Nanoparticles (NPs) of noble metals and their oxides, which have many applications in catalysis, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis, are frequently loaded onto metal oxide supports to enhance performance due to the presence of strong metal-metal oxide or metal oxide-metal oxide interactions. Here we present a flexible aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) method for constructing nanostructured thin films of noble metal (Au, Pt, Pd or Ru) and metal oxide (PdO or RuOx) NPs supported on 1D WO3 nanorod arrays. The size of the NPs (1.6 to 7.3 nm) is directly controlled by the deposition time (0.5 to 36 minutes).