Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Clyde Beatty Act Model #1 (From Jim Cole)


CBmod01, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

To Hal Guyon,

This is the model of Beatty's act as it appeared in 1943. I built it for Dave Price's Clyde Beatty Museum. Patricia White helped with the project by hand painting the tigers. The arena has 20 sections, 6' x 12', 16 bars and 5 cross braces (some of the sections had extra cross braces to accomodate the pyramid seats. The arena was painted royal blue. Altough Beatty had several arenas through out his career, the arena dimentions remained about the same. Dave Price provided me with several photos and documents to assure that this was the most accurate model of Beatty's act ever built.

Jimmy Cole

Posted by Buckles at 5/07/2008 01:18:00 PM

11 comments:

Harry Kingston said...

Jim,
You are a very talented person.
Not only are you one of the best photographers I have ever seen but you are a fantatic model builder also.
The Beatty act is like seeing it in person.
What a beautiful job on the model Mr. Jim.
Harry

07 May, 2008 13:25
Anonymous said...

Thanks Jim,
I`m been tinking about building this for a long time. I model in 1/4" scale so I hope I can get as much detail. I`m debating weather to make it out of brass or use the evergreen plastic rods and strips, what do you suggest. My email address is hguyon@aol.com send me yours and I`ll send some pictures of my models.
Thanks Again Jim,
Hal Guyon

07 May, 2008 13:48
henry edgar said...

jim - this is absolutely beautiful. sheer perfection. dave could not have found a better tribute to clyde beatty. your innate ability to make things look like real-life scaled down is awesome and your attention to the tiniest details is incredible. everything you do is museum quality. the items you've created for me -- the flying act, the high wire, the trampolines, the mesh arena, etc. are the centerpiece of my own miniature circus and i display them with much pride. anyone who is lucky enough to own a jim cole creation is very, very lucky.

07 May, 2008 15:43
Anonymous said...

I model in 12" to the Foot....But I can never come up with that much Detail....Nice Job...Excellent!......Jim Zajicek (Fellow model builder)

07 May, 2008 16:40
Anonymous said...

Great looking model. Was wondering what scale is this built in?
P.J.Holmes

07 May, 2008 18:36
cwdancinfool said...

Jim Z - Ok, I'm a woman and you know we are challenged when it comes to measuring, but 12" to the foot? Wouldn't that be full size? My dad was a model builder, too, but did more ships.

Jeannie

07 May, 2008 18:37
Anonymous said...

The model is built to a scale of 3/8" = 1 foot

07 May, 2008 22:07
Wade G. Burck said...

Jimmy,
This is one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. How you were able to create it is beyond unartist comprehension. You should be justifiably proud.
Your friend,
Wade Burck

07 May, 2008 22:16
B.E.Trumble said...

Great job Mr Cole! Are the arena sections "fixed" or does the arena disassemble as it would have originally?

Ben

07 May, 2008 22:19
Anonymous said...

Ben, The whole act is pretty much glued down. One could disassemble it in sections, but I would not recomend it. Jimmy Cole

08 May, 2008 06:37
Anonymous said...

Jim, you are a master model builder. Job well done.

08 May, 2008 07:48

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