• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • The Fine Print
    • Disclaimer
    • Copyright
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Paul Ooi Modelworks
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Instagram
Paul Ooi Modelworks

Paul Ooi Modelworks

Building a better world, one scale model at a time

  • Index
    • Aircraft
      • WW1 Aircraft
      • Inter-War Aircraft
      • WW2 Allied Aircraft
      • WW2 Axis Aircraft
      • Modern Aircraft
    • Armored Fighting Vehicles
    • Ships
      • WW1 Ships
      • Inter-War Ships
      • WW2 Allied Ships
      • WW2 Axis Ships
      • Modern Ships
    • NordicCon Show
    • Figures
    • Buildings
    • Sci-Fi
    • Miscellaneous
  • Tutorials
    • Tutorial 1: Making a Wooden Platform Helipad
    • Tutorial 2: Wooden Hard Stand for Aircraft
    • Tutorial 3: Filling Large Plastic Seams
    • Tutorial 4: Diorama, Sicily 1943
    • Tutorial 5: Making a Gun Emplacement with Earthworks
    • Tutorial 6: Basic figure painting (1/35 scale or 54mm)
    • Tutorial 7: Filling Large Mouse Bite Gouges
    • Tutorial 8: Frames for Vacuum Formed Clear Canopies
Home / Sci-Fi / War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds

Sci-Fi


The most important thing about scale modelling is……to have fun! Better still when you are having fun and the project goes to a store display. I was asked by Hub Hobby in Richfield, MN to make this diorama from The War of the Worlds. It was an out-of-box build from a Pegasus Hobbies kit on an unusual subject.

For starters, you get a couple of Sherman tanks from 1945 that look like a cross between the Sherman Firefly with the long 75mm plus muzzle brake and the hull of the early Sherman with the rounded “shoulders”. Must have been surplus WW2 tanks passed on to local units who ALWAYS get the job of attacking rampaging monsters with inadequate weapons. But I digress….

For 1/144th scale models, the amount of detail on the little tanks are pretty good and you could make out the equipment attached to the hull, and the details on the chassis are very convincing. I had a fine time painting them with basic Tamiya Olive Drab, followed by a wash of Nato Black and highlighting using Tamiya Deck Tan. The tracks are a combination of Red Brown, Gunmetal and Flat Earth.

As for the Visitors, I start by clamping the hull shells together (they DO look like clams). The assembly is pretty simple and very soon, the 1953 movie classic with the infamous “cobra head” laser beam gets attached to the structure. Instead of the shiny copper color of the original, I decide to go with burnt iron instead, giving the Martians a more sinister look, and also to avoid having the craft look like a shiny toy. Clear lime green lacquer for the clear parts make up the cockpit and “navigation lights” (?)

The antagonists had to fight over something, in this case an oval piece of plastic…..a.k.a. Planet Earth. After the initial layer of Flat Earth, I washed the landscape with Burnt Umber. Notice that Planet Earth resembles a Salisbury steak with Worcestershire sauce, disregarding the green stuff. This is highly symbolic, two races battling over the most basic resource….food!

Once all the pieces are ready for mounting, I add in the piece d’resistance, the Martian ray blast that dominates the diorama. Instead of the prescribed red beam, I decided to emphasize the energy flow culminating in a big clear orange blast fringed with white heat vapor. Mars: 1 Earth: nil.

One more thing. The little microbes that eventually get the Martians and lay them down with measles? They are hiding in that green stuff around the landscape.

Orson Welles would be pleased.



Ouch!

The Evil Perpetrator

Martian Chic

O, puny Earthling!


Modems never looked deadlier........

Mothership eye's view of the action

Don't cut the defense budget, or the Martians will get us!

May 29, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Previous Post: « Mitsubishi Zero A6M5c “Zeke” (日本海軍零武艦上戦闘機52内型)
Next Post: China Mustang – Happy Fourth of July »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hey! It is nice to meet you!

Paul Ooi Modelworks welcomes casual visitors browsing, and enjoying the pictures as well as more serious fellow modelers looking for tips and references on the art of making miniatures and relishing in the challenge. I will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about the models.

Please feel free to leave a comment or a question.

  • Email
  • Instagram

NEVER MISS A POST

Member of International List of Scale Model Related Web Sites


International List of Scale Model Related Web Sites

  • NordicCon 2012 – Part 1 30.3k views | posted on 10/01/2012
  • USS Iwo Jima LPH-2, the Navy’s Mailed Fist 14.7k views | posted on 05/13/2012
  • British 25 Pounder Field Gun and Quad Tractor 13.6k views | posted on 05/05/2013
  • Oshkosh M-ATV MRAP: Surviving an IED Part 1 12.5k views | posted on 11/15/2013
Paul Ooi Modelworks

NEVER MISS A POST

Sign up for notification on new posts.

Footer

  • Email
  • Instagram

Categories

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Copyright

© 2011–2023 · Paul Ooi Modelworks · All Rights Reserved