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.