Restorer John Stewart stands next to his refurbished baby, the 1/15 scale USS Nevada prior to it being displayed in southern California. Stewart spent 11 months refurbishing the giant battleship model that appeared in the 1970 movie, Tora! Tora! Tora!, which recounted the attack on Pearl Harbor. This year we remember the 75th anniversary of that attack that drew the United States into World War II.
The USS Nevada sits in the pool at the 20th Century Fox ranch in Malibu, Calif., in this uncredited photo. The pool, with giant backdrops, served as the scene for many 20th Century Fox movies over the years.
After years of sitting outside, the model’s wooden decks were in horrible shape when John started working on the ship.
Gun turrets were in poor shape too.
The superstructure was rotting and crumbling …
John rebuilt the ship’s gun turrets …
… and created new mounts before painting them all.
The bulkheads and much of the ship’s structure was replaced with Plexiglas, as were superstructure decks.
After painting it all battleship gray much of the Nevada starts to take shape again.
New plywood decking looks much better, but then it couldn’t have looked worse than the rotting decks John found on the model.
Vacuum-formed lifeboats were made from a master copy.
Guns were all rebuilt and small features like deck hoses were replaced on the model.
Nearing completion the USS Nevada sits in the facility where John did all his work. He rented the building for $1 a month from a military veteran while completing the restoration.
Some of the original steel parts, such as the railings, were salvaged from the original model and scraped and repainted. Hard to tell this model was once so decrepit.
Because the original model was only visible above the waterline in the movie, it had no rudder or props. John remedied that.
Nearly ready to sail again, at least on a huge trailer, the 38’-long USS Nevada awaits to be towed from its restoration site.
Here’s the big ship as it is being towed to a parade in southern California.
On display the former movie prop never ceases to draw a big crowd to inspect its many features that John helped restore. He says it wasn’t just history, but modeling history that he saved, as the movie studio’s many artists built the Nevada and other ships for this Pearl Harbor movie and many others.