Monday, September 25, 2023

Filming the Panzers

Movie crew, trailer for changing rooms for the cast, and for makeup too.  Bus to transport everyone to the remote location.
Stop and fuel up the tanks.
And....Action!  I read reviews of the Battle of the Bulge movie and people complain that they used American made M47 tanks as the Tiger II.  Considering they used about 20 tanks in the movie and their were no operational Tiger tanks in the world in the 1960s that does not seem a fair complaint to me.  The M47 is about the same general size and shape of a Tiger II.  And the paint jobs were authentic.  I think that's about all you can expect for a movie made in the 1960s.
It can take a lot of people to film a movie, sometimes hundreds of crew members.
It can be disruptive to the locals as well who may not want tanks in their neighborhood, although I liked watching them film movies.
Cue the tanks.
Speed, sound, Action!
 

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6 comments:

  1. jeigheffSeptember 25, 2023 at 9:27 PM

    Fun stuff! Where did you get the film crew? If I had to guess, I'd say Preiser.

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  2. Legion4September 26, 2023 at 10:01 AM

    M47 was probably the closest you can get to a Tiger II. The few surviving Tiger IIs are in museums. I do remember back in the late '80s M47s being at the NTC that were going to be used as targets. Too bad ...

    Hey ! Is that film crew Union ?

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  3. banzai55September 26, 2023 at 11:06 AM

    Re the movie Battle of the Bulge; one nice touch, at the beginning, when the senior general is showing Robert Shaw his "toy room" with models of the new "wonder weapons", the model used to represent the Tiger 2 is - an M-47!! Same as the actual tanks used to represent the Tiger 2s in the film - so, maybe not accurate; but at least consistent!

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  4. Mike Bunkermeister CreekSeptember 26, 2023 at 3:24 PM

    jeigheff the film crew is 20mm metal from B&B Miniatures from the UK, pretty sure, at least 15 years old. I have found camera crews here and there and even made a few myself. Stay tuned for more!

    Thanks for reading and commenting.

    Bunkermeister

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  5. Mike Bunkermeister CreekSeptember 26, 2023 at 3:27 PM

    Except for my ACW collection none of my figures are union.

    There are no operational Tiger II in the world as far as I know. The M47 is about the same size and vaguely similar shape, but much lighter.

    Thanks for reading and posting, Legion4.

    Bunkermeister

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  6. Mike Bunkermeister CreekSeptember 26, 2023 at 3:29 PM

    Yes, banzai55, that is a nice touch.

    I wonder where that prop is now? GI Joe would find it formidable.

    Thank you for reading and posting.

    Bunkermeister

    ReplyDelete