Small Scale Military Headquarters

FLYING TIGERS---a movie underway about the American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, which was a group of American volunteer pilots who flew for China against Japan before the US entered World War II. Tom Cruise is informally considered to be the star.

Would love to see something like that.

Hopefully they get there P-40's correct.
Nothing like seeing a P-40N in a 1941 time period.
They did that in Pearl Harbor.

Surely there are one or two P-40B's still flying, or can be cleverly used with some CGI.
There's nothing wrong with being historically correct. It matters to people who know.

Honestly if the aircraft are real I can look past the incorrect model numbers. The more real and less CG the better.

Contact the movie studio and tell them.

Tom Cruise is informally considered to be the star.

Another Tommy boy flick...?? Jeez, we haven't even had a chance to see his performance as Stauffenburg yet. Man, old Tom is becoming a real war monger... and I thought Scientology was supposed to be a non-violent "religion".... Please tell me he's not gonna play the part of Claire Chennault...??

VMF115 wrote:Contact the movie studio and tell them.

No kidding...every stinking movie has CG aircraft. I just saw the film the Day the Earth Stood still (it sucks) and all the aircraft (AH-64s, CH-46s and more were all CG. They built a mock up inside that was way out of scale and CGd the outside.

Hollywood contacted my unit for a film just recently and we refused, so I'm sure you will see CG Army Special ops choppers in a new film against the war.

If CGI is done right, it can be good. Like short, quick, hard-to-do sequences are CGI possible. In Enemy At The Gates, the Stukas were done well because they only showed them for a few seconds turning into a dive. You didn't have time to register any possible mistakes/errors in the model in such short time.

But in movies where there are long flying sequences, it pays to have the real deal, as the viewer will picking the plane apart for details and such. It just sucks that they had to destroy so many aircraft after the war. =/

Here's a recent video of a P-40B. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KLuPfuk5wk
Don't know if it starts up, but they can certainly use something like this for the early Flying Tigers parts. Maybe get one more for the flying sequences, CGI the ones in the background.

Also found a "P-40 Watch" website. Apparently there are a couple of B's and C's that are being restored. http://staff.jccc.edu/droberts/p40/p40news.html


I know there are Nakajima Oscars out there. One of the planes they went up against frequently I do believe, because they used them recently in that Japanese kamakaze flick "For Those We Love" that Aferguson found which I bought on eBay.

Dauntless wrote:I know there are Nakajima Oscars out there. One of the planes they went up against frequently I do believe, because they used them recently in that Japanese kamakaze flick "For Those We Love" that Aferguson found which I bought on eBay.

The Hayabusa in that movie was made specifically for the movie and not a wartime authentic.

there is 1 flying Hayabusa in the US I know of, either a II or III(Later than the mk.I model I am pretty sure)

there's a IIb in a museum in Oregon that's flyable. Several others are being restored in the US. If they were mine I wouldn't risk a crack up of a very rare plane for the sake of a movie, especially a Tom Cruise movie..

Tom Reilly is finishing one now that was recovered from Alaska. I was there for first engine runs a few months ago. Also, Tom Blair, owner of Stallion 51, has a P-40 but I'm not certain if it is a B. He recently leased his Buchon to the producers of Valkyrie. The only problem is it may be too shiny.

I'm not certain if Tom's P-40 is a B because most of the cowling was off.

If I can figure out how...I'll insert some photos.[/img]

Not to hijack this thread.
turns out my Doctor's dad was a flying tiger. She asked me what I did for a living and I told her I paint and I like most to paint ww2 planes. She asked me if i knew of her father Charlie Bond and honestly I did not though the Tigers were more than obvious to me.
She commissioned me to do a painting for his 88th (?) b-day. he painting I got to present to him and it went to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum here in Addison TX where they have an area dedicated to him and his stuff now and plans for later storage of his collections and memorabilia when he passes on.
http://www.cavanaughflightmuseum.com/Bond.htm
I also was invited to visit his home and i was filled with relic from his career, medals, gifts from Madame and Chang Kai Shek (like oooold vases). his career lased many years and he wrote a Flying Tiger's Diary, Gave me an autographed copy and after I made prints of the art work he signed a bunch for me and I gave him a stack.

I still have a good amount of them. Signed by Charlie and me (ahem, no applause please) with COAs, signed and numbered (out of 500, but only 100 signed for me and 50 or more for him) and they are pretty cool
If anyone wants one, throw me $50 and $12 for shipping (gotta buy those stupid mailing tubes and they are priced like $6-9 each.)
The prints are NOT low quality, they are on heavy acid free stock. Worth a bit more than I am selling, especially with these w2 aces vanishing every year.

Sales pitch and photos aside, I can say I met and visited with a ww2 ace... that makes me very happy
he even got a copy of one of my advert fliers signed by every surviving Tiger Pilot and ground grew when he went to San Antonio for a yearly meet up. That surprised me. Its frames...oh yes, Hangs well framed.

Funny thing is, he doesn't look a damn thing like Tom Cruise. And he can be one surly SOB haha.
Now that I think of it, I will probably go visit him out of the blue and give him a stack of unsigned (by him not me) so he can sell them at air shows. He makes extra money selling copies of his book and I am sure he has better use for most of these unsigned ones than I do. After all, he can sign em and triple or more the value and its his history to profit from. Give him about $2k in free prints to sell in his last days and I can sell the ones he signed for me.