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My family bought the movie Super 8 this weekend. The cool thing about this movie (besides being a good family film) is that the main actor, a young boy is a modeler. He builds model trains and sci-fi stuff. In one scene in the movie he talks about his models and explains to his female love about the different shades of model paint greys and dry brushing. Very COOL!!!

 

I can think of several films that show model building. Wesley Snipes had a full battle field diarama in his apartment in the film where he played a cop that investigated a murder at the White House. And let's not foget the classic Close incounters of the third kind movie where the guy builds a mountain in his living room.

 

This should be fun. Lets see how many films you guys can come up with that had someone or something about modeling in it.

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I too loved the explanation of shades of colors and dry-burshing in "Super 8".

 

In "ET", Elliot had many built models hanging from his bedroom ceiling.

 

However, in most movies with model building featured, Hollywood is not so kind. In "Butterfly Effect", the character who built models was an often institutionalized psychotic and model building was presented as a symptom of him being messed up.

 

For TV, in "Desparate Housewives" a few years ago, a character brought a Hasegawa 1/32 Stuka to build with his girlfriend's child to help ingratiate himself with the his mother. (somehow they finished it in a single afternoon but I believe they did no painting), In Tim Allen's "Tool Time" he had several built car models on display in the living room in the show.

 

In the new Battlestar Galactica series, Commander Adama was working on a wooden ship model for several episodes (until in frustration over the death of a character, he destroyed the model, which according to the commentary was not scripted and an expensive act since the model was only on loan to the show).

 

I can't wait to hear other people's input to this topic.

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In "In the Line of Fire", the rogue secret agent trying to assassinate the president (John Malkovich) is a modeler. Clint Eastwood as the secret service agent tracking him down buys a bunch of model mags including a copy of Scale Auto and refers to modelers as "some kind of weird subculture". When the movie first came out, rumor had it Clint is an occasional builder...

 

Don

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Larry your right about how hollywood presents how a modeler is. Usually some nut job or a nerd type.

 

Don those are good ones.

 

I thought of another one. Remember the movie "Close incounters of the third kind", Richard Drifaus builds a mountain in his living room. That was one big diarama!!!

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In "40 Days and 40 Nights", Josh Hartnett plays a guy who swears off sex for Lent, meets the girl of his dreams early in his vow, friends are involved, bets ensue... It's a pretty funny movie. Anyway, all along, he builds models. He built them before his vow but builds them afterwards to take his mind off sex... Yeah, like THAT could happen! Lol!

 

 

Frank

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"Sunshine Cleaning" has one or two model-building (and one crashing) scene. The crash sets up one of the best lines of the movie, in my opinion.

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"The King's Speech".

Prince Albert fiddles with a model airplane belonging to his speech therapists son, even putting on glue with a brush, then mounting the top wing. He remarks that he was never able to build models as a child, being required to do stamp collecting and other more "royal hobbies".

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Sorry, not plastic but, CSI Vegas had the 'miniature killer'. The gimmick spanned two seasons and several episodes. The killer or someone close would leave a scale model/diorama of the crime scene at crime scene. Of course the miniature had clues that the actual scene did not. On more that one occasion there were visits to a model builders work bench. Hand crafted pot metal molds were the subject of a specific investigation thread.

 

More connotation that model builders are derelict.

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Sorry, not plastic but, CSI Vegas had the 'miniature killer'. The gimmick spanned two seasons and several episodes. The killer or someone close would leave a scale model/diorama of the crime scene at crime scene. Of course the miniature had clues that the actual scene did not. On more that one occasion there were visits to a model builders work bench. Hand crafted pot metal molds were the subject of a specific investigation thread.

 

More connotation that model builders are derelict.

 

I remember that season. Those models were so cool. Can't say I watch CSI anymore thou, NCIS is the big it for me now.

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How about Ronin. One of the characters that helps out De Niro and Jean Reno's characters is building a magnificent scale model of a Japanese castle populated with tons of warring samurai and he's show painting several of the figures.

 

Oh, Super 8 was one of my wife and I's favorite movies of the year.

 

Mike

 

And Gil...don't forget to lower the visor on that hat. We have newly developed technology that includes specialized lasers that can affect your thinking using the optic nerves as a pathway to your brain!

Edited by MikeMoore
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In "40 Days and 40 Nights", Josh Hartnett plays a guy who swears off sex for Lent...

