Normally I wouldn't make a fuss over a new product, but being a devoted fan of Wells' works since junior high I had to give praise to Kurokuma's latest release, the "Martian War Machine" inspired by "The War of the Worlds". I learned of this project a just a few weeks ago when forum participants asked about the upcominf "Rocketship Mongo". It seems DAZ posted a link to a page that did not yet exist. Kurokuma finally chimed in and presented some previews. He also hinted at a project involving the venerable H. G. WElls. Hoping against hope, I asked if it might possibly be the infamous marauding tripods as described in the Strand Magazine serial. Kuro' replied with a silhouetted image. I guessed correctly! Later, both Gareee and I noticed the tripod employed conventional axial pivot hinges. So? In the novel, Wells made a note that the Martians did not seem to use wheels as we understand them in any of their technological devices. Kurokuma could have replied that he was too far along in his project to change anything. Instead, he discussed his other projects ready for immediate release, his Saturday matinee serial inspired rocketships. Yesterday, maybe Monday, I asked Kurokuma how his WotW project was coming along. He posted another preview, this time, a full render. My jaw dropped. Not only did it look great, he employed the suggestions Gareee and I mentioned for the legs and also included robotic tentacles and the human harveting basket! Here is a brokered merchant who actually listened to his potential customers! The best was yet to come. It appeared at DAZ right before midday, allowing me to race home for lunch and purchase it. Not only that, but it appeared in the Plat' Club! A paltry $1.99! And... P-Club members were just issued a code to obtain any P-Club item for free (as well as extending the 30% off sale another week). Need you ponder upon what I used my "coupon"? Attached is a quick render displaying the striding war machine in all its pristinely tooled horror. Sincerely, Bill

not bad :)
speaking as an engineery type tho.. I do see one major problem that means we can beat it easy :)

any guesses what that is?

clue: high heeled shoes ;)

Message edited on: 06/09/2004 19:57

It's not a problem, Khai. The Martians use anti-gravity fields. ;-)

buzz I'm sorry thats a wrong answer ;) would you like to play again?

that is too kewl!!! and thanks for the heads up on the PC coupon...I keep forgetting to read the DAZ PC forum.

I agree with you Redfern. This machine's well done.... My jaw dropped when I first saw the previews. Now here's a machine that brings back my memories of the classic illustrated comics version. It was great he listened to your comments and suggestions. My jaw came off when it was released in Platinum. Good thing I held on to that coupon longer. I know it's from the red planet, but I just had to fiddle with the texture....

Message edited on: 06/09/2004 23:17

It looks cool indeed. I'm definately a fan of elegant machinery. However if I were a general, I'd place a call to IKG (or whomever makes industrial grating these days) and ask for their loosest mesh. (Yes, I have broken a heel in a sidewalk crack... and those tips are even pointier.) They'd sink into loose sand, too, but it wouldn't be quite as wrenching. If one tip breaks, the whole machine should go off-balance... even with gyroscopic corrections, it shouldn't be able to walk on 2 legs. Attack plan 2 involves powdered graphite (or other dry lubricant). I'd want a helicopter pilot from 'Nam... somebody used to spraying nasty stuff and getting up and out of there before getting caught in the draft. If all those joints loosen, the machine won't stand. Attack plan 3 involves sugar. Sugar in a gas tank locks things tight. Sugar and water is a mean combo. If they use their heat rays, they make caramel... sticky, gummy, caramel. Attack plan 4 involves salt water. Brine is quite corrosive. We can make water drops on forest fires... just make a drop on these guys. Being built on a desert planet, the odds of anything being water-proofed are quite small. My role-playing characters have built and disposed of several giant robots. There are many ways to remove mechanical menaces which do not involve futilely shooting at a hard shell. Carolly Evil OverMistress of the UnderDark

Oops they beat me to it. General Hauksdottir... sound strategies, sir. Too bad the germs beat us to them. I'm no engineer but I do agree that it would be difficult to get around on 3 legs hoping the spiked heels doesn't sink into the ground first like a pylon. Then agaiiiin this is science fiction.... engineering aside, I would say in a scenario true to early 1900 imagination. The Nautilus looks tempting tho....

