JAWS!

Since i first saw JAWS on tv when i was around 8 years old i have always wanted a replica 'Jaws'

When i was young i had a decent great white shark made from soft plastic that was on scale wise with an action force figure and played with it for hours with an old toy boat. 

There are some amazing reproduction pieces available in the collectors market but i personally have found them too large to display at home and often expensive.

 I decided late last year to attempt a sculpture of a small scale shark and found that after only a few hours i had a good likeness. I worked on the head using reference pictures from the outstanding book and must have for any jaws fans 'jaws: Memories from Marthas Vineyard' by Matt Taylor. I made the sculpture using Plastercine then made a crude silicone mold from that and then cast a resin tooling model to add better detail to and smooth out. i used reference pictures of real great white sharks for the body, i wanted to give the shark my own touch and having jaws' distinctive head on a more accurate great white body appealed to me...at the time.

Soon after casting the tooling model i decided to add the look of the jaws' shark dorsal fin from the film and to be honest i actually missed that when working on the body. I added a more film accurate large dorsal fin.

Next i had the problem of sculpting the gums and teeth. I wanted to do them separately from the main body as using resin would make them brittle and easily broken/snapped off. i used a sculpting epoxy resin in the mouth of the tooling model to get a perfect fit and coated the inside of the mouth with vasoline to make sure the sculpt didn't bond. Once dried i took them out and made an epoxy and silicone mold to cast high density rubber copies from. 

A set of painted teeth and gums.

For the finished piece i wanted to add the three flotation barrels seen toward the end of the film so i set about sculpting one from epoxy resin and some plastic i had laying around. I then made a silicone glove mold and cast a resin copy and made more glove molds so i could cast three at a time and then experimented with resin dyes and colours and once happy weathered the barrels to match the screen look.

Original film barrels.

Silicone glove mold with original sculpt (far right) and prototype copies.

Prototype replica barrels.

Next i had the task of painting the shark and for this i decided to use a textured paint as the original prop shark had been coated in paint mixed with broken walnut shells and sand to give it texture. Once primed and base coated i added the textured paint and was pleased with the results. I then added the rubber gums and teeth and attached the barrels. I used wire spun with string so it could support the weight of the three barrels and be poseable. I finished the display by using a clear perspex stand.

                        So here is my version of the great white shark from JAWS.