Things Get Painted - BrokenToad Cheshire Cat

I'm unofficially collecting as many Alice related minis as I can find. When BrokenToad released their range of Wonderland transition busts, I had to get a set. These are some work on progress photos and rough finished pictures of the first I painted: The Cheshire Cat.

After a few failed experiments with PVC pipe for the base, I ended up stacking three 20mm MDF discs together and dancing them back to make the base.

I blocked in the main colours first, with the straight jacket and straps having colours I felt where reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton's Alice films.

I worked on the face next, which was quite fun. The more I painted it, the more I got the impression of a madman locked away for murder. I also started to remember the Looking Glass Wars novels, where the cat was some kind of human/cat hybrid, used as an assassin. That memory started to leak over into how I viewed the piece.

I worked the jacket up next, and it ended up a lot darker than I first planned. Part of this was the part where the grey I originally had washed the model out too much, so I made it a darker purple. I did have some fun with some fine lines on the shoulders of the bust, trying to give the impression the jacket was old and worn.

Finally, I got the straps and metals done in one sitting. After giving the base a few coats of Reaper Pure Black, it was almost done! I dotted the eyes with some gloss, and was happy to call it completed.

I'm aiming to have some finished photos soon, so will post them when possible.