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Post by Topaz on Feb 12, 2005 20:37:20 GMT
Seems like people generally like the version of the FM's to which they were first exposed. For instance, I was first exposed to the Alvim Correa illustrations and thus have always liked the 'tall tripod' design (legs tucked underneath like a camera tripod), even though I've drifted away from some of the details of the Correa concept.
So what's your idea of a Fighting Machine?
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Post by ArmoredTrackLayer on Feb 12, 2005 20:42:16 GMT
I never saw a picture before I read the book. So basically I just imagined a screw (At this time I thought the top of the cylinder was the FM) With tree legs a basket and a hood. I'd have to draw it to explain it better.
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Post by malfunkshun on Feb 12, 2005 21:54:03 GMT
pretty much the way they are depicted in the PP trailer, from what we've seen. it seems to me, based on just seeing the legs, that the PP tripods are closer in design to the Dean tripods than any other popular style, and Dean has always been my favorite design. btw, you left Dean out of your poll list
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Post by Topaz on Feb 12, 2005 22:16:01 GMT
Ahhhh, yeah. I did. Sorry about that. Really strange, considering my current 'reading' copy of the book has the Dean tripods on the cover. Doh!
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Post by BrutalDeluxe on Feb 13, 2005 23:13:55 GMT
I am busy designing a 3D model of my impression of the FMs drawn from what is written in the book, however when I am reading the book or having one of those weird WOTW dreams it is always the Jeff Wayne FM. That illustration of it towering over the buildings and heat-raying one of them always spooked me.
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Post by Gerkinman on Feb 13, 2005 23:48:41 GMT
i like jeff Waynes, they look like bugs, and bugs are cool and often dont look like they should be from earth...
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Feb 14, 2005 12:57:09 GMT
I visualise them in the same manner that Well's does in in his book - after that's the original starting point.
H_C
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Post by Thorgrimm on Feb 14, 2005 16:37:31 GMT
To be quite honest, the best i have seen so far is the ones in the 2nd Graphic Novel for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Cheers Thorgrimm
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Post by Topaz on Feb 14, 2005 17:06:53 GMT
I do like those myself. ;D
The "In the Storm" scene is killer! ;D
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Post by Thorgrimm on Feb 14, 2005 17:11:38 GMT
I do like those myself. ;D The "In the Storm" scene is killer! ;D Yes it is. I also liked the way the Martians looked themselves. So in my opinion, i think the League graphic novel is the most accurate protrayal of the Martians and their Fighting Machines made so far. But then again that is only my opinion. ;D Cheers Thorgrimm
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Post by Topaz on Feb 14, 2005 17:20:04 GMT
Actually, I have to go with you on that. The Martians were pretty much out of the book, and so were the machines.
Makes me wish for more from that artist! ;D
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Post by ArmoredTrackLayer on Feb 14, 2005 18:59:50 GMT
indeed, the writer who wrote LXG (his name eludes me at the moment) did his homework, and he said that he is a HUGE HG Wells fan.
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Post by Thorgrimm on Feb 15, 2005 2:49:25 GMT
indeed, the writer who wrote LXG (his name eludes me at the moment) did his homework, and he said that he is a HUGE HG Wells fan. ATL, the artists they got to do that Graphic Novel must have been a huge Wells fan also. As those FM's were right out of my bad dreams. ;D Cheers Thorgrimm
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Post by Bayne on Feb 18, 2005 20:20:31 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]I like the Tom Kidd Illustrations so I visualise the machines a bit like that.. but no-one has done 100% accurate to the book pics for me yet (though a heck of a lot are close)
I liked the LXG tripods too.. especially as they incorporate aspects of other incarnations of wotw into the design process. [/glow]
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Post by Leatherhead on Mar 4, 2005 16:11:20 GMT
Something that most versions I've seen have left out one minor detail, no matter how accurate the rest of it. The legs are almost never right. The legs are able to completely retract are they not? They do this in the book at least once. In order to do this the legs would have to be segmented with unlockable knees and ankles correct? Unfortunatley, whenever I've seen a proper rendering of the legs, the rest of the machine is wrong. LOL.
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Post by krys666 on Mar 4, 2005 16:46:19 GMT
Jeff Wayne's because that's the first one I saw, it's stuck with me, even though it has certain details that people say are incorrect to the original book. They are right but I still love the design!
