Turtles

Eureka's warrior frogs and turtles were inspired by the ukiyo-e of Kawanabe Kyōsai. Kyōsai in turn was influenced by his master, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, who depicted his human subjects as animals to get around censorship laws, as in the case of the actors shown below.


I thought Eureka's terrapin warriors would match well with the ERM frogs mentioned in my previous post. The first five terrapins are Terrapin, with spear (100FRG17). I modified one of these terrapins by cutting away its spear and gluing some pins in its hands to represent drumsticks. The arms and head were bent so that it could be paired with the terrapin carrying the drum from the Turtle/Terrapin Drummer Team (100FRG18). The final terrapin holding the forked stick is from the Turtle/Terrapin sniper team (100FRG16). The terrapins are supplied with separate shells at random, so you may get the larger turtle shells for your terrapins. I placed one of the turtle shells on the terrapin with a forked stick. It didn't look too bad from the front, but from the rear it just looked wrong. Happily, Nic at Eureka was kind enough to send me a replacement terrapin shell.



The next miniatures were also inspired by Japanese culture, but rather than ukiyo-e, they were influenced by 80's ninja films and superhero comics.


They are of course, the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles. Shown below are Donatello and Michaelangleo. I think that Leonardo and Raphael may have suffered a horrible fate involving a hammer and lighter, but my memory is a bit hazy about it.


These miniatures were made in 1986 by Dark Horse Studios, and sold through adds in the back of the TMNT comics.


The Eureka and Dark Horse turtles compare well to each other in size.


Finally, for normal turles, there is the turtle from Reaper's Familiar Pack V (2848), and a pair of Galápagos giant tortoises from an old Noah's Ark playset made by Marx Toys.

Bein' Green

The following miniatures are a small group of frogs and toads I have assembled for gaming purposes.

The first two pictures are of frog folk from East Riding Miniatures. The first three figures below, are from the Frogfolk Command (FT65), followed by the two poses from Frogfolk with Swords (FT69), one pose from Frogfolk with Spears (FT68), and two poses from Frogfolk Ambushers (FT70).


The next picture shows one pose from Frogfolk with Blowpipes (FT67), and the two poses of Frogfolk Archers (FT66).


I really like this range of frogs from ERM. They are currently the only 15mm fantasy frog people in production. However, Eureka is halfway to producing some of their 28mm Warrior Frog line in 15mm through the 300 Club, and I understand that SLM will also be releasing frog people next year.

For normal frogs which can double as familiars, Chariot has a Plague of Frogs (CFB02) in 15mm consisting of ~20 frogs on circular bases. Irregular produces Kermit the Barbarian (CR27) on a square base, as part of their 6mm fantasy line. The third miniature below is a Ral Partha toad from their Familiars set (02-958), followed by Reaper's toad familiar from their Familiar Pack III (02593). These toads are rather large, and the Reaper toad in particular would be good cane toad in 1/72.


Next are the giant frogs: The first is the Giant Frog from Citadel (FF56), followed by three different poses from Black Tree Design's Frog Swarm (FA0822).



Even larger giant frogs and toads follow. The first two miniatures below are toad mounts from Eureka's Warrior Frog Cavalry (100FRG26). There are six different variants made up by combining three different types of body with two different sets of legs. The bodies are made of a gray resin, while the legs are made of metal. One of the frogs also comes with an extended tongue made of metal. The final Giant Frog (M134) is from BTD. It is a two part figure, with separately molded front legs. The feet of an unfortunate victim protrude from it's mouth, but I think I will be removing them.

Game Pieces

There are a number of boardgames that utilize plastic game pieces that are compatible with 1/72 scale figures. Listed below, are some of the loose pieces that I've managed to pick up here and there.

These are crude and simplistic WWII German and Russian infantry pieces from the Memoir '44 game. It's hard to tell how tall the German is, since he is all hunched over, but I think he is probably close to 1/76 scale. The Russian from the Eastern Front expansion set is close to 1/72, though I thought he was a German when I first saw the figure. There are American and Japanese figures as well. The Japanese come from the Pacific Theater expansion set.

Memoir '44 (Days of Wonder)

The zombies and humans from the Zombies!!! game are closer to 1/64 scale than 1/72, but people often say they are compatible with 1/72. I'd say the zombies might be tolerable, but definitely not the human.

Zombies!!! (Twilight Creations)

Explorers from the La Isla game. They're a little scrawny, but usable (although for what, I'm not sure).

La Isla (alea)

Samurai and ninja from the Shōgun boardgame. The bases are thick, but even so, they are definitely compatible with 1/72 scale figures.

Shōgun (Milton Bradley Gamemaster series)

More game pieces from other Gamemaster series board games. From left to right: two figures from Conquest of the Empire; two figures from Axis & Allies; two figures from Fortress America; one figure from Broadsides & Boarding Parties. These figures are 1/76 scale or smaller (except maybe the WWII German).

Various Figures (Milton Bradley Gamemaster series)

Union infantry figure from Battle Cry, and a Japanese defender from Hit the Beach. The Battle Cry figure is very flat, in the manner of Odemars figures. When the game changed hands to Avalon Hill, the old flat figures were replaced by much nicer versions. The Hit the Beach figure is included here because it was mentioned in Victor Rudik's The One Inch Army. It is crude, featureless, and nowhere near 1/72. I'm not sure about the size of the Army and Marines figures from Hit the Beach, but they are sculpted in a similar style to the Japanese.

Battle Cry and Hit the Beach (Milton Bradley American Heritage series)

Medieval figures from the Feudal game. These figures had pegs under the bases, which I removed with my sprue cutter. The king towers over the other figures, but the other figures are well within normal parameters of 1/72 scale.

Feudal (3M)