Memphis Belle model B17 up for auction

More slight drift. Marine Salvage of Portsmouth sent several ex Saudi Lightning cockpits to Pinewood for use in the Wing Commander film.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]231740[/ATTACH]
(This one is – or was – at Little Horsted, East Sussex)

I believe a Canberra cockpit also appeared. Developed for the big screen from a computer game, it wasn’t awfully attention grabbing…

…even a bit of paper from Dam Busters regardless of how glamorous it actually is…

Strangely enough I have similar bits of ancient but interesting bits of paper that I keep because they have an historical – if maybe personal – relevance and are a direct link back to an actual event, but I wouldn’t dream of selling them (if they were to be sold, that is) because I would be embarrassed to ask for anything like £145 for any one of them. I pulled that bit of Dam Busters memorabilia out because it appears to be exceedingly expensive for what is, in essence, just a torn and folded sheet of paper with a few details on it that – unlike some of the props on sale at that site – probably never went on the set, was never handled by any of the actors involved, and might be the last survivor of several run off on the studio’s copier to be distributed to executives and producers; to actually display it like they have almost lessens the value of the ‘genuine’ articles they have, the stuff that did appear on screen. (Somewhere I have something similar from The Guns of Navarone (1961), which has other names typed in but crossed out and the stars names added in pen. I picked it up along with a folder containing scripts, a couple of storyboard pages, portraits of the actors in character, and a letter commenting on the poor quality of the prints used for the general release asking if there is anything that can be done to resolve the problem; I ‘rescued’ it all from a pile of stuff that was going to be dumped in a skip by a house clearance crew in North London about 15 years ago)

To me that cast list is not worth £145, to someone else…yes, maybe, but it will be interesting to look back in six months and see if it is still for sale at that price.

Slight drift re Starwars, when they were making the film Bladerunner they were short of buildings for the cityscape, one of the team was scratch building a large model of the Millenium Falcon and that got roped in, when Decker flies to the police station you pass by a building in the shadows that is the Millenium Falcon standing upright on its engine.

Drift off.

Keeping it aviation themed, don’t various Cold War-era jet parts turn up as props in the original Starwars films? I seem to recall that the lights hanging in the ‘Hans Shot First’ cantina set were jet engine parts or something.

Couldn’t tell you which Star Wars film it was but they hired some bits from Hanningfield Metals to use as set dressing and in some of the spaceships or whatever. He never checked what he sent but if he sent three containers of bit and received three containers of bits back he was happy. As was the collector who bought a B17 top turret for £50 from one of the returned containers and this collector who bought a complete seat type parachute for £25.

Ah, happy days

I seem to recall that the lights hanging in the ‘Hans Shot First’ cantina set were jet engine parts or something.

Rolls Royce Derwint flame cans.Also recycled to be the head of the robot bounty hunter IG88 in Empire Strikes Back.
The Amusement Park Movie World here in Australia did have the prop cockpit for Memphis Belle with a couple of models on display.

You should see some of the starwars stuff, it was nailed together in a really shoddy nature, that said the b17 does look as if the damp etc has got to it.

Keeping it aviation themed, don’t various Cold War-era jet parts turn up as props in the original Starwars films? I seem to recall that the lights hanging in the ‘Hans Shot First’ cantina set were jet engine parts or something.

Fair point – I have amended my post, which was a comment on pricing not the perceived quality of the items.

“Tat”, “rubbish” – what the hell is up with this elitist snobbish nonsense so rife on this forum? Those (few) of us who don’t blindly follow the crowd who incessantly drool over lumps of corroded metal which may or may not have once been from another bloody Spitfire might actually find a prop from Memphis Belle extremely interesting, equally interesting as the uniform worn by young Jamie in Empire of the Sun and yes, even a bit of paper from Dam Busters regardless of how glamorous it actually is. I have lots of pieces like this in my collection and resent the arrogance of the forum sheep dismissing it as tat and rubbish. Overpriced it may be, but price does not dictate historical value and personal interest. I like it. All if it.
For once maybe just open your minds before committing your vitriolic judgements to keyboard.

Stepwilk is right. The right price for an article or service in any transaction is what someone will pay for it. A seller will obtain the highest price he can. It is not a question of what it “should” cost but what it “does” cost where it’s sold.

If the items listed here are not sold they are overpriced.

Some things can be overpriced….someone paying three times more at one store or city than another.
Check prices in central New York or London. 🙂
Airport food is another example…likewise what they charge for movie theater popcorn.
Just because they can charge stupid prices (and people will pay them) doesn’t mean they should.

But still your point is well taken, if you have enough money you don’t consider such things.

A load of overpriced tat!.

There’s no such thing as “overpriced.” Everything is worth what somebody will pay for it. A Ferrari 458 is overpriced to a Ford Focus owner, a Rolex is overpriced to a Swatch wearer, a Leica is overpriced to somebody who takes photos with an iPhone, hell, Trader Joe’s is overpriced to anybody who shops at Shoprite.

I wonder what became of the large models shown in the recent FlyPast article?
They were shown head-on like a formation taxi-ing for take-off.

They looked far better than this one.

You should see some of the starwars stuff, it was nailed together in a really shoddy nature, that said the b17 does look as if the damp etc has got to it.

I’m surprised at the crude nature of this model. I’ve not watched a film for a long time, but I thought the aircraft all looked fairly plausible in it. If nothing else, they would do it all with CGI now, which is a lot less interesting.

Panzer john, perhaps this is more to your liking, you can wear them too 😛

http://propstore.auctionserver.net/view-auctions/catalog/id/10/lot/1353/?url=%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F10%2F%3Fpage%3D2

A load of overpriced tat!.

Looked through that site, and I believe they are having a laugh:
British army jacket and trousers as used in A Bridge Too Far (1977) £245!
A clapperboard from Battle Of Britain (1969) £1995!
A cast sheet (a single sheet, mind you) with agency contact details for The Dam Busters (1955) £145!

Think I’ll wait until they have a sale…

They’re also offering some RAF-style Halcyon goggles as used by Nikki Lauda in “Rush”.
The estimate is 500-700 pounds.

BTW: the same type goggles were used in Star Wars episode I by a young Luke while racing.

Despite being slightly too new, I have two pairs kept in my vintage car, they work very well…

Ooops, sorry, link now showing correctly.

Gosh. When I’d finished with them my old plastic models ended up on the bonfire.

Wish I’d saved them now, to flog to people with more money than sense!;o)

http://www.propstore.com/products/?keyword=memphis%20belle