Orca by FlyingFish – FINISHED - Scale 1:20 - from the movie Jaws.

[Moab]

WOW!!!!! I assume the barometer works!...Moab

[FriedClams]

Great progress FF - very nice work on the instruments!

 

Gary

[oldmanofthesea]

On 7/14/2021 at 1:16 PM, FlyingFish said:

Pilot House

Lots of references on the movie, but significant differences between Ora I and II which can be confusing. I guess the production design team relied on the fact that the background of the scenes is not examined too closely. I have tried to build this as in life; lots of joinery and framing that will be hidden later.

Here’s an example from the galley unit:
Orca I – T&G planking

Orca II – no planking

 

So based on Orca I references...

 

 

 

Do you mind me asking what color / type of paint or stain you used for the cabinet,where the stove sits on? I like that color

[FlyingFish]

On 8/4/2021 at 4:12 PM, Moab said:

I assume the barometer works!...Moab

Well pressure seems to be high in the workshop!😄

[FlyingFish]

7 hours ago, oldmanofthesea said:

what color / type of paint or stain you used

Ahoy!

Wood is field maple, sanded and sealed with clear shellac to stop the 'nits' creating dark spots later. Then a thinned wash of Vallejo 71.036 model air mahogany, brushed out until no streaks left. Further coats on some planks to provide a contrast. The wood grain shows through, which I like.

Finally a pin wash of burnt umber oil thinned with turpentine, with some left at the base to darken it. 

I will maybe use a black and burnt umber mix of oil paint later to weather it up later when I bring the whole cabin together.

[FlyingFish]

Thanks for all the likes and nice comments - much appreciated!

Progress is painstaking as I need to fabricate all the contents of the cabins before getting on with the lower deck roof and pilot house roof. 

Apparently Marty Milner, one of the crew converting Warlock to Orca, said Joe Alves told them not to worry about all the little details -"they're not gonna show up in the movie, and the audiences won't be able to see them". Oh so you think so eh?!

 

One item that I was frustrated with was the porthole on the back pilot house wall. It is an opening one, and I couldn't find one anywhere to buy.

So I made one.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by FlyingFish

[FlyingFish]

And a few more bits and pieces all destined for the pilot house. Jaws fans will recognise them all (I hope!).

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by FlyingFish

[FlyingFish]

Talking of Jaws fans maybe you'll find this interesting. Picked this up recently off ebay (no idea who the 'runny nosed girl' was):

 

 

Benchley always signed with the great little shark doodle - cool eh?

 

[oldmanofthesea]

On 8/7/2021 at 12:45 AM, FlyingFish said:

Ahoy!

Wood is field maple, sanded and sealed with clear shellac to stop the 'nits' creating dark spots later. Then a thinned wash of Vallejo 71.036 model air mahogany, brushed out until no streaks left. Further coats on some planks to provide a contrast. The wood grain shows through, which I like.

Finally a pin wash of burnt umber oil thinned with turpentine, with some left at the base to darken it. 

I will maybe use a black and burnt umber mix of oil paint later to weather it up later when I bring the whole cabin together.

Thank you very much! Any time I see a color or shade I like,I always like to know how it was achieved

[FlyingFish]

One step forward....

 

Still cranking out props to fit out the cabins, more of which in a day or two.

Meanwhile something had been bugging me... the carpenters have been dry fitting the pilot house joists, and noticed that the steering column that links the flying bridge wheel to the pilot house wheel, then down into the forward cabin was out by about 4mm...

There was no way the linking column would line up with the flying bridge. 😒

Pity as it was looking OK

 

 

You can see the problem here; the circular cut out on the dash will not clear the joist as it passes up into the flying cockpit. The rake of the front windows was out by about 5 degrees.

 

 

So nothing for it but to start over and rip out the front windows and frame and start again... sigh.

 

 

Inserted a 4mm spacer then put the window back in.

 

 

Its a mess but patchable. But you can see now that the steering shaft is now centred between the joists as it should be.

 

If sharp eyed Jaws aficionados out there are watching - yes the roof joists are curved, not as in the original - I just think some of Orca's redesign (flat roof to pilot house) would never have been found in an authentic lobster boat, so I took an executive decision!

 

 

[jlt13th]

1 hour ago, FlyingFish said:

One step forward....

