Also in "That 70's Show": In one epiosode, the guys rig the church raffle/carnival to win all the toys; one of the toys is the most recent release of the Monogram 1/48 scale B-17.  In another, Red gets back the toy train set from his childhood.

In Ronin, the doctor who Robert De Niro and the french guy go to after De Niro's character is shot has a huge diorama depicting an attack on a Japanese castle

Home Improvement - it's mentioned once or twice that the youngest son (Mark) builds model

Star Trek TNG - Jordi builds a huge sailing ship model to present to the Captain of a starship they are scheduled to meet.

Futurama - In the episode spoofing Animal House, Dean Wormer is building a model which "Fat Bot" ends up eating. 

Couple more really obscure ones:

In Living Color (sketch comedy that ran on Fox in the early 90's) - there was one sketch where Tommy Davidson's character brings a C-130 built out of popsicle sticks to school (if I recall correctly, it was an art project), and the principal hassles him about it and ends up destroying it.

And then there used to be a math-oriented show for kids on PBS called Square One.  At the end of most shows was 5-10 minute show-within-a-show called Mathnet, a takeoff on Dragnet where the two detectives used math to solve crimes.  During one interview, the witness spends a lot of time fiddling with a pair of tweezers and ship in the bottle.  As they're leaving, one of the detectives says something like "good luck with your model" and the guy replies something like "Oh, I don't put them in... I take them out", and just at that moment finally gets the ship to come out.

The CSI episode in question, where the new diorama is inside the box yet to be opened on Grishams desk, starts in 13 minutes :D

David 

Oh and I forgot the most recent one:

Commander (before the promotion) Adama is building a large scale model of a Earth type sailing vessel, with full rig.  Several moments are spent as he uses (ghast!!) a big old clunky cheapo acid brush to "apply" either glue or paint.

 Got a whole new respect for Adama! (but I STILL think he's a Cylon!)

David

Glamdring wrote:

If my memory serves, there was a James Bond movie where the villain had a bunch of models of famous battlefields.  I'm pretty sure it was The Living Daylights.

That sounds right. It was a Timothy Dalton as 007 film.

 There's another TV moment I remember. On Star Trek: Next Generation, there is a scene where Lt. Worf is building a wooden boat model. The door chime rings, and distracted, he breaks the specific piece he is working on. Frustrated, he sweeps the mess into a desk drawer.

American Chopper: Shuttle Tribute bike. Paul Sr. and Mikey completely mess up a couple of kits.

8 Simple Rules: James Garner and David Spade are building models on the coffee table.

JoeRugby wrote:

Ashton Keuthcer movie the "Butterfly Effect", main character is in a psych hospital and his room mate is brush painting a B24, with a bunch of compleed kits hanging from he ceiling.  The builder room mate was quite disturbed!  Perhaps an illeteration for the rest of the building community in the real world (?)

LOL!  Clearly the directors of the episode knew many model builders.  Maybe this was the most accurate representation of our inner selves.  Ha-ha-ha!

Eric

Here's one for our BBC viewers.

In season 1 of The Vicar of Dibley (one of my faves!) Jim is building a "Airfix (who knew!) model of the Spaceship Enterprise on the telly, and I spilt the bottle of glue, gluing my hand to it"

Where he raises his hand up for all to see and it is quite firmly glued to the small B&W television!

I almost fell out of my chair on that one.

David

I'm suprised no one hasn't mentioned this already...

   Magnum P.I- That one guy named Higgins who is the caretaker of the estate; once in awhile you see him sitting down and messing with a scale model of the Bridge on the River Kwai.

DesertRat wrote:

I'm suprised no one hasn't mentioned this already...    Magnum P.I- That one guy named Higgins who is the caretaker of the estate; once in awhile you see him sitting down and messing with a scale model of the Bridge on the River Kwai.

That's right!  He made it all with matchsticks, and I remember the episode exactly.  I loved it when Magnum blew it up with a firecracker a couple seasons later when the two of them were having a little game of destructive one-upsmanship with each others favorite posessions.  

now i remember a few but the names of the movies i dont.  one a father character is painting a british plane (looked like 1/72) while waiting in bed for the mother figure.  dirty dozen the second mission the engineer corps made a mock up of the selected mission for the dozen.  countless military movies that show military mock ups of castles and such.  battle of the bulge the mock ups of the rocket bombs and the king tiger.  battle of britian the pilot gives his two sons models of hurricanes and me109's.  tora tora tora the sheet is pulled away to show a model of pearl harbor.

joe 

JoeRugby wrote:

Ashton Keuthcer movie the "Butterfly Effect", main character is in a psych hospital and his room mate is brush painting a B24, with a bunch of compleed kits hanging from he ceiling.  The builder room mate was quite disturbed!  Perhaps an illeteration for the rest of the building community in the real world (?)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Patsy points out to Arthur that the castle is "just a model."

Beeteljuice: "Nice *expletive deleted* model".

Slap Shot: The Hansons and the 1/32 scale slot cars: "They brought their *expletive deleted* toys with them."

And old mans disease hits me, The Clint Eastwood movie where they use an RC car with explosives to chase Clint through the streets. . .

