A 20-foot Scalextric-style model of California, made by the special effects team behind Hollywood movies including First Man and The Abyss, will be flown over to London and assembled in the middle of one of Europe’s busiest train stations, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The model, with miniature versions of the state’s best-known landmarks including Disneyland, the Golden Gate Bridge, Sequoia National Park and Coachella Festival, will be traversed by tiny battery-powered cars rigged with cameras, allowing people to see the view from the dashboard using a Virtual Reality headset.
The hair-brained PR stunt, costing tens of thousands of dollars, is a part of a push by California’s tourism agency to promote road trips in the Golden State.
The model will greet London commuters entering the bustling concourse of Waterloo Station on March 5 after it is assembled in the dead of night by a team of miniature model experts.
A team of Hollywood special effect creators behind movies First Man and The Abyss have created a 20-foot Scalextric-style model of California
The model features miniature versions of the state’s best-known landmarks including Disneyland, the Golden Gate Bridge, Sequoia National Park and Coachella Festival
Users will be able to see the view from the dashboard using a Virtual Reality headset and can accompany their VR road trip with a selection of California driving inspired songs
The model will be flown to London to greet commuters entering the bustling Waterloo train station on March 5
The diorama includes a convoy of miniature cars and RVs ‘road-tripping’ on four routes across the miniature California, capturing footage of road-trip journeys, which will be transmitted live to users wearing video headsets as well as across large screens in Waterloo Station.
Vision Scenery model and props studio manager Carl Horner explains the effort it took to make a scale model of California
Users wearing the headsets can accompany their VR road trip with a selection of California driving inspired songs, from Bruce Springsteen and Iggy Pop, to Prince and Rhianna.
Designed and built by an A-list team of Hollywood set builders, the model includes hand-carved replicas of California’s jaw-dropping scenery and magnificent natural structures, such as El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, the snow-covered slopes of Mammoth Mountain and the mid-century modern architecture of Palm Springs.
Viewers will also recognize 10 iconic sites from Los Angeles as the tiny camera-rigged cars go past the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory and even miniature surfers catching waves in Venice Beach.
The company that created the model, Vision Scenery, have made sets for top-billing movies including The Abyss, The Rock, and First Man.
‘The projects that all these guys have worked on, It’s a who’s who of the last 30 years of films,’ Vision’s model and props studio manager, Carl Horner, told DailyMail.com. ‘Any large or small budget science fiction fantasy or horror film in the last 30 years, these guys have been involved with it.’
Horner said the project was built in just nine weeks.
‘For me to not hyperventilate and die, I’m like ”no no we had 11 weeks.” But the reality after we went through with the team, tested out the vehicles and upgraded them, figured out the cameras and did all that, it was two weeks, then we had a little over two months to build it,’ he said.
‘The idea was can you do this beautiful rendition of California, but we’d like to have vehicles driving round with really small cameras. We’d heard that a number of other companies were like ‘Oh you’re daft, you’re crazy, you can’t do it.’ But we really do the impossible.
‘It took literally thousands of man hours. Vision has a 100,000 square foot facility with an incredibly talented scenery department where they built these sets for TV and films.’
‘It cost a lot, there’s a lot of zeros, but I’m not at liberty to discuss that,’ he added.
‘Every inch of it is sculpted by hand with old school plaster of Paris.
‘We have a core team of about 12 to 14, but we brought in others up to about 25.
The project costs tens of thousands of dollars and is a part of a push by California’s tourism agency to promote road trips in the state
Horner said some delicate engineering went into the design of the deconstructible model. ‘There is an entire aluminum structure underneath this that all comes apart and condenses down into a box,’ he said
The model, dubbed ‘Minifornia’ by its creators, will be open to the public March 5-7, from 7am to 9pm after being assembled in the middle of the night
Horner explained the model had to be designed to break down into three pieces, so it could be crated and flown over to London, then reassembled in the small hours before the city’s morning commute begins.
‘One of the things that was terrifying after we took the job on was that we found out we had five hours to assemble this entire thing in Waterloo Station. If that doesn’t strike fear into the heart of every person that has to do that, I don’t know what does,’ he said.
‘It’ll be in the dead of night and it’ll be a super challenge. If we’d known that up front we probably would have said no, but we’re already doing the impossible so here we are. We just have to get it done.’
Horner said some delicate engineering went into the design of the deconstructible model.
‘There is an entire aluminum structure underneath this that all comes apart and condenses down into a box.
‘The model pieces have a wooden frame underneath to support them and keep them level. So this splits into a bunch of different components and goes into a series of crates. It’s a giant three-dimensional puzzle.’
The battery-powered model cars drive around four road loops on the diorama, and seem to follow the road on their own without any tracks.
‘It took literally thousands of man hours. Vision has a 100,000 square foot facility with an incredibly talented scenery department where they built these sets for TV and films,’ Horner said
Viewers will also recognize 10 iconic sites from Los Angeles as the tiny camera-rigged cars go past the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory and even miniature surfers catching waves in Venice Beach
The model pieces have a wooden frame underneath to support them and keep them level. So this splits into a bunch of different components and goes into a series of crates
Horner revealed that in fact, a metal strip on the underside of the model guides the car, which has a magnet on its undercarriage that is pulled towards the metal and guides the wheels.
Los Angeles Tourism CEO Ernest Wooden Jr said he is hopeful the PR stunt will boost Brit’s trips to southern California.
‘Los Angeles is the perfect place for intrepid explorers to start or end their California road trip,’ said Wooden.
‘We have some of the most iconic drives for UK travelers where they can relive what inspired musicians and directors alike; from driving along Mulholland Drive like in Tom Petty’s Free Fallin, watching the sun go down whilst cruising through the Hollywood Hills like Duran Duran’s Drive By, to hitting the freeway in Damien Chazelle’s opening scene from La La Land.’
The model, dubbed ‘Minifornia’ by its creators, will be open to the public March 5-7, from 7am to 9pm.
Visitors to the model in Waterloo will also be in with the chance to win their own epic trip to California, with a prize package of return flights to Los Angeles with British Airways and car hire with Avis.