HMS Thunder Child FAQs

[mctoddridesagain]

Hello, I'm afraid I often forget which threads I've been posting on!

As there aren't really any ships that directly correspond to Wells' vessel, you could resort to designing your own 'super Polyphemus', or use a real, but not exactly right, ship like, say, HMS 'Renown', a very nice second-class battleship designed for overseas service - with lighter main guns (10" as opposed to 12"), thinner armour, and higher speed than the first-class battleships, she was like a proto-battlecruiser (one of your earlier comments wasn't far off in her case):



She was a very beautiful, balanced looking vessel, and her pronounced sheer made her look far more rakish than most of her contemporaries. She was Jacky Fisher's favourite flagship when he commanded the Mediterranean Fleet.

[jeffwaynefan]

They could almost be the same vessel, except the artwork rendering has a much wider gap between the stacks and crows nest detail.

[stuka]

cool. you know, that picture reminds me of the way the black smokw was fired. in my mind, i perfer to think that the mechanism to lauch the black smoke was interragted into the hull instead of being clumsly held by the machines tentacles like a bazooka. but that's just me.

Edit: did you make it yourself?

[mctoddridesagain]

The image of the Martian machines is from a CGI artists' site somewhere - I wish I'd made it!

I prefer seeing the machines holding the black smoke cannon, and the heat ray, rather than built in. Certainly the book gives the impression they're held at will, not integrated.

[lanceradvanced]

stuka said:

the naval part of the war for the union was to stop the blockade runners from getting supplies from you brits for the war effort, which you relied upon for cotton and other aguculture stuff. in turn, the south made a rag tag navy to protect them. later, the goal of the union was to split the south in two, so there were battles up and down the missipi. am i right?

Sorta... the blockade and blocade running was pretty much continous during hte war, while the efforts to split the confederacy went on during the first half of the war. With Grant working his way down the mississipi, as Faragut worked his way up form New Orleans.

The confedearacy was split, almost at the exact same time as the battle at Gettyburg, and before Grant took overall command of the Union armies,

Beyond that, the typical scenario was that the Union attempted to take a confederate harbor, and faces one or two confederate Ironclads, backed by shore artillery, where upon the Confererate Ironclad would be gang-banged by a squadron of Monitors. It was rare that the Confederates agressevily used their ships, because of their logistical issues in getting armor and decent engines, (many were captured or destroyed before completion) the CSS Virginia being one exception, the CSS Albermale being another (as a note, the Albermale was destroyed in a daring torpedo boat attack while at anchor)

However Torpedos were -not- confined to the sucide missions using small craft, but were also fitted to the confederate rams, as anti-monitor weapons.

[Topaz]

My Lord, this is tremendously good stuff!

Nice work, McTodd (and other contributors). This kind of research is wonderful.

[TOMAHAWK]

OOH lets all praise McTodd for going over stuff which has been discussed at least 10 times already ..hmm lets see here ...a fictional warship practically no description of it in the book and McTodd has all the answers ...I was shot down by saying it could have been a TBD ...same vintage and armament ..but no that was wrong ...SO NOW WE HAVE crap like the sodding MONITOR ...it could have looked similar to the Monitor ...are you all daft ....well's dosn't mention anything remotley relevent to the monitor ....

let me give you an example:

lets see if you can guess what plane I am thinking of from the following :

British Bomber ww2.........

any takers ....come on surely you must know what type i am thinking of ...come on McTodd if you are so clever


could it be a Lanc, Wellington , Halifax, Stirling Blenheim or even some of the obsolete stuff the Heyford .


See they all fit the description

So McTodd seen as you have got into HG's Head and found out what he was thinking about ref Thinderchild

Try doing that the me then given the info you have

[mctoddridesagain]

Nice timing Tomahawk (or is that $hitehawk?), it only took you six months to catch up with my original post. Well done, really got your finger on the pulse there. BTW, did you actually read it six months ago and it's taken you this long to think up your response? 0/10 for content, minus several million for style. Now maybe you could contribute something constructive instead of just whingeing like the sad rattle-throwing loser you are.

[EvilNerfherder]

There was no need for that Tomahawk.
That was an old thread and people are quite able to make their own minds up and are always welcome to agree or disagree with other's ideas. That's what debate is all about, after all.
It's obvious you don't agree, which is fine in itself, but attacking people for their views in such a confrontational manner is just not on. Constructive that was not.

[jeffwaynefan]

tomahawk said:

OOH lets all praise McTodd for going over stuff which has been discussed at least 10 times already ..hmm lets see here ...a fictional warship practically no description of it in the book and McTodd has all the answers ...I was shot down by saying it could have been a TBD ...same vintage and armament ..but no that was wrong ...SO NOW WE HAVE crap like the sodding MONITOR ...it could have looked similar to the Monitor ...are you all daft ....well's dosn't mention anything remotley relevent to the monitor ....

let me give you an example:

lets see if you can guess what plane I am thinking of from the following :

British Bomber ww2.........

any takers ....come on surely you must know what type i am thinking of ...come on McTodd if you are so clever


could it be a Lanc, Wellington , Halifax, Stirling Blenheim or even some of the obsolete stuff the Heyford .


