Journalhttp://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/en-US2009-11-07T15:29:43ZSquarespace Site Server v5.8.0 (http://www.squarespace.com/)When Energy Drink Marketing Gets Desperatehttp://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/10/18/when-energy-drink-marketing-gets-desperate.htmlChris2009-10-18T23:17:27ZThe economy is in the tank and the energy drink business has lost is luster. But things were not great for Coca-Cola Amatil's Mother energy drink even before the financial melt down. Coca-Cola Amatil is the the Australian bottler and distributer for Coca-Cola products in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Indonesia. In 2006, Coca-Cola Amatil released Mother to compete against V and Red Bull. After 18 months of lack luster sales and numerious bad reviews concerning taste and cost, Coca-Cola Amatil took action and changed the forumla for Mother to make it more palatable while doubling the size of the can to 500 mL and keeping the price per can fixed.

Desperate times require desperate measures, so in June of 2008 some bright lad or lass in the Coca-Cola Amatil marketing department green lighted a commercial featuring a surplus Centurion Main Battle Tank crushing a truck filled with 10,000 cans of the old Mother energy drink. You know a company is desperate when they publicly destroy their old products to convince would be customers to buy their new and improved offering.

No word if all the boys and girls in Australia and New Zealand rushed out to the store to stock up on the new and improved Mother energy drink. No references to Mother can now be found on the Coca-Cola Amatil corporate website, but at least we have the commerical to enjoy on YouTube.

]]>It's All a Gamehttp://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/10/18/its-all-a-game.htmlChris2009-10-18T21:57:18ZIn 1978 work started on a documentary about the Battle Re-enactment Associate (BRA), the UK's first organized World War 2 reenactment group. The finished documentary was titled "It's All a Game." No reference to the documentary can be found on IMDb, and a detailed write-up on the documentary can only be found in Issue No. 24 of After the Battle Magazine from 1979. The good news is that thanks to the World War 2 Living History Association (WW2 LHA) it's possible to watch the documentary. The WW2 LHA is the direct descendant of BRA and to celebrate their 30th Anniversary in 2008, the group posted the "It's All a Game" documentary in three part YouTube. The documentary is notable on this blog just because of the armoured vehicles involved in the final 'Battle of Molash' scene, but also for the passing references to the several period war films productions.

So with no further ado, courtesy of WW2 LHA: It's All a Game...

The Start of British WW2 Reenactment Part 1

The Start of British WW2 Reenactment Part 2

The Start of British WW2 Reenactment Part 3

And as further bonus 2 more related YouTube vids - Russell Harty Meets The B.R.A

And The Battle of Pebble Mill (Late 1970s) B.R.A Action

]]>And the Winner for Best Use of Tanks in Musical...http://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/9/29/and-the-winner-for-best-use-of-tanks-in-musical.htmlChris2009-09-29T18:11:50ZOk, I have been slack for a long time now, and this post contains no original content but I could not pass it up.

Ladies and Gentleman I give you Centurions chasing Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar...unless your into musicals the fun ends around 1:30.

Major Hat Tip to Tom Hall who posted the YouTube link in the General Discussion group at Missing-Lynx and who came up with the post title that I pretty much shamelessly ripped off.

]]>Born in the "fiery lair of the Welderbeast"http://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/7/27/born-in-the-fiery-lair-of-the-welderbeast.htmlChris2009-07-27T14:05:15ZA detailed build page has immerged for the new FV 432 based Panzer III Ausf. M that made it's first public appearance at this past weekend's War & Peace Show.

The new vehicle is associated with the reenactment group Kampfgruppe StahlKrieger and it's as fine an example of the black arts as I have ever seen.

]]>War & Peace 2009 Wrap Uphttp://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/7/26/war-peace-2009-wrap-up.htmlChris2009-07-26T21:40:24ZThe 2009 War & Peace Show has wrapped up in the UK. Photos of this year's event are already up on the official site and no doubt thousands of images are being loaded on photobucket, smugmug, and flicker accounts as well as more than a few videos on YouTube. The photo albums on the offical site are very well done, but the gallery that caught my eye was the one with the aerial photos taken from a helicopter during the event. The aerial images give a true idea of the size of the event for those who have never to been. The event is a great place to see an amazing collection of hundreds of vintage vehicles - armour at the show included universal carriers, M3/M5 Halftracks, M3 & M5 Staurt Light Tanks, M8, a M18, a M24 Light Tank, a number of M4 Sherman variants including a BARV, a Comet, a Centurion and Centurion ARV, a Valentine Duplex Drive (DD) amphibious tank, a T-34-85, a T-55, a T-72, a BMP-2, a Staghound, Ferrets, a FV 433 SP and all manner of breds of FV 432s.  Not being there and only having the photos and videos to go by I am sure I missed a few notable AFVs.