Don

Well, if we're going to include movie props as models, rather than modeling per se, let's not forget Godzilla (and all the sequels) with model tanks and planes attacking Ol' Nuke Breath! Or for that matter, any of the many stop action (ray harryhjausen style) movies and the early Star Wars/Star Trek movies (Pre CG SPFX) that used models as props, many made of identifyable parts from commercial models.

BTW, the Clint Eastwood movie refered to ealier is The Dead Pool, the last in the Dirty harry series.  

Glamdring wrote:

it when Magnum blew it up with a firecracker a couple seasons later when the two of them were having a little game of destructive one-upsmanship with each others favorite posessions.

Yep! I remember that that was my favorite episode! Just something about how juvinile that was just cracked me up!

Don't get picky aj

Besides the model of the town plays a big part in the movie Beetlejuice,as well as showing Alex Baldwin working on it in a few scenes.

 Don't forget TOP GUN. . .

Don

Re, Top Gun, was that the scene where Slider has the (wooden ?) Model of the A4  in the classroom ?

"Crashed and burned huh Mav ?"

"Slider, you stink !"

overkillphil wrote:

I've noticed a trend in Bruckheimer shows for model builders to be portrayed as psychos and mentally ill individuals.

This sparked a little memory for me.  Did anyone ever see "Boyz N the Hood"?  I can't remember character names but the one guy who was staying on the straight and narrow and was on his way to college was a model builder.  His messed up brother always looked up to him and commented how he was always building his models.

Eric

Wirraway wrote:

Re, Top Gun, was that the scene where Slider has the (wooden ?) Model of the A4  in the classroom ? "Crashed and burned huh Mav ?" "Slider, you stink !"

after the girl (charlie was it) gave tom cruise the note.  in the same scene i think there was a large scale F-14 on the desk in the background.

overkillphil wrote:

I've noticed a trend in Bruckheimer shows for model builders to be portrayed as psychos and mentally ill individuals.

Well, many of us do appear to be on the eccentric side of life. When writing for TV, even more than movies, the writers will go for the quick stereotype rather than a well defined character, especially of the character has a one time appearance as opposed to a major or recurring character.

Keep your eyes open for a "ripped from the headlines" Law and Order: SVU featuring a model building dad who, along with his wife, overdose their daughter to death. I don't know if they'll pick up on it, but the sick who was charged in this crime in the eastern part of the state used to be in my club. 

There is an episode of "Leave it to Beaver" where Beaver is building a small sailing ship.                    

I've also seen built models sitting on their dresser.

PatlaborUnit1,

In the latest episode of BSG Adama is distraught over losing Starbuck and goes postal on that sailing vessel. That was painful to watch!!! All that time and effort in measuring, cutting, tying, gluing, and trimming the rigging on a model that size take a huge amount of time.

What I can think up right now are:

 Easy Money, Dangerfield is building a Me 109 and ends up destorying it then askes for someone to clean up the mess.

Captain Parkard in STNG has a office with several models in it, mostly of past Enterprises I think. I remember one time he was staring at one while thinking though a problem.

In Star Wars Luke is playing with a model of a ship. That actually a ship model prop that they had decided not to use in the movie.

In the show Joan of Arcida, the brother of Joan was wheel chair bound and he painted figures.

In the movie Small Soldiers the owner of the toy shop was a wooden model ship builder and had a nice completed one sitting on his workbench. It mast was broken off by the young kid(actor) don't know his name. The owner found out and was furious.

 Also  Firefox, lot's of models used there. And the "Airplane" movies, and the "Airport" movies, remember I think it was Airport V? where the Concorde was 'dog fighting' with a couple of phantoms trying to shoot it down?  Independence day too.

Neil

armornut wrote:

Anyone remeber the Heuy hanging above the doorway in "Col. Henry Blake's" office on M.A.S.H.? kinda odd a Nam era acraft in Korea but hey its the thought that counts.

Yes I remember seeing that model while I was watching an episode a couple of days ago and wondered the same thing! Looked like the old Revell, 1/48, 1/32 scale kit? I had one of those years ago and me and my friend hung it out on a tree limb and shot it up with a pellet gun, I remember THAT cause he accidently shot me in the hand while I was  hanging it up! Och!

Neil

How about the scratch-built admiralty-type model of the Acheron that the crewman built in his spare time in Master and Commander?

Mark

I just rememebered another one. There is an episode of Emergency! where a young man is workign with scale flying model rockets. He has many from the then-current Estes and Centuri line including a Saturn V ( I was flying a lot of rockets at the time so I zoned in on this). He was mixing his own liquid fuel using household and hardware store chemicals and a fire ensued....the Estes Saturn V has been used for conversions and such, and since I started this thread, it qualifies here :-)

( I have never started a thread that went three pages!  This is good stuff! Lets keep it going!!)

David

wing_nut wrote:

There was a Hasesgawa (?) Stuka on "Desperate Housewives" last night

This episode aired in Aus on Monday.  The Stuka featured prominently in the best line of the episode, a double entendre regarding "flaps".

http://desperatehousewives.ahaava.com/0317%20CC%20(not%20edited).doc

And the kid from "Stuart Little" has a basement full of plane, auto, rail & ship models, the ship featuring in the big RC boat race in Central Park.