See they all fit the description

So McTodd seen as you have got into HG's Head and found out what he was thinking about ref Thinderchild

Try doing that the me then given the info you have

Sometimes is best to keep one's opinion to one's self, such as your remark above Tomahawk. I suggest that if you are preparing to fire off another salvo as to the one above, then do it somewhere else.

[TOMAHAWK]

MCTODD get your head out of your ass

me...me get a life - YOUR ARGUING THE TOSS AND GIVING ME LOADS about a fictional bloody event ...you fool ... it's a book ...IT NEVER BLEEDING HAPPENED and here you are treating it as if it is fact .....slagging me off about a piece of fiction

I ain't been on for months and my first post gets slated


listen peeps ... wotw never HAPPENED

The Thunder child wasn't real and as for my childish ranting about martian propulsion .... jeez

McTodd know all the answers then does he about a fictional event ...well woopy bloody do

If I had the FACTs wrong then slate me for it ...But for what it's worth ...The martians had fuel rockets and the Thunderchild was a TBD ....but seen as they never existed I can say what I want.


Unless Mctodd knows different and the Martians did invade in 1897 and it was covered up by the government ........

If this thread is that old then why is it still open and on the board ...isn't anybody allowed to respond to an old thread .


Me get a life..... jeez

[EvilNerfherder]

Tomahawk.
You can reply all you like if you disagree with other people's ideas. But the way you did it was the whole issue. This is NOT about your views of McTodd's ideas or anything else. This is about the way you posted.
One more *personal* reply like that and you will not be allowed to make another.
Please moderate the way you reply to other member's threads.
Debate properly or don't debate at all. It's your choice.

[mctoddridesagain]

tomahawk said:

MCTODD get your head out of your ass

me...me get a life - YOUR ARGUING THE TOSS AND GIVING ME LOADS about a fictional bloody event ...you fool ... it's a book ...IT NEVER BLEEDING HAPPENED and here you are treating it as if it is fact .....slagging me off about a piece of fiction

I ain't been on for months and my first post gets slated


listen peeps ... wotw never HAPPENED

The Thunder child wasn't real and as for my childish ranting about martian propulsion .... jeez

McTodd know all the answers then does he about a fictional event ...well woopy bloody do

If I had the FACTs wrong then slate me for it ...But for what it's worth ...The martians had fuel rockets and the Thunderchild was a TBD ....but seen as they never existed I can say what I want.


Unless Mctodd knows different and the Martians did invade in 1897 and it was covered up by the government ........

If this thread is that old then why is it still open and on the board ...isn't anybody allowed to respond to an old thread .


Me get a life..... jeez

Yawn...

[cthulhu77]

Hello, I've just found this site in doing research for a commissioned project, and find the discussion (aside from the flames as of late) quite helpful !
The resin masters are being cast for the walker, and we are looking at making an aftermarket conversion kit for the Thunderchild...fascinating stuff here !
greg

[EvilNerfherder]

cthulhu77 said:

(aside from the flames as of late)

Yeah, sorry about that.. Heat Ray malfunction... ;D
Glad we were of assistance, Greg. We'd love to hear more about what you are doing, if you feel like sharing.
Welcome to the site, too.

[mctoddridesagain]

Oh I don't know, I found the flaming quite entertaining.

Still, at least someone has found it all useful. Like Nerf, I'm curious about what you're up to, do tell, do tell!

There are some very good warship modelling sites where you can get loads of advice, let me know if you want any help that way.

[Lensman]

Let me jump on the bandwagon: I have a close friend who's very interested in both pre-Dreadnought era battleships and ironclads, as well as being a modeler and having an interest in WotW. I'm sure he'd be quite interested in a conversion kit for the Thunder Child. Altho he and I have had some friendly arguments over whether it's an upgraded Polyphemus type ship (my view), or a more traditional early battleship or armored cruiser like the Ares (his opinion).

[cthulhu77]

Thank you for the interest ! The conversion kit will be for a small scale ship, probably 1/142-1/200, with new turrets and a ram (of course). We've been building ship and sci fi models for quite a while, but this project has really breathed new life into the whole operation...while I loved the book, and listen to the album while driving, I had never put much thought into doing a model of it, until the client ordered...now, it seems to be taking over my life! Dreams of being snatched up by alien tentacles are nothing odd for me now, and my wife is startled to hear me shrieking at 2 a.m.

[Moorkey]

Pardon the late reply to this post,

Jeez H McTodd, you know your stuff!

I had this image when Wells wrote "...in the early 20th century came the great dissilusionment." that he was trying to imagine a futuristic (for the time) situation (such as when modern authors write about hover tanks, unmanned warplanes etc)

I thought maybe Wells knew of the Polyphemus, and decided he liked the idea of a ram, and developed it further in his imagination.

As for my own insight into warships, I have served on all three of Britain's ski-jump carriers (HMS Invincible, HMS Illustrious, and HMS Ark Royal). When docked at Victory jetty in Portsmouth (UK), the flight deck looks down on an old warship in a small drydock behind HMS Victory. I believe it is WW1 era. Though small, I always imagined Thunderchild to resemble this one.

[Commandingtripod]

I see what you are saying Moorkey.

Not that I wish to prove you wrong or anything since I know hardly anything about the Royal Navy - when you mentioned HMS Victory the first thought that came to my mind was Nelson's ship.
Oops - wrong ship.

Do you have a web site that has a picture of this warship?