Orca from JAWS

[enjaypee]

Great update! Keep up the great work

Thanks Joberg! I'm here for the long haul

 

[enjaypee]

All of this has been built in Rhino 3D prior to putting scalpel to plastic or laser beams to wood. The Hull is probably the hardest part to realise and I'm sure heavy paint will hide any mistakes

 

[enjaypee]

Making a couple of construction changes and revising the order of process somewhat. Originally I had decided to include these supports in with the bulkhead profiles

 

[enjaypee]

 

[enjaypee]

Using scrap lite ply, I spent last night laying out the deck. In the end I dropped the level of the deck to incorporate this scrap layer as I’ll be laying the deck down one board at a time. With all the best will and best wood in the world I’ll never get a level surface if I lay it across the profiles as joists so it makes sense to stick them to something flat.

 

[enjaypee]

I should add that while I’d love to make this an RC model, I predict I’d take it out maybe once for a scoot around the local boating pond. I’m not up on rc boats but I do know my way around RC electronics so it’s always in the back of my mind. If I was going to make it RC I should’ve made allowances for the drive shaft already which I haven’t so haha. I don’t want to splash out on more ply for the keel given the price of ply nowadays

 

[enjaypee]

Cutting the recess into the keel/profile to receive the planking. Thankfully this’ll be the last time I strip it back but I think this will give me a nice clean transition between the keel and the hull planks. I’ll chisel the approximate angle of the bulkheads along the length of this channel. The channel will also assist me with planking. I think. Who knows.

 

[enjaypee]

From the prop mount forward, the hull can be seen flaring out amidships. After chatting with Peter Buxton of Buxton boats and sending him over all the pictures I have of the hull, Peter confirmed that the Orca was a semi-built down hull: built down from the bow and turns into a skeg almost in the middle. He admitted it wasn’t atypical of novi boats but in his years of building and repairing boats he’s seen his fair share of similar builds.

 

[enjaypee]

Waiting for some wood to arrive so I started making the little details for the flybridge. One day I’ll replace all of the home printer decals with better but for now it doesn’t look too bad.

 

[enjaypee]

Left a bit for the Lowrance. Also, I think I’ve made the console a little too perfectly so I’ll round over those tops to look a bit more slap-dash.

 

[joberg]

Left a bit for the Lowrance. Also, I think I’ve made the console a little too perfectly so I’ll round over those tops to look a bit more slap-dash.

Love it to bits

 

[enjaypee]

Love it to bits

Thanks a ton Joberg! Really taking my time to enjoy this as opposed to rushing it and compromising a bit. I hope it turns out as well as I've envisioned

 

[enjaypee]

One of the great things about the real world props on the Orca is being able to use them for reference and measurement. The only disadvantage is lens distortion from which ever lens the camera operator was using for what shot. By and large, if you eliminate the Y plane and focus on X (especially with screengrabs) you can use your X references later to scale Y. It had never occured to me to use the Bernzomatic stove but thanks to Flimzys recent post I decided to use the dimensions of the double burner to check my drawings. So with that said I decided to use two screengrabs in particular - Quint traversing the outside of the Orca where the interior is in view (for less perspective issues from lens distortion) and an exterior shot as the barrel moves past the Orca to grab the burner thru the window. Cross ref both to ensure I'm not miss scaling from perspective.

If I ever come across a new photo I always reference it to my drawings and thankfully (because otherwise I'd be in pieces lol) new reference material almost always marrys up with barely any adjustment needed.

Using the windows for reference I scaled the screengrab to my drawing then I dropped in a rectangle to the dimensions of the burner. It fit! Nice to know my drawings are as accurate as I could get them. Thanks to the info I gathered from the likes of Marty Milner and Joe Alves (along with a bunch of other awesome folk) I'll keep calm and carry on.

 

[enjaypee]

In other news I've been trawling thru my screengrabs for references to the instrumentation on the flybridge. Here's the RPM gauge which can be seen on close ups when Quint is heading for shore. Look closely and you'll see where the original speedometer was which was slightly larger than the RPM gauge. I'm guessing they swapped the two over so it looked like Quint was really pushing the Orca to the limit. The second image is of the original speedometer in situ and the third image is the OG speedo.

 

[enjaypee]

Bruce for scale. The Cage was exactly 7ft tall for reference.

 

[enjaypee]

The small square plates on the hull have hex nuts welded to them and were used to mount camera platforms for the crew and cam operators.I managed to find some tiny brass nuts so I’ll be soldering them onto some brass plates then I’ll paint them to look rusty. Unless anybody knows a patina that’ll make brass look rusty??

 

[enjaypee]

So while I can't share too much as I don't have permission to, I have some photos of the lower cabin to the Orca which might help a couple of people with their layouts. At present I can't share these as these photos are somebody elses intellectual property and will be featured in an upcoming series about the making of JAWS which will be released to coincide with the 50th. Thankfully there is a screengrab I can share which will help. This scene is where the signal lantern drops onto the floor and starts a fire which Brody puts out.

If you look thru the louvre doors you can see the end of the lower cabin (The L shaped braces) which meets the raised part of the foredeck and the porthole. This is the third porthole, not the second. All 3 portholes were visible in the lower deck and there is no forward area aside from the storage at the bow (which pops open when the shark attacks, spilling out a load of nautical junk). The left edge of this door frame can also be seen here. Above that in the ceiling you can also make out the frame work around the forward hatch which was sealed up for filming but can be seen from the top of the deck in pic 2. So despite what some might consider unsanitary, the toilet was part of the lower cabin.
I'm making the lower cabin fully so all will be revealed but for anybody interested its a 3 bed area with a small kitchenette prep area (Hoopers bench).