The head Nazi in Blues Brothers was shown painting an fig of an eagle.

In the movie Mask, with Cher and Sam Elliot; what did Sams character, Garth, bring Rocky? I think it was a model.

Later in the movie, Rocky has a friend over and they are scheming to get to Katmandu. A model is sitting on his dresser. What was it?

That movie made me cry. 

Hi Guys,

In addition to ones already mentioned.

In Home Improvement there were always a bunch of model cars on the table on display.

In That 70's Show Kitty gives the gang a box of toys to give them something to do. Fez picks a Monogram P-51D of course it was in the BBDoll boxing so was incorrect even though that kit was available in the 70's.

Jerry Seinfeld has a build up of a Randy Bowen sculpted Superman on his fridge.

This one not mentioned and should scare the bejeebus out of us all.

On E.R.  Bob Newhart played a gentleman with a degenerative vision problem. He is a Napoleonic figure modeler. One scene, the poor guy is shown trying to paint a figure and he is having trouble seeing.

Cheers,

Max Bryant

I watched "Back to the Future" for the umpteenth time last night and for the 1^st time noticed that when Marty goes to his dads room dressed as a space man and blasts him with Van Halen music, there is Revell B-29 box on the night stand.

While this is not a model, I thought it was kind of interesting.  I don't really know this show very well but I watched an episode of "Futurama", the animated show for a few years ago, the other night with my daughter.  The characters and their spaceship got time warped back to the 1940s and was chased by a couple of P-51Bs. 

How about the models used for T.V. series & movies?

Was watching the History Channel last week & there was a show about auctioning off a whole slew of models & props from the Star Trek empire. there was a 6 or 8 foot NCC-1701D, (with power supply me thinks), that went for $500,000, and a Klingon Bird of Prey, w/power supply, that went for arounds $100K.

 Huh, how many 1/32 scales could one get for that....aww heck, put an addition on the house just for the model shop.

I saw that History Channel episode too.

The main items went for big prices but what surprised me was some of the props went for what I would consider a price most people could afford. Mainly costumes and accessories.

I saw the new Transformers movie last Friday. The boy(main human character) the bad guys are after has some model planes hanging in his bedroom. I only remember seeing them in the beginning of the movie when you first meet him.

By the way, it was FUN movie! 

At the beginning of the new movie "Astronaut Farmer" the son has many built up Estes-type rockets. He also appears to have recently completed the Atomic City Mercury capsule. On his desk there appear to be a whole batch of Testor enamel paint bottles.

On the Simpsons Lisa builds a Dio of the Edgar Allen Poe story "Tell Tale Heart" when competeing with the new girl in a contest at school, on the series King of Queens Doug and Deken's (sp?) one son are building a model battleship but the kid is more interested in Carry's make-up, and its been a long time, but i'm pretty sure in the Mel Gibson movie "Signs" the son has a bunch of WWI biplanes hanging from the ceiling in his bed room when he and his sister are looking through his teloscope

Yep

saw it yesterday, I noted an F14 and what looked like a T38 (could be wrong), hanging like they were on sticks (stick models). 

 David

On a recent episode of  "American Pickers" Frank bought a batch of old car models for $20 each. There were about 15-20 of them.

There also appeared to be a batch of military models next to the car models but nothing was mentioned of them.

Several built up models were setting on a table.

Oh, they also bought a leather WW2 Luftwaffe skull cap with microphone.

I believe the guy selling them was some kind of an engineer, In his younger years he said he worked on B-52 jet engines. He had a ton of old military stuff.

In the animated show Metalocalypse, the rythym guitarist Toki Wartooth is a model builder.  In various episodes, he'll be holding a plane while its drying.  In one he glued a plane to his face, and in another got stuck to the wall.  When my girlfriend saw his desk, she laughed out loud and said it looked just like mine.  Now she calls me Toki all the time. 

Simpsons:  Bart has a jet airplane hanging in his bedroom

Biggest all time model reference on TV was Malcom in the Middle.  The father gets in a christmas decoration competition against his neighbor and for unclear reasons it morphs into he and the youngest son building  a huge Pearl Harbor diorama complete with monogram Zeros that mechanically dive bomb and pyrotechniques.   Needless to say it ends badly.

I remember an episode of the Batman TV series where Burt Ward comes down the staies with a model of a p38 lightning.  Also there is all the Gerry Anderson TV shows like Fireball XL5 to Space 1999 and his movies like; Journey to the far side of the sun. Another movie I just thought of is; In Harms Way, with John Wayne. Several of the ship models were for sale back a few years ago. Hope this thread will continue as I always like to see new ways our hobby makes it to the visual media.

P.S. I just remembered that Tora,Tora,Tora also had a bunch of ship models that were used and then put for sale.

Spiderman.

While practicing his webslinging in his room Peter knocks over rockets from the "Man in Space" set that was released around the time the movie was in production.

The only reason I recognized the particular set was that I had been working on it a few months earlier.

