Mongolian Death Worm from Alternative Images

The box art for this kit.

The Mongolian Death Worm is a so-called crypto-creature whose existence has been in question for hundreds of years. The famous paleontologist, Roy Chapman Andrews mentions it in his 1926 book, “On The Trail Of Ancient Man” where he shares rumors by Mongolain officials he had heard although none had first hand knowledge of the dangerous, poison spitting animal. One can only surmise that the Graboids in the sci-fi/comedy “Tremors” (1990) were seeded by the Mongolian Death Worm mythology.

I picked this kit up at the Alternative Images booth at this years 2022 Wonderfest in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm not sure why but the cover art intrigued me so I took a shot since I got a break on the price. The nice sculpt was by Rikk Roberts and stands about nine inches tall once completed.

There are six pieces of average quality which required a moderate amount of cleanup particularly on the four tentacles. The more I looked at this figure, the less enchanted I became with its appearance particularly with its “head”. It looked something like a face with a ski mask pulled over it so one could make out its features but nothing definite. So I ended up cutting off the head and replacing it with a gaping mouth from my stash of 3D print rejects.

The next step I struggled with was to determine the creature's color palette. I initially wanted to go with a garden grub kind of look but I couldn't get it to work because of the way the body was broken up. I eventually settled on dark reddish browns and orange hues. Because the tentacles were cast separately, the painting for this step went fairly smoothly all things considered. I painted the numerous hooks & claws glossy black and did the same with the teeth.

I painted the rocks on the base several shades of gray. Once they dried I coated the remaining areas with diluted white glue and then sifted fine tan dirt to the sticky surface. I added a human skull out of my bone box to add a little pizzazz to the scene. The background is a vinyl poster I had printed up at Vistaprint, my go to source for such things.  7/25/22