Journey into Madness - Worm creature (and rant)

Thought I would add more "painted miniatures" content to the blog to balance up all the previous and upcoming text heavy entries. And I can safely say that there will be a break from the Flames of War stuff this week, I need some time off from that and paint some 28mm again. And I have a few 28mm that have been waiting in line for a long time now - mainly a couple of models for Strange Aeons.

But I started out with this guy who was quite enjoyable to paint.


Before I get on with more pictures, I must say I'm quite bummed out about the "Frothers Unite UK Shop". They had a sale (and still have for 3 more days) on some very cool Lovecraftian miniatures, sculpted by members of their community I think. Long story short - I ordered the only pack that I really thought had 100% cool models, and waited for it for 4 weeks. I was warned about the delivery time so no problem, not like I didn't have anything else to paint during that time. But, as the envelope arrived, I was quite gutted when I found the wrong content.

And not only wrong- but pretty much all but 1 model in the blister was completely uninteresting to say the least in the kindest way. I mean the blister contains some freakish miniature  that isn't cool just odd looking, a penguin, a seastar, a decent looking Cthulhu statue but I have a ton of those form the FFG "Bag of Cthulhu" - and the only model I liked, some kind of worm creature (the one shown in this post).

I try to be as fair as I can and unbiased in all my reviews, I should add that I try to review stuff that I generally like. And when I get the wrong stuff placing an order, something is missing from a box, quality is poor etc I'm a nice enough guy to contact the place from which I ordered and try to resolve the situation before writing about it. This time however I can't seem to get in touch with either the Frothers Unite shop, nor with the person casting the miniatures for their shop (to whom I got the email address from a fellow LAF member). And it is quite annoying. Mostly because there is no phone number, and it has been a good few days with no response from either. I sent them a copy of my receipt with all information and a picture of the contents of the envelope so they know I don't try to fool them. But I might pretty much end up losing out on those cool miniatures as the sale is limited to the 6th of this month. You can see the stuff I got and compare it to what I wanted to get below:

Obviously the Winner set nr2 contained models that I actually have use for. So 4 weeks waiting in vain and no response on my complaint. I tried to register on the Frothers forum but again the account has to be verified by a moderator and it hasn't been since my try during the weekend so I'm not interested in trying that route anymore. It's not about the louse £8 I paid but about the models which I really wanted. Bottom line, I can't recommend using the Frothers Unite store as they are impossible to contact over the phone and seem very slow with their email response. This is probably the only time (not counting Black Tree Design....) that I've ran into problems like these with a internet based store.

Moving on from the well earned rant - to the painted miniature. The only one from the blister that will get painted, the worm  creature. The pose is not really that interesting, and the sculpt may not be very original - but it's still quite cool in a disgusting sort of way and will work its way into my Strange Aeons games. Nothing in the Strange Aeon rulebook or first volume of the Shocking Tales of madness and mayhem expansion but volume two is coming up and it might contain some interesting scenario or rules for this model. If not then I might come up with something of my own, it was still fun to paint.

It has some great texture, I will not lie though - it really does resemble a walking penis - with a penis of its own.

And the model next to the awesome Mad Scientist (limited ed model) from Uncle Mikes strange Aeons range. Uncle Mike actually said that the model would be released later this year with some insane henchmen so everyone who missed out on him won't be left empty handed. And my favorite West Wind "London detective" that I use as Strange Aeon character.

And again next to the Strange Aeon Fishman and West Wind "Brotherhood" miniature (cultist)