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!!