Close Encounters of the Third Kind UFOs

[crystalbaud]

I was just curious if anyone has attempted or knows of someone who has attempted to bring one of these studio-scale models to life. I've always been interested in making a project out of at least one UFO reproduction. There's a great variety of them shown in the film and the lighting effects would look outstanding in a scale model. Anyone ever hear of such a project?

 

[CessnaDriver]

I can't even recall ever seeing pictures of the studio models of the smaller craft.

 

[ReplicantShadow]

I have never seen any myself. Just watched this last Sunday Night with the girl, one of my favorite films. Would love to see if anything would turn-up. I know I have seen a Mother Ship image somewhere

 

[Lord Boron]

Plenty of pics of the Mothership available, but not much on the smaller craft. Most were simple shapes with elaborate lighting. Since they were all about the lighting I don't think the actual models had much detail. In one shot at Devils Tower, you can clearly see they used a respirator covered with lights. Here's a thread with a few pics.

http://www.therpf.com/f11/close-encounters-third-kind-recon-ufo-30975/

 

[crystalbaud]

Most of the model photos I've come across are of the 'mothership' at the Smithsonian. That would be quite a feat to reproduce. I'm always on the hunt for photos of additional UFOs in the film. I read the making of book on the film and many of the models were thrown together with very simple, defined objects (ie, coke cans, windshield wipers, even a gas mask). Lighting such objects would make for an awesome display.

'mothership' detail

Additional UFO model

 

[crystalbaud]

Here's a thread with a few pics.

http://www.therpf.com/f11/close-encounters-third-kind-recon-ufo-30975/

How funny. I must have gotten a photo from that thread a few years back. :lol

 

[propologist]

very cool...would be awesome just to see all the details and figure out what's what.

 

[REL]

check out the R2

 

[crystalbaud]

I love how the R2 even gets screen time in the film.

 

[GKvfx]

Most of the smaller UFO's are featureless shapes painted black. Some had detail, but not many. Really, unless you are planning on displaying the thing with lights on and in a smokeroom, you're gonna be disappointed.

The mothership is an impressive piece, even with the lights out.

Gene

 

[GKvfx]

Here are some photos of the kit parts used on the Mothership. For a ship that is really defined by its internal lighting, they used a surprising number and variety of kit parts.

The good news is that the model is on permanent display at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center at the Dulles airport. The bad news is that it's in a display case in a dark corner. I tried taking photos with a tripod, but that got shot down by security real quick.

Like any good Hollywood star, it's been rehab-ed a couple of times :rolleyes. Someone at the Hayden Planetarium tried to light it up. It shorted out some of the lights and caused a fire that melted a small section. It got shipped back to LA where some of the guys that worked on it originally patched it back up. The paint seems pretty consistent, but there are areas where it looks touched up. I think some of the little in-jokes disappeared at that time as I couldn't find the diver getting chased by the shark, nor the guy that part of the antennas.

They make an HO scale that has all the same details, but it's the N-scale one that's used on the Mothership.

Didn't even bother to remove the little tabs -

There are some other little bits from the Harbor Crane that are used in a few different places -

I stumbled across these at Allied Model Trains and bought them on a hunch. Turns out they are all over the Mothership:

There is one other type of railroad signal that was used - a European style, and some other stuff that I haven't tracked down yet.

And no, this doesn't mean I'm going to try and build one.

Gene

 

[MonsieurTox]

Awesome as always Gene, thank you ! :thumbsup

 

[Apophis]

Thanks for sharing Gene!!

 

[yodakiller1138]

In my neck of the woods a theatre is going to be showing Close Encounters on the BIG SCREEN and they're going to have a Q+A with Douglas Trumball who is a local resident. Thinking of going.

 

[SD Studios]

In my neck of the woods a theatre is going to be showing Close Encounters on the BIG SCREEN and they're going to have a Q+A with Douglas Trumball who is a local resident. Thinking of going.

Wait.

You have to THINK about that?

Really????? :eek

 

[vistaVision]

Looks like the modelmakers got a lot of mileage from their visit to the train shop. The bottom, or top, or whatever surface is covered with small details that appear to be model train track rail joiners:

 

[anamorphicWayne]

I wrote to Douglas Trumbull a couple of months ago, regarding the miniature UFO's and here's what I got back.

On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 11:57 PM

Hello Mr. Trumbull,

I have been an UFO buff from an early age of 10 and followed the subject ever since. What really opened my eyes was the film "Close Encounters", which I saw in the theatre back in 1977. I do have a question though, what happened to the UFO miniatures that were used in the film? I read that they were pretty much 'black shells with colored lights', but I'm very curious if any still exist? Any information that you have would be appreciated. Thank you.

Yours Truly,

Wayne



Hi Wayne,

To the best of my knowledge the only miniature left from CE3K is the Mothership, which is at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC.

All the best,

Doug Trumbull

 

[Apollo]

I'm sure Greg has some still

 

[joberg]

Didn't the mother ship have a plane on a catapult also?

 

[Lee S]

I took some pics of the mothership a few years back (after the V shuttle pics)
Models&Miniatures - a set on Flickr

There's 'gags' all over it