As the ultimate self-referential movie/model, how about the weapon from "In The Line Of Fire"? This also feeds back into the post about modelers being portrayed as psychopaths. John Malkovich, one scary dude. And the truly sick thing is, that cast plastic gun (plus the ammo-in-the-rabbit's-foot trick) just might WORK!

New models in movies sighting.

Journey 2

Kid character is scratch building the Nautilus.

dkmacin

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Patsy points out to Arthur that the castle is "just a model."

Beeteljuice: "Nice *expletive deleted* model".

Slap Shot: The Hansons and the 1/32 scale slot cars: "They brought their *expletive deleted* toys with them."

And old mans disease hits me, The Clint Eastwood movie where they use an RC car with explosives to chase Clint through the streets. . .

 

Don

LOL about Holy Grail, it wasnt even a model! Terry Gilliam said they couldn't afford a model so they used a photo of a castle blown up and printed onto cardstock which was then propped up on the ridge. From a distance you couldn't tell on film. But Camelot, the castle Antrax, and castle of the anarchy-sydiclinist commune were all the same cardboard cutout. Speaking of models in TV & movies movies, The Addams Family and Gomez's train sets.

Reading this thread sparked a couple more: 6 million dollar man episode where a baddie is intimidating a kid to get information starts breaking all his plastic model kits. The Rightthe Stuff there's a big model of John Glenns Mercury capsule during the re-entry discussion. The Right Stuff also Col Yeager had a wood X-15 on his desk while listening to the Mercury radio broadcast. Apollo 13 had various wood models in view throughout the flick I don't know if a digital model of a model counts but what about the sailing ship models in the recent Tin Tin movie? They look alot like a certain Heller kit.

In Star Wars Luke is playing with a model of a ship. That actually a ship model prop that they had decided not to use in the movie.

Isn't it an Imperial shuttle?

Nope it's his T-16 "Skyhopper". What he used to bull's eye Womp rats in back home, they're not much bigger than two meters. 

Thought the T-16 was what was parked in garage with them in that scene...

It was indeed... he's playing with the model while the "real" thing sits in the background

Ahh.. Been about 15 years since I watched SW IV (When I bought the first boxed-set of the original movies).... Guess I shoulda Google-Imaged the T-16 and the garge scene insteada using just a splinter of my "Mind's Eye" (obscure SW reference there, if you can name it, I'll be impressed, then call you a sci-fi geek)

O/T:

Anyone else old enough to have been an adult when they saw Star Wars  (No bloody "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the title, credits, or posters)  in the theater?

That movie forced me to start building dios with lights in them... Especially when the kits from the movie came out from MPC...

Hans von Hammer

Ahh.. Been about 15 years since I watched SW IV (When I bought the first boxed-set of the original movies).... Guess I shoulda Google-Imaged the T-16 and the garge scene insteada using just a splinter of my "Mind's Eye" (obscure SW reference there, if you can name it, I'll be impressed, then call you a sci-fi geek)

Not sure if it's worth it or not but heck I am a geek, won't deny that...

'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' was the first original SW novel (not a novelization of the first movie). It was written by Alan Dean Foster and came out before 'Empire Strikes Back' and I think Lucas hadn't decided yet that Vader was Luke's dad at the time if I remember correctly.

Funny that I'm more of a Trek fan myself. Btw did anyone point out the model of Picard's first starship the 'USS Stargazer' in his ready room on the 1701-D? And Sisko had a model of the ship that he was first officer of and Deep Space Nine in his office on the latter station.   

Gamera

Funny that I'm more of a Trek fan myself. Btw did anyone point out the model of Picard's first starship the 'USS Stargazer' in his ready room on the 1701-D? And Sisko had a model of the ship that he was first officer of and Deep Space Nine in his office on the latter station.   

http://www.plastichobbymodel.com/star-trek/furuta-star-trek-vol-1-uss-stargazer-spaceship-model/

The USS Saratoga (NCC-31911) was a Federation Miranda-class starship that was in service to Starfleet in the mid-24th century. Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko served as the vessel's first officer during the mid-2360s. [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/USS_Saratoga_%28NCC-31911%29]

TomZ2

Gamera:

Funny that I'm more of a Trek fan myself. Btw did anyone point out the model of Picard's first starship the 'USS Stargazer' in his ready room on the 1701-D? And Sisko had a model of the ship that he was first officer of and Deep Space Nine in his office on the latter station.   

 

http://www.plastichobbymodel.com/star-trek/furuta-star-trek-vol-1-uss-stargazer-spaceship-model/

Thanks Tom!

Though I guess I should have specified the 'Stargazer' as the first ship Picard commanded as opposed to his first ship which I suppose would have been the first vessel he served on in the fiction of the Trek universe.

And I remember some other ships in different conference rooms etc but it's been long enough since I watched any Trek to remember what any of them were.

Plus- the crippled USS Constellation in the original episode 'The Doomsday Machine' was the AMT Enterprise kit that you can buy in the store!   

Not sure if it's worth it or not but heck I am a geek, won't deny that...

'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' was the first original SW novel (not a novelization of the first movie). It was written by Alan Dean Foster and came out before 'Empire Strikes Back' and I think Lucas hadn't decided yet that Vader was Luke's dad at the time if I remember correctly.

