Post by keltiksylk on Apr 25, 2005 14:27:36 GMT
There are some great visualizations on the Martian fighting machines here so I thought I would try to draw my own. To do this I'm going through the book trying to pick up all the "clues" on the appearence of the fighting machines...
A shield or plate with tripod legs. This plate originally moves out of the sand pit on tentacles and then rises up on legs. The legs are 100 feet high and have "knees" and feet. They are apparently telescopic or collapsible in some fashion. They can be folded up somehow so the plate can be lowered to the ground again, as in the pit at the collapsed house.
Above the shield is a mass of machinery. There is a "hood" where the Martian sits. This hood resembles the hood of a cloak in some fashion and can rotate 360 degrees. The hood may or may not have a "face" or front. While it makes sense that it would be enclosed, there are certain passages that seem to indicate it was open to the air.
Each fighting machine has an extendable arm for the heat ray. While I first assumed the heat ray was similar to the spinning hyperbolic disc seen at the pit at Horsell Common, there is a distinct mention of a funnel at the front.
There are a number of tentacles, probably as many as the Martians themselves, giving that "gorgon" appearence.
Some folks here have mentioned the steam jets and the tubes for black smoke. I didn't get the feeling they were part of the machine, but are rather accessories carried in the tentacles. The text decribes how the black smoke is fired from a tube that the machines carry. The steam jets seem to be from a hose, perhaps from a boiler carried in the cage at the rear of the hood, like a garden sprayer with the tank carried on a persons back. That cage, while used for holding human prey, may be multi-purpose and used for hauling in general, like a pick-up truck.
The entire machine is very metallic and shiny, but animated in a way that seems organic. At first I thought the tripod spun somehow, because of the reference to the milking stool. I think this appearence was caused by the strobe like effect of the lightening and is not necessarily the actual movement. I think the machines would actually walk in some way similar to any biped.
I've tried sketching these components, but I'm afraid my imagination isn't good enough.
I'm not even gonna try to imagine the handling machines
A shield or plate with tripod legs. This plate originally moves out of the sand pit on tentacles and then rises up on legs. The legs are 100 feet high and have "knees" and feet. They are apparently telescopic or collapsible in some fashion. They can be folded up somehow so the plate can be lowered to the ground again, as in the pit at the collapsed house.
Above the shield is a mass of machinery. There is a "hood" where the Martian sits. This hood resembles the hood of a cloak in some fashion and can rotate 360 degrees. The hood may or may not have a "face" or front. While it makes sense that it would be enclosed, there are certain passages that seem to indicate it was open to the air.
Each fighting machine has an extendable arm for the heat ray. While I first assumed the heat ray was similar to the spinning hyperbolic disc seen at the pit at Horsell Common, there is a distinct mention of a funnel at the front.
There are a number of tentacles, probably as many as the Martians themselves, giving that "gorgon" appearence.
Some folks here have mentioned the steam jets and the tubes for black smoke. I didn't get the feeling they were part of the machine, but are rather accessories carried in the tentacles. The text decribes how the black smoke is fired from a tube that the machines carry. The steam jets seem to be from a hose, perhaps from a boiler carried in the cage at the rear of the hood, like a garden sprayer with the tank carried on a persons back. That cage, while used for holding human prey, may be multi-purpose and used for hauling in general, like a pick-up truck.
The entire machine is very metallic and shiny, but animated in a way that seems organic. At first I thought the tripod spun somehow, because of the reference to the milking stool. I think this appearence was caused by the strobe like effect of the lightening and is not necessarily the actual movement. I think the machines would actually walk in some way similar to any biped.
I've tried sketching these components, but I'm afraid my imagination isn't good enough.
I'm not even gonna try to imagine the handling machines
