So, exhaust in place, ladders set, all looking good to start getting the micro-details and lighting in the cabin.

Another comparison shot shows the project is roughly on the right lines. Getting the paint and rigging done are the things that excite me. Altogether now, “yep, I need to get out more...”

Stephen,
Funny how things show up in stills that may be lost in the film. I think Spielberg himself would love this thread.

David,
This is a masterwork of scratch building and camaraderie. Funny how a 40 year old movie links so many of us together. Thanks for being that bridge.

The Orca’s transom as a sacrificial ‘altar’.

Ah, this is one of the interesting things about movies. You take even the most basic film and read as little or as much into it as you wish.

In my more fanciful moments, I believe the blood stained transom gives a visual clue to how deep Quint’s hatred of sharks runs. Since the sinking of the Indianapolis, he just can’t kill enough of them. And rather than clean the boat, the stains there keep a record of every shark he has slaughtered in an attempt to deal with the memories.

And here’s the interesting thing; without that Indianapolis story, there is no Jaws movie. The whole third act of the film rests on Quint being trapped in what happened in the South Pacific in 1945. This will very much inform how I present this project when she is done.

When we first see the shark (a staggering 81 minutes into the film) it is when Brodie (land lubber police chief) is chumming fish remains into the water from the transom, baiting the shark and bringing the monster to them with blood that we see spattered over the back of the boat.

That he does this over the transom is interesting as in one of the movie’s defining moments we see Quint eaten alive on that very transom, staining the water and the boat with his own blood.

Not that I’ve thought much about this.

@stephen-w-towle

Yeah, Louis, this is my version of the home stretch...

@lgardner

Thanks, Aleks. My respect for you as a modeler has no boundaries, so your compliments are deeply appreciated. As for the fun, I’m having a great time here; 300 and something posts, and the project is just warming up...

@asekular

Little known fact; there is a Jaws printing of the original introduction of Quint in the movie which shows him laughing aloud at a cinema showing of ‘Moby Dick’. The scene shows disgruntled customers leaving the cinema as Quint becomes increasingly vocal in his laughter at Gregory Peck’s ‘Ahab’. The scene plays out with the cinema empty apart from Quint laughing at the screen. Gregory Peck refused to allow Spielberg to show this version of Quint’s introduction as he was unhappy with his own portrayal of Ahab and didn’t want to see people humiliating the character.

Also, in the book, ‘Jaws’ the shark dies of blood loss and sinks as he swims around Chief Brody, with Quint’s body attached to the great white with a harpoon line that he’d become entangled in - very similar to Ahab’s demise in Moby Dick.

Personally, I think the ‘finger nails down the blackboard’ introduction of Quint that made it to the movie was brilliant.

‘Good and Evil’...well, we’ll get to that one, Stephen.

Thanks for the post, and happy lawn mowing...

@stephen-w-towle

100% agree, Stephen. If you ARE going to steal, take from a mark that’s loaded.

@stephen-w-towle