TMNT Project Starts in Earnest

This is a sleeper project that has been running for years, getting absolutely nowhere until recently.

I have always wanted to game TMNT in minature skirmish. Giving up on anyone actually producing the miniatures, I decided to have a crack at sculpting myself. The first few goes were embarrassing to say the least, so I decided to start using base models and adapting them. Here are my attempts:

You will see the old Dark Horse Leonardo second from the left – unfortunately way too small for 28mm gaming and too large for 15mm gaming… a nomad in the miniature world, unfortunately, I couldn’t use him.

The third from the left is my first attempt, I used a Turtle Banner Bearer from Eureka miniatures as the base. Cutting his head off, I sculpted my own and then the bands on his arms, legs and his belt. Not bad for a first go I thought… but I could do better.

My next attempt was using a Turtle Commander model from Eureka minatures. I sculpted the bands and modified his head, adding a sword from an old sprue I was no longer using. I then sculpted his hand… man that was tricky. It took me ages, yet it still looks like it took five seconds… hands are very hard to sculpt. The detail was better, but it didn’t look like a Ninja Turtle… maybe a concept sketch, but not what I was after…

I decided that although I loved the Eureka turtle figures, they weren’t going to make a convincing Ninja Turtle… at least from my hands anyway.

So after a bit of searching, I came across Rolljordan’s Frogs that I had just finished painting (pics soon!). I noticed their heads had that nice Ninja Turtle shape to them. With a bit of conversion, I thought it would be quite convincing.

This attempt used one of the Rolljordan catcher frogs as a base. This one was going to work well for Donatello I thought, so I placed ideas of sculpting the fearless leader (and personal favourite) Leo aside. I padded out the back a bit to allow a small Terrapin shell from Eureka Miniatures to sit nicely on it. I then sculpted the top of the head and added his weapon, a staff made from a Lizardman spear… I was happy. The race was on to order more Rolljordan frog sculpts to fit the rest of the team!

I am really psyched to get these guys done. If anyone has any ideas for a Splinter sculpt (GW Ratmen are too bulky and don’t work, thanks anyway).

I will be using the TMNT in SuperSystem 3 and also Heroscape (in which I have a pretty extensive project going on)

I hope you enjoyed my amateur sculpting attempt.

Cheers,
Ben.

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