Warbird FX – smoke/guns etc

I think Spitfire VBs BM597 and EP120 have deactivated 20mm cannons and .303 machine-guns in them – oooh yes! 😉

You guys have NO IDEA how loud a real .50 calibre gun can be…I got to fire a .50 calibre in the US Coast Guard, we would put a 55 gallon drum half filled with gas in the sea and shoot at it..WITH tracer rounds so the gas would ignite if we hit the barrel…I was STUNNED by the incredible noise that gun could make, and having six or eight of them in a plane in combat in WWII just amazes me…how the planes did’nt shake themselves to pieces is beyond me! That and the propensity for the gun to pull itself downward (barrel pointing at the water in front of you) as you fired the gun were some of the interesting results of firing such a weapon…we only fired 3 or 4 rounds at a time so as to save the wear on the barrels……would’ve LOVED to cut loose with a good long stream of bullets, but it was’nt allowed…
Collings Foundation bombers just came through my neck of the woods out here, someone told me that their guns are ALL ORIGINAL with just the firing pins removed…put that back in and the things could go back into combat if anyone had any .50 caliber rounds!!

Mark

Interesting, as that photo is the first time I’ve ever seen the smoke system on G-BOML, and having seen the Buchon fly twice before her demise (and both times in a dogfight scenario), I’d never seen it in action before.

Out of interest, G-BOML did have a smoke system fitted at one time, it was plumbed into the rear exhaust stacks.

Propane machine-guns….

Make yer own! 😀

http://www.kcdawnpatrol.org/machine-gun.htm

None of that “takka-takka-takka” stuff any more! 😉

Reference “Memphis Belle” and the 0.5″ Brownings. They were blanks and I recall Clive Denney staggering out of the B17 rubbing his ears afterwards. LOUD – you are damned right they were LOUD……………..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers,
Trapper 69

🙂
Taifun,
Roger, wilco on the PM and out…………….!!!!!
:confused:
DazDaMan,
I may well have photos but they are buried in around 4,000 uncatalogued photos still in their packets so it may take more time than I have left before the chap with the scyth turns up.

Cheers,

Trapper 69

Flew Lindsey Walton’s Nord 1002 G-ATBG for a couple of films where the aerial arrangements were with “Jeff” Hawke. “92 Grosvenor Street” was filmed in Norway near Trondheim in a narrow gorge below a hydroelectric dam and I had strobes fitted to the ersatz cannons externally mounted in the wings. These plus a damn great transformer or rectifier in the back seat along with a ton of batteries to power the strobes. Quite realistic. Trapper 69

Hi Trapper69,

I now have those wing guns in my barn!! Long story but Tom Harris who purchased Lindseys 108 gave them to me in exchange for a mezzanine floor for his hanger!! Boys eh…

Anyway, I quite fancied putting them on the 108 for shows and I have located the Luton CAA Mod paperwork which sadly can only be released to me with permission from the original company who lodged the modification. I believe that company no longer exists..

Can you offer any help? PM me if you can, it would be good to chat..

Thanks

Taifun

Surely modern computer enhancement means that for film work any gun flashes, fire, smoke, etc. can be added afterwards?

Dark Blue World made excellent use of CGI, in my opinion.

Flew Lindsey Walton’s Nord 1002 G-ATBG for a couple of films where the aerial arrangements were with “Jeff” Hawke. “92 Grosvenor Street” was filmed in Norway near Trondheim in a narrow gorge below a hydroelectric dam and I had strobes fitted to the ersatz cannons externally mounted in the wings. These plus a damn great transformer or rectifier in the back seat along with a ton of batteries to power the strobes. Quite realistic. Same thing used on “Bethune” where the location shots were just north of Madrid in Spain with the Sierra Guaderrama as a backdrop. It was in December and so cold that at Cuatro Vientos we used over 10 fully charged compressed air cylinders before the pneumatic air starter managed to get the Renault going with cans of Quickstart being fired into the air intake. Why it did not catch fire God alone knows. Tony Bianchi has probably the greatest knowledge of aviation filming special effects in the UK and there is a great SFX company in Scotland run by Peter Akass called “Earth, Wind and Fire” who can turn their fertile imagination to virtually anything.
Cheers,
Trapper 69

Wouldn’t happen to have any pics of the ‘108 fitted out like this?? 😉

I’ve decided NOT to fit strobes to the Isaacs Spit, following my thread in the GA forum…!!

Surely modern computer enhancement means that for film work any gun flashes, fire, smoke, etc. can be added afterwards?

Flew Lindsey Walton’s Nord 1002 G-ATBG for a couple of films where the aerial arrangements were with “Jeff” Hawke. “92 Grosvenor Street” was filmed in Norway near Trondheim in a narrow gorge below a hydroelectric dam and I had strobes fitted to the ersatz cannons externally mounted in the wings. These plus a damn great transformer or rectifier in the back seat along with a ton of batteries to power the strobes. Quite realistic. Same thing used on “Bethune” where the location shots were just north of Madrid in Spain with the Sierra Guaderrama as a backdrop. It was in December and so cold that at Cuatro Vientos we used over 10 fully charged compressed air cylinders before the pneumatic air starter managed to get the Renault going with cans of Quickstart being fired into the air intake. Why it did not catch fire God alone knows. Tony Bianchi has probably the greatest knowledge of aviation filming special effects in the UK and there is a great SFX company in Scotland run by Peter Akass called “Earth, Wind and Fire” who can turn their fertile imagination to virtually anything.
Cheers,
Trapper 69

Tora 101 – one of the Zero replicas built for the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! comes complete with gas-guns for show work.

http://www.airshowprofessional.com/acts/Tora_101.html

Didn’t the ARCo Blenheim have a live machine gun at one point? They eventually decided they couldn’t justify the firearms licence.

Think so, anyway (obviously not live ammo!) but as always open to correction.

Interesting, Dave!

I seem to recall something about Sally B firing a couple of live .50s at an airshow, sometime after filming Memphis Belle but I could be wrong.

Daz,

I have been told that some warbirds are fitted with a small tank that contains some sort of fuel type (from memory Castor oil, but this may be incorrect). When a trigger is pulled it dribbles a stream of the liquid onto the hot exhaust pipe which turns it to billowing white smoke.

The Harvard NZ1099 which was till recently owned by Charles Darby in Auckland (now sadly sold to Australia, sad because I think it was the nicest Harvard flying here) was in fact originally a gunnery training aircraft in the World War Two RNZAF, and so Charles had it rebuilt with the gun ring in the back seat. It can be conventional like a trainer, or the canopy folds down and the seat spins round to become a gunner’s position (just like the Dauntless, which is who’s crews were trained in these Harvards).

One of my mates was on the restoration team of ’99 and he told me it was rebuilt with fully operational weapons! He said Mr Darby is one for the few people in NZ with a license to have live weapons on an aircraft. I am not sure why he would want to – duck shooting perhaps? I’d have loved to see it firing blanks. Has it ever done that at an airshow? Does anyone know if the Harvard has done live firing anywhere since restoration? Were the live weapons removed when it was sold abroad?

Well, it hasn’t so far! I was hoping to purchase a project, but that fell through (difficult owner), so back to the start for me! I’ll be surveying the plans to see what it’s gonna cost me before sweet-talking the bank manager….! 😉

However I have got the aforementioned spade-grip on order from another forumite, so hoping to have it soon! 🙂

hows it comeing along?

I was thinking something similar on my Isaacs Spit the other day – rigged up to the gun button on the spadegrip….:)

(Thankfully there are three pushy bits on it – so the PTT will still be on! ;))