You know, sometimes a little artistic license doesn't hurt anyone or anything.
Cas in point, and admittedly having nothing to do with trains or model railroading...
Ever see that fine World War One aviation film "The Blue Max?" The Pfaltz D3 replica flown by George Peppard in the film (yes, he really did some of his own flying!) is now in the collection of an aviation museum in New Zealand. After 40 years the plane was in serious need of restoration so the musuem had a choice. Should they restore it to look like a real Pfaltz, or as it looked in the movie?
Well, the folks at the musuem said "What the hell, it's not a real Pfaltz, it's a replica, and a movie star as well!" so they restored it to the way it looked in the film. Nobody complains, and the "Blue Max" fans enjoy it as it is. When they see it, it's like meeting an old friend.
Search "You Tube Pfaltz D3" and you can see it yourself. It looks good!
PS: Look for the footage of the Pfaltz with the lozenge camoflage. There's more than one.
And to back up what Firelock said, most (if not all) of the flyable reproductions in Those Magnificent Young Men in Their Flying Machines used modern aircraft engines. But not many pilots turned up their noses and stormed out of the theaters because the producer exercised a little artistic license.
David Westheimer, the author of the book "Von Ryan's Express", was a POW during WWII and even spent some time in a POW boxcar himself. However, he never intended his novel to be a factual documentary of a particular POW movement. Nonetheless, that's never stopped all of the railroad and war movie fans from seeing the movie when it first came out (sometimes multiple times) and buying the video cassette and DVD when they came out, so it seems that some artistic license is often acceptable.
Same with The Great Escape, Twelve O'clock High, Kelly's Heroes, Young Frankenstein, My Favorite Martian...
Harvey
Ogdon UT July 2010
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Harvey's right, as far as pilots and aviation fans like myself are concerned the aircraft are the REAL stars of the film! And don't waste our time with CGI, as good as it is it ain't good enough! Those airplanes still look phoney!
And thanks for those photos Mr. Schmitt! That's a 40 and 8 car all right! And HOW did they get 40 Doughboys in one of those things? Talk about standing room only!
Oh well. As we used to say in the Marines "Don't walk if you can ride!"
By the way, has anyone here read the novel "Von Ryan's Express?" A lot better than the movie. The movie's pretty good, but doesn't do the novel justice.
B&O Museum...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127696208@N08/albums/72157649340868244
Ed
This is my current Model Railroad project Paper model. I manipulated the photo of the prototype (previous post) in Corel Paint Shop Pro to correct the perspective. Then using copy/past overlayed it on a on a paper HO model Dutch car (free download http://www.schaalbouw.nl/produkt.htm ) and modified the ends on the download to match the French car.
Pictures are of results printed in O scale. Initial mock-up to check fit of parts.
Looks great!
andrechapelonThey were called 40 and 8 because they would hold 40 men or 8 horses.
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I always thought they should be called a "40 OR 8".
Or maybe "20 and 4", but I'll bet that would have been very uncomfortable.
-Kevin
Living the dream.