Orca Shark Boat from the movie Jaws | Model Shipwrights

Artitec models of the Netherlands has released a 1/87 scale rendition of the Orca shark boat


This is partial text from the full article (usually with photos) at https://modelshipwrights.com/news/orca-shark-boat-from-the-movie-jaws
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That looks like a fantastic kit!
I like all the little details for the cabin, shark cage, air tanks… it’s amazing! We just need little 1/87 figures of Quint, Brody and Hooper to crew it.

Over Christmas 2021 we went to London to watch the play The Shark is Broken, a comedy about the three leading cast members stuck on the Orca while they wait for Bruce (the mechanical shark) to be fixed. It was written by and starred Ian Shaw playing his own dad. Really enjoyed it.

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The movie Jaws was my first date with the girl who became my wife - scary…

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I think it was one of the first films my parents saw together. Apparently my mom jumped out of her seat when the head fell through the bottom of the boat!

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That’s cool. I didn’t know they had the Orca in kit form.

I went and saw the movie when I was in the fifth grade and it scared the heck out of me!! :open_mouth: But it is a great film and a favorite of mine.

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Well, another model I did not know I want…

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This model ain’t no gem, it’s the entire chest full of treasure. I can’t wait to see it built.

Reminiscing, my only story is that my high school chemistry teacher, Mrs Freeman, I don’t know what it was about this movie but while we kids were all chattering about how awesome scary it was, she indignantly declared that it’s just a monster movie, a horror movie.

She also referred to mad magazine as " propaganda. " Still not sure what she was saying or for what political viewpoint.

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That’s probably a fair assessment of the other progressively worsening three. Revenge is a real shocker!!

A few months ago Peter Jan Haas of Artitec (Amsterdam) sent me a copy of their excellent 1/87 scale rendition of the shark boat ORCA from the movie JAWS. I posted the in-box review of it at the time:

Now… would anyone like to build this model? :grin:

It is an absolutely gorgeous kit (which sells for the equivalent of about US$75) - and I’ll send it to you to build!

All I ask is that you complete it within a reasonable time (say, six months) and post pictures of your progress on this forum. The kit is yours for free, but I’d appreciate it if you would reimburse my postage costs.

If you are interested, just respond on this thread. After a few days I’ll throw the names into a hat and pick the lucky builder!

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The 3D one was shot in part down the road from my childhood home near Navarre, FL, but that isn’t really something worth bragging about if you’ve seen the movie.

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If only I lived across the pond…I would thrown my hat in the ring… An all time classic film… I read the book first and it still scared me lol

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Hey John, just rent a small boat and go for it! :sailboat:

—mike :grin:

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3 was awful. I actually consider it worse than Revenge. And we all know how bad that one is!

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Worse than Jurassic Shark imho.

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A very cool looking kit

I can’t believe no one has mentioned Sharknado lol ,… So very real :see_no_evil::see_no_evil:

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…But why the oddball 1/87 scale? :thinking:

Was there a railroad line near Amity Island? That’s HO scale.

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Exactly! :thinking:

Wouldn’t it have been better in 1/72 to put with other 1/72 scale salty subjects? :innocent:

Russell, a good question that comes up every now and then. 1/87 is also HO scale, and I understand how it is associated with model railroading. The scale is also huge in Europe for more than just model trains. I cannot tell you if there is a “what came first, the chicken or the egg” relationship, but 1/87 has a huge following for civil and military vehicles. Automotive model manufacturer Herpa’s magazine Der Mass:Stab is full of 1/87 dioramas with nary a train in sight. I have no doubt that toy manufacturers and subsequently model makers use the scale to piggyback with models railroaders would want to have on their layouts, but it seems like over the decades of his shifted into its own non-model railroading scale as well.

That said, why not just go to 1/72? Such is one of the modeling mysteries of model manufacturers and their chosen scales, such as why 1/35 and not 1/36 - or the established 1/32? I was pretty excited decades ago when - was it Hobby Boss or Trumpeter? - released some 1/72 Railroad models. And there are several model of manufacturers over in Eastern Europe that make trains in that scale, usually armored trains. But no great quantity of them

All that said, while 1/87 is no longer just a model railroad scale, Artitec does make model railroad models, so I suppose they are standardizing their products.

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