Dog Days of Summer House Cleaning

Squarespace released a major update of their software, and so the last few days I have been at work updating templates and making basic revisions to the style of the blog. A quick survey of some of the older journal posts in the archieve showed a number of broken links and corrections that need to be made. The content on the links page and the Amazon Armor List also in needs of a major cleanup effort.

Beltring 16-20 July 2008

Pictures from this year's Beltring show are slowly making their way on the net. A large number of pictures can already be found in the official galleries of this year's War and Peace Show.  In addition a number of individuals attending the show are already posting images.  Dennis Trowbridge has some great photos of with galleries for vintage WW2 Allied and German armour and softskins (with some replicas).  Post war AFVs  are also included.

Tali-Ihantala's T-54/55 based KV-1 and ISU-152

I was wrong about the KV-1 in the Finish film Tali-Ihantala 1944.  Photos of the KV-1 and ISU-152 used during the filming have now surfaced on the G503 Message Forum. From the photos the vehicles are clearly VISMODs based on a T-54/55  chassis.   Both prop vehicles are very  good replicas considering the inherent visual limitations of the T-54/55 chassis and running gear.  An acedemic case could be made that a post-war Swiss Panzer 61 or Panzer 68/88 might provide a better looking KV-1 or ISU-152 replicas.  Two Swiss Panzers were converted into German Panzer IIIs for the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates and at least one of these vehicles can be seen in trailers for the soon to be released film Defiance.  The layout of the chassis, design of the running gear and size of the road wheels  would suggest that that a Pz.61 or Pz.68/88 could be converted into a very respectable KV-1, KV-2, or ISU-152 prop.  However, the T-54/55 is one of the most widely manufactured tanks of all time and the Finish army was long time user.  The availability of vehicles suitable for film prop conversions,  spare parts and a deep pool of knowledgeable mechanics makes the decision to use a T-54/55 a surrogate for a prop KV-1 a no brainer.

As a final note, Mikko Makela's post on G503 hints that the Parola Armor Museum intends to restore at least one of its two KV-1s and maybe the museum's lone ISU-152 to running condition.

The Hat Tip goes to Daimyo on the Axis History Forum for correcting me and leading me to the Mikko Makela post on G503. 

Tanks of Tali-Ihantala 1944

Its a lazy Sunday afternoon, but here are a few behind the scenes video clips of the StuG IIIs and T-34-85s used in the making of the Finish war movie Tali-Ihantala 1944.  The two disc DVD of this film has just been released, but I have yet get my hands on a copy. The StuG IIIs shown are veterans of Continuation War and excellent photos of Finish armor used during and after the war can be found on Andreas Lärka's website www.andreaslarka.net

Update: clips from Tali-Ihatala slowly making it on to Youtube after the DVD release last week.  In addition to the StuG IIIs, T-34s, and T-26s, there is a KV-1!  I did not even know Parola KV-1 was a runner! 

Update: The KV-1 and ISU-152 used in the film are props based on T-54/55 chassis.

Weta's Mark IV Replica on the Move

In November of 2005 I wrote a brief post on the replica World War I British Mark IV tank built in New Zealand by Peter Jackson's team at Weta. The vehicle has shown up at the Classic Fighters Marlborough (Omaka Air Show) several years running.  The following are three Youtube videos from the 2007 event showing the Mark IV replica in action.

Red Dawn Remake?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, MGM is considering a Red Dawn remake.

 

I have to confess that I cringed when I first  read the news.   My first reaction is that remaking Red Dawn would be like remaking Road Warrior.  Yes,  a new production could use real surplus T-72s,  BTR-60s, BMP-2s, BRDM-2, and maybe even get one or two real Hind Helicopters.  I am sure someone could also come up with a new and improved Black Interceptor, but the question is why?

Retro Lozenge Revisited

The Poelcapelle 1917 Association, a  Flemish World War I reenactment group is building a full scale replica British Mark IV tank.  In progress photos can be found on the group's blog.  Its unclear at the moment if the replica will be able to run under its own power or even if it will have working tracks?

The hat tip goes to Rob on the Landships WW1 Forum. 

Update:  Not speaking Flemish it has been a bit hard to dig up more information about this project.  I will keep trying to find the email of someone in the group, but if anyone on the Continent has more information about this project please feel to free to email me.

