Warbird Information Exchange

I was at a movie set in Santa Clarita California yesterday, filming a segment for History Channel's "Mail Call," and on a western set just down the hill from their tent set, there was a full-scale mockup of a B-24 laying with it's wings detached. On the pilot's side, it was painted as the CAF's "Diamond Lill," and had a strange camo paint job on the other. On the side of the nearest building to the B-24, you could see where someone had painted over the words, "420th Recon Group" in block script on a wall of the building then painted it over (you could only read it at a distance). Clearly, that had to be related to the B-24. I am certain I saw a photo of this mockup in Fly Past some time ago, as I remember that is was painted with different paint on each side. Does anyone have a clue what film this mockup was built for? Nobody at the set at the time had any idea what it was for. It's just sitting there, slowly rotting away. But someone has tied the wings down, so they apparently have an interest in keeping it in somewhat decent shape. It's missing the rudders and engines, and is lacking an interior. It wouldn't be much good for anything but what it was made for; a distance representation of a B-24. I've searched the internet for any matches but no dice. HELP!


Oh, this is me with Gunny Ermey after my interview on camera:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/willysmb44/GunnyNLee.jpg

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

That's a good one! I remember that Lil made a cameo appearance in the movie Fat Man and Little Boy. It was in a scene in a hangar where Paul Newman as General Groves climbs into the cockpit with one of the scientists and fires up one of the engines on Lil in order to have a private conversation! That movie was a while ago and that mockup looks new.
Maybe it's from a History channel documentary on Polesti or the B-24 that crashed in Libya and was missing for years?

The missing lib is "Lady Be Good".

I truly doubt that, as it's not actually marked for that ship even under the paint (I know because I looked for any markings underneath), and the area around there is not desert at all, it's all hills and scrub. The film crew I was with were all certain it wasn't from any history channel shoot, as all they do are shows for them. They said it'd been there for least a year or two, but nobody recalls it being assembled (this is the set where they often film, "Wild West Tech"). And most History Channel shows don't have the budgets to create a full-sized B-24, even out of wood. The film crew I was with even told me they'd love to have the budget to build something like that. This mockup is specifically painted for an active warbird. The only reason a movie crew would do this would be to match scenes using the Diamond Lil. Like I wrote already, I'm positive I saw a photo of this mockup in an issue of Fly Past within the last two or three years. I remember specifically that it was painted match the CAF's LB-30 and was painted as something else (some odd green camo paint job) on the other side. And I think I recall it being about the MTO theater. The painted out unit name on the wall would seem to indicate the mockup was used right on the site. Does anyone have back issues of Fly Past who could look that up? Sorry that I can't recall when I read this, but there was a small photo in the article. It was up front with the warbird news items.

OH COME ON! All these warbird experts out there, counting rivets on planes in movies, knowing every tail number from every movie ever made, and yet NOBODY can ID a B-24 used in a movie recently? You gotta be kidding me here! SOMEBODY here has got to know what film this mockup was built for! How about people familiar with Diamond Lil, what movies have been shot with her within the last 5 years?

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

If I had a $1 for every upcoming WW2 aviation movie I read about that was supposedly greenlit and then shelved for one reason or another...

I recall that there was supposedly an upcoming movie about the AVG. The rumor was that aerial filming had begun in Mexico using P-40's and A-26's as Bettys! POF at Chino was allegedly involved in the production and there is footage "in the can". About 10 years ago Air Classics had a picture of a T-Hangar at VNY(?) full of P-40 fiberglass replicas painted in the AVG/RAF camo. The caption asked what these were all for, but there was never a reply.

It could very well be that is the story behind this Lib mockup.

p51,

Well here's what I could find about a B-24 replica made for a movie that was featured in 2002 Flypast issue:

http://users.telenet.be/airwareurope/en/achilles_e.htm

HTH.

Y'know, it didn't even occur to me that maybe the film was started but never completed. That would explain a lot.
I am familiar with the B-24 mockup used in "resistance," and this isn't the same one. The European one was much better made than this one.

I guess I'll never know what movie the thing was made for.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

There was a movie being made in late 2004 called "Beautiful Dreamer" or some such nonsense. It was about a B-24 pilot and featured Diamond Lil. I don't know if it was ever finished or not. I remember reading about it in the B-29/B-24 newsletter.

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Brad

IMDB has it listed as being in post-production. Barry Corbin was the only name I recognized in the cast; no info on the story.

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

I found this short synopsis for Beautiful Dreamer:




I've got a very bad feeling about this...

That was the real CAF B-24/C-87...I believe the CAF is mentioned in the credits.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

Apparently, the movie finally got finished. The quality remains to be seen. Has anyone seen the finished film for this? I'm guessing it never went to a big screen. Even with the trailer, I'm not terribly impressed: http://www.beautifuldreamerthemovie.com/
Behind that B-24 mockup (posted at the beginning of this thread) in a field at the set, there was the mauled back end of a C-119 (I think), that from the stills for this movie, is the "crashed airplane" portion as it had burns along the sides of it. I didn't think at the time it had anything to do with the B-24, but clearly it does, as you can see it in the stills portion of their website. You can see from this shot that they used this other section as well as this clearly is no B-24: http://www.trailerfan.com/movie/beautif ... ures/83237
I need to ask the Mail Call folks if the mockup was still there the last time they were out there. Those fires recently in California were awfully close to that area, I hope it didn't get burned up as it was a halfway decent mockup as you can see in the photo. FYI, this is where the B-24 mockup was the last time I saw it: http://www.movielocationrental.com/Ranc ... A-Info.htm
I found a site where they talked with the director, and he said he actually talked with Jimmy Stewart about playing a cameo role. He turned it down of course. Seeing that he passed on in 1997, I doubt it would've matter if he had signed on. I'm not sure when this actually filmed, but as the mockup was already stored in 2005 and looked like it had been there a little while, it must have been made sometime before the summer of 2004.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Ask Jack Cook. He and I had a conversation about this very plane.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

It won the Best Picture Award at the CACKALACKY FILM FESTIVAL!

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"Hindsight is usually 20% off!"

Oh no, Pearl Harbor II

Lynn