Tora! Tora! Tora! P-40 question

Just watched the first episode in the Foxtel History Channel documentary “The Restorers”. Ep-1 is titled “Living History”, and the first 20-30 minutes is on the “Japanese” aircraft featured in the film “Tora, Tora, Tora” and subsequently used in the Commemorative Air Force airshows. Mostly airshow flying sequence footage with some interviews with the restoration and maintenance teams. Worth keeping an eye out for on local cable networks. (Doco-series filmed in 2014.)

…geoff

It is the AAHS Journal..I ran across the issue years ago. I scanned the article and posted it in several forums, because of the detailed info on the conversions..particularly the Kates and Vals.

I believe the article in post #2 is from the AAHS publication.

I can recommend their Journal, I picked up some old issues awhile back and every issue had something of interest. Pieces are well researched and written.

The very excellent article on the building of the a/c for the movie is from an old issue of the AAHS Journal (American Aviation Historical Society), started in Southern California in the late 1950’s.
Great publication that came out 4 times a year.
Wonderful articles like on the Tora filming or others on present(60’s) US Navy color schemes & markings, etc, etc.
They not only produced the Journal but they also had club meetings with VIP guest from the aviation world.
Very interesting times seeing & talking to those aviation greats in person.
http://www.aahs-online.org/
Mike

Just need to find a BT-13 kit for some of the tail parts….

The real test for a model builder would be to make a movie Kate…with the differences between them and the real thing.

I’m guessing while that may look alike, their fuselage cross sections, dimensions and wing details are different because of the T-6 and BT-13 components.

I like film critic Roger Ebert’s assessment: “a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle. Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality.”

Clive James “I saw the film Pearl Harbor and it made me wish the Japanese had bombed Hollywood instead.”

I recognize those scans..I made them several years ago after running across the magazine for a dollar in a second-hand bin. Good to see they’re getting some use. That’s the most comprehensive writeup on the Tora! conversions that I’ve ever seen.

I remember the first time I saw “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, albeit “Pan And Scan” on an old square TV, and being blown away by the intensity, spectacle and attention to detail of the aerial sequences. Often wished I’d seen it on a big screen as I did “Battle Of Britain”.
I remember the first time I heard of Disney’s “Pearl Harbor” and how excited I was about that project. That excitement cooled pretty quickly after it came out.
Green Zeroes, Michael Bay? Seriously?

For the record, no, I don’t fancy building a model of a replica Kate! 😀

A very interesting article, I never realised that the T-6 was the basis for those replica Kates! That must make the T-6 family the clear winner in the ‘most types represented on film’ category 😀

Thanks for that, Martin! 🙂