Eureka Turtle Tank and Indiana Jones Marathon

Nothing beats a Sunday with Indiana Jones.  I can't help it if I'm 32 and I think Harrison Ford is hot; he just is.  Aside from sighing over my whip toting archaeologist-hero I'm painting up a Turtle Tank from Eureka. 

Starting out.  This was Sunday's job; turtle tank from Eureka and Weasel Fusiliers and Mongoose Legionnaires from On The Lamb Games.

The turtle which I figure is actually a tortoise.  I modeled it after a Texas tortoise; remember, I like to make my figures somewhat accurate.

Obviously, my tortoise is not exactly like this one, I punched up the color a bit and gave it yellow eyes.

Since he is a tank he has a carrying apparatus for the other turtles to ride him.  This was painted in Wood Gray (CV) / Grayed Orange Yellow (CV) dry-brush highlight.  The metal bits are Boltgun metal (GW) with a wash of Ogryn Flesh.

The flag is Dark Green (CV) / Green (CV) highlight dry-brush and Yellow Green (CV) dry-brush.  The symbol is a Japanese character for Earth done in Gray 5 (CV) and White (CV).

 I've done these turtles as well as the frogs from Eureka a million times.  In this case the order was for an existing army of U.S. turtles.  Yep, you guessed it.  I have two different styles to my frog/turtle armies; one is U.S. species and the other are "tropical" species such as poison dart frogs.  The green flag is for Earth.  I typically make my U.S. species turtle army the earth army. 

Starting the turtles.  They are primed in dark brown and their skin is painted in SunFlesh (CV).

Their shells are dry-brushed heavily in Burnt Umber (CV) and then lightly in Brown (CV).

Here's a top view of the Eastern Woodland turtle shell.  Yep, it's rather boring.  It's the underneath that is the best.

Next, I wash their skin with Devlan Mud wash.

Their bellies are painted Ocher (CV).

Belly shells are dry-brushed with Ocher 11 (CV) and spots are added in Black.

You may also notice that I took Orange (CV) and lightly highlighted the skin of the turtles to brighten them up.

Here's a photo of an Eastern Woodland turtle.  This is what I modeled my turtles after.  I just love his yellow belly, it really adds punch to a boring top shell.

Black is added to their eye sockets.  Their bamboo spears are painted Grayed Orange Yellow (CV) very lightly dry-brushed with Olive Drab (CV) and the bamboo joints are washed with Gryphonne Sepia wash.  The spear tips are Boltgun metal.

Here we are.  Finished!

The captain's plume is painted Red (CV) and washed in Leviathan Purple wash, trimmed in gold.

See how the carriage sits on the tortoise with those two brackets?

 Bob and I are contemplating using hemp twine and attaching it to those brackets that allow the carriage to sit on the tortoise to make it appear as if the whole apparatus is lashed/tied onto the tortoise.  We'll see after we get every thing glued into place.

This turtle tank also comes with cannons.  Fire away!

Eventually this whole thing will be based and flocked.  We've decided to glue in the turtles to make sure that they don't fall out.  It would have been nice if they could have been individually based and then placed into the tortoise carriage, but they don't fit that way.  The eyes of all the turtles and the tortoise will be glossed to give it that added realism.