US Navy and USMC Between The Wars in 1/100

[Rata]

Thanks Mike. And fear not; our enthusiasm for this thread to continue has not waned mate!

[Rata]

Bit out out of the square this one. Replica of a full size replica: one of the non-flying Curtiss F8C Helldivers built for Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of the movie classic, King Kong.
Carries multiple ID markings (on which Don will elaborate in his following write up) used for filming from different angles to give the impression of multiple aircraft. The sheet has all the parts needed if the builder would like to do a particular machine.

Model will be available from Ecards shortly.

Now over to Don for the interesting story behind the aircraft in both the new movie and the 1933 original.



Best, Garry G.

[Don Boose]

Garry’s model is of a full-sized non-flying replica of a Curtiss F8C Helldiver built for the 2005 film King Kong and inspired by the aerial scenes in the original 1933 version of the movie.

The filmmakers who produced and directed the 1933 film were a pair of colorful Aviation Golden Age characters. Merian Caldwell Cooper participated in the Pershing 1916 Mexican expedition against Pancho Villa and during World War I served in France as a bomber pilot with the U.S. Army Air Service 20th Aero Squadron. He also flew with the volunteer American Kościuszko Squadron during the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War. His partner in filmmaking and adventures was Ernest Beaumont (Monte) Schoedsack, who had served as a U.S. Army Signal Corps combat cameraman and aerial photographer during World War I and, after the war, continued his career as a cameraman in Europe and assisted refugees from the Polish-Soviet and the Greek-Turkish wars. Cooper and Schoedsack met in Vienna in 1918 and during the 1920s they collaborated on films and expeditions to remote places. Together, they co-wrote, produced, and directed King Kong.

Cooper and Schoedsack made use of their aviation experience and contacts in filming the dramatic scenes in which King Kong is attacked and killed by aircraft while atop the Empire State Building. According to a history of the production of the film, Schoedsack persuaded the commander of Naval Reserve Air Base New York (NRAB NY) at Floyd Bennett Field to allow four Navy Reserve pilots to fly around the Empire State Building while he filmed them from a Travel Air camera plane based at Roosevelt Field. According to this story, Schoedsack contributed $100 to the NRAB NY Officers' Mess Fund and slipped $10 under the table to each of the pilots.

The actual identity of the aircraft used in the 1933 film is hard to pin down. Various aircraft, as well as models and a full-sized mockup, appear in the film. The most detailed account of the filming of the aerial scenes is Orville Goldner and George E. Turner, The Making of King Kong. Goldner and Turner identify the aircraft as "Curtiss O2C-2 [presumably a typo for "O2C-1"] and Navy NY specimens" (Goldner and Turner, Kindle Edition, Loc 2770). An image in the Goldner and Turner book captioned "Schoedsack prepares to take to the skies," shows Ernest Schoedsack and an unidentified aviator next to an NRAB NY Curtiss F8C-4 or O2C-1 Helldiver. The Floyd Bennett Field historical website claims that O2C-1s from NRAB NY were used in the film. The most famous poster from the film also shows an F8C/O2C. Other sources identify the aircraft as Curtiss F8C-4s, F8C-5s, O2C-1s, or simply “Helldivers.” All these aircraft are visually identical. The F8C-4 was a standard Navy fighter from 1930 to 1932 and then served with the Navy Reserve. The F8C-5 was an F8C-4 without a tailhook and was later re-designated O2C-1. Garry and I covered the F8C-4 in an early installment available at PaperModelers.com - View Single Post - US Navy and USMC Between The Wars in 1/100.

However, the four aircraft in formation that appear most often in the film are not Navy Helldivers, but civilian Stearman C3Bs with fake machine guns and a version of the NRAB NY emblem (Micky Mouse riding a goose and flying in front of the Empire State Building) painted on the fuselage sides Stearmans were not based at Floyd Bennett field in 1933, and the aircraft appear to be Hollywood stunt aircraft. Close up shots of the aircrews were made using a full-sized mockup of a two-seat combat biplane (also clearly not a Helldiver). In those scenes, Cooper and Schoedsack played the roles of the pilot and gunner (Schoedsack is quoted as saying to Cooper, “We should kill the S.O.B. ourselves.”)

Peter Jackson, the director and co-screenwriter of the 2005 film, insisted that his King Kong had to be set in 1933 “so I could do the biplanes” [Wake, p. 11], and whatever the identity of the aircraft actually used in the 1933 film, Jackson was convinced that they were “Curtiss Helldivers.” He commissioned Gene DeMarco, General Manager of a New Zealand aircraft restoration service, to build two replicas. DeMarco’s outfit, The Vintage Aviator Limited, obtained Curtiss Helldiver drawings from the Smithsonian Institution and fabricated the replicas from mild steel, aluminum tubes, synthetic fabrics, modified truck tires, and hand-crafted “vintage” instruments and equipment. The aircraft in the 1933 film carried the fuselage marking of NRAB New York, but the 2005 replicas were painted in the more colorful markings of Navy Fighting Squadron One (VF-1B), which served aboard USS Saratoga (CV-3) from 1930 to 1932 and was the best-known Navy flying outfit at the time, having starred in the 1932 Hollywood film appropriately titled, Helldivers. Different markings were painted on each side of the aircraft so that they would each appear to be two different planes. During filming, the replicas were mounted on gimbals so they could tilt in different directions. The wings were removable so the cameras could move in for close up shots.

Just as Cooper and Schoedsack portrayed the pilot and gunner in the 1933 close-up shots, Jackson and DeMarco played those roles in the 2005 film.

