Queen of Hearts, Caterpillar and Dormouse

 The Wonderland books don't really have heroes or villains, especially. Most of the time, Alice wanders into a new place, meets some weirdos and tries to talk sense to them, usually with bizarre and comical results. There isn't enough plot or time to develop many characters in depth.

On the other hand, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland does seem keen on cutting everyone's head off. That's not normal. And (amazing segue alert) nor are inquisitorial minions in Warhammer 40,000.

My own version of her - slightly more glamourous than the John Tenniel pictures - was based off an old metal dark elf sorceress, who I'd chopped up in the past. This version got a new hand and an axe from the Frostgrave demon set, and to my surprise a left hand from a Mantic ork. I sculpted a heart on her crown with green stuff.

I painted her red and cream/white, as suits the look of the warband and her background as a playing card. Her face is slightly greyer than normal, for a bit of contrast.

I expect that she is just about to deliver her catchphrase - "Off with his head!" - while doing the decapitating herself. Times are hard and you just can't get the staff.

I also had a go at tidying up a couple of my old conversions for this warband: the Caterpillar and the Dormouse.

The Caterpillar is based on an ancient metal Necromunda milliasaur model, with a kroot body and arms, and a chaos warrior's head. He's sitting on a "toadstool" made from a Tau drone. The hookah he smokes was made from pieces of kroot rifle and some kind of dwarf contraption.

Finally, the Dormouse himself was a tiny detail from a skaven kit. In the original Alice In Wonderland, he ends up in the teapot, so I gave him a massive mechanical teapot in which he rides. I expect that the spout functions quite like a flamer.

The legs and ball of the teapot were left over from a big robot kit from a steampunk game called Wolsung. It looked really cool, but I don't think it still exists. The spout, handle and other bits came from Necron and Dark Eldar leftovers. I suppose there's a bit of a nod to The War of the Worlds in the tripod structure, as well. I think he'd function as heavy support!

So then, here is the whole warband so far. I'd quite like to do a white knight (presumably a friendly space marine), and maybe some other character to get it to ten. 

Curiouser and Curiouser

 Time for more weirdos for the retinue of Inquisitor Alice.

Every inquisitor requires some heavies, and even the most subtle operative needs protection. Hence we have Tweedledee and Tweedledum, two hefty lads armed with big pistols and large fists. These models were based on some mangled plastic ork nob models that I've had for years, with heads and an arm from some ogre Blood Bowl players (I really must do something with those guys). They look slightly cartoony, which is appropriate.

Tweedledum is carrying a brand new (power) rattle: in Alice Through the Looking Glass, the Tweedles have a battle over the breaking of the rattle. It started off as an axe: I replaced the blade with a weird bit of machinery I found and made the rattle itself out of plasticard.

I gave them suitably gaudy outfits. As chance had it, Dum's armour resembled squares on a chessboard, and I painted them to resemble that. I painted chequers on Dee's arm and shoulder armour, to reflect the checks in the rest of the unit. They got plasticard squares for their bases.

Painting them wasn't terribly hard, although the faces took a long time. I do quite like ogre and troll-sized models, as you can do some interesting shading, but the faces of these guys took a while. I used grey on their jaws to suggest stubble, red for their noses and cheeks, and purple for their lips. A couple of real bruisers. I'm not sure if they're mutants or small ogryns, but they can take care of dirty work.

Here is picture of them being recruited.

Alice in Warhammerland

 I've always liked the Alice books. They're extremely strange, and have a weird combination of logic and anarchy that's very appealing. Also, they're fantasy stories that aren't derived from Tolkien, which is actually quite rare. They're both sinister and comical at once, which of course makes them ideal for adaptation to Warhammer 40,000.

Well, to be honest, it doesn't. Modern 40k consists largely of identical bald men shouting "Heresy!" at once another, which isn't ideal for a surreal Victorian children's story about a little girl with yellow hair. But what the heck.

I did these conversions a long time ago, but I took the opportunity to repaint them where needed. In the case of Alice, I entirely stripped and dismantled the original model. This involved resculpting quite a lot of green stuff and making her a new base. It was a right pain, to be honest, but the end result is definitely an improvement on the original. How much of an improvement, I'm not totally sure. 

So, Alice is basically the upper body of a sister of battle and the bottom half of an Eldar warlock, with lots of extra bits stuck on. I've no idea where her pointy little feet came from. I think her hammer is from a Mordheim sprue.

