Juan Carlos Oganes' film-making and work blog.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Battleship miniature models for naval scenes

Today I dropped by Alejandro Rodriguez's miniature and model workshop. Having talked for a while already and checked his work online, needed to have a close-up look at his detail handling and workmanship. I have to say he is quite good.

I'm planning on doing the Manco Capac monitor and Covadonga battle ships in a bigger size than usual (about meter and a half long or more) with all full details of rust, bolts and deck to be placed digitally over already filmed sea footage. Perhaps the Cochrane too.

Alejandro was quite a joy to talk to, very humble, very friendly and with lots of knowledge about his craft and naval history. He has not only the chops but the "know-how" to do the job. Was telling me how much identified he feels with my passion on this film and understands my efforts.

Have worked with other miniature models before and miniature battleship filming is going to be quite the challenge so this is gonna be an interesting ride.
Have to work closely with the footage I already have of the ocean and place it to perfection digitally over real and digitally computer-generated water. The digital composite needs to look as real as possible.

The little Manco Capac monitor. I'm ordering a human-size one.
A meter and half long is needed.

The Huascar monitor model.