And…there is always this scene from 1965’s “Battle of the Bulge” with Robert Shaw.
Col. Martin Hessler (Robert Shaw) “Germans are still the best toy makers in the World”!
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What about the excellent Moon, with the inimitable Sam Rockwell and directed by Zowie Bowie aka Duncan Jones, where the various iterations of Sam Bell build a town over 938 hours. And even more importantly in this day and age of computer generated graphics, the models used for the vehicles etc in the film.
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The plane in Flight of the Phoenix was essentially a giant model airplane.
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Alec Baldwin building the miniature village in “Beetlejuice” from 1988.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice
The movie “Gung Ho” from 1986.
The wheel falls off…“American Car”.
“The Elephant Man” from 1980. John Merrick builds a scale model of the cathedral.
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That does it…! 
I think John Merrick’s model building has really just taken the biscuit.
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In some episodes of the IT Crowd, some Matchbox kits can be seen behind Roy’s desk. I think it’s the Strikemaster, Beaufighter and Sea Harrier.
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There is scene in Kingdom of Heaven when Balian arrives in Jerusalem and is looking at some models of castles and siege engines, but I haven’t found a screen shot so far.
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The funny Scottish sketch comedy show," Chewin’ the Fat" (on Netflix", has a character, Ballistic Bob, who’s initially calm approach to tasks or jobs invariably ends up in an out of control outburst of comedic violence, enters a modeling contest in this sketch, with the expected results…
“Murder at 1600,” Wesley Snipes’ character had a huge Bull Run diorama he was working on — spotting figures knocked over on the diorama, he realizes that someone has been in his place.
In season 3 of “The Crown” the Queen unexpectedly drops in on her long time secretary, now retired, Tommy Lacellles, who is working on a large Waterloo diorama. She picks up one of the figures as they talk, then puts it back down in the wrong place at conclusion of their conversation. After she leaves, an irritated Tommy returns the figure to its proper place on the diorama.
And let’s not forget the Client Eastwood film, “In The Line of Fire”. John Malkovich’s character, Booth, is reading a modeling magazine, “New Age Modeler” or something like that, learning about resin to use for his security-proof assassination weapon.
The British sketch comedy show, “Little Britain” (used to be on Hulu), also featured a couple of sketches in a toy store with an extremely picky, annoying customer. The store has a large stack Airfix kits.
The Japanese anime series, “Girls Und Panzer” featured visits to “tankey” stores which were stocked with familiar Tamiya and Dragon tank kits and armor publications we would all recognize…
“The Soprano’s” had an episode where somebody subject to a protection scheme was painting a model car with Testors paints — mobster Joe Pantoliano ends the conversation by sweeping the car model(s) off the guy’s desk…
A buddy of mine, Ken, built the models for “Last Man Standing” and said that Tim Allen was a real stand-up guy, and a fan of armor modeling.
With Regards and Aloha,
Johnny B.
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Talking of Tim Allen, I do remember an episode of Home Improvement where he was building models with the boys. Tim kitbashed a large scale Spitfire with a Ford Mustang!
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Advanced World War I Tactics with General Melchet
“What is the actual scale of this map?” …
For an example of fantastic groundwork, advance to approx. 2:20.
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On two evenings in a row after finishing work, there have been model boats on the TV:
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From “Interpol Calling” (1959 TV series) episode “The Long Weekend”
(David Kossoff on the right) -
From “The 39 Steps” (1959)
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Will give the props department full marks for the set for this sketch.
They really did a great job.
Funny the things you remember, but the model shop in my home town had one of those Humbrol paint brush stands next to the counter. Probably even got some of those brushes in my brush pot.
Sadly the shop closed in the early 2000’s and along with the other shops on the street was bulldozed to make for a development project that never happened. The land is still up for sale and overgrown.
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I still have a Beatties paint brush, well ragged and used for cleaning the airbrush cup these days. I think it came from Beatties in Croydon, not sure when that went under.
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Steve Carell does it again in Welcome to Marwen :
H.P.
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Jackboots on Whitehall is another movie that featured some amazing model work. And very funny too.
Cannot recommended it enough. It never got the publicity it deserved at the time of release. I only learned of it when I found a copy in HMV.
Warning, trailer may not be safe to watch at work.
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They’re always still useful for something.
I’ve had a look in my brush pot and found about a dozen Humbrol Senators of several sizes I still regularly use! Fantastic brushes, some of them must be at least 20 years old!
