As luck would have it, I found an old Campbell's HO scale model of a farmhouse that was perfect. It had very nice detail (it being a craftsman level kit) and it would be the most time consuming of the components of the diorama construction. Unfortunately, I had to stop with the farmhouse construction simply because it just wasn't coming together in the way that I had hoped after many hours of construction. This kit was easily the most difficult of any I have ever built, so it was something of a disappointment for my ego to quit.

     Luckily, I found a used Bachmann plastic farmhouse on eBay that filled the bill for about a quarter of what I had spent on the Campbell kit. The kit arrived quickly and I set about breaking it down to make painting window frames and the like much easier. Fortunately the original owner was stingy with the glue so the disassembly was pretty easy. I used some of the Campbell kit for destroyed sections of the house.

This is the scene I wanted to model just as the cylinder smashes into the farmhouse.

     Next would be to fashion a Martian cylinder in some way. I ended up using Styrofoam blocks with I whittled and ground down into a roughly lozenge shape. Once I was happy with the way the cylinder looked, I gave it a coating of Mod Podge to seal it because I intended on using spray paint for a rattle can which will actually melt the foam. I hollowed it out took accommodate the placement of a 9 volt red LED to give it a glowing effect. I spray painted it using clear red and orange that I followed with dry brushed flat black to help bring out the texture of the slowly cooling cylinder.

    The next item for the scene was the windmill. I looked at what was available on the internet but there were only a couple that would fit the scene and these were made of plastic or lead(!) which would be difficult to destroy. So I ended up making my own which was the second most time consuming to build. I was fortunate to have a stash of wood sticks that I could use for the tower. I fashioned the rotor from some parts in my junk bin along with a 3D filament printed prop.

     I wanted to add two Martian ships to the scene just before they incinerate the farm house as in the film. I found a number of very nice 3D files on the internet . One set was broken down into several parts which provided more detail. I first attempt to print them was on my filament printer but even using the finest setting the machine could produce ended up with fair looking parts but the filament striations were too much to evident. I switched over to my resin printer which gave me a beautifully detailed ship. I painted them copper with the characteristic bright green wing tips and nose. I used 1/8”diameter Lexan rods for the 'invisible' legs which I lightly dusted with silver glitter to look like the effect in the film.

     This time out, I used a 16” x 12” sheet of builder's foam and made a rough sketch on the surface to give me an idea where the various elements would be placed. I gouged out the foam board's center about one inch deep which resulted in a nice three inch wide and eight inch long trench depicting the cylinder's slide into the house. I then covered the surface with a layer of plaster cloth to give it some texture. Then I mixed up a batch of Sculpt-a-mold with some medium brown craft paint. I did this primarily because I had found that trying to paint the white Sculpt-a-mold was impossible to get at every nook and cranny. Once stained, I placed irregular clumps of it along the perimeter of the trench to look like earth plowed up by the cylinder.

     As far as the electronics were concerned, I used a cheap Dollar Store flashlight on/off switch for the circuit and two 9 volt batteries wired in parallel inside the hollowed out cylinder. I had a 3/4” flat LEDfor the inside of the cylinder which gave a very strong glow effect through the red & yellow clear paint. It was so powerful, it almost looked like the cylinder was on fire so I inserted a piece of white paper to diffuse the light. I thought of lighting the ends of each tripod leg with a flickering blue LED which resembles the film's effects quite nicely. I made holes where the legs would be in the base and mounted the LEDS from below. All the components were wired in series, something I tend to avoid since if one LED fails, then the string goes dark. The upside is that LEDs are pretty durable and have +5 year lifespans, so I figured I was okay. I ended up using two 9 volt batteries wired in parallel for longer battery life.

Two closeups, one from the front showing the hero & heroine escaping just before the building is incinerated.  The photo on the right is showing the backside of the scene. I like both, primarily because you can see the red hot cylinder through the farmhouse windows.

     The last step was to place all of the elements in the scene. The cylinder was riding a little high so one could see into the trench below revealing the batteries and wiring. After I wrapped the cylinder in plastic wrap to prevent contact with the Sculpt-a-mold I laid it in place. I mixed up a small batch of stained Sculpt-a-mold and filled the gaps that I could see on each side of the cylinder. Next I took the damaged windmill and draped it on top of the cylinder and secured it with AC glue. The house and pickup truck were also secured in this manner. I managed to get my hands on some HO scale corn and other foliage that looked like some kind of crop that I “planted” on either side of the scene. I made a clothes line out of wood and wire to break up the backyard a bit. The final touch was to add some wisps of cotton as steam coming off the front of the cylinder just like in the film.

      I'm generally pleased with the way this diorama came out. Admittedly, it doesn't match the film version exactly but I think it got a B plus rating when all is said and done. 7/25/2024

A VERY brief video showing the cylinder in action. Be sure to turn on your PC speakers.