Warbird Information Exchange

Yes Pearl Harbor II with even worse CGI if that can happen. Those turett scenes look like they came off some game boy .

Several years ago I was touring empty industrial buildings in an industrial park in northern Santa Clarita in search of a larger building for the company that I was managing. Just about every vacant building was being rented on a month to month basis to build movie sets or shoot scenes. I saw that B-24 mockup under construction. I think that it was around Dec 04 or Jan 05. The construction was pretty flimsy, but the props were real 4 blade Ham Standards in good condition. I asked the construction crew where they got them but no one knew.

Dang thats an impressive replica

Can i get that for my backyard?

_________________
Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

That'd be about the right timeframe, considering the light weathering on the mockup from being outdoors. I wonder how they hung the props if they were the real thing. The "engines" were formed plywood, must have been some kind of rigid structure inside them that had been removed by the time I saw them, to hold the props up. I would have to say that this would have been a very convincing mockup at any distance beyond 50 feet or so, even in real life. On film, I'd think it would be tough to know it wasn't a real B-24 in the background...
Oh well, I'll keep an eye out for it in the video rental place in the next few months, will probably rent it just out of curiosity.

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

All right, I can't take it anymore. Since Jack won't reply, I'm going to bust it open. I was watching a porno with the wife and this mockup was in the background. There, I said it.

Good movie too

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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."

Heeeeeyyyyy least it was a good movie !!!

And what was your wife's reaction when you said "Wait a sec - rewind that - Omigod, it's a B-24!!" ?

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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)

She laughed at me and rewound it
Like I said, it was a good movie

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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."

Well I also saw the Mock-up. However i was watching "Resistance" with my girlfriend. And I've got to say the B-24 was the best part of the movie... it was awful. bad acting, bad dialogue, bad story line...

The cover/ box art of "Resistance" is what caught my eye. It showed a SkyRaider and a P-47

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Funny you'd say that, as the director of Mail Call (the guy who owns that Jeep you see in every episode) told me his wife and two daughters were visiting him on the set one day, and just such a film was being filmed on the ranch. As they went around a curve in the road, a male "actor" was in the middle of the road, "practicing" for the next scene in full "costume," if you get what I mean. I'm quite sure that heavily traumatized his family. He swears his wife understood that it had nothing to do with his work as they often film all kinds of stuff there at the same time. I doubt my wife would have been nearly as understanding. I'm willing to bet this was the film you saw. That's not this one. That one was made of metal and is in Europe right now.

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

The movie Beautiful Dreamer was show last week on a cable channel [Lifetime?]. They must have used the mock-up of the B-24 that was seen on the movie lot. Those images were to show a B-24 in disrepair--prior to it being restored to be used in the movie plot. However, the real Diamond Lil was given quite a few minutes of flying time in the film, and I was thrilled to see it (even though I have also seen it in person flying and landing). It does look as if the movie did go straight to TV distribution. But the real story behind the story is worth knowing. The major funders of the film, who made possible the birth of the movie in the first place, were Willis and Dorothy Miller. Willis was a B-24 pilot who completed 30 missions over Germany as the pilot of a B-24 with the moniker "Starduster". Hence, in the closing credits, the names of the crew members of Starduster are listed in memoriam. Whatever might be thought of the movie, the backstory is worth telling. Willis obviously felt a nostalgic nudge to tell a story that had a B-24 in the script. For a more complete picture, google "Hollywood Dreamers-The Orange County Register" and it should pull up a story published in October 2006. I do not know of Willis and Dorothy are still living.

So what became of the mockup?

_________________
Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

Terrific. My wife watches that network all the time (Hallmark, too. Both are networks where assembly line pulp gets dumped into, I can't stand either network) and I had no idea. I would have watched that! Your guess is as good any anyone's. Given the nature of how it was built, I wouldn't be shocked to find it was burned later. I was mostly all formed plywood...

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

I am pretty sure that I hauled a lot of it's remains to Yankee Museum in Yipsilanti, Mi a few years back...from March museum amidst a lot of other real B-24 parts.