Geeks... Sheesh...

Yupper, Alan Dean Foster and 'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' ...(He adapted the animated Star Trek stories to print as well, IIRC, in the Star Trek "Log Series") Seriously, though... I snatched up Splinter of the Mind's Eye as soon as I saw it, which was about '78 IIRC... The two Yuzzem, Hin and Kee?  When I saw that Yuzzem ( the "male" singer) in Jaba's palace (in the re-done ROTJ version) Max Rebo Review, it didn't look anything like what I'd pictured Hin and Kee as looking like.. Or was he a Yuzzum?

Dunno if Lucas had developed Vader that far when Foster started writing, either...  At any rate, I thought SOTME would've made a good movie too, had the franchise ever gone into a TV series... 

Hans von Hammer

a splinter of my "Mind's Eye" (obscure SW reference there, if you can name it, I'll be impressed, then call you a sci-fi geek)

Ahh, so you're the other person who read this.....

(Splinter Of The Mind's Eye, by Alan Dean Foster,some time around 1979-ish)

Did you guys read the Han Solo-centric mini-series about that time? I think there were three or so, "Han Solo at Star's End", "Han Solo's Revenge" and another whose title escapes me.....

On another note, didn't the Miranda class USS Saratoga also appear in ST.IV The Voyage Home?

More model sightings: Saturn V, USS Enterprise (NCC1701-D) and Space shuttle stack in the corner of Howard's bedroom on The Big Bang Theory.

Phil_H

Hans von Hammer:

a splinter of my "Mind's Eye" (obscure SW reference there, if you can name it, I'll be impressed, then call you a sci-fi geek)

 

Ahh, so you're the other person who read this.....

(Splinter Of The Mind's Eye, by Alan Dean Foster,some time around 1979-ish)

Did you guys see the Han Solo-centric mini-series about that time? I think there were three or so, "Han Solo at Star's End", "Han Solo's Revenge" and another whose title escapes me.....

Yeah, got all three by Bryan Daley.. "Han Solo and the Lost Legacy" is other one you mentioned... They take place in the "Corporate Sector" and the "Tion Hegenomy" prior to "Star Wars"... Has two droids with him & Chewie, Bollux and Blue Max..

If I recall correctly, Zollux was a wisecracking smartmouth kinda like Bender from Futurama...

Hans von Hammer

O/T:

Anyone else old enough to have been an adult when they saw Star Wars  (No bloody "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the title, credits, or posters)  in the theater?

It was all the way around a fun time.

As far a sci-fi however, more popcorn than usa. And Burroughs invented the word Sith.

BTW I've gotten to meet George a number of times as his LHS is mine too. He commissions beautiful ship models that they display until he picks them up.

Way before all of that though, and before I cared about stuff like the hokey a/c in Casablanca,  I got my eyes opened by 2001. I saw it with Dad when it came out, went back the next weekend and saw it twice in a row.

Freakin great model movie, although a little slow....

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/2001/2001int.htm

Tom: Thanks for the photos, too lazy to look up all that data here.

Phil: Yeap, both ships were named USS Saratoga though from following Tom's links the 'Voyage Home' ship was NCC-1887 and Sisko's NCC-31911. So I guess the original ship was destroyed and the second carried her name. 

Hans: You can call me a geek as long as you don't mean the original use of a guy at a carnival who bites the heads off live chickens.

Never read the novel here and didn't even know it existed until late last year I blundered across an article on it from the web.

Hans von Hammer

O/T:

Anyone else old enough to have been an adult when they saw Star Wars  (No bloody "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the title, credits, or posters)  in the theater?

That movie forced me to start building dios with lights in them... Especially when the kits from the movie came out from MPC...

I was living & working in upstate NY at the time and had been married for about a year when we saw it for the first time.  That was when I had my 1976 Triumph TR7.  Does that make me old? 

I hadn't done much modeling for several years, but a few months later when we were at the local mall, I picked up an Airfix 1/72 Phantom on a whim.  Got me going again in the hobby.

Mark  

Phil_H

If I recall correctly, Zollux was a wisecracking smartmouth kinda like Bender from Futurama...

Max was more the smart-mouth (and disgustingly cheerful, according to Solo), and lived inside Bollux's chest... Bollux himself was rather ... Slow, shall we say, as droids go... In speech and movement..

I am another person who read Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I read it after the movie, which I watched after I had already read the book. I was 13 in 1977 when Star Wars came out, prime target audience for the mass merchandising. I had Star Wars sheets, posters and had to have the model kits when they came out. I had R2, X-Wing, Vader's Tie and bought boring C3P0 when it was the last kit sitting on the shelf at the store. I remember wanting the Vader kit with glow in the dark light saber, but ended up buying this new fangled kit called the Cylon Raider (BSG hadn't hit the TV yet) with my money. Vader was gone after that.

I remember reading several Star Wars themed paperbacks before The Empire Strikes Back came out. When those kits came out (AT-AT, Star Destroyer and Snow Speeder), I thought they were so much better than the first series of kits.

I was 17 when I saw Star Wars... I was just blown away by it...

