Name: Mr. Kevin James White
Birth: 03.03.1972 in Chelmsford, Essex, U.K.

Residence: a village (officially the largest village in the county of Suffolk)
Household: a wife, 3 kids, 2 dogs and 2 feral cats that can't come in to the house because he is allergic to them.

Short description: a modern day hobbit
Long description: "Not only is Kev an incredibly gifted sculptor he's also so cute you wanna take him home and hang him over the dash board of your car right up there with the furry dice." (Warzone Chronicles 1 (New Era))

Eating habits: he eats pretty much everything
Alkohol habits: real ale, whiskey, red wine, Drambuie(scotch liqueur), Blue Smirnoff
Favourite race to sculpt: Dwarves

Homepage Link: Hasslefree Miniatures
Miniatures made for: Ground Zero Games, Harlequin, Target, I-Kore, Privateer Press, Hasslefree

First, can you tell us a little about yourself please? For example: Who are you? Where live you? Your lifestyle, do you watch TV? What do you like to eat? Do you sleep well? On which side do you sleep and so on :-) I don't literally mean it, of course :-) Write down something, which occurs to you about you or, in other words, what you would care to tell us.

K.W.: Right, well I'll try and answer everything and add things that might be nice to know as I go along.

Name: Kevin James White. Born 3rd of March 1972 in Chelmsford, Essex, U.K.

I live in a village (officially the largest village in the county of Suffolk) with my wife, 3 kids, 2 dogs and 2 feral cats that can't come in to the house because I'm allergic to them.

I don't tend to watch T.V as we don't have much time because of the kids and work, we watch DVD's when we can.

I eat pretty much everything. I sleep on my right side. The list of things I like would be very long indeed. I also like alcohol; real ale, whiskey, Red wine, Drambuie, Blue Smirnoff. Again, it's a long list.

How did you get into the miniatures hobby?

K.W.: My primary school teacher read "The Hobbit" to my class and I was hooked on the whole fantasy thing. A couple of years later I started buying and painting miniatures. The rest is pretty obvious.

Can you remember the day you decided to become a miniatures designer?

K.W.: No, it was a gradual process when I started working as a painter at GW. I started making bits and pieces for myself and soon started producing whole miniatures. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

What was the first mini you sculpted?

K.W.: A female Barbarian in August of 1992. She didn't get produced. I painted the green and gave her as a present to my mother.

Do you have any education that makes it possible for you to become a miniatures designer?

K.W.: Nope. I kind of made it up as I went. Although a lot of designers at GW gave me hints and tips as I was practising, and I learned a lot from Roy Eastland when I worked with him at Target in Edinburgh.

K.W.: Keep practising. Take miniatures made by other people that you think look really cool and copy them. This helps you see what works and what doesn't and might help you understand why something is made in a certain way. It's almost like having the person who designed the miniature tell you what goes where.

What advice could you give to new designers to avoid the giving up sculpt?

K.W.: Errrrr.... I don't know. I wouldn't want to tell people what to do if they didn't want to do it. If someone is not happy with what they are doing I'd suggest they do something else and come back to it when they are in a more positive frame of mind.

Do you like to paint your own miniatures? Do you paint still?

K.W.: I'd love to if I got the chance. Unfortunately I don't have time, and if I did have some spare time I would need to spend it working on the house or doing other things that would keep me active. Otherwise I'd be spending all my time sitting down focusing on something eight inches from my eyes.

K.W.: It's really good. There are some really good painters out there. In fact that's another reason I don't paint anymore.... everyone seems so much better than me that I get depressed when the things I do turn out to be crap.

How long does it take to sculpt a 28 mm miniature?

K.W.: On average about 10 to 15 hours spread over 3 or 4 days. I usually have four or five miniatures on the go at a time.

Which tools do you use? Which putties do you use?

K.W.: Mostly homemade wooden tools, pins and needles in old paintbrushes and once in a while the trusty waxfive. I use "Greenstuff" and white Milliput.

What is your most important trick for sculpting?

K.W.: To know when the putty is too soft or too hard to do what you want it to.

Do you listen to music or audio books while you work on a miniature?

K.W.: I usually have the radio on in the background. It helps me keep up with the news. I tend to work in a vacuum, no-one else around to talk to, so I like to know what's happening in the world and music in general.

What are the steps you take when designing a miniature (head, arm, leg)?

K.W.: Armature, Basic musculature, Feet, Legs, Torso, Head then Arms.

Sally says, Jes Goodwin is your favourite sculptor. Is this true? Who is the number Two?

K.W.: I don't know if he's my favourite, but I do rate him very highly, both as a sculptor and as a person who has changed the way I look at the world. My favourite sculptor ever? I'm not sure. At the moment I like Andy Foster, Steve Buddle and Werner Klocke. There are quite a few miniatures that I like but I don't know who sculpted them.

Have you been influenced by Jes Goodwin and if so, how?

K.W.: Well, most of the miniatures I copied when practising were his. My sculpting style has been more influenced by artists like Bisley and Frazetta than another sculptor.

How would you characterize your influence in the miniatures business?