Hizbollah's Propaganda Machine

Time's Fake Tank Complete with Hizbollah Approved Caption  Its been a while since I posted anything so I don't feel bad about writing a post about a 8 mouth old picture from Time Magazine (15 August 2007 Issue). Last summer Hizballah opened the appropriately named Spider Web Museum among the ruins of a bombed out building outside of Beirut, Lebanon. Built to commemorate their 34 day war with Israel in the summer of 2006, the museum contained a number of elaborately staged propaganda scenes filled with real and faux artifacts of the conflict. Prominent among the Spider Web's exhibits was a captured Israeli Merkava tank displayed dramatically in the bottom of a bomb crater. The captured wreck of one of the IDF's most formable and well protected main battle tanks makes for an impressive display, too bad it's a fake.

Playing the part of the captured Israeli Merkava is a cosmetically altered Soviet manufactured T-55 tank. To be fair to Time's militarily challenged editors and journalists, the T-55 had at one time served in the IDF and it had fallen into Hizballah hands. The vehicle had been one of a number of Soviet supplied T-55s captured from Arab armies during the 1967 and 1972 wars. Over the next 20 years the renamed Tiran 5s were heavily modified by replacing power packs and main guns as part of IDF upgrade and standardization programs. During 1980's Israel began to phase out the Tirans and in the process turned over a number of Tirans to their South Lebanese Army (SLA) allies. The vehicle at the "Spider" was abandoned by the collapsing South Lebanese Army (SLA) during the summer of 2000 (For more on SLA Tirans and other vehicles see: Moustafa El-Assad's "Blue Steel" series of books).

No longer in running condition, At some point between 2000 and 2007 the tank turned up at Hizballah's prop shop and began its transformation into a Merkava. With sheet steel appendages added to the turret and hull to give the rough shape of a Merkava the derelict vehicle went on to be used as a prop in Hizballah propaganda videos promoting the tank killing abilities of organization. In one video sequence the fake Merkava in question can be seen siting stationary in a muddy field flying an Israeli flag.
A few moments later a massive explosion is detonated under the tank.

Screen Capture from YouTube - Fake Merkava Just Before Explosion
Exploding Dummy Merkava - No Hollywood Gasoline Fire Balls

Great theater for Hizballah faithful, but hardly worthy of the more grandiose gasoline fueled fire ball explosions that Western audiences have come to expect! Maybe a copy of "Saving Private Ryan" could be sent to the Hizballah special effects department?

It can be safely assumed that after filming the wreck was dumped in the crater at the "Spider" to continue its role in Hizbollah's on going deception and propaganda operations.

 Update: The hat tip for this post goes to Joe D. on the AFV News Discussion Group. See here.  

 Update: I was wrong again.  Turns out that the VISMOD "Merkava" was a runner before the staged IED detonation. Photos of the vehicle in operation can be seen here.  Hat Tip goes to Roy Lingle on AFV News who lead me to a post by Dark Avenager on militaryphotos.net.  It turns out the photos were on Yahoo! News.  

T-34 Theatre

Art House T-34I found this interesting theatre prop for sale by a Dr. Jackob Barnea on www.milweb.net in the vehicle park section under "Armour & Tracked"

"This vehicle was constructed and builded for a theatre. Body completely iron. The tower can be turned left and right, the cannon can be moved up and down. An interesting exhibit. Moveable. Weight about 800 kilo. For transportation its possible to split the body in 3 parts. £8,000.
0043-664-1010300"

 
Any guess at the scale? Could it be a full-scale? Wonder what the girl friend would say if this showed up...?

Top of My Christmas Wish List: "Theirs is the Glory"

I finally found a reasonably priced DVD copy of the 1946 classic docu-drama "Theirs is the Glory" from RZM.com.  Maybe if you live in the UK this title is easier to come by, but your not going to find it in the Walmart bargain DVD bin here in the States or for that matter even on Ebay or Amazon.com until just recently.  The vehicle props  and on location shots are legendary, but to be able to watch actual veterans of Arnheim re-enact the battle less than two years after it ended, that is priceless!

Green Devil StuG on the Block

My apologies for those who I have not be able to keep up with.  I have been tied up with work, family, and a girl friend this fall.  So I have some making up to do. For many who keep up with the reenactment DGs, the following is old news but it low hagging fruit for a rainy Sunday afternoon post. 

