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Joel Tavera's War Machine
Joel's Warmachine
Joel's War Machine
Joel's War Machine
Joel's War Machine
The Priest approaches
The Priest
Joel's diagram

The photo above shows a 3/4 view of the model. To the left is a profile of the model. These pics are of the SFMA ( Science Fiction Model Associates) Martian War Machine kit. This model is not like the resin Skyhook kit, but is a vacuformed plastic kit. It has a 9 inch wing span and is very light weight. Assembly is a very simple -- top and bottom half for the main body, top and bottom half for the heat ray sensor and left and right halves for the cobra neck.

This pic shows the close up of the cobra eye and the under belly. See the color of the main lens and the cobra eye. I  used Testors copper from a can for the main body. Then masked off the lit areas and spray painted from the can Flourescent Green paint. I used Flourescent Red from the bottle to hightlight the Cobra Eye.

Hhere is a close up view of the rigid wire support that suspends the model. I camoflagued the wire to look like the  cable of the electronic eye.

Since SFMA is not producing these cools models anymore, I would suggest that anyone who wants a small model of the MWM like this, gets the SkyHook version. It isn't identical but it is very, very close and a cool model just the same.

This shot features a 1/72 scale figure from the Aurora 'Invaders" kit. It depicts a priest with bible in hand confronting  the electronic eye of the martians. I fashioned the electronic eye from a 1/32 Tamiya motorcycle headlight. I put a cowl on the head light and a top fin from sheet plastic.

Here is a close up of the priest as he walks toward the electronic eye in the mist. The base is a small wooden table top with railroad scenery foliage and grass to give it dimension and visual excitment.

The electronic eye (suspension) cable was made of two pieces of rigid wire. Each end was inbedded into the base with  epoxy and filled with putty to make it look like one continuous lenght. Here is an illustration of how I supported the Martian War Machine on both the Lunar 16 inch version and the SFMA version.

Joel Tavera created this beauty.

©1997-2006 Stephen J. Iverson. Other material copyright of original owner. No material (images or text) may be reproduced without permission of Stephen Iverson and original copyright owner. Additional copyright and legal information

gortlunarp

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