Billy’s photos are wonderful.
I’m impressed (again) with the quality of his work both in modeling and in photography. It is inspiring.
Peter Zorn already chose the cover image.
Now we just have to wait for some parts to be finished and details to be fine-tuned.
This is looking very fine from here. I’m sure you will like it.
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The Ford Trimotor in the Indiana Jones "The Temple of Doom" movie - YouTube
The video shared before of the Indiana Jones clip showing N9651 in action in the “Temple of Doom” film was deleted from youtube.
Since it was being discussed here as reference material, and that livery is being released with this kit, there may be some interest in the clip, so I uploaded it to my account. And this time with the original audio.
There are a few things to note in this video.
First, the “Pan Am” hangar #3 at the airport (0:05). PanAm provided air transportation for the film crew as stated in the credits, and the PanAm logo of the hangar is the same used by the airline in the 1930 decade. Let’s remember that PanAm was the single airline with most Ford Trimotors flying in that time.
At that same moment N9651 appears, still in the colors painted by Irv Perch in 1969. But supposedly as part of the “Lao Che Air Freight” company. This is the real Trimotor. If you look carefully at the cockpit interior it has the green-colored walls of the original airplane. The “City of Philadelphia” name and the TWA logo were not painted on N9651 at that time.
Continuity error: on 0:24 you see how “Short Round” (the kid) passes through the airfield gate, carrying the briefcase, and just under a man carrying a sack. The next second you see Short Round has not yet crossed the gate, is taking the briefcase from Weber’s hand, and the man carrying the sack already passed by.
At 0:38, just after the Miss Scott enters the plane, and during a brief second you can see the interior of the plane. This is probably the fake fuselage built for the film, since the inner walls are bare corrugated aluminum. On the rear wall besides the toilet door there is nothing, but later you will see a China map on it.
At 1:00, when Lao Che salutes his pilots, you can see them clearly. You can also clearly see the real interior of N9651, and not the bare corrugated walls later seen (see through the window aft the cockpit).
At 1:05 the sequence of the plane taking off was filmed with the real Trimotor.
At 1:21, when Indiana changes clothes and exits the toilet, you now see the China map taped to the wall.
All the interior scenes in this sequence were filmed using a fake fuselage specially built for the film. The cockpit was also a mock-up.
At 2:01 the plane flying over the Great Wall is a detailed 3ft (1m) model filmed flying against a blue screen. The Great Wall is a model filmed separately.
In the same map sequence, the other takes of the plane are also of the same model.
At 2:42 the pilots dump the fuel. I’m 99,9% sure that there never was any “dump fuel” switch in real Ford Trimotors.
At 3:26 there is a composite image of the false cockpit (filmed with blue screen) and the snowy mountains (filmed separately). Notice how the propeller is tilted towards the right, and the gauge needles are turned to the left. At 3:55 they are still in the same position.
At 4:15 the starboard engine stops. The port engine stops at 4:20.
At 4:25 the propeller and the gauge needles have been mirrored. They change positions again at 4:38.
At 4:43 the plane that touches the mountain is the 3ft (1m) detailed model. It correctly shows the stopped propellers. The same model is seen falling in the next seconds.
At 5:05 when the raft leaves the plane, you can see the engines are running, though hey had (supposedly) stopped before.
At 5:24 the plane seen crashing is a smaller and less detailed model crashed against a model mountain, and later composited with the filmed sequence of the raft sliding. Although the plane has no fuel, it explodes in a ball of fire anyway.
And that’s virtually all that can be seen of the Ford Trimotor in the Indiana Jones “The Temple of Doom” movie. The time the real plane appears is just a few seconds in total. Most of the sequence was made using models.
See this page for reference:
TheRaider.net - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
And this page for a photo of the crashed smaller model:
Antique Trader - Premier Collectible Auctions announces new venture with Morphy Auctions