 

Still cranking out props to fit out the cabins, more of which in a day or two.

Meanwhile something had been bugging me... the carpenters have been dry fitting the pilot house joists, and noticed that the steering column that links the flying bridge wheel to the pilot house wheel, then down into the forward cabin was out by about 4mm...

There was no way the linking column would line up with the flying bridge. 😒

Pity as it was looking OK

 

 

You can see the problem here; the circular cut out on the dash will not clear the joist as it passes up into the flying cockpit. The rake of the front windows was out by about 5 degrees.

 

 

So nothing for it but to start over and rip out the front windows and frame and start again... sigh.

 

 

Inserted a 4mm spacer then put the window back in.

 

 

Its a mess but patchable. But you can see now that the steering shaft is now centred between the joists as it should be.

 

If sharp eyed Jaws aficionados out there are watching - yes the roof joists are curved, not as in the original - I just think some of Orca's redesign (flat roof to pilot house) would never have been found in an authentic lobster boat, so I took an executive decision!

 

 

Finally got my old user id to work again Believe it or not,they didnt actually change the roofs from the Warlock to Orca.In fact you can still see the paint from Warlocks roof colors seeping through in some pics. Looks like your on the right track.Looking great.I like the lower cabin area as well. I did an Orca half hull many years ago,where I built a lower hold area.Wasnt the best,but it was fun.

[jlt13th]

13 hours ago, FlyingFish said:

One step forward....

 

Still cranking out props to fit out the cabins, more of which in a day or two.

Meanwhile something had been bugging me... the carpenters have been dry fitting the pilot house joists, and noticed that the steering column that links the flying bridge wheel to the pilot house wheel, then down into the forward cabin was out by about 4mm...

There was no way the linking column would line up with the flying bridge. 😒

Pity as it was looking OK

 

You can see the problem here; the circular cut out on the dash will not clear the joist as it passes up into the flying cockpit. The rake of the front windows was out by about 5 degrees.

 

 

 

So nothing for it but to start over and rip out the front windows and frame and start again... sigh.

 

 

 

Inserted a 4mm spacer then put the window back in.

 

Its a mess but patchable. But you can see now that the steering shaft is now centred between the joists as it should be.

 

If sharp eyed Jaws aficionados out there are watching - yes the roof joists are curved, not as in the original - I just think some of Orca's redesign (flat roof to pilot house) would never have been found in an authentic lobster boat, so I took an executive decision!

 

 

Heres a pic that shows what I was eluding too.You can see the old Warlock paint through the chips and scrapes.This was also the case with the wheel house roof.BTW:This pic was taken off the coast of Ca. in 74 and thats dolphins (or porpuses) you see jumping at the bow.Pic was taken by the gentleman who owned the Orca after filming wrapped in 74'.

[FlyingFish]

13 hours ago, jlt13th said:

In fact you can still see the paint from Warlocks roof colors seeping through in some pics

Thanks for these great pictures - very interesting to see that the new owner kept the original 'finish'. When I saw this pic I had assumed the hull had been repainted and the ORCA lettering taken off the transum, so good to see the deck was unaltered.

[FlyingFish]

1 hour ago, jlt13th said:

This pic was taken off the coast of Ca. in 74

I see that there is a harpoon tied to a barrel - tuna fishing?

[jlt13th]

15 hours ago, FlyingFish said:

Thanks for these great pictures - very interesting to see that the new owner kept the original 'finish'. When I saw this pic I had assumed the hull had been repainted and the ORCA lettering taken off the transum, so good to see the deck was unaltered.

Alan and his buddy Jerry (seen in this pic) did strip the hull to bare wood.Funny enough,they restored the hull on the old Gilligans island set,on the Universal backlot..They also stripped parts of the flybridge area to bare wood.but left most of the paint alone as far as the roofs,etc...They only stripped the area where they felt it needed attention.The hull was in rough shape after filming....Also I dont see that harpoon attached to the barrel you mentioned.Maybe your seeing the anchor,or the steel piping of the barrel runner guide?

[FlyingFish]

Very interesting pictures... thanks for posting!

Looks like a harpoon from the original props tied to a rope coiled in a bucket... maybe?