On the repo side, note should be given to the FV432 based Panzer III that made it's first appearance at the 2009 show. Other notable reproductions that appeared in past Beltring shows and were present this year were Mick Hodgkinson's T-55 Tiger, Jon Phillip's old FV432 StuG III and one of the extended hull FV432 StuG IIIs that Steve Lamonby's crew at Plus Film Services built for Band of Brothers. There was also a interesting Vietnam Gun Truck, it's a bit off the radar screen but its amazing to see how many people in Europe are involved in Vietnam War reenacting.

 

]]>Peter Jackson's 2007 Short "Crossing the Line"http://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/7/25/peter-jacksons-2007-short-crossing-the-line.htmlChris2009-07-25T23:05:19ZIn April of 2007 Peter Jackson in partnership Fran Walsh and Jim Jannard produced a fifteen minute dramatic short about World War I entitled Crossing the Line. With a cast and crew of only 30, the film features aerial dogfights, bayonet charges, period artillery and a reproduction British Mark IV tank. Filmed during the course of only two days the short was created to demonstrate the potential of Jannard's of new Red One digital camera, which at the time was only in the alpha prototype stage. The full trailer for the short can be found on YouTube and the New Zealand Herald has the story behind the origions and results of the project. The Jannard's Red website also has stiles from production and BitTorrant and HTTP links for shorter version of the tailer.

The British Mark IV reproduction seen in the full length trailer below is the same vehicle seen in the WW1 reenactment battles at the Omaka Classic Fighters Airshow. The vehicle has a plywood and steel frame body on a modified tractor chassis.

]]>A Classic History with a Hollywood Coverhttp://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/7/19/a-classic-history-with-a-hollywood-cover.htmlChris2009-07-19T22:41:44ZI was browsing the WW2 history section of a local book store and I could not help but notice that the cover photo on the latest printing of the Cornelius Ryan's trade paper back verison of "A Bridge Too Far" was straight out of the 1977 Richard Attenborough movie. I guess the cover art department could not find a better real image from the battle for Arnhem? Hey but the burning prop vehicles look cool...

]]>Chinese Copieshttp://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/7/19/chinese-copies.htmlChris2009-07-19T19:19:02ZThe following are two interesting photos of recent Chinese built VISMODs. The first is from the 2007 Chinese war film "Assembly (Ji jie hao)." The photo is of a replica M26 Pershings based on a Chinese Type 62 light tank chassis. Despite the major limitations imposed by the choice of surrogate chassis, the Chinese film production went to a great deal of trouble to build a off scale but realistic looking upper body and turret.

Chinese Mini-M26 VISMOD

The second VISMOD tank is from the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It is a Chinese Type 59 dressed to play the part of an enemy American M1 Abrams MBT in war games.

Chinese OPFOR Abrams

 

]]>The Story of a 3/4 Scale Renault FThttp://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/7/17/the-story-of-a-34-scale-renault-ft.htmlChris2009-07-17T21:42:16ZBuilding 1/2 and 3/4 scale miniature tanks is a popular past time for some paintball and airsoft enthusiasts. The following video clip highlights the steps involved in building of a 3/4 scale WW1 Renault FT tank from an old tractor chassis. It's worth visiting the builder's YouTube Channel for more clips documenting the progress of the project.

]]>Ersatz Tiger Walk Aroundhttp://filmpanzer.squarespace.com/journal/2009/7/17/ersatz-tiger-walk-around.htmlChris2009-07-17T20:48:12ZToday's YouTube clips shows a T-54/55 Tiger I conversion carried out by a unknown group(at least to me) in Hungary. A number of good photos and videos of this well dressed vehicle taking part in Eastern European WW2 reinactment battles can be found on the web. By my count there are at least three T-54/55 Tiger I conversions in operation with various European reenactment groups. Carl Brown's old Tiger in the UK, this Hungarian vehicle and a vehicle in Russia.

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