Saturday 9 April 2016

Callooh Callay, What A Frabjous Day!

Continuing my purple patch of painting, here's another new crew for the Batman Miniature Game: The Wonderland Gang!


This gang hold a special place in my heart for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I played a role in lobbying for KM to make them and I like to flatter myself that I actually gave them the idea. Secondly, and more importantly, the concept of this gang is utterly bonkers. A bunch of 'Alice in Wonderland' themed villains (of which there are more than you'd expect in Gotham) banding together to commit crimes inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll.

The models in the gang are delightfully cartoony, without a lot of the fiddly military equipment that sometimes clutters other models in the range. This made them a joy to paint, and I managed to get them all done in a single morning.


The Mad Hatter, is mad, and uses hats to mind control his victims. At times he's presented as having an unhealthy obsessions with small blonde girls called Alice, and at others he's just one of those harmless villains who commit themed crimes.

This model has a touch of the leprechaun about it and the paint scheme reflects this. I really like the characterful face and ridiculously sized hat and cup.


White Rabbit, despite the Lewis Carroll associations, is not actually a canonical member of the Wonderland Gang, and is actually an ally of Bane, as such she can work for both gangs as a free agent.

With the more objectified female sculpts in the range, I usually try to do something with them to make them less damaging to my reputation should somebody see me using small models of scantily clad nubile young women. Essentially I try to cover up some of the unnecessarily exposed flesh (see Poison Ivy and Huntress for examples of this) and dress them in something more practical. However, as White Rabbit has essentially decided to turn up in her underwear, there's nothing I can do about it.

Painting only in pale colours was surprisingly tricky, and there are areas I'm not entirely happy with. However, I'm happy enough with how she's come out.


Finally, we have the twins, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. Both packing firearms, these two currently provide the damage threat in the crew. They also act as bodyguards for the Hatter, who's probably the weakest leader in the game. I resisted the urge to paint them in the same colours to annoy and confuse my opponents, mainly because it would also confuse and annoy me.

This crew is delightfully colourful and themeatic, and as I grow them, I'm going to try to ensure that I maintain that idea. I'm hoping that KM will release a henchmen pack featuring Walrus and Carpenter (seriously), but in the meantime I'm got a couple of ideas to include a Cheshire Cat themed villain, either using a different paint scheme for a Catwoman model, or converting another character into the assassin Cheshire.

I think I'm going to enjoy this.

16 comments:

  1. Love the cartoon feel to this gang

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    1. That's the reason I think the Animated Series Catwoman might fit in okay.

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  2. Terrifically colourful looking gang there Kieron. I especially like the greens on the Mad Hatter.

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    1. Thanks. It's nothing clever (it never is with me), just two different greens with a wash over them. I will admit to highlighting the edges of his coat though. The had had a black wash that didn't work and then just base green over it. I'm a simple person at heart. :)

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  3. I love these models. And that gun profile on Jervis seems deadly!

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    1. It is, but it's short range. Which means that if he's firing it, he's about to get clobbered!

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  4. I've looked at these myself and loved the sculpts, but was curious as to how they would play. Seeing yours now I am very tempted to pick some up just for fun - great stuff!

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    1. My initial thoughts are that White Rabbit is an out and out Loot grabber, and the Tweedles can move in support of each other and Hatter. It doesn't look like an easy crew to play, but I think it will be different.

      They are very good sculpts which required very little swearing to assemble...unlike the Penguin crew.

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    2. "Very little assembling" might have been the point that my will power snapped! :)

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    3. Glad to be of service. Rabbit's ears are as fiddly as this set gets.

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  5. One of the more cartoony and surprisingly attractive looking gangs for the game.
    I find it really fun to see how Alice in Wonderland gets it's place in miniature games and ranges.
    There's a scetch of bad Alice and a Kitty Cheshire for Pulp City, Infamy, Hasslefree, Kabuki, Reaper, ...

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    1. It does seem to pop up a lot, which says a lot for the longevity of Lewis Carroll's imagery.

      The bit I find odd is that the main AiW themed villains in Batman: Hatter, White Rabbit, Tweedles Dum and Tweedles Dee and Cheshire, we're all created independently of each other. Talk about flights no a dead horse...

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    2. That should read: flogging a dead horse :)

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    3. The strong malicious and twisted undertone is probably one of the reasons too as it is becoming once again popular these days (Malifaux, Infamy, Batman, ...). Something they translated wonderfully in these miniatures.
      I guess the mindset had something to do with the day and age we live in. The bright future evisioned which our grandparents and parents grew up with seems to fade, you see this in a lot of other media too.
      I'm more of a Peter Pan fan, which is almost equally mad as AiW.

      It is inderdaad odd these characters were created seperately. But on the other hand, it isn't always easy to come up with something fresh. So it is easier to expand on a thing you already laid the fundations for.

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  6. Excellent work on the crew Kieron - they look fantastic my friend. :)

    A couple of years ago I painted a mini with Caucasian flesh tones and pink attire, and the limited contrasts made it really tricky, so totally understand any issues with White Rabbit. :)

    Hopefully the crew gets some more releases soon. :)

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    1. Thanks. It made me realise how dark my painting is most of the time. I seem to avoid pastels...probably because they're horrible!

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