SLM Turtle Wizard mini review

This is the second in an ongoing series of mini reviews.

Splintered Light Miniatures’ Turtle Wizard is the first Turtle released for their Splintered Lands range (but hopefully not the last).

Click image to see an enlarged version

It is a single piece casting, sculpted by Bob Olley (if I recall correctly). It is a very nice sculpt, with the front and back of the shell coming up really nicely. When I first saw the miniature, I wasn’t sure of the fire in its left hand, but it has grown on me over time. It would be challenging to remove cleanly without some modelling skill (mainly for cleaning up his hand afterwards).

The Turtle Wizard’s skin is textured nicely and his satchel and glasses are nicely modelled. There was again little to now clean up required on this model (probably less than the Frog Hero). He is 18mm tall to the top of his head, but is quite a bit less bulky than the Frog Hero, so, even with his shell, looks rather well proportioned in comparison to the rest of the range.

In terms of painting, this one was more challenging than the Frog Hero, due mainly I believe to the textured skin which I found difficult to highlight. That is most certainly an indication of my restrictions as a painter and has no bearing on the quality of the model (which is excellent). The shell was fun to paint, with a base colour, ink and then while the ink was wet, working up the highlights three or four stages.

I am hoping that Splintered Light Miniatures eventually add more Turtles to the range, as not only do I love turtles (although admittedly not more than frogs! lol) but this is a very characterful sculpt, and I can see it being a nice little range of figures (perhaps with crossbows and some with halberds). In the mean time though, some people will be pleased to hear that the Turtle Wizard scales well with the Eureka Terrapins. So if you have a real craving for Turtley goodness to support SLM’s Turtle Wizard in the Splintered Lands, they will be very nice additions, despite the differences in sculpting style.

The Turtle Wizard is available from Splintered Light Miniatures in the Druid’s Children Faithful Hero Pack 3.

Cheers,
Ben.