The younger folks never really got that experience, since SFX had come so far in a short time after that, that my kids came up with those kind of SFX as a "routine" bit of movie-making...  Even CGI wasn't all that exiting to me, nothing like SW, anyway..

Before ILM, it was, with a few notable exceptions like Star Trek, 2001, et al, always the rocket ships with sparklers and "flaming hubcap" UFO stuff..  After SW, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" and "Battlestar Galactica" HAD to at least match the FX levels, which, because of the cost, I knew they'd be doomed series' anyway... 

How much better would a TV series like "12 O'Clock High", "Baa Baa Blacksheep", or "Combat!" be with today's CGI SFX I wonder?  Still, costs would probably doom them all, even if the audience was big enough for a WW2 series... During "Blacksheep", the seven Corsair and three Zero/SNJ pilots got $700.00 a day whether they flew or not... (That's why we saw so many of the same shots over and over... ) 

There was also a big stink raised about the show in general once the 70's anti-war crowd got wind of the fact that the WW2 gun-camera footage used in BBBS was showing REAL people getting killed, which led to some sponsors pulling out due to boycotting (which, in turn led to stupid premises like "Pappy's Lambs" and entire episodes without any combat scenes).... 'Course, the show didn't have much going for it after the first season anyway, story-wise... 

 "Tour of Duty" went the same way after the second season... It became a freakin' soap opera instead of doing what worked, which was telling stories about an Infantry Platoon in Vietnam...

Anyway...  I wonder too if the shows I mentioned would ever translate to more modern times?  "12 O'Clock High" wouldn't be much to watch if it was the 509th in B-2s hitting caves in Afghanistan, or if "Baa Baa Black Sheep was about VMA 214 and their Harriers hitting targets in ODS... "Combat!" probably would be a good candidate though... 

I think models could make a comeback in TV series as a cost-cutting measure too, perhaps real models with CGI enhancements?

On '30 Rock', Jack Donneghy has a model ship on the shelf in his office.  It has a white hull, but appears to be some kind of early destroyer or torpedo boat.  Maybe it represents nothing in real life, just an interior decorator's whim.

I keep trying to explain to my kids how much of a change Star Wars was in 1977. Before that, Sci Fi had been pretty bleak... 2001, Logan's Run, Silent, Running,  Soylent Green, The Omega Man.... Space and the future were dark and dismal prospects after Apollo was done. Then came Star Wars (it will never be A New Hope to me- simply Star Wars, before all the ate up revamps) Of course I had to get the X Wing and Vader Tie Fighter. I even scratch built a Y-wing at around age 12-13 using  a broken down Star Trek USS Enterprise for the engine pods, a lot of stuff from my spares bin, and sheet plastic from a "For Sale" sign that you could buy at the store. Still have Vader's Tie Fighter but the X Wing and Y wing died log ago... I cant quite get up the gumption to pay for the beautiful Fine Molds Star Wars kits, but I have eyed some of the newer Revell stuff.... Those Republic Gunships are pretty alluring.

I read Splinter of the Minds Eye as well. I always thought that the Ewoks were based on the Yuzzum... just much cuter, but the same basic premise of a primitive arboreal society creatures that get pissed at the Empire. I never read any of the Han Solo books, but I did read Timothy Zahn's post Return of the Jedi trilogy. And a few other odds and ends here and there.

I also enjoyed the BSG and Buck Rogers series as well. Still have my Earth Starfighter sitting next to Vader's Tie fighter (and a Klingon K' T' Inga class cruiser) awaiting restoration repairs some glorious day... Would love to find a Moon Base Interceptor from the early 70s series UFO. had the Corgi or Dinky toy metal one once upon a time...

and in the original theme of the thread, in Star Trek First Contact, there is a scene where there are metallic models of various Enterprises in the background as Picard is speaking with another person about the future and the Borg and such...

Would love to find a Moon Base Interceptor from the early 70s series UFO.

You & me both!  Loved that show..

and in the original theme of the thread, in Star Trek First Contact, there is a scene where there are metallic models of various Enterprises in the background as Picard is speaking with another person about the future and the Borg and such...

Yeah, that was Dr. Cochrans's flight engineer, Lilly.. And then he smashed the display in a fit of rage, whereupon she said, "You broke your little ships".. I woulda beamed her into a wall for sayin' that...

stikpusher

I keep trying to explain to my kids how much of a change Star Wars was in 1977. Before that, Sci Fi had been pretty bleak... 2001

I just watched the movie “Super 8” with my kids the other night.  The protagonist is a boy who builds scale models and painted figures of movie monsters.    In one scene a girls asks him how he made a train car look so worn and aged and he briefly explains dry brushing to her.  The girl is duly impressed and I used the opportunity to tell my 13 year old son “See!  Modeling is cool! “

Great stuff on here! I do tend to notice things like the characters playing with models, but many have already been mentioned.

So, I doubt anyone here has ever watched this one. I'm not at all into anime and such, but my son found a cartoon that is called Sgt Frog, and it is hillarious! The premise is five frog-like aliens sent to take over earth, but their leader is so incompetant that everything they try fails miserably, and they just end up living in people's basements.

