Walk 4 - Serpentine Bridge

"The voice grew stronger and stronger, though i could see nothing above the house tops on the north side of the park, save a haze of smoke to the north-west".
MUCH more like it. A few minutes into the park and everything goes still, calm and quiet. Very hard to believe you're in London and easy to believe you're back in Victorian times.
No sign of any house tops northwards, the trees having massivly grown in the meantime.

Walk 3 - Hyde Park junction

"At the top, near the park gate, i came upon a strange sight - a bus overturned, and the skeleton of a horse picked clean.
The gates still there, but its now a very modern junction, with nothing Victorian about it at all.
Ian and Samuel seen here scouring for horse bones.

Walk 2 - Exhibition Road

"All the large mansions on each side of the road were empty and still, and my footsteps echoed against the sides of the houses.
No chance of that these days - even on a Sunday morning the traffic was pretty busy. The mansions are still there though, and very lovely they are too. That's Ian in the foreground, trying to get away from my reading of the book aloud as we walk.

Walk1 - Natural History Museum

It was near South Kensington that i first heard the howling... It came in a full tide down Exhibition Road. I stopped, staring towards Kensington Gardens, wondering at this strange, remote wailing.
So here we are right next to the Museum, which the narrator considers climbing to the top of to get a better view.
The right side looking northwards is pretty much unchanged from Wells' time but, after the Museums, the left is a hideous mess of new buildings.

My WOTW Walk.

Been a long time away i know. Back now and, to kick it off, thought i'd start with something i've had in mind to do for quite a few years now - follow the narrators walk through dead London at the end of the book.
Its a pretty easy job as Wells is very descriptive of just where the fellas going, all you need is a copy of the book and an A-Z.
So, last Sunday, me, my son Samuel and good friend Ian set off to see just what the route looks like now.
Starting point was South Kensington as my son is only 8 and didn't want to tire him out.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - dinky Fighting Machine

Here's one all done. SO cute. And such lovely detail for such a small scale.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - the clear bits

That's them all done. VERY impressed with this Pegasus company as everything just pushes into place without glue, the fits that good. You can see i've done the clear wing tips and front thingy in Tamiya Clear Green and one of the Cobra Head eye pieces in Tamiya Clear Red. Not sure about the flame part. I coated it with Tamiya Clear Orange then the Red at the top feathering it down towards the blast area. But, dunno. Flame effects are really difficult to pull off and i've no idea how this'll end up. Trouble is, you have to use it - you're not given the option of a spare lens in case you didn't want to. Which'd have been nice.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - progress

Here we are with the base a much more accurate (though dull) colour. Tanks pop a bit more now they're lighter. And you can see i've started to drybrush the three dead men turned to ash laying there.
Name plaque was a bugger to do.

Crashed Cylinder

Come across this in a box this morning and thought i'd show it to you. Its supposed to be the Martian Cylinder on Horsell Common.I made it for the UK SF Build Challenge over on the SFMUK site but,alas, that was cancelled due to lack of entries.
So, shelved this. Its not quite finished as i wanted a LOT more people - but at this scale, they're pretty expensive and i was going to get them bit by bit. Still might do that, but for now the diorama shows the first few folk on the scene.
Oh, and the cylinder is a Ferro Roche egg container cut at a 45 degree angle, plopped into a mass of Das Pronto then Games Workshop scatter material sprinkled over.

Nice George Pal compilation

War Of The Worlds Diorama - changing colours

So here's the base in Red Oxide Primer and the tanks in the suggested Olive Drab. Had a look at the battle scene in the film (oh, what a hardship) to get an idea what shade of brown the ground should be - and i've got to change ideas.
The ground isn't anything like brown, more just shades of grey, and that's before the Martians start burning things up. So will have to change that.
And the tanks are much more of a lighter green than the Olive Drab, so that's got to change.
I had initially thought any sort of grass would be out as the seperate shards of the stuff i've got would be waaaay out of scale to this 1/44th. But in the film there's quite tall grass there, so thinking i'll put it on after all.

Polish comic book version

Just come across this nice piece from ALFA magazine. Not at all accurate but Waldemar Andrzejewski's take on the beasties is quirkily charming.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - primed

Blimey, that was fast. Cleaned all the pices last night and this morning assembled the kit. Seems i need do nothing more than glue the tracks on the tanks. And their turrets just puch into place - handy as i think i'm gonna need a bit of poseability when it comes to lining everything up.
The War Machines look like a very good snap-fit, with no visible joins so you can see here i've primed them still in their halves. The Cobra Necks also snugly fit into a space that then fits into the hull - again a snug fit. So, taking a gamble and keeping everything apart for the main painting.

War Of The Worlds Diorama

Headed up to Comet Minatures today.
Was quite suprised to see he'd got so much new stuff in - a lot of Trek resins i guess ready for the new film, but this is what i went for: the new diorama from Pegasus Models.
I'd seen it up on sites such as Culttvman and Starship Modeller and the $17.00 price tag was very appealing. But, with the pound/dollar rate being what it is right now, that'd work out about £12.00, add P&P makes it nearer £16.00, then the inevitable Customs would hike it up to about £30.00.
So to find it for £19.95 made it a must-buy.
So, what do you get? Very nice, but quite small (1/44th) pieces, and not a lot of them. As you can see from the instructions, parts are small and build will be pretty easy.
Bit worrying is the very soapy feel to the plastic - so a bath before assembly.

New Fighting Machine kits

Hey there.

REAL sorry in the long time since a post here, but i've been (A) caught up in work and (B) really busy on my hobby of SF model making.

Which has meant no real time to come in here and post stuff.

But a new item looks like it'll be possible to merge the two - an excellent new 1/44th diorama.

Can't wait!