Attack plan 2 ....
Attack plan 3 ....
Attack plan 4 ....

You are a devious individual, hauksdottir. I admire that.

I'm disappointed. I was expecting to see Bugs Bunny's friend who wants to "blow up the Earth because it's blocking his view of Venus."

"Anyone care to buy an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator? Only used once ...."

Got him. Thanks Little Dragon!!

applauds Hauksdottir from the Evil Overlord's gallery attack 2a - buckminsterfullerenes, a form of carbon and the slipperiest thing known to man. spritz some of that aroufn and this things won't be going anywhere attack 5 - electro-magnets anyone? Mars is heavy in ferrous material (guess why its red?), ten to one these things have some iron or steel in them. a nice big electromagent at an angle should be capable to knock one of these oiff its feet. I daresay that they're not self righting

Very good, Ladies. Now try it with both the tech level and the -time for deployment- restrictions of the era Wells wrote in.... >:) (And to be fair, the 'technical invulnerability' of the War Machine was a creation of the movie version; reference the chapter 'Thunder Child'. One torpedo ram took out two of the buggers, and possibly three before she went down. Torpedo Rams were hardly Dreadnaught; more like an overgrown Monitor for coastal defense and close in attack against larger vessels).

sings 'There were ships of shapes and sizes Scattered out along the bay And I thought I heard her calling As the steamer pulled away The Invaders must have seen them As across the coast they filed Standing firm between them There lay Thunder Child Moving swiftly through the waters Cannons blazing as she came Brought a mighty metal War-Lord Crashing down in sheets of flame Sensing victory was nearing Thinking fortune must have smiled People started cheering 'Come on Thunder Child' 'Come on Thunder Child' ' anyone know where I can get a Torpedo Ram model from? or the plans and I'll build it....

Hmm, how many of us here know about or own a copy of Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation of "The War of the Worlds"? That seems the definitive version for a lot of people, at least the design of the tripod war machine. BTW, that version is available for free right here at R'osity. CliveP "Poser-ized" a model D. Proctor originally built. I've been tweaking the .OBJ file in UV Mapper Pro to render "cleaner" in Poser. It's not quite there, yet. Sincerely, Bill

Khai; A good place to start is the US Naval Academy. The naval magazine, Proceedings, is published by them, and they have =lots= of links to reference material for historical purposes. You'll probably have to find links to the sites that archive information from that period of the Royal Navy (which may be easier to get to from the US site), but there should be profile and contour drawings...at the very least, some artist renditions if the actual plans haven't survived.... BTW, who does that filk...?

no filk lol thats 'Thunder Child' by Jeff Wayne from the Muscial Adaptation of 'The War of the Worlds'

Dale_B, Khai is NOT pulling your leg. He's quite serious. In the late '70s, an album was released that descibed the Martian invasion through song and ambient music. Excerpts from the novel were dramatically read by Sir Richard Burton. The album came with a series of bold and moody illustrations. It was from that collection of narrative art one of the more remembered interpretations of the Martian war machine appeared. D. Proctor modeled it in a high-end 3D package and CliveP adapted it for use in Poser. The production was recently remastered onto CD and I think it is still available. One thing about Wayne's tripod. I think that darned Martian is "mooning" us! The cockpit is protected by two ovoids of green material. Using very little imagination, they resemble a very ample "tush"! ;-) Sincerely, Bill

LOL you think that as well? Ullllaaaa!!!! takes on a whole new meaning....

Oh, so I'm not the only one making the association! So you're suggesting the "cries" blaring from the tripods were in fact...?! SNICKER!!! Sincerely, Bill

I had the album and loaned to someone and NEVER NEVER got it back. Damn. I hadn't thought about it for year and now I hear parts of in my mind. Got to find it again. Anyone know if it is still available somewhere... Right now I got to and get a war machine....

