Category: Model Building

Stop the Film!

Happy (belated) Birthday to the late Ray Harryhausen – the original Grand Master of movie model animation. His creations were the heart of 16 feature length movies (as well as 5 short films) between 1949 and 1981.

Photo from the May 2013 NY Times article, reporting Ray’s death at the age of 92.

His best remembered creations were fantasy monsters and giant prehistoric animals. The term “Dynamation” was coined to market his techniques. It’s a combination of “dynamic” and “animation,” and refers to seamlessly merging live actors with stop action animation puppets.

Imagine the painstaking process of sculpting and hand painting armature characters, moving each in tiny increments, and photographing them one frame at a time. After that, sandwiching the images (a foreground scene featuring live actors, the animated monster, filmed one frame at a time in the middle-ground, then another scene filmed for the background) into a single, moving 3d image.

Ray saw 1933’s King Kong as an adolescent, and it began a lifelong dedication to making impossible fantasy characters become real. And it led to a lot of inspiration in its own right. Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings movie fame and Guillermo del Toro, creator of Pan’s Labyrinth, both cite Ray Harryhausen as their major influence. Likewise, Steven Spielberg (a la Jurassic Park) and James Cameron (Terminator) praise his groundbreaking visual imagery. And try to picture George Lucas’ Star Wars movies without model making and 3d image manipulation. They all achieved success standing on the shoulders of giants. (Giant monsters, but giants nonetheless.)

So many of his scenes are memorable that it seems impossible to choose his best. Instead, I’ll show a few of my favorites.

Although the swordfight is great, I really like the movements as Kali comes to life beforehand. (The Dr Who fans among you may recognize the evil sorcerer bringing her to life.)  A casting of the Harryhausen Kali figure sold at a memorabilia auction last fall for over $240,000.

 

When the titan Talos awakens…that’s some creepy stuff right there!

 

And perhaps the most iconic of all – the skeletons, also from Jason and the Argonauts.

Sophisticated modern audiences sometimes see the action as “fake” or “cheesy” because it doesn’t look real. I’ll agree to disagree.  Although we can see how a magician performs a particular trick, it doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the skill.  And his art is truly movie magic!

His work combines 3 of my favorite things – movie monsters, swords and sorcery, and scale model building. This fall, I’ll get to see the Ray Harryhausen exhibit at the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures.  I suspect it will be amazing!

-Toph

Which of Harryhausen’s creations do you remember most fondly?  Be sure to send me an email to let me know!

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A Whole New Old World

For the past few months, I’ve been on a big First World War kick. While I can credit the Gothic horror miniature game “Trench Crusade” with that initial spark, it certainly didn’t end there. After completing a handful of game miniatures, I ventured away from the (still very compelling) fictional game aesthetic. I was looking online at images of trench systems and the differences between those used early vs. later in the war, and why they changed as the conflict wore on. 

It led me down a rabbit hole that branched into a couple of different directions. I began studying the US involvement (1917-18) in World War One (also known as “The Great War,” “War to End All Wars”, and “WWI”). I read several of the resource books I have collected over the years. My main area of interest has always been the Second World War. As it turns out, I have a surprising amount of previously unexplored material on the prequel.

In addition to finding an excuse to read every piece of material I own on The Great War, I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube content as well. Many feature quality, historical information, while a handful are rife with inaccurate data and even misleading, altered or entirely AI-falsified photos. It also brought to my attention how many of the Facebook stories passed around about, “This day in military history,” are absolute fiction. Learning how to sort through the nonsense has been an interesting part of the study.

ICM’s 1/35 scale US Soldiers in Gas Masks
Although the ICM kit depicts a British machine gun, a version of the Vickers was used by the US forces – they had not yet developed their own

I also started building a few figure kits representing various combatants. They are pretty straightforward, construction-wise. I also gave in to temptation and bought a more detailed kit – a WWI tank model. While I’ve built tanks before, I haven’t taken on significantly more complex ones, for example, kits that employ individual linked tracks or photo etched brass details. This kit also has a detailed interior – another stretch out of my comfort zone. I’m hoping this endeavor is a step towards a new level of skill.

My first venture into the complex…

Growing up, I heard that my paternal great uncle Frans was drafted into WWI. My grandfather was a few years younger; and as a result, his number did not come up. Frans was exposed to poisonous gas (likely mustard gas at that point in the conflict) and had breathing difficulties for the rest of his life. I found several pieces of documentation in my search: his original draft registration, some US census records, and a photo of his military headstone at the Rock Island Arsenal National Cemetery. The first online photo I found was blurry, making it difficult to see some of the details. However, with a little more searching, I learned that he served as a private in the 139th Field Artillery. I also found an old, colorized postcard of the unit from that era.

The last few months have been a pretty cool experience. In fact, it’s been a 3-pronged journey. First: a study of the fascinating political climate of the turn of the century and resultant conflict that shaped the next hundred-plus years. Second: an opportunity to take my modeling skills in an unexpected direction – pushing my comfort zone and challenging myself to grow. And finally: a peek into the lives of ancestors who are becoming more than vague names and dates on yellowed paper in cardboard boxes. They were, in fact, real people who were born, lived entire lives, and died. They no longer need to stay forgotten. And all this discovery out of a single project – that’s pretty cool.

My great uncle’s WWI dog tag

-Toph

P.S. – Drop me a note about your own forays into the past. I truly enjoy the emails I get, from old friends as well as new ones.

Until next time – cheers!