Aircraft used for camera platforms for movies and TV

[PR19_Kit]

I am doing a "Bollywood Does the Battle of Britain group build" with another member of the Keigthly club. We have been trying to work out what to use as a camera plane, we had thought of a B-25 but wanted something sillier. Any suggestions please (it has to be in 1/72nd scale)

A Beverly? 

You could have a small battery of cameras looking out the back door, as well as a downward looking one operating from the boom's paradrop hatch.....

[Weaver]

They used a Mitchell as the main camera ship for the 'Battle of Britain' film, it had cameras in the nose and tail, and one on a big arm that de-tracted out of the bomb bay too! It looked pretty bizarre tracking over Duxford with that thing hanging out underneath it.

Here it is:



Aerial filming is not without risk: a similar aircraft was used to film Catch-22, and a member of the production crew fell to his death from it...

[rallymodeller]

That one, and several more like it, were owned by Tallmantz Aviation out of Orange County, California. Tallmantz basically invented the current concept of air-to-air filming, and they did it with these Mitchells. Here is one of the previous Mitchell's sister ships in more modern times:



The older photo Weaver posted was pre-refit; eventually all three looked like the one above, although the one based in the UK was painted gloss OD Green.   It is interesting to note that none of the modifications involved structural changes to the aircraft, and at least one of the camera Mitchells has been restored to her wartime glory.

By the way, here is another plane that Tallmantz used at one time:



Imagine the cameraman hanging out front...

These days most air-to-air filming is done by helicopter where practical, and by modified bizjets when faster/higher filming is necessary. Most companies use Wescam steadicam housings, and in the bizjet application they look almost exactly like a FLIR turret (the helo one looks like a ball)

[McColm]

What about using the Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, you could mount the cameras in the forward nose turret and the others in the tear drop windows?

[PR19_Kit]

The older photo Weaver posted was pre-refit; eventually all three looked like the one above, although the one based in the UK was painted gloss OD Green.   It is interesting to note that none of the modifications involved structural changes to the aircraft, and at least one of the camera Mitchells has been restored to her wartime glory.

As I recall the BoB film Mitchell had hi-viz orange areas on the wings and tail, as well as the overall green colour. We watched it shoot the sequence where the 'He-111s' bomb Duxford and you could see the orange bits long before the rest of the aircraft became obvious. There were some piccies of it in that scheme in 'Aeroplane Magazine' a year or so ago.

And Mr. McColm's idea of a Privateer camera ship rocks! 

You could even have extra cameras in the tail and top turrets AND have a bomb bay one like the B25 too.

[NARSES2]

^ Amiot 143?

Definately one of the French bombers from the 30's. Loads of windows to film from and you could build a balcony at the front for the dancers to prance on for airial dance shots  SMER mouldings of the old Heller tools are readily available and they are nice simple builds 

[Weaver]

For Les Chevaliers Du Ciel, Dassault built a pod for a movie camera that hung under the centreline of a Mirage 2000 facing either forwards or backwards. It was no easy task to build the pod because unlike military cameras that are designed for the job, the movie camera needed protection from vibration and cold. It wasn't easy to use either, since it had a very limited film capacity and the pilot had to be trained as a cameraman by the movie crew! Some of the other camera work was done using a business jet.

The results were well worth it though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_VtgDfL3Eg   

[Geoff]

^ Amiot 143?

Definately one of the French bombers from the 30's. Loads of windows to film from and you could build a balcony at the front for the dancers to prance on for airial dance shots  SMER mouldings of the old Heller tools are readily available and they are nice simple builds 

This I am liking!

[NARSES2]

^ Amiot 143?

Definately one of the French bombers from the 30's. Loads of windows to film from and you could build a balcony at the front for the dancers to prance on for airial dance shots  SMER mouldings of the old Heller tools are readily available and they are nice simple builds 

This I am liking!

Thought you might and you've got the 1/72 belly dancers 

[Spey_Phantom]

By the way, here is another plane that Tallmantz used at one time:



Imagine the cameraman hanging out front...

the plane's design hences the expression "Pulling off a Klunk"....

[McColm]

I've used the day-glo orange paint for my Nimrod tanker similar to the Lockheed NP-3D of the Naval Research Laboratory based at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland or page 26 of Model aircraft Vol 10 Iss 8 August 2011. There is an article on the Lockheed P-3 Orion. With colour schemes to match.

[Old Wombat]

There are a couple of pic's of the BoB Psychaedelic Monster here: http://www.daveswarbirds.com/bob/behind.htm

[Geoff]

Thanks.

[Old Wombat]

You might try looking through the results of this search, too.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=movie+%22battle+of+britain%22+b25+OR+b-25&hl=en&biw=1672&bih=828&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=

[PR19_Kit]

That's interesting, the first one of those sites shows the BoB B-25 was painted a different colour scheme on each side. Makes sense I suppose when you're actually TRYING to be seen!