Butch, run a search on "Jeff Wayne" at Amazon.com. They have it. A little expensive, 38 bucks, but at least one CAN get it. Sincerely, Bill

I had that album, my brother nicked it, then it dissappeared into the land of his friends, never to be seen again. I must go acquire a war machine too. 8)

I always loved those weird green ships used in the 50's version of WOW staring Raymond Burr. And the sound they made was very errie and creepy...Still one of my all time favorites SCI FI. Anyone made a model of them?

It wasn't Raymond Burr, it was Gene Barry in the WOW movie. Burr was in the orignal Godizilla. I saw those ships somewhere not long ago and I can't remember where. They were not for Poser though, some other graphics program I don't have and poser doesn't import. By the way is there any way that CL could do a fix that would allow Poser to import more file types?

Attached Link: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~dproc/

Gtrdon, yes, a 3D mesh of Al Nazaki's "manta ray" war machines does exist. Derrin Proctor, the same person who replicated Jeff Wayne's tripod, did it. Sadly, it is not nearly as accurate. I suspect he worked from a single publicity shot, the famous three-quarter, front and under image most often distributed. As a result, the proper length of the machine could not be judged. Instead of the correct, vaguely arrowhead shape, Proctor shaped it more akin to a boomerang. Still, it can be used to decent effect if one renders it at the afore mentioned angle. I've included a link to the "Movie Mesh Site" where Proctor stores all his goodies. JHoagland and his "troop" are currently converting a fair number of Proctor's objects (with his permission, of course) into Poser optimized props and charcter files. Until we find a more accurate model, this one will suffice. Sincerely, Bill P.S. The bulk of the "manta ray" machines were more of a copper color (suggesting their "Red Planet" origin). It was only the wing tips and the forward lens that glowed a bright green.

There is also a PC computer game of "War of the Worlds", one the real-time strategy sort, which gives the British a bit better tech, and the Martians are not brought down by human disease. Quite absorbing, but the strategy isn't all that deep.

I've seen screen shots of it. It employed the Jeff Wayne tripods as well as his interpretation of the tool handling machines. Sincerely, Bill

Ok got it and here's how we beat them.

The winning destruction tool is the loose mesh. 8)

Message edited on: 06/11/2004 15:27

:very wide very evil grin:

Dammit. I dug out the "War of the Worlds" game. I've already wasted most of a day. You bastards! :)

Wayne's musical take is my favorite adaptation -- it tells more of the story itself, and the visuals of the mind that it conjures are ever so much more worthwhile...

Attached Link: http://lunarmodelsonline.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=L&Category_Code=TMHL

Hmmm to bad someone does not have access to the original wow movie models. However I found a link that might help Brad.

Message edited on: 06/13/2004 23:08

I still have my original WOTW Jeff Wayne album, AND my cd set. (The CD set is an extened version, BTW.. and I prefer the original. Occasionall;y, they are posted over in alt. binaries. soundtracks. if someone wants to sample them before buying it. If you're playing the War of the World PC game, you already have a large part (and yet another version) of the Jeff Wayne music. There's a websie that has a patch somewhere that corrected some AI, or bugs, but I don't recall it anymore. I did a quickie new Movie version modle a few days ago.. here's it's first wip, after just a hlaf hour.. I've actually modeled this several times in lightwave, but the old versions are not only inferior, but they are also lost to time. Also, Redfern.. you mentioned you had partially poserized the Jeff Wayne version.. I'd like to see what you have so far.. I'm was thinking of doing the same thing as well...

To avoid garnering undue credit, I didn't "Poser-ize" Proctor's model based upon Jeff Wayne's design; CliveP did. I merely loaded the .OBJ geometry into UV Mapper Pro and and tried splitting the vertices that should look sharp edged. Alas, it's not turning out as well as some of my other "clean-up" efforts. I want to try again using different angle "cut-offs". Sincerely, Bill