As of 22 Oct 2007,  Jon Phillips is selling his very well done, FV 432 based  StuG III conversion. Its a quality vehicle that has made appearances at  several UK reenactment effects and it deserves a good home. 

The MilWeb webvert for this vehicle can be found here and additional pictures and information can be found on Jon website www.stug-12.co.uk.
 

Czech Cats for Sale

 
Czech T-34-85 "Tigers" in 1975Several T-34-85s tanks dressed to play German Tiger I tanks for the  1975 film "Operation Daybreak" have been for sale in the Czech Republic since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Several Germans had tried, without success, to purchase the "Tigers" as they sat idle and neglected in a military vehicle depot in the 1990s.  The Germans had intended to restore at least one of the Czech cats and employ it in a new WW2 reenactment group being formed to represent a schwere Panzer-Abteilung (heavy panzer battalion). 

Operation Daybreak Tiger I -  Late 90sNot long after the German efforts to purchase an esratz Tiger fell through, Hollywood came looking for film prop panzers.  Three of the "Operation Daybreak" Tigers were given fresh coat of "panzer" gray and put to work on the set of the 2001 made for TV movie "Uprising." 
"Uprising" 2001 - Tiger From AboveOnce filming ended the vehicles returned to outside storage.  In early 2007  a Morristown, Minnesota based military vehicle broker, TankRides.com began hawking the three "Uprising" VISMOD Tigers on their website, ebay motors, and Milweb.net.  The following are links to two of the webverts for the Czech cats:

Milweb.net  http://www.milweb.net/webverts/31836/

 TankRides.com   http://www.tankride.com/Russian_Tanks_For_Sale.html

Rebirth of a Green Devil

In the UK, John Phillips has built a VISMOD German StuG on the chassis of a FV432.  The vehicle was built to serve in Fallschirm-Sturmeschutz Brigade XII, a new WWII reenactment group representing a German assault gun unit.   Fallschirm-Sturmeschutz Brigade XII was one of two "Green Devil" StuG brigades formed to provide German paratrooper (Fallschirm) units with organic fire support in June 1944.  A short history of Fallschirm-Sturmeschutz Brigade XII and a brief photo study of the conversion of a surplus FV432 into a German assault gun can be found on the StuG 12 web site: www.stug-12.co.uk

Veluzat's Red Dawn VISMODs

 

A Soviet T-72 on Main Street
Red Dawn (1984)  

 The Veluzat brothers of Southern California have been providing military vehicle props for Hollywood for over 20 years.  Veluzat Army Retails has a large motor pool which includes vintage condition military trucks, jeeps, and tanks as well as vehicles that have been extensively modified to represent rare or otherwise unavailable AFVs in movies.  Excelling at the art of VISMOD , The Veluzat brothers supervised the construction of a small army of full scale prop replicas of Soviet vehicles which included: two T-72s main battle tanks, a tracked BMD APC, an 8 wheeled BTR-60 APC, a tracked ZSU-23-4 anti-aircraft vehicle, a number of 4 wheeled BRDM-2 armored cars,  and 3 Hind attack helicopters for the 1984 film "Red Dawn ."  In 1984 the Cold War was still being waged and all these Russian vehicles were still front line weapons in Soviet and Warsaw Pact armies, so there was no chance that the production company, United Artists, was going to be able to use real vehicles to stage mock invasion of the US by Soviet, Cuban and Nicaraguan forces.

The Veluzat rendition of the Russian T-72 MBT was so good that supposedly a heavy hauler moving  one of the vehicles was stopped on the road by U.S. government authorities who believed the VISMOD was really was a Soviet tank.  Veluzat used a number of surplus U.S. Army M8A1 Cargo Tractors as the surrogates for their T-72s, ZSU-23-4 and an American M1 Abrams tank in "Red Dawn."  The M8A1 Cargo Tractor was an ideal surrogate for the T-72 and other AFVs because of the size and profile of its chassis, its type of running gear and number of road wheels, and most importantly the ready supply of Army surplus spare parts.  The M8A1 shared the many of the same parts as the M41 light tank and while both vehicles were retired from U.S. service well before 1984, a large pool of spare parts was available due to M41s still in service with a number of other armies around the world.

