This will be one of my long term builds this year.

That movie ‘Jaws’ has always had a nostalgic hold on me in much the same way the modeling hobby does. As an adult when I sit at the bench I recreate the magic of building something that captures a feeling; something around excitement, youth, testimonial, creativity, and expression. Everything else fades, like a focused form of meditation.

‘Jaws’ captures that same spirit for me. More specifically, the third act, when Quint, Brody, and Hooper set off in the Orca to face their unknowable enemy. Perhaps there’s a metaphor here for growing up; leaving youth and innocence, entering a dangerous world of responsibility, high stakes, and ‘real’ monsters.

‘Jaws’ is not a movie about a shark eating people. Well, it is, but bear with me. It’s the movie where Spielberg cut his teeth (pardon the pun) on movies about alienation, family, group intimacy, facing unusual danger, and finding identity. When those three guys get on the boat they start a journey where they all change, and they need to, to face their fears.

The unsung hero of all this is the ‘Orca’. The Orca is the home, the sanctuary that is eventually shattered (literally) leaving our heroes to sink or swim (can’t help it with those puns...). It’s the stage where Quint makes that amazing ‘Indianapolis’ speech, where we see each character’s vulnerability, and play out their tensions.

Enough of this. The model. Well, the plans are on the wall, the timber is here, references have been collected. She’ll be mainly plywood and balsa, static (not one for RC), roughly around 60 cm long and the same height.

Just please, no-one say, “we’re going to need a bigger boat.”

Hull laid down On This Day...January 6th...

Nice ! 'We need a bigger boat'

James, we have a rule in our house. When ‘Jaws’ plays on the regular scheduled TV, we have to watch it. Of course when I say “we”, I mean “I”. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it. If you can get a hold of the new ‘cleaned up’ version, it’s a work of art; every frame was treated and cleaned - looks like it was made yesterday.

I am a fairly consistant reader , I nearly always have a book on the go and like all readers I love nothing more than to look down my nose at a movie and say "of course it's o.k. but it's not a patch on the book" this is one of the few examples (in my opinion) where the movie was miles better than the book, looking forward to seeing this done.

Jaws was my first scary movie. I watched it (but more often Jaws2) on the Movie Channel at my Grandma's house at the age of six or seven. Still love the original!

Great subject David. And I never miss a showing. Brilliant film and you just could not have better actors in those roles. Superb. All the best and your on this day posts are also a highlight everyday. Thanks for taking the time.

Thanks, Anthony. Looking forward to working up something (non-military) from scratch. A ‘legacy’ build; maybe one day, one of the kids (probably my daughter) will raise a glass of scotch to the Orca on the mantle, and think, “oh, dad, you were a crazy one...”

Famously, Peter Benchley was in the actual movie, he played the TV reporter on the beech just before the Kintner kid was munched by the shark...