Landships II

Mark Hansen · Legend

H. G. Wells' Landship

Roger Todd · Legend

Before anyone else says it, yes, it's been posted before but thanks for posting it anyway, Mark, as it's always good to be reminded of great stuff (and newer members may have missed the old post, which is now lost in the mists of time, wooo oooo oooo ooooooo...)!

Ralph Currell's card models are amazing, the land ironclad looks great, and his airships are fantastic (though I squashed mine in a house move, bah... ).

Mark Hansen · Legend

Oooops, sorry about that. Must remember to check earlier posts before posting in future!!

Roger Todd · Legend

I wouldn't worry about it, Mark, so many new threads start here all the time no-one can possibly keep track of everything!

Anyway, have you built one yet? If so, can you post any photos?

Mark Hansen · Legend

I haven't built one yet but stay tuned....... I'll make it my kit-in-a-weekend project and post photos ASAP.

Mark Hansen · Legend

Make that several weekends! I didn't realise how fiddly the pedrails would be.

Centurion · Legend

A fascinating example of Edwardian science fiction. I've down loaded one myself. However it doesn't match Well's description! The key departure is in the nature of the riflemens positions described by Wells thus "The riflemen each occupied a small cabin of peculiar construction and these cabins were slung along the sides of and before and behind the great main framework, in a manner suggestive of the slinging of the seats of an Irish jaunting car." Now in my childhood I've ridden in an Irish jaunting car (no I'm not that old but did spend part of my early childhood in a very rural and extremely backward part of Ireland). The peculiar feature of one of these vehicles is that the passengers face outwards on each side of the car on seats that go over and hand down outside the wheels. In effect what Wells is describing is a series of gondolas (or sponsons) down the out side of the vehicle and not a narrow central firing gallery as on the model.

I attach a picture of a jaunting car (well before my time) as you can see the passengers sit over the wheels with their legs and foot rests down outside these

Roger Todd · Legend

Interesting point, though the main problem is that Wells contradicts himself to an extent. On the one hand, he does imply that the cabins are rather like sponsons, presumably them selves armoured, so that the sides of the machine above, and inside of, the wheels should show a series of such sponsons, a little like the casemates along the side of a battleship. However, he also writes:

'He looked again at the land ironclad ...its vertical side was ten feet high or so, smooth for that height, and then with a complex patterning under the eaves of its flattish turtle cover. This patterning was a close interlacing of portholes, rifle barrels, and telescope tubes - sham and real - indistinguishable one from the other.'

A vertical side ten feet or so high and smooth for that height (presumably the thick armour skirt), then with a complex patterning of rifle holes under the cover... Now, if he'd written that it was smooth for ten or so feet, then had a series of casemates with a complex patterning of etc. on them, that would have fitted better with the other quote. As it is, Ralph Currell's model fits the second quote better than your quote, whereas this quote...

'You must conceive these cabins as hung clear above the swing of the axles, and inside the big wheels upon which the great elephant-like feet were hung, and behind these cabins along the center of the monster ran a central gallery into which they opened, and along which worked the big compact engines. It was like a long passage into which this throbbing machinery had been packed.'

...sort of fits mid-way!

Centurion · Legend

Roger Todd wrote:

Interesting point, though the main problem is that Wells contradicts himself to an extent. On the one hand, he does imply that the cabins are rather like sponsons, presumably them selves armoured, so that the sides of the machine above, and inside of, the wheels should show a series of such sponsons, a little like the casemates along the side of a battleship. However, he also writes: 'He looked again at the land ironclad ...its vertical side was ten feet high or so, smooth for that height, and then with a complex patterning under the eaves of its flattish turtle cover. This patterning was a close interlacing of portholes, rifle barrels, and telescope tubes - sham and real - indistinguishable one from the other.' A vertical side ten feet or so high and smooth for that height (presumably the thick armour skirt), then with a complex patterning of rifle holes under the cover... Now, if he'd written that it was smooth for ten or so feet, then had a series of casemates with a complex patterning of etc. on them, that would have fitted better with the other quote. As it is, Ralph Currell's model fits the second quote better than your quote, whereas this quote... 'You must conceive these cabins as hung clear above the swing of the axles, and inside the big wheels upon which the great elephant-like feet were hung, and behind these cabins along the center of the monster ran a central gallery into which they opened, and along which worked the big compact engines. It was like a long passage into which this throbbing machinery had been packed.' ...sort of fits mid-way!

Old Herbert wasn't always that precise I know. I thought that the following I knocked up today might match most of the requirements and be closer to the original illustrations in the Strand Magazine.

Roger Todd · Legend

Centurion wrote:

Old Herbert wasn't always that precise I know.

I know, I had the same problem with his Martian machines from The War of the Worlds, trying to envisage something that fits all his descriptions is a pain! I remarked on a WOTW forum, when people were getting very picky and heated, that at the end of the day, old Herb was writing a story, not an engineering manual!

I like your image a lot - I've always had a soft spot for the Strand illustrations, so it's nice to see you tip them a nod. How about making the sponsons a bit higher up, behind the armour skirts and perhaps with their lower edges slightly covered by the upper edge of the skirt? That way you'd get the sponsons sort of behind, but above, the wheels.

Roger Todd · Legend

I've attached an appalling sketch I did during lunch to show roughly what I mean - it's simply to show the layout in cross-section. Basically, I think your drawing is great, with the one little change I suggested maybe making it a bit more accurate (insofar as you can be accurate with Wells's slightly contradictory statements muddying the waters!), which is simply to raise the casemates/sponsons, and put them inboard of the armour skirt.