when our part-time staff are in so if you email out of that time please be patient for an answer, we will get back to you as soon as we can.
However we aren't running this business just because we like doing it, we have tried to make it the best we can as it is our only means to support our family of four rapidly growing children and (thanks to the UK interest rates) our ever-expanding mortgage! As we believe you have the right to the best service possible we also believe we have the right to make a profit in order to provide for our family. We don't have a huge manufacturing unit or loads of full-time staff, we really are a small manufacturer and have to do everything for ourselves from the packing to the orders to sweeping the floor!
We think of ourselves as a 'customer-led' business and Kev and I are quite often found on the busy forum we share with Andy Foster at Heresy Miniatures. Here our customers are able to take part in shaping the ranges and rule-sets as well as be party to the latest gossip and news in the HF camp. Usually news items hit the Forum of Doom. before they hit the news board here. PLUS you get to see more workbench articles and pretty pics!
We manufacture 28mm scale fantasy and sci-fi figures. We work to a 'true' 28mm scale and not a 'heroic' scale which means that approximately a 5'10" tall man would be 28mm to his eye level.
Our figures are very detailed and suitable for painting, collecting and RPG's. Although at this present time we dont have the resources to commit to a new game system, many of our figures are successfully integrated into the various rulesets and games that are currently on the market.
We aim to release something every month whether it be resin or metal.
We are based just outside Alfreton in Derbyshire, England
We are a very busy little household as we have four children and I have a long-term sometimes debilitating condition.. Jennifer is 9 years old and has her head stuck mostly in books, Kieran is 8 years old with a stubborness almost equal to his dad, Megan turned 4 years old in July 2007 and is extremely cute but already shows signs of being 'her mothers daughter' with a temper to go with the strawberry blonde hair. Luke is the baby being born on 20th August 2007 and it very good and extremely 'chilled out'.
I suffer from a long-term conditioncalled 'ME' or 'CFS' which means that I pick up the germs that the children so freely pass along on a very regular basis and get very tired sometimes.
Add to this mix a completely dopey white lurcher with one eye called 'Daisy', a 'ferocious' one-eared terrier/sheepdog called 'Sam' and two feral cats (Ren and Stimpy) that live in the shed and you have 'The Hasslefree Family'.
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Why are you called Hasslefree Miniatures?
Apart from the obvious reason that we want to make buying your metal fix as 'hassle-free' as possible,
here is what Kev has to say on the matter.
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Some background info about setting up.
Our initial start-up costs were covered by the revenue created when Kev sold off a lot of his old miniature collection on Ebay from September 2003 until January 2004.
Kev initially worked a lot of freelance work for example 'Warmachine' for Privateeer Press, 'Sabotage' range for TFT and some sculpts for Dark Ages. This was how we originally covered our mortgage and 'children-running' expenses.
Nowadays he very rarely does freelance work as i keep him too busy with work for HF! We release approximately every 4-6 weeks with anything from 8 - 15 new sculpts for each release schedule.
Would you like to know about how your toys get from an idea to production?.
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A brief sculpting history of Kev
I have put this bit of trivia on a separate page as it does tend to go on a bit, so if you have grabbed a beer and are sitting comfortably then click here.
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If you managed to get this far then (apart from heartily congratulating you) I must thank you for reading!!
If you have any queries then please feel free to contact me.
Ta muchly
Sally :)
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