Wells' Martian - the eyes have it.

With his eyes, done that's him finished. As anyone who's read the book will know, Wells is at his vaguest when describing the eyes.
First up, we have:
"... two luminous discs - like eyes". From that we get they have a couple of discs. Not eyes, but discs that could be called eyes. And they glow or are internally lit. Or something.
Then we have:
"Two large dark-coloured eyes". Oh, so now they ARE eyes. And are dark. No luminsosity at all.
Okay, how to do that then?
I've ummed and ahhed all over this build on that very point and, in the end, decided to go with this compromise here - have them large with a very dark brown and black iris centre, but ring it with a bright yellow to try and convey the luminous, disc description.

Wells' Martian - mouth done

Here we are then with the tentacles put in place. The fact that they're elasticated cord means they'll be fully posable when done.
You can also see i've blocked the eyes in white, first step on the vaguest part of this build...

Wells' Martian - tentacles

Here we go with half the tentacles done.
The book has them being "sixteen slender, almost whip-like tentacles, arranged in two bunches of eight".
I've painted them a grey/red just to distinguish them from the body and, ebing elastic cord, they have the advantage of being posable when i'm done.

A lovely original Martian design

Many, many thanks to Andrew for giving me the heads-up to this site. Cheers matey.

http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=31689

Wells' Martian - update

Okay, progress on this.
You may remember that the original plan was to cover a balloon in paper mache, then cut off the bottom to give a flat surface, and sculpt over the top of that.
Disaster.
With the bottom of the shape cut off, the paper mache just couldn't hold the weight of the clay and the whole thing folded.
Was thinking of folding the whole thing, but then came across this cheap plastic bowl i had stored away. It looked almost the teardrop shape i was after, albeit a bit taller than i'd have liked.
But, what the hey, lets give it a go.
It was strong enough to take the clay, so i whacked it on, all the while thinking what i'd have him look like.
This is where Wells' being vague and rather contradictory doesn't help at all.
The shape was easy enough, being "A big, greyish rounded bulk" and, at the front seems easy enough, being "... huge rounded bodies - or rather heads - about four feet in diameter, each body having in front of it a face".
The face is described variously as "This face had no nostrils... but it had a pair of very large, dark coloured eyes and just beneath this a kind of fleshy beak".
That beak was "... a mouth under the eyes, the lipless brim of which quivered and panted and dropped saliva."
Lovely, descriptive stuff, but then we get a contradiction to the mouth being lipless with "... peculiar v-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip".
Okay, with all the above i had an idea what to do and i knew from before that i'd have a problem making a v-shaped mouth as you basically end up with a smily face. I got round that before by making the upper part much more beak-like but this time i thought i'd actually invert it and have the v upside down.
HG contradicts himself again with the skin being "greyish" then "... there was something fungoid in the oily brown skin". I liked the idea of fungoid skin so deliberatly detailed it up more as some sort of growth rather than bare skin. Last thing was to put in two beads for eyes.
Next up, a coat of Bleached Bone to start with, then a very watery wash of Burnt Umber after to try and add mottling to the detail i already had on.

A new Martian

First up, aplogies for no posts in such a long, long while - other hobbies have sure got in the way.
Anyway, back now so, if youre, still with me, lets go:
As i've said before, am not a fan AT ALL of the Spielberg version of WOTW. The Tripods are okay i guess, but the rest is horribly, horribly wrong.
Biggest horrible wrong, after the fact that they're not from Mars, are the Martians themselves - a horrible sub-standard Independance Day ripoff. Did'nt they read the book????
Anyway, i'd got the kit of this abortion of a Martian as (A) i'd been swayed by Dave Daines' excellent paintjob at this years Dronearama, (B) it was 1/8th scale - the same as the George Pal version Moebious had also produced.
So, that got me to thinking: What if i did a truely accurate book version the same scale to go alongside them?
Finally pulled me finger out and the project is a go.
First up, i had to decided just how big this new one should be alongside the others. Mr Wells has them as being "A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear...".
So, going by the figures and, more importantly, the cup on the base of the Speilberg one, i could roughly figure out how big it should be.
Pretty darn big was the answer.
"Rounded bulk" eh? No way was i going to make something that size out of solid clay, so the first thing i did was blow up a balloon to the right size and cover it with a couple of layers of paper mache;

After that, i've cut the bottom off to leave a teardrop shape bulk to which i'll be adding the air drying clay.

Neat Images (1)

I love this picture by Tom Kidd. Not only does it have an accurate looking Tripod, the setting pefectly illustrates one of the reasons i love the book so.
There's a fair few passages such as "... four of the Martians appeared, far away over the little trees, across the flat meadows..." and its the image of the juxtaposition of these strange, totally alien devices travelling through the calm, serene English countryside i grew up in thats always stayed with me.

Full colour Martian.

Blimey, only just realised i never ambled on over here with pics of the finished chappy.
Here you go then, and sorry for the delay. I've gone for a compromise in the end for his colour scheme, choosing to try and envoke how he looks in the film rather than that of the actual prop.
Lighting him up proved to be a bit annoying as, once i'd driled a hole for and placed the superbright LED, tinted the eye lens the 3 colours, then put it all together, it was only then i realised that the LED might be blummin' bright - but the light only goes straight ahead. Which meant it lit up the central membrane seperating the lenses and hardly any light came out of them.
*fume*
Luckily, i'd only pushed the eye in place as it was a real tight fit, so it was simple enough to take that back out.
Was a palaver though to drill 2 more holes in the head and neck to take the leads for 2 more LED's.
But, now i've one for each lens, reckon it looks much better.
There will be another update re a modelling project, just as soon as the sales die down and i can go browse the shops in peace.