The Hatter is based on a Mordheim plastic soldier, with a lot of green stuff. His gun is probably from a plastic terminator. 

The Cheshire Cat is from Neferata, an old vampire model. He's got some sculpting around the mouth, and is standing on a bit of wood elf dryad to make a tree.

Getting a half-decent picture of these models was very difficult, which is really irritating but feels appropriate somehow. Here they are - normal people going about their lives.

"The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame..."

This year, I've been trying to buy a few less models by tidying up some of the more battered conversions and paint-jobs I did a while ago. A long time back, I made a small force of Grey Knights based on Alice in Wonderland (it seemed like a good idea at the time), which included a Jabberwock converted from the wreckage of a Chaos Defiler. 

There is quite a lot of description of the Jabberwock in Alice, but most of the words aren't in English, which doesn't help. However, there is this crazy picture by the original artist, Sir John Tenniel:

Not in any way nightmare-inducing

I went back over my own version, improved some of the painting and made it much more rusty. The head was built out of two leftover Tau hatches, and the wings came from a Dark Eldar skimmer. I seem to have decided against the waistcoat, though.

The base is a bit hard to make out, but he's partly standing on a chessboard with a red and white skull, to represent the red and white chessmen in the book (which I imagine he devours).

So, er, yeah. I do feel that something's slightly missing on him, but I'm not sure what. Any thoughts appreciated!

Alice in Warhammerland

"When men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go..."

Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit.

Prompted by a comment on the Tears of Envy blog, and in a desperate attempt not to buy any miniatures for a little while, I decided to repaint my Alice in Wonderland inquisitorial delegation.

I first made these models about ten years ago. I have no idea why it seemed like a good idea to make 40k Alice back then, but it still seems like a good idea, and I still don’t know why. Perhaps Wonderland is in warp space or, more likely, warp space is in Wonderland. Perhaps I should go ask Alice: I think she'll know. Anyway.

Inquisitor Alice has seen it all. Nothing can surprise or bewilder here. She has passed through warp portals, consorted with the lords of chaos (over tea) and defeated not just demon princes but red queens.

Alice was converted from a flying sister of battle torso on an Eldar warlock’s lower body. It's hard to see, but her bolt pistol says "Fire Me" on the side.

Many daemonhosts attack their enemies with blasts of warp-force. The Cheshire Cat (or Grynx) uses the pure weirdness of its smile to mangle the brains of its enemies. Many who have seen this strange, teleporting being remain fatally confused, unable to banish the image of the cat from their minds long after it has disappeared.

The Caterpillar is a wise, if slightly over-medicated, savant, who draws inspiration from his hookah. He hovers on a xenos device and appears to be some kind of alien. His ready supply of medicine can enhance the accuracy of his comrades, much like a Jokaero engineer.

The cat was a GW model mounted on part of a plastic dryad. The caterpillar is a kroot body and arms with a Necromunda Millasaur’s legs. His head came from a chaos model, and his base is a Tau drone.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee are two modified ogryns, who provide long-range support with their gun arms. Whilst poorly-equipped in the brains department, they can be very handy, provided they can be persuaded not to bash each other.

When I first made them, they counted as gun-servitors. Now they would have to be acolytes, armed with storm bolters. The Tweedles (as played by Ray Winston on a bad day or Donald Trump on a  good one) started off as fantasy ogres, and their guns come from an Immolator tank.

If you can keep your head when all those around you are losing theirs... you’re probably the Queen of Hearts. Monarch and executioner, she serves Inquisitor Alice as a handy enforcer – although cutting the heads off the creatures of chaos isn’t a guarantee that they’ll stop so much as change.

The Queen of Hearts is an old dark elf sorceress with new weapons, made from Warhammer and sisters of battle bits. She functions as an acolyte.

If Alice brings order to the Warp of Wonderland, the Hatter exists for chaos. His complete lack of logic marks him out as a true servant of chaos, as demonstrated by his frequent demands that “All change!”

The Hatter (who looks quite a lot like Harpo Marx and slightly like me) is mainly made from old plastic Empire militia bits, with a storm bolter glued on and a hat and teapot made of Green Stuff.

And finally, I thought I’d add a new member to the crew. This is going to be the Dormouse, who lives inside a giant teapot. I made him out of a plastic rat from a skaven set. The teapot is largely leftover parts from the Wolsung giant golem, with a funnel and handle made from Necron and Dark Eldar bits.