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Post by Lensman on Mar 5, 2005 3:02:43 GMT
Something that most versions I've seen have left out one minor detail, no matter how accurate the rest of it. The legs are almost never right. The legs are able to completely retract are they not? The main body of the Tripod can be lowered to the ground, so the Martian can enter or exit. I don't know that Wells specified the legs telescoping, or folding up, or what. That survey at the beginning of this thread is awfully restrictive. Yes I like the Correa drawings, they're very moody, but not necessarily my favorite. The LXG design is just wrong; it doesn't have a metallic appearance, nor does it have a hood/cowl which can swing from side to side. I remember being impressed by the design shown in the "Great Books: War of the Worlds" documentary, but haven't seen it lately and don't remember how authentic it is.
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Post by McTodd on Mar 5, 2005 13:59:37 GMT
Wells wasn't terribly specific about how the machines looked, and even seems to contradict himself on occasion.
For example, there are two or three instances early on as the fighting starts when the Martians are mentioned as 'crawling across the Common behind a shield' that 'looks like a dish cover', which later staggered up on three legs to become the first Fighting Machine. Now, that conjures up a fairly specific image in my mind, which is later somewhat contradicted as the Narrator describes the Martian machine in the storm as looking like a great body of machinery on legs; and even later there are other eyewitness acounts of 'boilers on stilts', which suggests something more compact than a dish-cover-like shield.
Then you have the strong suggestion that the legs completely fold up or retract in some way (as when the shield staggers to its feet) which the machines in hardly any artist's impression can do.
All in all, the descriptions are so vague that virtually any impression is valid - all we know are that they have three legs, are a hundred feet high, have tentacles and (possibly) arms (though that could be another way of describing the tentacles - after all, the two longer tentacles of a squid are commonly described as 'arms'), carry a basket, have a hooded or cowled cab or cockpit, and carry the Heat Ray and Black Smoke cannon loosely as if side-arms.
We don't know which way the legs bend, or how many tentacles/arms there are, what shape anything is (apart form the shield like a dish cover), whether they have one leg at the front and two trailing (or vice versa); there is a clue as to how they walk as when the Narrator describes a machine which planted a foot near him, then raised two in the air with its next stride, but that can be interpreted in various ways.
All in all, terribly vague - Wells was writing a novel, after all, not a technical manual.
I don't think anyone can design a completely faithful, 'right' machine, as Wells was too vague (and contradictory) although, of course, some designs seem to be more 'wrong' than others - for example, to pick one of the best-known, I think the Michael Trim versions for Jeff Wayne are way off (where's the hooded cab? The tentacles/arms holding the Heat Ray camera and Black Smoke cannon? And the widely splayed legs don't allow of the kind of fluid motion when walking that Wells describes).
However, I for one am happy with such vagueness, as there wouldn't have been so many interesting depictions by artists over the years had Wells been more precise.
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Post by Lensman on Mar 6, 2005 8:06:05 GMT
Yes, the various descriptions are contradictory and vague. And I think Wells did that very deliberately. That's exactly what would happen if someone was trying to describe something so alien, so far removed from his experience, that he couldn't really compare it to anything.
Like the Amerinds (American "Indians") describing Europeans' ships as giant birds with great white wings.
Most of the depictions I've seen are wrong. Most leave off the rear basket, or show the legs as flexible, or omit the swiveling cowl/hood, or some combination thereof. And some look far too much like something we Earthmen would build. (Noteably, the Frank R. Paul magazine cover design.) The tripods should look alien. Correa did a great job of that, even if he did give them honkin' huge "eyes".
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Post by McTodd on Mar 6, 2005 8:30:10 GMT
Good points Lensman, very good points. Among the best (well, they're certainly my favourite) are Peter Fussey's (the 'Black Smoke' painting is much older, with an earlier design): www.calibra.eclipse.co.uk/eve/fusseygallery.htmNot only are the designs brilliant, but the paintings are absolutely superb. Very different, but I love it too, is Meinert Hansen's (the matte painting is on Dr Zeus's site, but there are some fascinating pre-visualisation sketches too): www.fictionscience.com/personalWork.htmlAnd you can see the model completely unadorned here: www.fictionscience.com/images/props_03-1.jpgOf course, there are loads of others (the Dean brothers' designs deserve special mention). I shall be having a go at building my own models in a few weeks' time, so you'll get a chance to see what I think the Martian machines look like then!
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