Derek Meddings - Model Unit

Derek Meddings was back on a Bond movie, in charge of all the miniature effects. 
The film was a perfect challenge for the enterprising miniature effects supervisor.
Derek Meddings: 'We have got a lot of miniatures on this particular film, probably more 
miniatures on this than I probably had on any film ...'
Derek was surrounded by a great crew of model makers and technicians. 
They all working 6 day weeks for several months to create inch-perfect models, brilliant 
miniatures with many features, snowy landscapes and incredible movie sets in a small scale.
'Goldeneye' - Derek Meddings at his best!

A new studio was established for the 'Goldeneye' production.
An empty Rolls-Royce factory near the deserted Leavesden Aerodrome in Hertfordshire became 
the new BOND headquarter. 
The whole areal had one distinct advantage, space without end!
The Delta Doric construction company managed the renovation and conversion of the factory 
in a film studio in just a few months.
Pierce Brosnan was enthusiastic about the new studio:
'I do feel cocooned from the rest of the world on it. The best aspect of GOLDENEYE for me is the
new Leavesden Studio complex specifically fitted out and opened for this film.
We've created our own environment in this ex-Rolls Royce aircraft factory, and there's no 
ghosts for me to have to contend with. No Sean, no Roger roaming the corridors.
If we were back in Pinewood Studios, everyone in the commissary would be nudging and pointing 
at me saying, 'There's the new Bond.' 
I've had to face none of that at Leavesden.' (Cinefantastique, December 1995).
The production design headquarter of Peter Lamont at Leavesden Studio.
(Almost all photos used for this report are the property of Stephan Persch)
Executive Producer Tom Pevsner explains the set designs...
The Design concept for a great Set - The Cuban underground control center of the Janus Syndicate.
Janus controls a satellite weapon, a secret space-based weapons programme called 'GoldenEye'.
Production Designer Peter Lamont brought St Petersburg to Leavesden for the memorable chase sequence with the T55 tank.
He built a remarkable 'St Petersburg' Set on the old Leavesden Airfield runway.
A detailed reconstruction of some streets of St Petersburg.
More than 170 craftsmen worked about six weeks on the set.
Lamonts Team pimped out the finished set with authentic telephone boxes, road signs, billboards and monuments.
They made several shots on location in St Petersburg and intercut them with the Leavesden shots of the tank doing the real damage.
2nd Unit Director Ian Sharp shot the T55 tank scenes and 'killed' the backlot St Petersburg set at Leavesden.
Miniature Effects Supervisor Derek Meddings giving finishing touches to an enormous glass 
painting of Brian Bishop. Shot all in camera combined with live action/CGI.
The glass painting in the movie.
The explosion of the underground nerve gas plant.
Model Miniature Set built in the Leavesden Studio.
Leavesden Studio - painted backdrop plate.
Derek Meddings airbrushing the earth for a satellite shot.
The Janus syndicate in the underground cuban control center has the Goldeneye satellite 
'Mischa' ready to fire an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) with a devastating effect on 
power supplies in London. 
The MIGs - Great working miniatures built in the workshop of Derek Meddings.
These 1/7th scale models are radio-controlled precise in detail, inch-perfect miniatures.
The MIGs are about nine feet long and powered by 2 15cc engines. 
These babies can easily go over 100 mph!
Test start of the miniature MIGs on the Leavesden runway.
The MIGs in the movie.
Whenever you see a MIG flying in the movie it is the work of the model shop boys.
There was no real MIG fighter available for the production.
What you see are always model miniatures.
But wait a minute, these MIGs in the background look real!?
The full-size MIGs with a strange supporting structure at Leavesden Airfield are ...
Cut-Outs! A simple but effective trick for the scene.
The Model Unit did several blue screen shots with a MIG model to give the CGI/visual effects boys something to play with.
MIG model miniature - Derek Meddings Model Unit - Leavesden Studio.
Fantastic! - Now the CGI boys can add the EMP effects.
Movie scene - 'Goldeneye' electro-magnetic pulse.
Derek Meddings in a full-size entrance door of his giant dish model miniature in the background. 
The Severnaya Space Weapons Research Centre.
One of the MIGs should crash into the base of the dish built on the backlot of Leavesden.
Movie scene with the full-size entrance door and the radio telescope dish miniature.
Miniature Effects Supervisor Derek Meddings spread snow in Siberia?
The workshop crew used flour and cat litter to create the Severnaya dish miniature set and
the surrounding arctic landscape. The Set was built in the Leavesden Studio.
Leavesden Studio, Hertfordshire - Severnaya, Siberian Arctic.
I love those scenes with the radio-controlled TIGER helicopter (1/4th scale?). An excellent model!
In the background you can see the MIGs.
