Thunderchild taking on the Tripods - Paper models

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Been a while since I posted something. I mainly did this in the aircraft section but I also make other stuff. And this is one I made last year, inspired by some other dioramas I saw online of the same situation.
So here is my rendition of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds scene in which battleship HMS Thunderchild is steaming up on full power to try and take down another tripod.



The models all are made from paper. The ship is a copy of the "Emden", a German battleship from the turn of the century. The original paper model was 1:140 and when finished it would measure about 82cm in length. A tad too big for my taste. I reduced it to about 1/780 or thereabout. The boat now was just under 15 cm at the waterline level. The real ship had a waterline length of 117 meters. I chose this model because it was a free downloadable model.





The construction of the ship was quite easy and straight forward, even though it all was very small. All parts were used,
However, the tripods were scratch built. I didn't want to use the available paper kit of the Jeff Wayne version because although it is quite iconic, the legs don't match Wells' description at all. Wells describes the machines as nimble and moving fast. Something the Jeff Wayne versions would not be able to do.
I decided to give them more curved legs with a spidery suspension. I also made the creature's 'cabin' a bit more like an insect to emphasize the menacing nature. I used copper coloured paper for this. The front had to be a faceless shiny black screen. Impersonal, perhaps even ruthless. Also, in the book, the Tripods carry a ray gun on an arm, not like a nozzle in their 'heads', like the Jeff Wayne and film tripods had. I scratch built it all and redid it a couple of times until I was satisfied with the looks.





The second tripod had to be a destroyed one. So I made a full second one and then destroyed it carefully. I used fiberfill (the stuff that is used to insulate jackets and ski clothing for the billowing smoke.

The base plate is just a large photo frame with a hardboard backing. I painted the backing, complete with wake. Then, after it dried,  I put the glass on top. On the glass, I applied an acrylic transparent paste which looks milky coloured when applied but dries clear. And rock hard. Also, the ship was placed in the still wet paste - this didn't affect the paper in the sense of getting soaked and discoloured. The dried top layer was given a thin layer of titanium white for wave heads and wake froth. The bow wake also was painted with a dry brush.





The two Tripods were added with some acrylic paste to their legs (it also 'glues' the models solidly to their position) and there it was. Thunderchild meeting its destiny. If you like to see more pictures of the build, let me know.







The pictures are perhaps a tad large but they fitted in the frame so I left it that way. Hope you don't mind...

_{(PS. You always can try to look the build story up at my own website but I don't mind showing some more here either. (-:  )}

[loupgarou]

Beautiful realization. Congratulations.
And thanks for the build details. 

[Weaver]

That looks excellent, well done! 

I'm always amazed by what people can do with paper models.

[Rick Lowe]

That's pretty sweet! Nice work.

There are some amazing things out there in PaperWorld...

[Steel Penguin]

   very good job on getting the scene.

[AXU]

Nicely done 

[zenrat]

Wow!  That's great.  The water in particular.

[Gondor]

Fantastic 

Gondor

[Rheged]

Magnificent!!

[NARSES2]

Incredible 

[nönöbär]

Now this is really cool! 

Seeing the model, I hear the musical verion of War of the Worlds again....

[TomZ]

Stunning!

TomZ

[The Chaos]

WOW Fantanstic 

[Paper Kosmonaut]

(-: Thank you all. I really appreciate it!

[kpnuts]

Thats superb i really love it, i did something similar on land though a little while ago ( nothing of this standard though)