 

I once swore off beer for Lent. That hurt.

 

Ditto on The King's Speech. I think they nailed something cool there.

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Sorry, not plastic but, CSI Vegas had the 'miniature killer'. The gimmick spanned two seasons and several episodes. The killer or someone close would leave a scale model/diorama of the crime scene at crime scene. Of course the miniature had clues that the actual scene did not. On more that one occasion there were visits to a model builders work bench. Hand crafted pot metal molds were the subject of a specific investigation thread.

 

More connotation that model builders are derelict.

 

I remember that season. Those models were so cool. Can't say I watch CSI anymore thou, NCIS is the big it for me now.

 

I am very good friends with the guy who supplied those Civil War figures and terrain for that episode. I even got to fight Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Shilo in a tabletop wargame using those very same troops.

 

Still I also enjoy NCIS better too. I have all the seasons on DVD.

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In "Easy Money", the doctor suggested Rodney Dangerfield take up a hobby. There's the scene where he's at the kitchen table assembling a ME-109. By the end of the scene, he's so worked up he tries to commit suicide with an X-Acto knife, damages the model, and when leaving the house with Joe Pesci he tells his wife, "Hey, Rose, there's a Messerschmitt in the kitchen. Clean it up, would ya?"

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Mythbuster episode tonight features Kari Byron building model 109s to test in a fluid dynamics lab.

 

Model building just got sexy on TV! Kinda balances out all the loonies and criminals usually depicted

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There are a few others with some model themes. 1. Mr Destiny [1990] stars James Belushi as Larry Borrows, married to Ellen [played by Linda Hamilton]. Larry is a regular guy who thinks his life stinks and wants something better. He gets his wish and in a "It's a wonderful life" way he sees he has a great life. He is is building Model Cars in some earlier scenes and in one of the best scenes he is sitting in a huge mansion in almost emtpy room building Model Cars! 2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Has one neat scene when the family comes home and his father is building a model on a tiny TV tray that has been cleverly converted into a complete hobby work bench, the best part is that he is wearing a Optivisor and continues to wear it through several scenes. Audience gets big laugh at expense of Modelers everywhere! However if you get a chance ti see it the TV tray workshop is a work of art!

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In "Easy Money", the doctor suggested Rodney Dangerfield take up a hobby. There's the scene where he's at the kitchen table assembling a ME-109. By the end of the scene, he's so worked up he tries to commit suicide with an X-Acto knife, damages the model, and when leaving the house with Joe Pesci he tells his wife, "Hey, Rose, there's a Messerschmitt in the kitchen. Clean it up, would ya?"

 

I bet a $1000.00 bucks that this has happen to someone. :smiley5:

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I remeber another one. In the movie Battle of the Bulge the German General and the main German tank commander look over a new model of Germany's lastest tank. It is suppose to be a King Tiger Tank but is really a M-47 Walker Bulldog.

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If anyone has been to Walt Disney World in Florida, at the MGM studios on the back lot tour in the quell area are model ships that were in movies. I believe if memory serves me most if not all the ship models are there from the latest Pearl Harbor movie. Maybe Gil has been and seen this.

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There was an episode of That 70's Show where Eric finishes a large scale X-Wing that ends up getting destroyed.

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In "In the Line of Fire", the rogue secret agent trying to assassinate the president (John Malkovich) is a modeler. Clint Eastwood as the secret service agent tracking him down buys a bunch of model mags including a copy of Scale Auto and refers to modelers as "some kind of weird subculture". When the movie first came out, rumor had it Clint is an occasional builder...

 

Don

 

Do you remember that the studio actually took some footage from the Nats that year for the movie? Unfortunately, from what I have been told, it all ended up on the editing room floor. =((

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In "In the Line of Fire", the rogue secret agent trying to assassinate the president (John Malkovich) is a modeler. Clint Eastwood as the secret service agent tracking him down buys a bunch of model mags including a copy of Scale Auto and refers to modelers as "some kind of weird subculture". When the movie first came out, rumor had it Clint is an occasional builder...

 

Don

 

Do you remember that the studio actually took some footage from the Nats that year for the movie? Unfortunately, from what I have been told, it all ended up on the editing room floor. =((

 

Too bad the film editors cut that out. Just think, IPMS Nationals preserved in film forever. How cool would that have been?

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