What colour a Pal Martian?

So, the problem of studio lighting strikes again. Watching the very brief scenes the fellas in, its hard to make out just what colours are going on there.
All you've got really is the glimpse Anne sees as she spies him outside - which appears to be VERY salmon pink in the harsh lighting - and this when he's indoors.
You can just about see the pinky tone on the highlights here, the rest appears to be dark brown washes, especially over all the veins.
So, am going that route and here he is in Games Workshops "Dwarf Flesh" for the salmon basis.

WOTW Martian - assembly

(1) Right, first thing to address was lighting the fella up. A trip to the el cheapo store got me a single LED torch for a quid. Broke it open to get to the bulb, then soldered a long lead to it.
(2) Next was clean up and wash. Clean up was a simple case of removing the pour lugs., no seam lines, no filling needed. LOVE this kit.
Guessing Pegasus knew folk might want to light up the eye judging by the recess here behind the lens. As you can see, i've drilled right through. Also had to drill a hole through the middle of the body.
(3) The part fit is so good that i could assemble everything together without glue ready for priming.
(4) Here's the head with primer on, the eye socket area painted black to prevent light bleeding though (although the things so thick, don't think that'll be a prob) and the LED fitted. Looks like its a tad too bright but that's ok - its powered by three tiny watch batteries and, by removing one, i can reduce the light by a third. We'll see how it looks when the lens is painted and in.

Pegasus' Martian kit

Blimey, i only went into Modelzone for some glue and filler...
Been awaiting this kit since it was announced as the George Pal version of War Of The Worlds was my number one film until Blade Runner knocked it off the top spot, and the Martian has always had a lot of charm, even if its nothing like Wells' original.
What was putting me off was the £34 price tag for a 1/8th figure.
So i figured i'd wait a while and see if i could pick it up cheaper. But there i was in the shop yesterday and there sat the fella looking at me.
And it took about 2 seconds before i gave in and bought him.
And was i glad too.
Open the box and you're presented with these here parts.
First thing to note is the hideous orange vinyl, which makes it look like something from the toy section of Poundland. Look beyond that though and there's a ton of luvverly skin detail and veins all over the place.
Next thing that's apparent is the clear base. Why? Still trying to figure it out but for the life of me i can't see why its done that way. It can't be to allow for some sort of uplighting as the base represents the floor of the ruined house, and there's so much junk on it that there's no way you could do it, even if such a thing happened in the film. Which it doesn't.
Then we have four arms. Its a nice choice - you choose to have them as on the box art, or them held together to cover up the eye as in the film when Gene Barry shines his torch at it. I'm going with the first one but will be using the spares to try out different colour schemes.
Next are the detailing parts. You get the shattered spy device, its neck, and a couple of books - one of which is The War Of The Worlds.
Finally, you get the eyes for both Martian and Spy. These are clear IP and, as the Martians eye is lit in the film, i can't really not light this fella up.
Might be a tad difficult though...
The vinyl is very heavy and thick, meaning drilling through the eye orbit into the head cavity will take some doing. Ditto running the cable down through the body.
The vinyl was a suprise - no heating up and triming of parts here. The don't have anything else other than small pouring stubs to remove and all sections fot together without glue as the peg system is so good.
Well done Pegasus.
Final thing to say is the size of the thing. I'd always figured, as it was 1/8th, it'd be pretty small. But, as you can see here, alongside my Iria kit in the same scale, he's a big fella.

Tat

Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds is quite rightly well loved the world over. And known the world over, helped in no small way by the fantastic, iconic artwork by Mike Trimm.
So, with a massive potentail market for licensed collectables based on it, what would you come up with after the clothing?
A pre-paint of the Fighting Machine?
Nope.
Ditto the Martian?
Nope.
Kits of the above?
Nope.
Even better - a series of dioramas, either as kits or prepaints?
Nope.
No, none of the above.
Instead we get the bizarro idea of a USB stick in the shape of the canopy of a Fighting Machine and now this.
This.
Can hardly bring myself to type the following, figuring this must be a joke as surely they didn't have a board meeting to decide what the next release would be and came up with this.
Ladies & Gents, get your money out 'cause here comes what you've wanted ever since hearing the album way back when - your very own WOTW:

Tax Disc Holder,
Air Freshner,
Bumper Sticker,
and Mint Box Holder.

I mean really, have i fallen through a time portal and its actually April 1st today???????

Next Project

"What's a jar of marmalade doing here?" You might ask yourself.
Stay tuned, all will become clear - just as soon as we've finished the marmalade.

Cinefantastique Vol 5 No 4

If you're a fan of the George Pal version of War Of the Worlds, i do urge you to track this brilliant issue down.
Most of it is devoted to the making of the film, very indepth articles and stunning shots of the modelwork and preproduction artwork.
Best for me is the early version design for the War Machine, clearly showing the "rays for legs" effect briefly mentioned and seeen in the final film and Art Director Al Nozaki working on an early version of the craft - as witnessed by the Cobra Neck being set right back and 3 legs. Although whether they were meant to be actual legs attached to the underside, 3 temporary legs to simulate the force beams, or just a temporary stand, is not made clear.
Worth tracking down. Got mine years ago off eBay pretty cheaply although dunno what it fetches now.

Lego WOTW

Very sweet this. And the guys done more besides: