"The Butterfly Effect"- one of the kids has a bunch of planes displayed around the room.

"The Lovely Bones"- Mark-E-Mark does ships in a bottle.

Well in 'Bubba-Ho-Tep'  when 'Elvis' visits 'JFK' in his room at the retirement home in the background you can see several dioramas of the JFK assassination...

And in 'Close Encounters' I loved it when the main character kept trying to recreate his vision of the mesa in everything from his mashed potatoes to the model railroad layout to the giant one made out of half of his lawn.

I think Geordi was building the HMS Victory for his previous Captain on the Starship Victory.

Not cinema, but in an episode of 'Star Trek: The Next generation', Geordi LaForge (Lavar Burton) builds a model of the sailing ship 'Enterprise'.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, perhaps he was building another ship to present as a gift for the Captain of another ship.

Not the "big screen", but in the "re-visioned" series of Battlestar Galactica, Adama is sometimes seen working on a sailing ship in his quarters.

Interestingly,

The model ship Adama was building over the course of the series was a very expensive rental prop which Edward James Olmos destroyed in an ad-lib expression of Adama's grief over the loss of Thrace, much to the props crew's dismay. Thankfully, the ship was insured.

427 Cobra, I thought of this thread while watching NCIS tonite...

Tony

Then there was the toothpick "Bridge on the River Kwai" that Higgins built on an episode of Magnum. Of course during one of their fueds Magnum destroyed the model in a fitting fashion....

And the main charecter Jamie in "Empire of The Sun" has a large collection of model planes of the preWWII era before the Japanese invade.

Aaronw

There is an episode of Frazier where Niles and his dad are building a large plastic sailing ship model.

The banter between NIles, Martin and Dafney was pretty funny.

Dafney: nice frigate you're building

Niles: it is a schooner not a frigate

Dafney: oh I thought it was a frigate

Niles: No a frigate is fore and aft rigged

Dafney; No that is a barquentine

Niles: you're right, then what's a frigate?

Martin: It's when you just don't care anymore (as he walks away from the model disgusted).

buff

In the Blues Brothers, the head Nazi paints figures.  An eagle, I think.

Wingman_kz

Morgan Freeman builds a ship in a bottle in Along Came A Spyder. I've seen a couple others that haven't been mentioned but I just can't think of them at the moment.

Tony

PS...Gibbs(Mark Harmon) builds boats in his basement on NCIS. Does that count?

There are a lot of episodes of T.V. shows where someone was buiding something. "The Brady bunch" - Peter was building an airplane, Beaver (Leave it to Beaver) was building a boat with his dad. look at Gilligans' Island. He, or the Professor were always working on a radio, or a model of a ship or some goofy project. On  an episode of "M*A*S*H", Hawkeye was building a model of the Eiffel Tower with popcicle sticks, but changed it to a different theme as a tribute to the fighting men, and boys of the Korean war.

and although 40 Year Old Virgin has already been mentioned, the scene where he is painting figures and speaking to them is pretty funny...

In the movie "Galaxy Quest" the fanboy Brandon is building a model of the NSEA Protector when Tim Allens's character contacts him for help.   Hey, now there is finally a kit of the Protector.

Doug

buff

In the Blues Brothers, the head Nazi paints figures.  An eagle, I think.

'Its 106 miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas. 1/2 a pack of smokes...Its dark out and we are wearing sunglasses.' ~ Ellwood

'Hit it' ~ Jake

Ha ha that has to be my favorite comedy / musical / action-adventure! Yes the Nazi leader was painting a eagle!

There is an episode of Frazier where Niles and his dad are building a large plastic sailing ship model.

The banter between NIles, Martin and Dafney was pretty funny.

Dafney: nice frigate you're building

Niles: it is a schooner not a frigate

Dafney: oh I thought it was a frigate

Niles: No a frigate is fore and aft rigged

Dafney; No that is a barquentine

Niles: you're right, then what's a frigate?

Martin: It's when you just don't care anymore (as he walks away from the model disgusted).

In the Blues Brothers, the head Nazi paints figures.  An eagle, I think.

Morgan Freeman builds a ship in a bottle in Along Came A Spyder. I've seen a couple others that haven't been mentioned but I just can't think of them at the moment.

Tony

PS...Gibbs(Mark Harmon) builds boats in his basement on NCIS. Does that count?

oddmanrush

Two movies I can think of are 40 Year Old Virgin and Murder at 1600. Both distinctly different movies and both depict modeling in, well, different manners as you could probably guess by the titles if you haven't seen them. Modeling is also featured on several episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a murderer leaves a small scale representation of the scene of the crime at the scene of the crime.

These are actual photos of the studio model. This was auctioned off on ebay a couple of years ago for the CASA organization. This is a charity for children whose main goal was to raise awareness against child abuse, and neglect. This is the true scale model of Gil Grissoms' office made by the prop makers of the show.  I altered these pictures myself, as they're not to be shared for public distribution in their original form.

There were other characters on JAG other than Catherine Bell? Funny, I don't remember them...

If anyone remembers the TV show JAG, Lt./Lt. Commander Bud J. Roberts, Jr. played by Patrick Labyorteaux  built ship models on the show.

In Sweet Dreams, a biopic about singer Patsy Cline, her husband Gerald Cline  is depicted as a model ship builder. In one scene he's bringing her up to date on the progress of one ship, and the implication is that he's an utter bore of a husband (she divorces him later).

Aaronw

Great now we are going to have to take one of the stars off all our flags, once Chuck reads this Illinois will be a hole, just a great void in space.

And that would be a very good thing! (as you should be able to tell by reading my location!)

But now we are sliding down the slippery slope into the cesspool of politics…

Move along, folks! Nothing to see here! Move along!

Great now we are going to have to take one of the stars off all our flags, once Chuck reads this Illinois will be a hole, just a great void in space.

panzerguy

First, what ever Chuck Norris stares at for more than a few seconds melts.

 

Second when Chuck Norris kicks something it doesn't land.

That stare is known as the "Oh crud, I forgot my line," stare. It's true, Chuck can do anything…except act. But his martial arts skills are real, and what he kicks does land, either in pieces (hence my original post on him—a true master does not only destroy) or it doesn't get up again.

This is getting off topic. We should start another thread on how famous (or infamous) actors, actresses, and other "personalities" assemble models. All in good fun, of course. In fact, I think I will.

Triarius

stikpusher:

 

panzerguy:

 

 In the Chuck Norris movie 'Hitman' he builds jet fighters when he's not whacking bad guys

 In 'Easy Money' with Rodney Dangerfield he takes up modeling after he quites drinking and smoking. One scene shows him working on a 109 at the kitchen table. When he leaves for work he asks his wife if she could pick up the Mess-A- S#%t he left on the table.

 And in 'The Good Shepherd' Matt Damon builds ships in bottles.

 

 

Chuck Norris doesn't build the models, he stares at the box full of sprues until they assemble themselves....

 

No, he kicks the box and the model lands, fully assembled and painted, on the workbench. You've got Nuck Chorris confused with the other Kung Fu guy…

Second when Chuck Norris kicks something it doesn't land.

oddmanrush

Modeling is also featured on several episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a murderer leaves a small scale representation of the scene of the crime at the scene of the crime.

LOL.....I could see Manny doing that. (No, not murdering people, but making models of the scene of the crime.) Hahaha.

Charlie's brother Alan takes up building model cars in an episode of Two & a Half Men...

Not sure about the remake a few years ago, but in the original Flight of the Phoenix, one of the characters reveals that he designs and builds model airplanes.

stikpusher

 

panzerguy:

 

 In the Chuck Norris movie 'Hitman' he builds jet fighters when he's not whacking bad guys

 In 'Easy Money' with Rodney Dangerfield he takes up modeling after he quites drinking and smoking. One scene shows him working on a 109 at the kitchen table. When he leaves for work he asks his wife if she could pick up the Mess-A- S#%t he left on the table.

 And in 'The Good Shepherd' Matt Damon builds ships in bottles.

 

 

Chuck Norris doesn't build the models, he stares at the box full of sprues until they assemble themselves....

No, he kicks the box and the model lands, fully assembled and painted, on the workbench. You've got Nuck Chorris confused with the other Kung Fu guy…

panzerguy

 In the Chuck Norris movie 'Hitman' he builds jet fighters when he's not whacking bad guys

 In 'Easy Money' with Rodney Dangerfield he takes up modeling after he quites drinking and smoking. One scene shows him working on a 109 at the kitchen table. When he leaves for work he asks his wife if she could pick up the Mess-A- S#%t he left on the table.

 And in 'The Good Shepherd' Matt Damon builds ships in bottles.

Chuck Norris doesn't build the models, he stares at the box full of sprues until they assemble themselves....

The movie 'Sunshine Cleaning' (Cleaners??) is about a woman who gets into the crime-scene cleaning business.  She becomes friends with a guy who runs the shop where she buys most of her supplies.  He has a model bench in the back of the shop, with an impressive stash.  Oh, yeah, he also has one arm...

 In the Chuck Norris movie 'Hitman' he builds jet fighters when he's not whacking bad guys

 In 'Easy Money' with Rodney Dangerfield he takes up modeling after he quites drinking and smoking. One scene shows him working on a 109 at the kitchen table. When he leaves for work he asks his wife if she could pick up the Mess-A- S#%t he left on the table.

 And in 'The Good Shepherd' Matt Damon builds ships in bottles.