Hi guys, wonder if you can help me out here, I'm planning a collection of 1/35th scale weapons as close as possible to the Tanks, AFV's trucks and weapons from the movie War of the Worlds George Pal 1953. The scene in the film saw The US army take up positions around the martian landing to try and contain the alien invasion, very close to the original HG Wells Novel of the same name. We all know it well, but what U.S. Equipment was used and what kits are there in 1/35th scale.The General in the movie said "we've got some of our latest weapons in here"... right before the Pastor get's killed by the heat ray. I'm not interested in a diorama, just a collection, and I'm not doing the alien stuff.

Based on this scene, they were M4A3E8 Sherman tanks, M2A1 105mm howitzers w/CCKW 352 2/12 ton prime movers, M3 Halftracks w/Calliope rocket launchers, Willys MB jeeps ,and various small arms such as M1919A4 30cal MGs, 82mm mortar, etc..

For kits, there are quite a few of the Shermans. Tamiya's newest one is pretty good.



They would most likely have the later T80 steel chevron or T84 rubber chevron tracks though.

The M2A1 is available from AFV Club.


The CCKW 352 is available from Hobby Boss.


Dragon and Tamiya both do the halftrack. Both have goods and bads, it depends on who you talk to which is better.




Neither comes with the Calliope rocket launcher though. There are AM Calliopes available that you would have to add to it.

For the Willys MB, Tamiya's newer one is best.

As for the Calliope Launcher there is a Sherman Tank with it from Italeri:

http://www.italeri.com/scheda.asp?idProdotto=2301&idCategoria=3&idSottocategoria=21

Cheers
Thomas

Hi:

They're actually M4A1E8 Shermans in the film. There's no commercially available kit for this version, but it's not too hard a conversion. You could take the Tamiya kit that Rob mentioned and basically swap out the hull with a large-hatch cast hull (from Italeri, Dragon, or even potentially the Tamiya M51 Sherman).

Cheers,

Scott

P.S. It's not armour, but don't forget the Northrop Flying Wing!

That's quite a scene! Not vehicles, but weapons shown include .30 cals, mortars and bazookas. And I'm sure those are not the official names!

Go to www.imcdb.org and look up War of the Worlds.

I dropped it into the search function and got this:

http://www.imcdb.org/movie_46534-The-War-of-the-Worlds.html

Gino's memory fails him about the M3 HT fitted with calliope rockets, hahaha. In reality, the movie used an M2 Halftrack fitted with obviously fake rocket launcher tubes. Four pictures here: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_58683-White-M2-Halftrack.html

the imcdb site is great for some other heinous mock ups too -- you can spend hours in there looking at movie/TV AFVs and AFV mock ups. Great stuff

The serial number of one M4A1E8 is readable and is for a US Army vehicle. Probably from the California National Guard. The bumper codes in most screen captures remain unreadable. It could be the 40th Infantry Division whose armor appeared in other Hollywood productions.

TMD also does an excellant resin upper hull set for the wet stowage cast hull if you don't want to buy an entire kit for the part, though it might be a bit too exensive for him in the UK right now.

oooh hoo, a little Brexit dig there Tim, lets avoid politics shall we, LOL, as for the Halftrack it's got to be the Dragon M3A1 as the M3A2 didn't go beyond the prototype stage and was never mass produced, Don't know where Tamiya did their research back then, but that kit is a white Elephant.

and while we're on sci fi, C3PO had one silver, lower leg.

@windsheer -- as noted in the www.imcdb.org pages, the halftrack was NOT an M3 or M3A1 but instead, an M2 halftrack. Thankfully, available from DML

yes good point, but I was talking about the M3A2 being Tamiya's bit 70's mistake.

How is an acknowledgement that the US-UK exchange rate has recently gone unfavorably against the UK a political comment? It's a fact, isn't it, and he made no mention of why. I don't even see how it would be a humorous reference to Brexit.

KL

just a little light humour there, that's all, don't take my comment too seriously.

For the Willys MB, Tamiya's newer one is best.
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Gino I've made that Tamiya jeep, you're right it's a peach.

Oh well, I was close on the Sherman and halftrack. The clip I watched wasn't that clear.




Yup, I have built quite a few of the Tamiya (and other) jeeps. Tamiya's is definitely the best of the bunch.

You could also get the Pegasus Hobbies 1/48th scale Marian War Machine and then do a 1/48th scale M4A3E8 type Sherman and some 1/48th soldiers to go with it.

I know there was someone here working on the Sherman tank from the 1953 movie a while back.

I can't remember the scene and unfortunately, I don't have the movie, but I recall a 3" Antitank gun.

Steve