Life Sized Great White Shark

WtShark

Active Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2025
Messages
83
I built this about 30 years ago (about the last time I'd used my airbrush). It was a fiberglass fish blank from a company called Van Dyke's, who made taxidermy forms for animals. I spend months on this and the sanding, forming, fiberglass work, (it's fiberglass over a foam core), cutting, sanding etc. took me the better part of a year. It was a garage project I'd work on when I had spare time. I don't have any pictures of the process, but the final result has hung on my wall for years. It's a bit under 6 foot, (so we'll call her a juvenile) and my paint work wasn't stellar. Her jaws are epoxy putty, fiberglass and I made each individual tooth. Rolling out epoxy clay, cutting the teeth, letting them dry, then painting them and inserting them into more epoxy clay. A labor of love.

Copy of Office Wall.jpg

My great white closeup.jpg
 
Cool, but I couldn't sleep with that on my wall!

Sharks are amazing works of biomechanical engineering to be sure.

It also conjures up the smell of the ichthyology labs of the museum I worked at in the 80s:
a mixture of pickles, formaldehyde and other nasty chemicals no amount of ventilation could completely eliminate...
 
WOW your shark looks so real i can remember me an new girl freind see jaws back when it first came out in the pictures an it scared us down to our boots an she would not go swimin in our pool an she an i wont go in the sea swimmin after seein that film as i rank jaws in the same grade of movie as alien an that put the wind up my now missus an she wanted to leave ASAP lol i think back at how scared we were then an laugh but i would not like to meet a real shark wow an THEM TEETH GIVES ME THE SHUDDERS NOW lol but very well done on this model shark
chris an jen
 
I'm willing to bet most folks here know the movie and the history behind the USS Indianapolis. Equally winning to bet 90% of the moviegoers did not understand why that story told around the table matters.
 
I'm willing to bet most folks here know the movie and the history behind the USS Indianapolis. Equally winning to bet 90% of the moviegoers did not understand why that story told around the table matters.
"what's that tattoo....Mother?"" "Hooper that's the USS Indianapolis" " You were on the indianapolis?" Now I'm gonna have to go put that movie in and watch it.
 
"It wasn't a coral reef, and it wasn't Jack the Ripper either....... this was a shark".
:cool:
In my house, when one throws a Jaws quote out, it MUST be responded to, appropriately. :D
I was 12 pr 13 when that movie came out. You had to stand in line a long time to see it. I actually went to see it 4 times and the scariest time I saw it, I was late to it and was walking down the dark aisle to find a seat while the first attack was taking place. That movie had a quite an impact on me. But I still love it today. Gonna go watch it now
 
WOW your shark looks so real i can remember me an new girl freind see jaws back when it first came out in the pictures an it scared us down to our boots an she would not go swimin in our pool an she an i wont go in the sea swimmin after seein that film as i rank jaws in the same grade of movie as alien an that put the wind up my now missus an she wanted to leave ASAP lol i think back at how scared we were then an laugh but i would not like to meet a real shark wow an THEM TEETH GIVES ME THE SHUDDERS NOW lol but very well done on this model shark
chris an jen
Thank you!
 
I was 12 pr 13 when that movie came out. You had to stand in line a long time to see it. I actually went to see it 4 times and the scariest time I saw it, I was late to it and was walking down the dark aisle to find a seat while the first attack was taking place. That movie had a quite an impact on me. But I still love it today. Gonna go watch it now
I was 9 that Summer, and my parents determined I was too young (It was "PG" after all) and thus began my obsession with Sharks. The following year, 1976 (at a seasoned age of 10 now) it came back around, (as I'm sure you remember the lines, you also remember we had to wait for movies to come back to our theatres to see them, no other way) and I begged them to let me go. I still remember seeing it for the first time. It's arguably, one of the first true "blockbuster" movies ever made.
A bit more about Quint's Indianapolis speech, this is pretty commonly known trivia, available from the web source "The Daily Jaws", but Robert Shaw was a bit of a drinker, he was very drunk while giving that speech. One could say, hammered. He ad-libbed that speech, the scripted version was much longer, but Robert Shaw had whittled it down to the most frightening, gut-wrenching version, all in his head, while on the fly. Neither Roy Scheider nor Richard Dreyfuss were told of this, and their reactions are both genuine.
 
I'll add, the eyes on this shark are wrong. When I painted this in 1996-ish, I still believed their eyes to be black "like a doll's eyes", but this is absolutely not true. Their eyes are actually a very, very dark electric blue. Only when they are close to the surface, or illuminated with a very bright light can you see the blue in their eyes. My profile avatar is from a large female who made several passes of me (within a foot or so) and her eye would lock with mine on each pass. I swear I could see her looking at me, "thinking". They behave more like dogs, curious, but when they would "see" you watching, they would swim off, into the blue and I would turn, only to find one coming up from behind and below the cage. They really are amazing and impressive animals, so massive you can't really tell by photos until you see them. Like a boxcar, solid muscle. Anyway, I know this isn't about models, so I'll get off my soapbox, but thanks for indulging me.
 
Cool story! I was a recreational scuba diver for over 30 years, and have been within feet of sharks 100+ times, but never a Great White or even a Tiger. The latter being the only dangerous ones in the Caribbean where 90+% of my dives were. They are docile creatures, the ones I've encountered at least, clearly more afraid of humans than I was of them. Most were 6-foot and under but there were occasionally larger ones. Hard to say what species they were, I'm no expert, but "black tip" was common, and some of them had that tail where the top part was longer than the lower half.
 
Cool story! I was a recreational scuba diver for over 30 years, and have been within feet of sharks 100+ times, but never a Great White or even a Tiger. The latter being the only dangerous ones in the Caribbean where 90+% of my dives were. They are docile creatures, the ones I've encountered at least, clearly more afraid of humans than I was of them. Most were 6-foot and under but there were occasionally larger ones. Hard to say what species they were, I'm no expert, but "black tip" was common, and some of them had that tail where the top part was longer than the lower half.
Thanks, yes, they are for the most part the same as many of the animals under water, terrified of us. Seals and Sea Lions are pretty wild underwater too, they're like fighter jets, zipping up to your face at 40+mph, stopping within inches, barking bubbles and zooming away before you realized what happened. Blacktip are very common, as are Reef White Tips, Galapagos, Grey Sharks and the fierce looking (but docile) Sand-Tiger Shark. The wife and I visit a lot of dive destinations, and I've been diving since the late 70's (when I was old enough to prove I could carry a tank). I've been a professional diver for the last 20+ years, only retiring this year (officially). Hence my deep dive (no pun intended) back into the scale model world. I could go on and on, but I digress. Thanks for sharing your story!
 
I built this about 30 years ago (about the last time I'd used my airbrush). It was a fiberglass fish blank from a company called Van Dyke's, who made taxidermy forms for animals. I spend months on this and the sanding, forming, fiberglass work, (it's fiberglass over a foam core), cutting, sanding etc. took me the better part of a year. It was a garage project I'd work on when I had spare time. I don't have any pictures of the process, but the final result has hung on my wall for years. It's a bit under 6 foot, (so we'll call her a juvenile) and my paint work wasn't stellar. Her jaws are epoxy putty, fiberglass and I made each individual tooth. Rolling out epoxy clay, cutting the teeth, letting them dry, then painting them and inserting them into more epoxy clay. A labor of love.

View attachment 151681

View attachment 151682Great job on the shark!

Do you know if Eduards puts out an aftermarket set of teeth for this 1:1 scale shark model?
 


Write your reply...

Latest posts

Back
Top