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This my model of the ORCA - the
famous boat from the film JAWS.
My Orca is 36"x10" and except for the hull, is entirely
built from scratch. The hull was constructed from bits and pieces from a
Midwest Boothbay Lobster boat kit. The boat is radio controlled and has
barrels which can be towed to give the illusion that a shark is following
close behind. I am in the process of installing sound and dialogue from
the film.
I kit bashed a Midwest Boothbay Lobster boat kit, which was a good choice
because my research showed that the Orca originally named the Warlock was
based on a lobster boat hull. The figures were purchased at Toys R
Us, and were from the Star Wars Movies. I reshaped them slightly with a
Dremel drill and painted them to match the colours of the clothing worn in
the movie.
The mast and rigging is made of aluminium tubing and cable wire. The
shark cage was made out of rectangular and round hollow aluminium stock,
fitted together and super glued. The 'chum' ( fish scraps used as bait
)bucket is a 35mm plastic film canister. The chum consists of bits of
string, bb's, shredded closed cell foam, and my wife's worst 'blood red'
nail polish. The teeth are from my pet piranha, which died a year
ago. They were a perfect size for this project.!!! The barrels are made
from 1 1/2 inch dowel, cut to size, and shaped on a primitive lathe
(screwed into the end of a drill and held against a power sander).
The vertical planks on the boat consist of styrene sheeting. The
boat is finished in Floquil-grime (colour). The two oxygen caps were made
from Sharpie marker caps. The interior is complete with radio,
Coleman stove, table/bench, and even baseball bat.
She runs great on the water and weighs about 12 pounds. The boat is
powered by a 6-volt Dumas motor, direct drive, 7.2 volt battery, and has a
run time of over 1 hour. All compartments are modular and
removable.
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Snowberry, a
Flower class corvette. She was constructed from the popular 1:72 scale
Revel plastic kit.
(was originally a matchbox kit). She is 32" long By 7" wide and powered by
a direct drive Dumas 6 volt motor. The aft deck is sealed, the forward
deck is removable. There is what looks like a rain gutter that supports
the forward deck and drains off any water down through pipes onto the aft
deck and out the aft scupper holes. She is built to handle the roughest
north Atlantic storms the local lake can throw at her. I ballasted her for
these conditions. The snowberry is also heavily weathered using acrylic
artist oils, homemade rust and powdered dirt. Donald duck was the ships
mascot and can be seen on the fwd turret. |
