Ben Hur 1959

Among its many spectacular sequences Ben Hur showcases a colourful naval battle against the Romans and the Macedonians staged by A Arnold Gillespie and his crew in the MGM Lot 3 tank.

A. Arnold Gillespie in his waders in the MGM Lot 3 tank during the Ben Hur sea battle miniatures shoot.

The hero foreground ships were built at 1/6th scale and had molded rubber figures with poseable wire armatures populating the decks. A few of the figures were made to mechanically "walk the decks" while others were mounted to springs to effect some movement. There were motorised mechanisms inside to move the galley oars.

Distant ships were built at a smaller scale while the most distant were photographs of the models mounted on flat board cutouts pulled on tracks outside the tank.

The camera shot at three times normal speed, 72 frames per second while the ships were made to move at around 3 feet (1m) per second. The sinking ship was pulled down into the deeper well part of the tank by two cable and pulley systems.

There are some very interesting detailed layout drawings and photographs of the tank set up in the book The wizard of MGM Memoirs of A. Arnold Gillespie. There is also an interesting and detailed blog article by the author about the planning and filming of some of the miniature shots for Ben Hur on the Wizard of MGM book site. http://www.wizardofmgm.com/2016/12/ben-hur-1959-miniature-ships.html

The photo below shows one of the 1/6th scale models as it is displayed in the Baltimore Convention Center.

One other of the larger ship models was reported to be on display in a Ripleys believe it or not traveling exhibition, in this case at the San Diego Air and Space museum.

In 2012 nineteen smaller models came up for auction. According to the auction description the models were originally built for the 1925  silent version of Ben Hur and refurbished and modified for the 1959 version. They were between 5 and 9 feet long (1.5m - 2.7m) and made of wood with copper hulls. Some still had the rowing mechanisms inside in various states of disrepair. Another auction site has a single model of this series with an intact rowing mechanism and a description stating its use in 1925 but no mention of re-use at all.

Another of these 1925 models in somewhat better condition, can be seen in the National Museum of Ship Models and Sea History, Sadorus, Illinois, USA.

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Mystery Photograph No:3

Here we go with another mystery photograph I have just acquired of a miniature submarine venting air bubbles sitting on the floor of a water filled tank.

Unfortunately there is no indication of what film this is from so if anybody has any suggestions please use the comment system.

Note there is a photo code shown top right and from what I can figure out the top number is designated to a specific movie title with the second number the photographic negative number in the series.

UPDATE 3/6/2016 - I can now confirm this photograph as coming from Crash Dive 1943 as the code 593 in the black strip on the top right of the photo matches the code on other Crash Dive stills.Thanks to reader Andy for making the visual match to the movie - see comments below.

Corvette K-225 1943

There are a couple of miniature sequences in this film, concerning the Royal Canadian Navy Corvette of the title and an aircraft attack as well as the sinking of a submarine and the subsequent surface attack of another. The visual effects were supervised by John P. Fulton, legendary for the depiction of the parting of the red sea for Cecil B. DeMilles's Ten Commandments.

The model aircraft are shot against rear projected sky plates, which to my mind is never particularly successful. I much prefer the results the Lydecker brothers achieved shooting their models outdoors in sunlight against a real sky.

This was a difficult film to track down and unfortunately the copy I have is pretty poor (found in a dvd market stall) and you can barely see anything ( the night shots don't help) let alone the quality of the miniature effects, however there is a marginally better, less murky version viewable online at the link below and from which I have taken the screen grabs.

Corvette K-225 full movie