Ready-Made Martians? Just Add Tentacles!

[Cacique Caribe]

What do you think?





Too crazy an idea?

Here's the description in War of the Worlds:

"They were, I now saw, the most unearthly creatures it is possible to conceive. They were huge round bodies--or, rather, heads--about four feet in diameter, each body having in front of it a face. This face had no nostrils--indeed, the Martians do not seem to have had any sense of smell, but it had a pair of very large dark-coloured eyes, and just beneath this a kind of fleshy beak. In the back of this head or body--I scarcely know how to speak of it--was the single tight tympanic surface, since known to be anatomically an ear, though it must have been almost useless in our dense air.

In a group round the mouth were sixteen slender, almost whiplike tentacles, arranged in two bunches of eight each. These bunches have since been named rather aptly, by that distinguished anatomist, Professor Howes, the HANDS. Even as I saw these Martians for the first time they seemed to be endeavouring to raise themselves on these hands, but of course, with the increased weight of terrestrial conditions, this was impossible. There is reason to suppose that on Mars they may have progressed upon them with some facility.

The internal anatomy, I may remark here, as dissection has since shown, was almost equally simple. The greater part of the structure was the brain, sending enormous nerves to the eyes, ear, and tactile tentacles. Besides this were the bulky lungs, into which the mouth opened, and the heart and its vessels. The pulmonary distress caused by the denser atmosphere and greater gravitational attraction was only too evident in the convulsive movements of the outer skin."

http://wells.thefreelibrary.com/War-Of-The-Worlds/2-2

Here are some artist renditions based on the description:









http://boingboing.net/2015/05/16/alien-drawing-from-1906-editio.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3066374/Original-drawings-depicting-iconic-Martians-HG-Wells-s-sci-fi-masterpiece-War-Worlds-sale-350-000.html

PS.  This guy looks interesting:
http://mctoddanimates.blogspot.com/2013/01/martian-madness-2.html

[Stroezie]

Dang! I just got finished sculpting a whole army of cephalods, I could have saved myself a lot of work if I'd known this. 

All kidding aside, I think it could work although you would still have to put in the work to do the eyes and tentacles.

[Cacique Caribe]

Stroezie,

As for the eyes, I just realized I had bought 2mm and 3mm nailheads a long while back, similar to these:



http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOLOGRAM-Round-Nailheads-BRICK-RED-2mm-Hotfix-1-gross-/121102977094?hash=item1c324cc846:g:hkIAAMXQHDlRfbtW

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROUND-Smooth-Nailheads-3mm-Hot-Fix-RED-144-Pc-1-gross-/380630574883?hash=item589f59a723:g:8pkAAMXQiNdReuIJ

Make sure to order each size a different color when they are just a mm or two different in size, otherwise your eyes will go all loopy.  

PS.  They sell all sizes, shapes and colors.  Some are metallic while others have a thin enamel coating that works as primer.  I've used the 2mm before as rivets.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROUND-Smooth-Nailheads-2mm-Hot-Fix-BLACK-144-PC-1-gross-/381665022771?hash=item58dd021333:g:4pIAAMXQHO9Res2S

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_sop=15&_ssn=papi&item=380227149625&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xnailheads.TRS0&_nkw=nailheads&_sacat=0

[nheastvan]

I have both chick peas and some 2mm half rounds already.  And super glue.  And aluminum wire and epoxy putty.

It's definitely going to be hard not to get distracted from my current project.  

[Malamute]

Have you made any, I woud love to see some photos?

[Cacique Caribe]

I haven't tried the idea yet.  It's all conceptual at this point for me, though it looks like some of you guys might even beat me to it.  

I have to get my hands on some chick peas next trip to the grocery store.

[Malamute]

Show us some pics when you do.

[The_Beast]

Is there any source material on colouration?

Personally, I'd like these just varnished to keep internally dry, but I'd like to know if Wells ever fessed up on the subject.

Doug

[Cacique Caribe]

Doug,

"A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light, it glistened like wet leather."

"There was something fungoid in the oily brown skin"

https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/warworlds/b1c4.html
http://www.shmoop.com/war-of-the-worlds-hg-wells/martians.html
http://waroftheworlds.wikia.com/wiki/Martian

So a varnish would fit in perfectly with Wells' description of the skin.  I imagine they should look glistening like the skin on this guy here.


http://www.deviantart.com/art/MARTIAN-296025107

So add stain/wash, highlights and then seal with varnish?  Or would that be add highlights, stain/wash and then seal with varnish?

I would probably use "spotting" to differentiate castes/rank, much like the different spot patterns on the heads of the Tenctonese newcomers in "Alien Nation".

Dan
PS.  Do you have any cool/silly names picked out, like Lord/"Gar" Banzo?

[The_Beast]

Better than the alternative, which sounds a bit like a stand up.

"And, now on the stage, the comedic renderings of 'Chick Peas!'" 

Doug

[Cacique Caribe]

Lol.  Just don't paint the eyes black! 

[DoctorPete]

Sorry but all my chick peas go into salads.  I would likely eat one, glue eyes to another, eat one, add tentacles to the next one, eat one...you get the idea. But, I gotta tell you, they DO look like excellent candidates for martians.   

[Cacique Caribe]

Doc,

Wow.  That's a survival rate of 50%!  

[nheastvan]

16 tentacles seems like a lot.  I wonder how many I need to give the impression of lots of tentacles.

[The_Beast]

Do you play with orcs?

'One, two, many...' 

Doug