821. Collection of 18 George Pal Japanese Navy miniature stop-motion ships for WWII table top war films. After thrilling audiences with his Puppetoon short films, Georg Pal began making military training films in which battle tactics were explained in realistic detail. This lot includes 18 miniature ships, constructed of wood painted gunmetal gray, each modeled after an actual ship in the Japanese navy and each ship is stamped on the bottom with the name of the corresponding ship, "B B Ise", "D D Asashio", "B B Nagato", "A V Chitose", etc. In the film, a sea battle was fought on a table top, on an ocean that consists of a sheet of ripple glass, with these meticulously scaled-down model ships and shot by stop-motion. The film was shot from both an aerial viewpoint to illustrate different ship classes, and at surface level in order to emphasize various tactics. These small ships exhibit an impressive level of detail with swiveling cannons, comm towers and antennae of sharp metal. They vary in size from approx. 9 in to 17 in. long. Includes the original annotated plywood mounting boards with screws. A fantastic collection of lesser-known George Pal artifacts from the golden age of stop-motion animation.