In Progress » Leonardo (TMNT) » Issues and Fixes

Back when we were doing the 31 days contest on the forum, FilmMkr showed me this awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure he was working on. I managed to snag an original from the sculptor, but I think mine was from a later if not last pour from the mold. In fact the mold probably should have been pitched BEFORE mine as it made for some unfortunate monkeywork. Nothing major and I’m not posting this to knock the sculptor at all. In fact this kit is AMAZING! But it’s worth showing those wondering what happens when a rubber mold has outlived it’s prime.

As seen in the above image, after so many uses (around 15-25 depending on the complexity of the mold) the mold starts to tear and deteriorate resulting in buldges and blobs eminating from undercuts mostly.  The largest blob is seen above on the left shoulder where ther eis a big undercut between the body and shell. On this kit they were relatively easy to fix given the detail of the sculpt. Just dremmel out the buldges and refil the detail with Aves Apoxy Sculpt and add whatever textures are necessary. Here’s the result:

Notice that I removed the buldge and matched the surface texture of the surrounding areas. Not a huge fix, but worth noting for anyone else with similar issues on any type of resin kit. I replaced the resin sword hilt guards with resculpted ones I made from Sculpey as the originals were not nice. I also replaced the brass sword blades (just strips of brass supplied) with once I cut and sharpened from aluminum sheet.

Here’s the full kit ready for primer. I’ve since primed him with Mr. Base White. Later I’ll start painting him. I found out that the TMNTurtles were “Red Eared Sliders” and plan to base my skin texture on them. I’ll be giving him the “red ears” as well as some faint striping to his skin to make him look more like his pet-store brethren.