 

[DCN]

Growing up a neighbor of ours had a Novi42, before Jaws came out Named the Antigua. Remembering the layout of the lower cabin of that boat and the Orca has been very helpful modeling the forward cabin and V-birth. You're very right about the 3 beds. 2 beds in the v-birth and one in the forward cabin that transforms from a bed to a 2 bench seat table. I don't think the Orca had that option as the side of the bed is solid with pull out drawers. The Antigua when the bed bench seat seatbacks were upright, there were 2 swinging door that became the table supports. they were the same shape of the Orca main cabin bench end piece, except upside down. You're right about the kitchenette, Hoopers bench. It's all covered up in the movie, but i'll bet you there is a stove top under that sheet. I still can't tell if to the left of Hoopers bench is a toilet or sink. It seems to be the toilet as it has the lock down on it so water doesn't splash. If it is, that means the movie crew moved it from the head (the room in the V-Birth where all the junk falls out) into the forward cabin. The Bulkhead wall of the forward cabin has that little window. That's to air out the bathroom in the v-birth. I remember as a kid playing with my friend on the Antigua with that window. I'm sorry to say you are wrong about all 3 portholes being in one room. they are not. 4 in the forward cabin 2 in the v-birth. In the V-birth was the head(bathroom) and on the other side a very slim (half the size of the head) storage door. storage in the v-birth was also under the beds on either side. At the very front of the v-birth was another access hatch that could be unlatched and pulled out to have access to the bow. Lighting in the forward cabin of the Antigua and Orca of course were very different. Antigua had 2 small bed lights in the v-birth, on what would be the headboard. Main cabin had two hanging lights, one on either side. all these lights were on pull strings. There were 3 other lights one in each cabin that were on light switches. these lights were the main cabin lights. 2 can be seen on the Orca in the movie.
I don't know what Photos you have of the Forward cabin and V-birth area of the Orca. The guys at Making the Monster Don't have them. I've been talking with them for quiet some time. I refreshed his memory of you about the Interview you had with Joe Alves and the Photos. He looked in vein for the photos you're talking of and could not find any of them. He was actually upset saying that would be something Jaws fans would love to see.

 

[enjaypee]

Growing up a neighbor of ours had a Novi42, before Jaws came out Named the Antigua. Remembering the layout of the lower cabin of that boat and the Orca has been very helpful modeling the forward cabin and V-birth. You're very right about the 3 beds. 2 beds in the v-birth and one in the forward cabin that transforms from a bed to a 2 bench seat table. I don't think the Orca had that option as the side of the bed is solid with pull out drawers. The Antigua when the bed bench seat seatbacks were upright, there were 2 swinging door that became the table supports. they were the same shape of the Orca main cabin bench end piece, except upside down. You're right about the kitchenette, Hoopers bench. It's all covered up in the movie, but i'll bet you there is a stove top under that sheet. I still can't tell if to the left of Hoopers bench is a toilet or sink. It seems to be the toilet as it has the lock down on it so water doesn't splash. If it is, that means the movie crew moved it from the head (the room in the V-Birth where all the junk falls out) into the forward cabin. The Bulkhead wall of the forward cabin has that little window. That's to air out the bathroom in the v-birth. I remember as a kid playing with my friend on the Antigua with that window. I'm sorry to say you are wrong about all 3 portholes being in one room. they are not. 4 in the forward cabin 2 in the v-birth. In the V-birth was the head(bathroom) and on the other side a very slim (half the size of the head) storage door. storage in the v-birth was also under the beds on either side. At the very front of the v-birth was another access hatch that could be unlatched and pulled out to have access to the bow. Lighting in the forward cabin of the Antigua and Orca of course were very different. Antigua had 2 small bed lights in the v-birth, on what would be the headboard. Main cabin had two hanging lights, one on either side. all these lights were on pull strings. There were 3 other lights one in each cabin that were on light switches. these lights were the main cabin lights. 2 can be seen on the Orca in the movie.
I don't know what Photos you have of the Forward cabin and V-birth area of the Orca. The guys at Making the Monster Don't have them. I've been talking with them for quite some time. I refreshed his memory of you about the Interview you had with Joe Alves and the Photos. He looked in vein for the photos you're talking of and could not find any of them. He was actually upset saying that would be something Jaws fans would love to see.

The Antigua sounds quite a bit different from the Warlock then re: lower cabin. There’s a bed next to Hoopers bench. The photos aren’t for Making The Monster but they do have a bunch of great photos of the Orca being built outside of Norton Easterbrook boat house though. I can’t share those either yet I’m afraid.
And the crew didn’t move anything around in the lower cabin. The orientation of the cabin was probably put in that state by the previous owner. If there was a divider between the cabin and the v berth once upon a time it wasn’t in place when they acquired the Orca. Which would explain why the toilet was situated where it was. So yep very possibly there was a divider at some point in the history of the Warlock but as I said, nothing was done to the lower cabin aside from placing Hoopers props in there and the props in the forward storage.
I'm in the process of breaking down some of my 3D model but I took this screenshot for you from the approximate angle where the camera was situated for the scene mentioned above. The last window is only one visible from this angle. Hope this helps!

 

[enjaypee]

Heres a better angle lining up the floor hatch in both photos. Again hope this is of some use to somebody also making an Orca model.