Alan and his buddy must have been amazed when the film did so well, and realised what they were sitting on!

[jlt13th]

25 minutes ago, FlyingFish said:

Very interesting pictures... thanks for posting!

Looks like a harpoon from the original props tied to a rope coiled in a bucket... maybe?

Alan and his buddy must have been amazed when the film did so well, and realised what they were sitting on!

Oh ok.I was looking at the opposite side.If you look at the pic of the back wall/bridge area I posted,you will see that same harpoon (or least same style) ,standing up,attached to the cabin,along with several others..Im not sure if where this one came from.The ones on the cabin sides,were wood and this appears to be metal.So it could be just something they added to the boat.Or possibly it was one of the ones that sat on the wheel house roof,along with the boat hooks and such,that we see in some shots.That'd be my guess.

 

Alan purchased her for $4K and when the movie hit theaters,he sold it back for $16K.He kept the letters off the transom and a few other items.Later selling those for more than double what he sold the boat for..Heres a couple more shots after she arrived in her new home,at Long Beach Marina.

[FlyingFish]

That's a great story; he did well, and certainly better than the execs at Universal who allowed one of the (potentially) most famous boats to rot away. Lord only knows what she would be worth today!

I'm not aware of these photos ever being posted before, so thank you for adding greatly to the knowledge base about this little boat. In particular the hull shape forward has been the subject of all sorts of interpretation, as I mentioned earlier in this log. It's great to see that she was in fact a fairly standard Novi lobster boat design, with the sweeping sheer that rises from the transom. I think I got this about right in my build, which I'm pleased about.

 

[jlt13th]

4 hours ago, FlyingFish said:

That's a great story; he did well, and certainly better than the execs at Universal who allowed one of the (potentially) most famous boats to rot away. Lord only knows what she would be worth today!

I'm not aware of these photos ever being posted before, so thank you for adding greatly to the knowledge base about this little boat. In particular the hull shape forward has been the subject of all sorts of interpretation, as I mentioned earlier in this log. It's great to see that she was in fact a fairly standard Novi lobster boat design, with the sweeping sheer that rises from the transom. I think I got this about right in my build, which I'm pleased about.

 

These photos havnt been posted much.Up until 2010 no one had ever seen them.Not even Alan.He took them back in 74' and never developed them. The negs just sat in his closet all those years..He was kind enough to send me the negatives,in which I developed.Sadly,in 2016 Alan told me he loaned them to another Jaws fan and last I heard he never got them back.....Yeah Warlock was pretty standard.She was actually built here in the USA and was never an actual fishing boat.She was a "lobster yacht" made of 1" oak planking. And yes.Your doing a great job with your build. Im gearing up to do another as well.Its always a fun project.

[FlyingFish]

Got through two bottles of apricot brandy today. Feeling a bit light headed now...😴

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by FlyingFish

[FlyingFish]

The Acme prop factory is working overtime, and still more to do. Here's a taster...

 

Pilot house stuff...

 

Lower trunk cabin stuff...

 

 

Quint's fancy table (well the legs anyway)...

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by FlyingFish

[FlyingFish]

Thanks for the comments and likes, always appreciated.

Let's go fishin'!

[FlyingFish]

A couple of teasers. The close up shows every spec of dust and imperfection, but this is just a mock up before final fitting and weathering of interior spaces.

 

[mtaylor]

Your last post threw me for a curve.   I thought you were showing the real thing until I looked really close.

[FlyingFish]

A few more bits and pieces...

 

 

 

[FlyingFish]

So its time to put all the props in place as I'm now itching to get on with the rest of the boat.

 

Starting with the lower trunk cabin and V berth. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the beams above...

 

[FlyingFish]

...and the pilot house:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FlyingFish]

So after all that fiddly stuff, time to cover it all up. 

 

 

The admiral (head shark hunter) thinks I should find a way to open the deck to show the interior, what do you think?

[Sea Hoss]

Absolutely! After all that intricate and amazing work, I would find a way to be able to remove the lids to show it.

[FlyingFish]

On 8/27/2021 at 10:06 PM, DCN said:

Small magnets on the corners

That's a great idea DCN, I'll look at that.

Framing of top decks coming on. I wonder what they would have stored in those lockers...?

Edited September 21, 2021 by FlyingFish