Did they shot the Helicopter landing on this set? I actually thought they shot it on 
the backlot using the crash landing set!?
Think the indoor Set is just for some flying scenes of the TIGER (?).
The Tiger in Siberia, ready to land near the Severnaya radio telescope dish.
Only in the Monaco scenes do you get to see the real thing, afterwords a full-size and scale models of the TIGER are used. 
Severnaya, Siberia. Who controls the helicopter? Could this be modeller Nigel Brackley?
Please enlighten me here!
Look at this ... the vast expanses of Siberia.
On a chase with the Tiger model, Steadicam operator Alf Tramontin.
In sneakers through Siberia...
Severnaya, Siberia.
Movie scene with the Tiger model and the radio telescope dish miniature, all Derek Meddings.
Alf Tramontin and his Steadicam dancing through the set.
A heli model is not easy to control. A show for the press guys in the background?
Alf Tramontin in action.
Shooting the miniature Severnaya set.
A very accurate model of the TIGER. Alf still dances in Siberia.
I'm freezing!
Care measures for the TIGER.
A full-size Tiger model in production at the Leavesden workshop.
This was used for the Severnaya landing scene close-ups of Famke Janssen (brillant as 
Xenia Onatopp) and Gottfried John (General Ourumov, the head of the Russian Space Division).
You will also see the full-size model in the explosion scene of the Tiger Heli, 
for the close-ups of Pierce Brosnan (Bond) and Izabella Scorupco (Natalaya).
Movie scenes with the full-size Tiger model.
The TIGER for a small budget.
Always stay cool, even if a few hot rockets are on the way to you.
TIGER model at the Leavesden workshop.
Great job!
Caribbean mountains built for the Cessna flight scene of Bond and Natalaya.
Through the windows of the Cessna you can see some mountains, all miniatures!
The green mountains of Cuba.
Model of the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope and transmitter.
The Arecibo Observatory's 1000 ft (305 m) radio telescope in Puerto Rico, doubling for the 
Janus control centre in Cuba, is the world's largest single-aperture spherical telescope.
In the movie a 1000-foot diameter parabolic transmitter dish was concealed in the Caribbean.
Janus leader Trevelyan (Sean Bean) tried to start the operational satellite 'MISCHA' with the 
radio telescope from the underground control center for a second 'Goldeneye' attack.
The working model miniature of the giant Arecibo dish will show Derek Meddings at his best.
Many gadgets perfectly implemented. 
Model of the transmitter platform/antenna hanging above the giant dish.
The 100 m long arm is used for the alignment of the receiver of the telescope.
The original platform at Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
The great model of Derek Meddings.
There is a breathtaking fighting scene on the platform and the maintenance head of the antenna between Bond and Trevelyan. 
Production Designer Peter Lamont on that scenes: 'In real fact, the antenna is 120 feet long. 
We've made ours 80 feet long because of the sound stage size beeing only 30 feet high, 
which is why we've built it on a horizontal slope. 
When we shoot it, we'll do it against a photographic translight (a large backlit transparency/backdrop).
How do we store this bloody ladder that goes down one side, because we can't take it vertically?
It sounds like a silly problem, but it's an enormous challenge....' (Cinefantastique, December 1995).
Some of the 'antenna scenes' are green screen shots (Leavesden Studio).
A major challenge for Derek Meddings and his miniature effects crew was the 1/20th scale 
model of the giant Arecibo dish built on the backlot at Leavesden.
Here we see the concrete dish of the model miniature. 
The surrounding mountains are still under construction.
Dereks Model of the giant dish.
A water basin was needed for the pumping effect.
Derek Meddings: '...to control the water and flooding was very difficult.'
Dereks model on the backlot - An enormous 1/20th scale model of the Arecibo Observatory 
with the concrete dish submerged under water.
Look who is ready for a swim, Natalya!
Derek at his peak ... the radio telescope transmitter rises slowly from the water.
All models, the transmitter, the hills ...spectacular!
In memory of the great Derek Meddings, who passed away after a heart attack during the 
post-production of 'Goldeneye', 1995.
See more of Derek Meddings here: Magic Model Miniatures
Very Special thanks to the Photographer Stephan Persch for his personal permission to use 
his great photos (35mm slides)! 
Stephan Persch visited the 'Goldeneye' Set at Leavesden during filming.
This was Part 1 of my 'Goldeneye' model miniature story. 
Part 2 will show you the excellent train model miniature and more top-notch 'Goldeneye' 
miniature effects of Derek Meddings and his marvellous crew.
All screenshots, photographic material and logos property of (c) Danjaq, LLC., MGM/UA, 
Eon Productions and Stephan Persch. 
Some press kit slides have a white mount without any information. 
These photos were possibly made by George Whitear (?). 
All rights reserved. 

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