Thunderchild

A flicker of flame went up through the rising steam, and then the Martian reeled and staggered. In another moment he was cut down, and a great body of water and steam shot high in the air. The guns of the _Thunder Child_ sounded through the reek, going off one after the other, and one shot splashed the water high close by the steamer, ricocheted towards the other flying ships to the north, and smashed a smack to matchwood.

She was alive still; the steering gear, it seems, was intact andher engines working. She headed straight for a second Martian, andwas within a hundred yards of him when the Heat-Ray came to bear. Thenwith a violent thud, a blinding flash, her decks, her funnels, leapedupward. The Martian staggered with the violence of her explosion, andin another moment the flaming wreckage, still driving forward with theimpetus of its pace, had struck him and crumpled him up like a thingof cardboard. My brother shouted involuntarily. A boiling tumult ofsteam hid everything again.

A few simple cuts and application of magnets to the Brigade Martian walkers allows them to serve double duty on both land and sea. I used 1/16" diameter neodymium magnets glued onto both ends of the legs to allow the upper half of the torso to be removed. Another trio of magnets recessed into the water base hold the body securely when wading through the depths.

Normally I like to recess the magnets, but in this case they are the exact same diameter as the tripod legs so just gluing them on creates an almost invisible seam. The magnets are available from http://www.kjmagnetics.com/ in an amazing variety of sizes and shapes. I used the D101-N50 for this project. The 1/8" diameter disks are also incredibly useful. $10 will buy enough magnets for literally dozens of projects. Please remember that magnets can be lethal if ingested so no gnawing on the mini's, and keep away from small children.