Anyway, the main character (sgt frog) is an avid builder of Gundam models, which is used against him many times with lines like "if you blow up the earth, you can't buy anymore Gundam models...." Which always makes him freak out and change his mind.

Seriously, look it up on Netflix. Funny stuff.

bondoman

stikpusher:

I keep trying to explain to my kids how much of a change Star Wars was in 1977. Before that, Sci Fi had been pretty bleak... 2001

 

Stop right there! That was a beautiful model movie. The ships (ILM was invented for that movie) constantly moved from dark to light. Wondrous stuff.

So was Silent Running.... Anybody remember that one with Bruce Dern? Another early 70s dark Sci Fi film with beautiful models... I am pretty sure that the model(s) from that movie were used in the original BSG series.

stikpusher

 

bondoman:

 

 

stikpusher:

I keep trying to explain to my kids how much of a change Star Wars was in 1977. Before that, Sci Fi had been pretty bleak... 2001

 

Stop right there! That was a beautiful model movie. The ships (ILM was invented for that movie) constantly moved from dark to light. Wondrous stuff.

 

 

 

So was Silent Running.... Anybody remember that one with Bruce Dern? Another early 70s dark Sci Fi film with beautiful models... I am pretty sure that the model(s) from that movie were used in the original BSG series.

Very sad.

As far as BSG, I think film from that movie was used.

I guess no one saw Super 8 last year, the main kid is an avid modeler, to quote, "You just dry brush on some Euro Gray..." Pretty sure J.J. Abrams was a modeler in the early 80's.

In my humble opinion the two finest sci-fi films for models and special effects are 2001 and Blade Runner. So much of the Los Angles landscape in Blade Runner was hand built in scale, and sadly the pyramid burned during filming. 2001, it's a shame that Kubrick had the models destroyed (ironically fearing their use in a Star Wars type film, read: soft sci-fi/film making) because they were fantastic. I grew up in the era of computer effects and I hate them, models lend such authenticity and substance, especially when executed as well as 2001. For my money 2001 contains the most legit space scenes ever, they feel real... and it was 1967!

I grew up in the era of computer effects and I hate them, models lend such authenticity and substance

That's exactly what the CGI freaks say about their stuff, that looks authentic..  Phooey.. Personally, I think CGI makes everything look like a video game...   There are good renditions of CGI FX in some movies, like the "Reporting" scene in "Flyboys" where the smoking N-17 is passing behind the CO's head both in flight and on the ground a bit later, but in the dogfights they end up looking like a game.. (A game that ripped-off Lucas' Tie-Fighter swarm-attack in "Jedi", IMHO..)

bondoman

stikpusher:

 

bondoman:

 

 

stikpusher:

I keep trying to explain to my kids how much of a change Star Wars was in 1977. Before that, Sci Fi had been pretty bleak... 2001

 

Stop right there! That was a beautiful model movie. The ships (ILM was invented for that movie) constantly moved from dark to light. Wondrous stuff.

 

 

 

So was Silent Running.... Anybody remember that one with Bruce Dern? Another early 70s dark Sci Fi film with beautiful models... I am pretty sure that the model(s) from that movie were used in the original BSG series.

 

Yes, I saw it in Denmark when I lived there, retitled "Verdens sidste have"; "earths last garden". It was an ILM movie too.

Very sad.

As far as BSG, I think film from that movie was used.

 

Yeah, several shots of the three 'ag ships' were from 'Silent Running'. I think most if not all of the shots were in 'War of the Gods' when Count Iblis goes aboard them after promising to increase the crop yields. There were a few shots of the Klingon Bird of Prey from 'The Search for Spock' that showed up in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' on TV too. And a shot of a Hughes 500 chopper flying into a mountain from one of the '80s Bond movies that popped up several times in 'Airwolf' and the 'A-Team'.

*End of totally pointless trivia*

My biggest gripe about CGI is that most of the artists forget that an actual object has weight. No matter how good the CGI is if you have a multi-ton aircraft zipping around doing stuff a friggin' dragonfly couldn't do it destroys any illusion of reality. Same when you have a crocodile the size of a Greyhound bus shoot fifty feet/18 meters straight up out of a swamp with water about five feet/1.2 meters deep to grap a hovering helicopter.

I totally forgot about the 1/1 scale P-40 models used in The Flying Tigers and Tora! Tora! Tora!...

There were a few 1/1 Spitfires and Hurricanes in The Battle of Britain too...

Hun Hunter

I guess no one saw Super 8 last year, the main kid is an avid modeler, to quote, "You just dry brush on some Euro Gray..." Pretty sure J.J. Abrams was a modeler in the early 80's.

Actually, it was mentioned several posts prior to yours and there was an in depth discussion regarding the movie and modeling when the movie came out. This is just an old thread that was brought back to life recently so it jumped over the Super 8 discussion.

My turn for a zombie thread... I just stumbled across this movie still shot from "Empire of the Sun"... tell me how many of you as youngsters never did anything similar...?

Yeah, like when I was 18!

Theres a modeling scene in "The Kings Speech".

Nice Hammer resurrection as well.