K.W.: I know that a lot of my miniatures are popular, but I'm unaware about the influence they have on other sculptors or other people in the business. I think that "Liberty" might have made a few sculptors think that you can make larger (fatter? More realistic?) females that are going to be popular.

I like your Liberty-Miniatur, it was one of the first Hasslefree miniatures, that i have bought. Is "Liberty" a milestone in your career as Mini-Designer?

K.W.: I wouldn't say that she is a milestone. However she is showing me (and other designers) that there is a market for more realistic female miniatures, other than the usual bikini-clad babes in alluring poses.

Was it your own Idea or Sally's?

K.W.: I had been thinking about doing something like it, and Sally said that she thought the idea was good. It was a joint effort really, if Sally hadn't liked the idea it wouldn't have been done.

Is it always a joint effort about making the Hasslefree miniatures?

K.W.: No, but I do find it handy to listen to my wife. She makes a lot of sense sometimes. None of Hasslefree would be possible without her.

You have designed a lot of Barbarians. Do you get bored with this style of miniature? I.e. with all the muscles :-)

K.W.: I used to be in to body-building and my style was influenced by that. I'm trying out new styles at the moment and ways of making little people. I'm aware that a lot of my I-Kore miniatures are very muscley, but a lot of that was also due to the brief I was given stating that they (the bosses of I-Kore) wanted Bisley and Frazetta style miniatures, so muscles were what I had to do. I don't get fed up with them, but I'm gald that I've now got the chance to do something different.

Which mini would you like to make?

K.W.: The one I'm working on right now. It's top secret :)

Do you have a favourite miniature?

K.W.: Not really. I can't name a single miniature that I like more than anything else. I do really like the old "Great Spined Dragon" that Citadel made in the 1980's though. Maybe that would be my favourite.

Sally writes, your favourite race to sculpt is Dwarves. But you haven't done that many Dwarves, why? Are they in demand?

K.W.: I haven't made many Dwarves yet because I've haven't been asked to do very many. My career so far has been dictated by the people that pay my wages and so tell me what to make, but now I work for myself I'll be making more of them. I think there is a demand for Dwarves, but I also think that a lot of people don't like the GW style ones. Mine will be different. Better :)

Which companies do you doing work for now (excluding Hasslefree)?

K.W.: I don't know if I can say really. I'll let them release the miniatures first and then you can find out form yourself. I can tell you that I've made some toys for Privateer Press recently, but not if I'm currently working for them.

I've been surfing through Hasslefree web site over the last few days. There's a lot of interesting stuff on there, Sally's story's are great and very funny. It's quite not usual that a miniatures designer tells so much about himself on a webpage. Do we have to owe to Sally it?

K.W.: Not really, it was a joint decision. We both thought that there were a lot of people that didn't know the sculptors who made their miniatures. Sally and I reasoned that it would be nice for people to actually know a little bit more about the people that make their toys. After all, people that buy miniatures spend a lot of money on their hobby, we wanted to make things a bit more friendly and personal.

What do you think of the miniatures business now that you have a own company? Is it what you imagined it would be? What achievements, frustrations, if any, have accompanied this status change.

K.W.: I get even less time to myself, but it's fun. Sally does most of the work; I just sit in my chair all day and make toys. She does the accounts, packages miniatures, sorts out postage and everthing else. Sometimes I'll make her a cup of tea, so that evens up the workload. I enjoy chatting on forums to the people that buy miniatures from us and I appreciate their feedback (good and bad, it all helps so long as it's not insulting). It's extremely satisfying to see a miniature I made being sent out to someone on the other side of the world and to know that they bought it because they like what I do.

I'm of the opinion that we live in the golden age of tin miniatures. The miniatures business grows up and there's no end of the miniatures boom in sight. Your opinion or thoughts to it?

K.W.: Similar. There are a lot of good sculptors out there trying to do the same thing I am. Lots of them are producing their own miniatures for sale on the internet, and I think that is what has helped this explosion in creativity the most. The fact that someone can make a miniature in his bedroom (or wherever) and put a picture of it on the web and sell it to finance more miniatures frees up the whole industry. It's all good.

All (or nearly all) your barbarian miniatures have this little bag at the front, the typical Kev White "trademark" :-) Is there a story to it?

K.W.: No, it's a Scottish thing that John Robertson wanted included. It's called a "sporran" I think it's a Scotsmans' purse, or somewhere to keep their sandwiches.

Do you play any tabletop games?

K.W.: I used to, but now it's the same old story: I don't have time. In a few years I want to be able to pay someone to paint my miniatures for me so I can play games again with really cool and well painted miniatures and have some fun. For now I'm just going to have to work hard.

What would you like to do, if you weren’t a miniatures designer?

K.W.: If I didn't have to earn my money I'd want to own my own Gym and pursue my martial arts. I want to study all kinds of fighting techniques and see what my mind and body can do together. If I had to do something else to earn a living I'd have been an architect.

If you had another chance at life, would you like to be a mini designer again?

K.W.: I suppose so. I don't tend to think about "what if?". I just get on with life. I am who I am, all of my experiences have lead to me being as I am now. If things had been different and I'd done something else, then I wouldn't be me.

What are your plans for the future?

K.W.: Live long and prosper!