War of the worlds 'Thunderchild' Diorama- What ship? (Uuuulah!!!)

[Sgt Apome]

Finally looking to commit to a project that I've been considering for some time- Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds' diorama and the ship 'thunderchild'- featured on the album cover under attack by a wading tripod fighting machine.

Its been done before- a search of the net points to 'Aurora cruiser 1917 battleship model' as the kit of choice- but a google search reveals nothing and certainly no kit available. Anyone have an idea of the closest ship model I could get away with?- the scale of the martian tripod is 1/100 13" Tall (Frontier models). I'm no scratchbuilder I'm afraid- so adding extra funnels, bow changes, etc is going to be beyond my ability- needs to be readily available in Kit form.

For anyone's who's double album is gathering dust in the loft here's the cover illustration with the best pic of the ironclad, 'Thunderchild'.

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[Sky Raider]

Apparantly this is the Thunderchild, see if you can match it close and do some modification, would be a great build.

Andy

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[AlanG]

God i love this album. In fact it is the first ever cd i bought. Can even still remember buying it in Oxford and listening to it whilst driving back to RAF Brize Norton lol

 

[msm2]

Have two copies (Vinyl) in my collection somewhere. Once made the paper model version many moons ago.

Tony..

 

[kellysands]

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I've just been Googling.......but I'm paying attention now. Brilliant album, and one of my favourite books too. It seems the Thunderchild was probably a canopus class vessel (pictured). If that helps find a model, good luck. Marcle models have loads of paper kits of ships etc., I'll take a look there too, it would be great to see this scene come to life.

EDIT: Forgot to say, the ship above is HMS Ocean!

EDIT 2: Oh, and try Home but be prepared to be distracted by amazing things!

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[RickF]

In the book, the Thunder Child (two words) is described variously as an ironclad, ram and torpedo ram, with twin funnels (Chapter 17 if you are interested). It is also described as lying low in the water. Perhaps Wells had HMS Polyphemus in mind?

Rick

 

[djbozz]

I have found this but it is 1/700 scale.

HMS Ocean Battleship 1900-COMBRIG plastic scale ship model kit in 1:700 scale (combrig 70446)//Scale-Model-Kits.com

 

[kellysands]

I love the internet. One modeller posts a question and hey presto, answers!

Thunderchild - HMS Majestic or Polyphemus - Zealot Hobby Forum

Loads of potential info.

 

[Sgt Apome]

Mmm, thanks again for all your input. Followed up on all your links and it looks like its a 'torpedo ram' ( as Rick suggested) - a far smaller warship, with a lower profile. The Royal Navy had only one- 'Polyphemus'- and alas no one has thought to immortalise it in plastic, bugger!. From what I can gather the album illustration varies from Wells source material- the book describing Thunder Child as a 'leviathan' and more akin to a dreadnought, while the album artwork certainly pictures a smaller early 1900's vessel. I wanted to stay to the 'Jeff Wayne' interpretation (the tripod I have is modelled on this version) so a twin funnelled, 1900's WWI, 'off the shelf plastic kit' would be the best choice. Any ideas?.

Regarding card/paper ships I've never had a go at these- are they difficult to build/paint?.

 

[RickF]

If you are going to build the Thunder Child at the same scale (1:100) as the Tripod, you are going to have a BIG ship. A cruiser of the period - someone mentioned the Aurora, but RN first- and second-class cruisers are similar, if a little shorter - would be about 350 feet long. That's 3 foot 6 at 1:100. Polyphemus would be 2 foot 6, and Majestic just over 4 foot. You could probably get away with a slightly smaller scale - the album illustration certainly looks as though the tripos is higher than the length of the ship.

Rick