Hammer....? Hammer....? Anyone?

I'm sure most of you used to watch the old Warner Brothers' cartoons (Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and so forth) on Saturday morning TV when you were kids; goodness knows I sure did, even well into my adult years! 

I remember one WB cartoon started out with two mice that overate so much cheese that they never want to eat cheese again. They both decide that they have nothing to live for, so they attempt suicide by trying to get a cat to eat them. The cat finds something suspicious about mice that want to be eaten, and so refuses to do so. This ticks off the mice and they chase the cat around begging it to eat them, while the cat thinks he's going completely bonkers. About halfway through the cartoon, we find the cat building a model ship in a bottle ("They say a hobby sometimes helps," he says to the audience)--only the ship remains outside and it's the cat that's in the bottle, at least until the mice smash it with a hammer!

The most accurate portrayal of our hobby is in the movie "Sunshine Cleaning", released in 2008. In this movie, one of the characters is missing an arm, but his hobby is building plastic models, and, if I remember correctly (no acronyms for me!!), he owned a hobby shop, too. Quite a few scenes show his hobby bench decked out as well as any I've ever seen in real life - stacks of models in his stash, a Dremel tool, desk lamp, magnifying glass, numerous models in various stages of being built, paint bottles, modeling tools, etc. Whomever came up with this character must've done quite a bit of modeling himself/herself, or knew someone that did. The accuracy and attention to the various details of the hobby were the best I've ever seen in any movie or TV show. The movie was mainly a chick-flick, but it was pretty darned funny, too. Worth the price to rent it.  

Yup saw it... (Amy Adams is such a dish!) I was suprised to see the model making aspect. LMAO at some of the stuff in the movie.

There was a CSI where the killer built accurate shadow boxes of the crime scenes.

Yep, one of those comedy "sleepers". Good stuff. I couldn't imagine doing that line of work all day, every day.....

There is a scene in the movie "Big" where Tom hanks admonishes Elizabeth Perkins for attempting to touch his Tamiya U.S.S. Enterprise aircraft carrier model when he brings her up to his loft.

stikpusher

Hammer....? Hammer....? Anyone?

iraqiwildman

stikpusher

Hammer....? Hammer....? Anyone?

What happened to Hammer??? It's been over a year since he last posted.

No one knows, for sure............

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/general_discussion/f/9/t/157683.aspx

Great thread!

Recall archival footage of Adolf Hitler examining a Panther prototype model in approximately 1/25 scale?

Not sure but didn't 'Stripes' with Bill Murray have a scene with the commander playing 'war' on a table size Napoleonic diorama battle scene?    

SuppressionFire

Not sure but didn't 'Stripes' with Bill Murray have a scene with the commander playing 'war' on a table size Napoleonic diorama battle scene?    

GMorrison

There was a CSI where the killer built accurate shadow boxes of the crime scenes.

Ye, I remember that one. Wasn't it a running case through out a couple of the series.

Bish

GMorrison

There was a CSI where the killer built accurate shadow boxes of the crime scenes.

Ye, I remember that one. Wasn't it a running case through out a couple of the series.

That was some killer minature work... 

stikpusher

Bish

GMorrison

There was a CSI where the killer built accurate shadow boxes of the crime scenes.

Ye, I remember that one. Wasn't it a running case through out a couple of the series.

That was some killer minature work... 

That's pretty punny stik!!

stikpusher

Yup saw it... (Amy Adams is such a dish!) I was suprised to see the model making aspect. LMAO at some of the stuff in the movie.

Didja know she started out as a Hooters girl? 

I sure didn't, bless her heart ;-)

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but there was a Chuck Norris show or movie(can't remember) and I believe it was Chuck's character, who built model airplanes, and helped one of the kids in the neighborhood out and showed him how to build.  Come to think of it 95% sure it was a movie, just don't remember which one.

One that I just noticed last night.. In the Hawaii 5-0 reboot, there's a (Tamiya?) USS Enterprise on a shelf on the wall in McGarrett's office.

stikpusher

Bish

GMorrison

There was a CSI where the killer built accurate shadow boxes of the crime scenes.

Ye, I remember that one. Wasn't it a running case through out a couple of the series.

That was some killer minature work... 

h

Hmmmm, in an episode of the Travel Channel's 'Mysteries at the Museum' they featured a story about a woman a hundred years or so ago that created elaborate dioramas of crime scenes that were used to train detectives and officers in the forensics of examining a real scene for clues. 

One more, The Brady Bunch TV series.   One episode is about Peter building a MPC 69 Barracuda 1/25 kit.  He has the box in his hand in several scenes and is working on it at the kitchen table.  That was late 69 or early 70 I think.

Time for an update here; Got a new movie to add to the list, Star Trek Into Darkness has a scene inside Star Fleet HQ where every major starfleet flagship is lined up, from the shuttlecraft to the USS Vengance (from the movie) including a few rarely seen surprises in model form, like a big scale DY-100, and two original Matt Jefferies starship Enterprise concept designs including the ringship design Enterprise and what later entered Trek canon as the USS Daedalus, or the tennis ball on a waterbattle as one person called it.

Ringship Enterprise:

Daedalus: