Minifigs Great War of the Worlds.......the 1st Martian finished...........

Fritz Haber, one of the few remaining survivors of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin, had had the chance to examine and dissect a barely living specimen of the Martian foot soldiery. Their biology was unlike anything found on earth.....the metal-like armour was organic in origin and defied analysis by any known method. The only conclusion he came to was the fact the the armour had a symbiotic relationship with it's owner - once removed, with considerable difficulty, the bio metal solidified and became inert. When reintroduced to the same specimen the armour fused once again and repair work was almost instantaneous. The substance was then warm and soft to the touch unless force was applied in which case it solidified to an incredible degree. Away in a conference with the Kaiser, Haber was not witness to the resurrection of the alien body and the subsequent destruction of his beloved institute. Kaiser Wilhelm immediately called for the funding of a new institute deep in the Hartz Mountains - subterranean tunnels were dug and lavishly equipped with everything Haber dreamed up and asked for. Pieces of Martian armour from the few casualties they could inflict were introduced to human subjects - 1 in 300 survived the experience and the results were astounding. Psychotic criminals alone seemed able to withstand the melding of worlds and they proved almost impossible to hold back. At last we had a starting point....

MART61 Martian Standing with early pattern Stun Rifle

More at the Miniature Figurines site here.

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Great War of the Worlds ........... weapons update and background....

Following the initial invasion, the eminent Serbian scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla was invited to speak in the English Parliament. His words have been lost due to the destruction that followed however a little of the speech and circumstances survived the aftermath in the form of charred notes from the parliamentary secretary....

'I have seen the creatures in the flesh and believe they are organic the same as man. The machines we have now called Tripods are organic - an amalgamation of metals that defy the periodic table and flesh. I believe they are powered by the intake of oxygen and the breaking of the bonds that hold this element  together. I further suppose that I can replicate their technology within months......'

The rest of the speech was lost. The ramblings of the few survivors state that the prime minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, then moved forward and, placing a gun to the young Tesla's head, shot him dead. The prime minister then started shaking and collapsed....his body apparently liquified before the horrified onlookers. Two descriptions of the events that followed have enough similarities to allow belief. From the melting protoplasmic mess that slowly moved across the floor, 2 tentacles rose...one description states there was a breaking of the floor underneath so there is a possibility that this was, as so many of the Martian invasion tactics, a pre planted seed. The tentacles grew to a size unbelievable to those unlucky enough to be in the chamber...slowly they sprouted multiple offshoots and methodically took apart the human figures within. The 2 surviving recollections are full of the horror of broken minds. The first the outside world knew of this incident was when the Houses of Parliament imploded.....that bastion of Empire was no more and the then British Government had been fragmented.

After the assassination of Tesla there came a point where the Martian forces almost overran the human coalition. Britain had not been alone in the piecemeal taking apart of authority. The unpopular introduction of penal battalions allowed a breathing space....the prison populations of Europe were thrown in front of massed alien hordes armed with whatever was available....they faced death from all sides - retreat was not feasible.....the hastily imported Russian Commissar Death units saw to that. Retreat was certain death. Following the belated Russian Revolution that had almost caused the downfall of the country, governments, or what was left of them, around the world adopted many of the new communist principles. A very young Edward Mosely who had been holidaying in Greece at the time of the destruction of parliament rose to a form of power when he created his fascist 'Blackshirt' battalion. Society realised it had little to choose from at this time.....Emily Pankhurst created the first women's battalions. Many more followed. All sections of society pulled together, those that didn't were pulled. The Styal 427 Boys Workhouse Battalion had their names written in the history books when they came across a downed tripod.....to this day no-one understands why it was lying there in the mud...lifeless and dormant. The renowned scientists of the time, Thomas Edison and Philo Farnsworth, headed the deconstruction programme of this Martian technology. The first output from the vast underground factories was the Edison-Farnsworth Disintegration Ray...famously unwieldy and prone to self destruction it was, however, the first weapon able to take out the Martian tripods and to start allowing mankind the ability to fight on a more even playing field......

GWW53 Martian Hunter with Edison-Farnsworth Disintegration Ray

as always; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Great War of the Worlds..Minifigs style...updates

Dave at Caliver has sneaked some more excellent releases into the Martian SF range......these are well sculpted pieces that, to me, have a myriad of uses...I can actually see some of the Martians entering service as a fantasy pirate warband......more purchases on the way! This Martian wave is more human like than the 80's Valley of the Four Winds Swamp Lords so those early figures would be the cannon fodder sent in early to absorb the hits. Maybe some lobotomised human infantry would be a good idea.....semi naked troops controlled by a transmitter attached to the cerebral cortex......