The "Red Dawn" VISMODs would go on to be used in a number of films over the years and in some form or another most of these vehicles are still available for film rental 22 years later. 

To Hunt and Kill The Beast

Tiran 5 plays the part of a
Soviet T-62 in Afghanistan                      The Beast" (1988)

You will most likely find the 1988 movie "The Beast" in the bargain DVD bin of your local big box retailer.  The film garnished no Hollywood honors, but it has become a cult classic in the armor community. "Beast" begins when 4 Soviet tankers and an Afghan government soldier take a wrong turn in their tank after attacking and leveling an Afghan village.  Lost in a dead end valley, the tank and its crew are relentless hunted by revenge seeking locals and ambitious but amateur mujahadeen.

 The Soviet T-62 tanks called out in the original William Mastrosimone stage play are represented on film by four Israeli Tiran 5 tanks, called in the West Ti-67s. The Tiran 5 is the Israeli name given to T-55s captured from Arab armies in the 1967 and 1973 wars and rebuilt for IDF service.  The Israelis extensively modified these vehicles, refitting them with a NATO standard L7 105 mm main gun and a new diesel engine. All the Tirans were phased out of IDF service in the1980s, but remained in service with their SLA Allies in South Lebonon until the IDF pullout in 2000.

Moustafa El-Assad's book "Blue Steel" is the best available reference on the Tiran 5.

All Guns Blazing

The following is another screen shot from director Sam Peckinpath's "Cross of Iron" (1977).  The image (click on for a larger image) is of a Yugoslav T-34-85 Model 1946 playing the part of an attacking Russian tank during now famous factory battle scene.  The "mushroom dome" cyclone air filters in the turret roof give this tank away as post-war manufactured vehicle.

Update: At this point without knowing the serial number I am not sure if it is possible to tell from the picture if this T-34-85 was built before or after 1945.

A View to a Kill

The following thumbnail is the view down the barrel of a 85mm ZIS-S-53 gun belonging to a Yugoslav T-34-85 tank used in the classic 1977 film "Cross of Iron."

Tiger Reincarnated

During World War II, the Hungarian army received 13 German Tiger I tanks.  The vehicles served in two companies attached to the 2nd Hungarian Armored Division and they were lost in the fierce battles that raged through Hungry in late 1944.  Post-war scrap dealers picked up where Soviet guns left off, and no relics of the Hungarian Tigers remain.

 62 years later a full scale replica German Tiger tank  has been built in Hungry.  The reincarnated Tiger weighs in at 7 metric tons and is powered by a 100 hp engine.  Video clips and photos of the Hungarian Tiger I replica  can be found on www.tiger1.hu.

The Art of VISMOD

VISMOD  noun:  1.  a military acronym for a vehicle that has been visually modified to serve as a surrogate for a foreign tank or other type of AFV, usually for use in force on force field training exercises.   2.  any vehicle modified to look like another vehicle.  3.  an acronym for Vision and Modeling, a field of scientific research that has nothing to do with dressing up surplus American M113s as Russian BMP like armored personal carriers (APC)s.

The U.S. ARMY PEO STRI  (Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation) managed the conversion of several hundred M113s to serve as VISMODs at training centers in the US and Europe.  These vehicles replaced a fleet of aging Opposition Force (OPFOR) M551 Sheridan Tanks and they are used to take the place of Russian BMPs and main battle tanks (MBT) in field training exercises. Officially these vehicles are called Opposing Forces Surrogate Training Systems (OSTS). A detailed project description, vehicle specification, photo gallery and document library for the BMP OSTS conversions can found at the following:  "BMP" OSTS.  Pictures of the MBT OSTS can be found on a PEO STRI page documenting the fielding of the new MBT OSTS at the Combat Maneuver Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany.  Pictures of these M113 based VISMODs in operation at the US Army Ft. Irwin, National Training Center (NTC)  can be found on Scott Cunningham's Armor in Action website: NTC VISMODs.

Hollywood's Bradleys

I have been interested for some time in the replica Bradley used in the FX TV series "Over There."  Digging around I found that both Army Trucks Inc.  and Veluzat Army Rentals  are providing Hollywood with high quality  Bradley Fighting Vehicle props.  Over the next few weeks I am going see what I can find out about these Hollywood creations.