hi all
I've had a little bit of time off since my marathon run of night shifts, so have managed to churn out even more models! It helps that I'm not a really detailed painter, generally sticking to only one or two highlights. It also helps when I really love the models, my productivity wanes when I've painted skaven number 150!
While I was trawling various gaming blogs I came across this post by Obisidian3d - thinking outside the box
http://obsidian3d.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-in-28mm.html
Instantly I wanted ninja turtles. I love the turtles, not the kiddy shit that Nicklodean pumps out but the original comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird from back in the day (1984) which I loved reading. I had the RPG, sadly I can no longer find it amongst my multiple piles of literature, probably worth a few quid now...d'oh! Anyhoo as I said I instantly wanted turtles, now unlike obsidian3d I'm unlikely to be able to convert these figures myself due to my limited skills, so I needed to find a set. I was hampered because Nicklodean pumps out all kinds of crap aimed at children and not designed for the gaming market, they also are yet to grant a licence to a mainstream gaming company to produce a range. My web-fu skills are seriously weak and I was struggling to find anything suitable without having to go down the conversion route. There was a French guy - Francagne Didier who I found on Facebook who has produced the four heroes independently but he wants €72 for the set, now they are stunning models but that's a bit rich for my blood! Instead I found these guys.
From MyWay miniatures, a Russian company. These minis are great, at €11 each they are a little pricey, but if you buy them as a set that comes down to €36 (€9 each) I went for the collectors set where you get a presentation stand, the turtles can be mounted on a piece of sewer terrain, for €40. I had no intention of using the figs as a display piece as I want to game with them so I mounted them on my 25mm rounds, but I may use the sewer piece later on in a project, so for an extra €4 saw no harm in it.
The customer service from these guys was excellent, my package was tracked from the start, arrived relatively quickly and was undamaged by its epic journey! I was super impressed considering I've had trouble from companies shipping from Essex! When I unboxed the minis, they were fabulous, needed no cleaning up and only marginal assembly. The bandanas were a bit tricky as they are very small and as the models are resin, need superglue to fix (I hate superglue!) but they look great, the bases are designed to fit in the stand and look like little pieces of rock so the figs went on them and then onto mdf rounds that I got from Minibits. I used polyfilla to sculpt the base to fit, Leonardo's being the most tricky as he is standing on a sewer grate.... For the turtles skin I used citadel Knarloc Green with Biel-tan wash, the shells were a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Iraqi Sand and Saddle Brown for the chest plate and outer edges and citadel Mournfang Brown/Abaddon Black for the rear shell all washed with Agrax Earthshade.
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| Donatello - the tech guy |
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| armed with a Bo staff |
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| Raphael - the brawler |
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| armed with paired Sai |
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| Michaelangelo - the joker |
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| armed with nunchaku |
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| Leonardo - the leader |
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| armed with a daisho or pairing of katana/wakizashi |
I love all four of them equally, literally cannot pick a favourite. Next I need to find Splinter, the Shredder and some Foot Clan ninjas. Oh and a rule set so I can game with them, any suggestions welcomed!
They look absolutely fantastic Andy, and have become my first purchase of 2016 as a result. Like you I've gone for the Sewer Set. Great paint-jobs all-round. Impossibly hard to pick a fave as a result. I'm also much impressed with the buildings they're on. Who makes those please?
ReplyDeleteLol glad it's not just Bryan's reviews that make you reach for your hard pressed gaming wallet! I'm going to try and find a use for the sewer piece, maybe a completely gameable sewer section.....ooh gaming brain overload
DeleteThe buildings are from Sarissa Precision, the medium factory office and the power room from their industrial range. Another wallet beating in store for you Simon?
I totally agree with you, Andy, about the early comic versions of the Turtles being the best. These figures are most excellent and I'm kind of tempted to buy them myself. However, I already own a set of metal TMNT figures that I bought many years ago. They are rather small and I can't remember who made them but I reckon they must be worth something nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI think there was a range by Dark Horse miniatures that came out about 20mm Bryan, maybe these are they? I prefer 28mm to work in so it fits the terrain and the skirmish style I like. The early TMNT stuff was a bit darker with a comedic edge to it, sadly Nickalodeon kiddied it up until recently with the new film getting closer to the original (although the turtles are massive!)
DeleteYou are absolutely right, Andy. They were made by Dark Horse and they were 20mm scale. Here's a link to them I found on Google -
Deletehttp://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Image:DarkHorse-TMNT-142a.jpg
I have read that they are very rare because they were so difficult to cast with a mere 50% being acceptable castings!
Good web-fu Bryan! Have you painted yours?
DeleteYes! I painted them as soon as I received them. By the way, you'll be thrilled to know that I have also ordered the four Turtles from My Way Miniatures, although I didn't go for the Sewer Set as I can't think of a use for the scenery piece. Good on you for getting two of your followers to buy these figures. You should be on commission!
DeleteA cheeky pic of them Bryan? Lol I apologise to your sorely stretched wallet too
DeleteDon't apologise for getting me to spend money! Normally it's me getting others to spend their money. ;-) I'll dig out my old TMNT figures and photograph them alongside the new ones. Oh, and I've decided I needed Splinter as well, so have ordered a suitable looking Ratman coach from Mantic's Deadball game.
DeleteHaha this is just revenge for making me want the Scooby gang ;-P I look forward to seeing the two groups side by side!
DeleteI just love these, what a find! Would love to run these in a Zombicide game. :)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to start gaming with them, I haven't got zombicide yet (WHAT!!) so need a rule set, my daughter got excited about the old rpg and I found the PDFs for it cheap but I'd like a solo skirmish for it too....
DeleteHmm, I can remember passing by a TMNT street theatre production sometime in the 1980s, somewhere in San Francisco or the Bay area (can't think exactly where).
ReplyDeleteIt's been suggested that the middle one of these 3 Dreadball coaches would make a good Splinter: http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/dreadball/dreadball/product/dreadball-coaches-3-models.html . See what you think.
As for rules, anything superhero based, or perhaps 7TV 2nd edition?
Interesting street theatre, one that I would watch!
DeleteI really need to try 7TV I've been looking at it for a little while now.
I never did like the Turtles, but my kids loved them before they became "Hero Turtles". I'm sure yo'll find a use for them too - that batrep should be interesting!
ReplyDeleteIIRC there was also a game with turle miniatures in, so that may be worth looking into too, especially at the price of your figures.
Hero turtles were a disgrace! Ninjas!! Thanks Joe, I've been snooping around for some more stuff
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