Monday 21 November 2011

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.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

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...

Thursday 20 October 2011

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.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

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.

Monday 8 August 2011

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.

Tuesday 4 January 2011

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.