|
by Matt Jacobson
Scale: 2/1 (Original Scale: 1/600)
War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells
(Abridged and adapted by Douglas Adams)
We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's, and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
With infinite complacence people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small, spinning fragment of solar driftwood which, by chance or design, man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space.
Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
After thousands of years, the fleet arrived, where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale, it was eaten by a small dog.
The End.
In this diorama, we see the sole surviving Martian tripod, pondering its lonely existence as it awaits the return of the juggernaut of fate known as … Fifi.
The Model
This is a Space Runaway Ideon "Dogu Mack" walker model from Aoshima that I purchased on eBay about a year ago. (Trivia note: I bought this from a well-known film and television production designer who has been known to frequent this site. I hope he approves.) It seemed the perfect size for a little diorama idea I came up with after reading both "War of the Worlds" and "Hitchhiker's Guide" back-to-back.
Construction was fairly straightforward, although I was forced to put the walker into a pose I called "Hammer Time" (after MC Hammer, the rapper and music video star.) Having never seen the anime in question, I'm still not sure exactly how this thing walks, even after building the kit. The large rocket motor on the bottom of the walker was replaced by a spare pilot bridge dome from a PL 1/1000 TOS Enterprise. The rough surface texture was a happy accident- I found a brand of copper metallic paint that crazes up after being sprayed on raw plastic. This gives the kit a sense of more detail, which was important for so small a model.
|
![[Legs Contest: banner by Gino Dykstra]](legs_banner.jpg)
![[Thanks and Hail! Zog]](zog.gif)
