know of any movies that have model building scenes? post them here.

All I can think of is 40 Year Old Virgin. but I know there are more out there. :-) :-)

CSI, Crime Scene Investigation, just finished up a series of three episodes that featured some guy that made incredibly detailed dioramas of the crime scenes. I understand American Dreams had a recurring thing about one kid who did models. ER had Bob Newhart who did model figures. I know there was one movie or TV where a guy was doing a really bad Iowa class BB.

On the whole though the typical portrayal is of model makers being total geeks, nerds, or weidos.

Well, I'm glad they've got an accurate portrayal :-) :-) :-)

One that comes to mind is Josh Hartnett in 40 days and 40 nights. It's about staying celibate for the 40 days. In one scene he is building a model car while brush painting from Testors bottle paints.

'Ronin' with with Robert Deniro has a scene where Michael Lonsdale's character is building a seige diorama with lots of figures and castle walls.

There's also 'Galaxy Quest' where the nerdy kid is building a model of the NSEA Protector.

Also Ian McKellan's character in 'The Da Vinci Code' is painting figures.

I think from memory that the movie Butterfly Effect had a model building scene in it.

Of course the character was supposed to be some kind of hyper withdrawn freak who was living with his mum & dad.

No problems with stereotyping there.

Cheers

In one of the Segal movies, (so hard to tel them apart, even by title!) he helps the kid next door with model planes.
At one point in In the Line of Fire Clint Eastwood peruses modeling magazines and picks up a copy Scale Auto Enthusiast with a Richard Petty car crash dio on the cover..
In Three Days of the Condor a character is painting figures, as well.

Isn't he doing that to chase theJohn Malcovich character (the assassin) who is/was a serious modeler. Also in the film he interviews a wheelchair bound modeler (iirc..) who packs a gun , afraid of Mancovich.

It's been a long time since I saw that movie.

Malcom in the Middle , Fox TV show had the commandant of the military school building an old Tamiya Panther at one point. There were car models in the background of the sets of Home Improvement, but I dont remember any modelling content.

Mike

Precisely. The assassin is working on building a resin gun and Clint follows up in the model building world, but, other than Malchovih's working with casting resin, there isn't any real building.

There's a Jim Belushi movie where an angel switches the past and alters his present so that he is very wealthy and married to his high school sweetheart. He gets depressed for some reason and starts building a car model, I think it was a testors porche or something.

The old Rodney Dangerfield movie "Easy Money" shows him sitting at the kitchen table building a model airplane. When he and his friend are leaving he tells his wife that he left a Messerschmitt on the table and asks her to clean it up.

HARV

It was an AMT Mercedes 300SL Gull Wing

I see in lots of movies guys that do historic figures. Can't think of specifics, but I've seen Civl War and American Revolution, and Napoleonic ( as well as the Japanese Samuri one). MOst of the guys doing it are portrayed as being very very intelligent well educated guys...

Eric on that 70's Show built Star Wars stuff.

Magnum P.I.

Higgybabby is always building something in his den.

I think it's in "Murder at 1600" that Wesley Snipes is a detective who has a huge civil War Diorama in his apartment.

We're not?
That's right all normal people keep 500 models in the closets. :-)

With reshooting a scene,they would need to "rebuild " up to a point to keep continuity in the flow of the show.If An actor gives a line,while gluing on a wing of an a/c,and they had to reshoot,the model wold have to be having the same work being done from the new angle.Or else it would "jump " from no wing,to wing and landing gear.
there was a disscussion in a Model RR mag about a train layout in the movie "The Music Box".One actor broke a telephone pole,and they ahd to leave it like that during future scenes where the RR was visible.

In the 40-year old virgin the main character(dont know his name) he's painting a 54 mm civil war figure. I think a New york Zouave

In James Bond The Living Daylights there is an arms dealer that has model layouts of all the Greatest Battles of the world.

Now, I 'm going to try to watch most of these, and I still cant think of a movie with modelling as a main thing

Adama has occassionally been seen working on an old wood sailing ship in a couple of episodes. He's generally just doing what appears to be slight detailing or touch up paint work in his cabin.

I happened to remember another one. Mark Hamill made a movie called "Corvette Summer" and in it he is making a model mock up of the Corvette he is going to build.

If I think of another I will share it.

HARV

In Beetlejuice of Tim Burton the main characters Alec Balwin and Geena DAvis was making a model of a entire town in his Penthouse
cheers

Not a movie, but the Without A Trace TV show broadcast on 7 January featured the missing character building an aircraft, or at least implied it, with his Testor's paint caddy and cans of spray paint and a P-51 next to him with his magnifying light to his left.

probaly only the UK guys will remember this show called Adrian Mole about a teenage geeky kid. He is building a spitfire and gets curious about the whole glue sniffing thing. Cuts to the next scene of him sat in A&E (casualty) where he has the spitfire stuck to his face with a rather embaressed father. :-)

Hello,

In the first "Stuart Little" movie the protagonist boy (Jonathan Lipnicki) is seen engaged in some work at his table with a couple of 1:48 model planes, a Heinkel 111 and a P-47, I believe.

Also, in "The Patriot", Mel Gibson's son has some toy lead soldiers, which eventually he donates to melt and make bullets from. Funny thing is they are clearly soldiers from the next century as related to the one the movie is set in, I seem to recall German soldiers in parade dress, with spike helmets or something similar, anyway obviously 19th or early 20th c. uniforms.

In the Japanese cartoon series "Dr Slump", the character's actual creator (caricaturized) does appear sometimes, and he builds scale models (as he does in real life): AFVs, planes, figures... you can even recognize the (caricaturized) box arts of some Tamiya kits, I remember for instance their 1:35 88 mm gun box appearing in a scene. In fact, in that series you can often seen cartoon versions of well known military machines.

I would say one of the lead characters in "Falcon Crest" painted model soldiers, too. I remember at least one scene he appeared giving some finishing touches to a figure, in his immaculate office desk...

Daniel