MART50 Martian Heatgunner

MART61 Martian Standing with early pattern Stun Rifle 

MART62 Martian Advancing with Earth-pattern Stun Rifle

MART63 Martian Firing late Earth-pattern Stun Rifle 

GWW1 British Pankhurst Battalion Officer

and the painted version off Minifigs site....

GWW2 British Pankhurst Battalion Infantrywoman Advancing

just the painted version so far....

GWW3 British Pankhurst Battalion Standard Bearer with cast flag

GWW4 British Pankhurst Battalion Infantrywoman Firing

GWW50 Martian Hunter Officer

GWW51 Martian Hunter Firing (I've actually cut the bayonets off these 2 since these pics were taken)

GWW Martian Hunter Advancing

GWWM1 Martian Drone..finally pinned and based.....

The range is all available here...

Miniature Figurines Great War of the Worlds

tell them I sent you :)

I have also pulled out a few old unfinished Vikings..as can be seen they have been gathering dust for a while......Foundry and Citadel sculpts.....size variation is never an issue for me as people are different sizes in the real world....

once completed to go with the rest of the guys..

Any comments or trades - enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Great War of the Worlds..Minifigs style...

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own” 

H G Wells published his work 'War of the Worlds' in 1898...a time of great colonial powers already ensconced around the globe, some on the rise and some on the wane... Minifigs have taken the idea and had Gary Morley and Andrew Ellis sculpt the beginnings of what, hopefully, will become a sizeable range allowing us to re-enact scenes similar to those conjured up by Mr Wells... the sculpts are based on the earlier Valley of the Four Winds Swamp Lords who were obviously the initial wave planted years before where the Martian advanced science and technology have never arrived...

MART1 Greater Martian Warlord

MART2 Greater Martian Close Combat Warriors (3 versions)

Group shot...supplied as MART3

MART50 Martian Heatgunner

GWW1 British Pankhurst Battalion Officer

GWW2 British Pankhurst Battalion Infantrywoman Advancing

GWW3 British Pankhurst Battalion Standard Bearer with cast flag

GWW4 British Pankhurst Battalion Infantrywoman advancing

GWW50 Martian Hunter Officer

GWW51 Martian Hunter Firing

GWW Martian Hunter Advancing

Awaiting copies of these guys...

GWW53 Martian Hunter with Edison-Farnsworth Disintegration Ray on Tripod

GWWM1 Martian Drone

Group Shot with an unsuspecting Artizan Designs waiter... shows how huge these guys are....

 Shot including one of the old VFW Swamp Lords... 5 of which have been re-released by Minifigs here. 

The range is in the Minifigs shop here. If you do mozey on over to the site and get involved, please let them know where you got the message and point out that we need the rest of the Swamp Lords released... nb Dave has told me that he doesn't have all the molds although seems to have the masters, all of which have been chromed to protect them from oxidisation etc  - apparently Neville Dickinson was paranoid about this as the Ral Partha masters had started to suffer... also, the sales from releasing the VFW do not currently justify making up more molds. Buy some and that could change!

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Great War of the Worlds meets Valley of the Four Winds - Minifigs style.....

Back in 1980 Games Workshop released a boxed game; Valley of the Four Winds.

 'An Epic Game of Sword & Sorcery', the background had been featured in White Dwarf magazine from issue 8 onwards......Miniature Figurines Ltd released a mind blowing array of Boschesque sculpts. They had suddenly moved away from a more staid wargaming style of sculpting into the forefront of fantasy. Some of my own favorites have always been the Swamp Lords - I even managed to half paint a set all those years back.....Minifigs are slowly re-releasing pieces from the range including a few of the Swamp Lords. They have a few other older ranges to pick from here.  Dave at Caliver Books who owns Minifigs now, has commissioned new sculpts in the same style for their new Great War of the Worlds range. 

These top 2 pics are directly off the Minifigs site, purely to lead you in.........

The rest of the Swamp Lords are below - excuse my unfinished 35 year old 

paint jobs......

  

As always contact me on enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk regarding trades and such like....