Garry’s model depicts one of the replica aircraft in the standard Naval Aviation colors of the early 1930s: all fabric surfaces are Aluminum, metal and wood surfaces are Naval Aircraft Gray, and the upper wing surfaces are Orange Yellow. Like the replica it is based on, Garry’s model is in the markings of VF-1B. The tail surfaces are painted Insignia Red as were those of VF-1B aircraft at the time. The engine front plate, fuselage stripe, and top wing formation-keeping chevron are all Willow Green, identifying the lead ship of Section 5. The airplane Bureau of Aeronautics number (BuNo) appears in three-inch high white characters on the vertical stabilizer. The replica was painted with 1-F-10 (BuNo A-8411) on one side and 1-F-13 (BuNo A-8413) on the other so it would appear as two different aircraft in the movie. The bureau numbers were false. BuNo A-8411 was actually assigned to the Martin XT6M-1 and A-8413 was actually assigned to a Martin P3M-1. The anti-drag ring is correct for the 1933 time frame of the film, although not used on the 1930-1932 F8C-4s of VF-1B. The top hat on an orange-red disk emblem (adopted by VF-1B in 1927) appears on the fuselage side under the rear cockpit. The red tail is correct for VF-1B and the Willow Green cowling, fuselage stripe, and top wing formation chevron area are correct for 1-F-13 (lead ship of Section 5), but incorrect for 1-F-10, which would have had a black cowl, fuselage stripe, and chevron as the lead ship of Section 4).

After due consideration, we decided not to have Garry produce miniature figures of ourselves as the pilot and gunner.

Thanks to Archivist Jared Galloway and Librarian Bob Thomas of the National Naval Aviation Museum who identified the aircraft in the 1933 film, determined what aircraft were based at NRAB NY in 1933, and gave their support and encouragement to this project.

Images

1. Replica of Curtiss F8C-4 Helldiver built for the 2005 film King Kong and the basis for Garry’s model. Source: The Vintage Aviator, available at Curtiss F8C Helldiver | The Vintage Aviator.

2. The other replica Helldiver under construction at The Vintage Aviator Limited. This one is marked as 1-F-1 (BuNo ) on one side and 1-F-7 (BuNo A-8429) on the other. Source: Wake, page 59.

3. An actual Curtiss F8C-4 BuNo A-8442, photographed at Naval Reserve Air Base New York, Floyd Bennett Field, circa 1933. Source: Elliott, Page 129.

4. A photo taken of Ernest Schoedsack and an unidentified aviator next to an F8C-4 or O2C-1 Helldiver at the time of the 1933 King Kong filming. The aircraft has a formation chevron on the top wing and the NRAB NY emblem on the fuselage side. Source: Goldner and Turner, Kindle Edition, Loc 2770.

5. The emblem of the Naval Reserve Air Base New York, located at Floyd Bennett Field: Mickey Mouse riding dive-bombing goose superimposed on the Statue of Liberty. Source: U.S. Naval Institute

6. The actual aircraft used in the film are not Helldivers, but Stearman C3Bs with fake armament and the NYRB NY emblem painted on the side. Note the vertical stabilizer and rudder, un-tapered wings, lack of a top wing center section cutout, and fake armament. At least two other types of aircraft appear in the aerial scenes, but these four aircraft are always the ones in formation and also appear in most of the other scenes. Source: YouTube screenshot from King Kong (1933), 2:48, available at King Kong (1933)- Climbing the Empire State Building Scene (9/10) | Movieclips - YouTube

7. Cooper and Schoedsack portrayed the pilot and gunner who kill King Kong in the close-up shots filmed using the full-sized mockup. The raised Scarff-ring machine gun mount was not used in actual Navy Helldivers. Source: YouTube screenshot from King Kong (1933), 2:34, available at King Kong (1933) - Beauty Killed the Beast Scene (10/10) | Movieclips - YouTube

Sources:

Aviastar, “Curtiss F8C-4/O2C-1 1929,” available at Curtiss F8C-4, -5 / O2C-1 Helldiver - fighter, dive-bomber

Joe Baugher, “US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos, First Series (A6002 to 9999),” available at http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_seria...stseries2.html

Peter M. Bowers, Curtiss Aircraft 1907-1947, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1979, pp. 274-277.

Curtiss F8C Helldiver, King Kong Wiki, available at https://kingkong.fandom.com/wiki/Curtiss_F8C_Helldiver

Curtiss F8C Helldiver, Wikizilla, available at https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Curtiss_F8C_Helldiver

John M. Elliott, The Official Monogram US Navy & Marine Corps Aircraft Color Guide, Vol. 1, 1911-1939, Boylston, MA: Monogram Aviation Publications, 1987, pp. 67, 120, 123.

“Flying High With Vintage Planes,” Dominion Post, New Zealand, 19 April 2017, available at https://www.pressreader.com/new-zeal...82299615042933

Thomas F. Gates, Fighter Squadron Fourteen “Tophatters,” Carrolton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1993.

Orville Goldner and George E. Turner, The Making of King Kong, n.p.: Pulp Hero Press, 2018 (updated and revised version of A. S. Barnes 1975 edition).

King Kong (1933) film clips of flying scenes:
King Kong (1933)- Climbing the Empire State Building Scene (9/10) | Movieclips - YouTube
King Kong (1933) - Beauty Killed the Beast Scene (10/10) | Movieclips - YouTube

William T. Larkins, U.S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941, Concord, CA: Aviation History Publications, 1961.

Gordon Swanborough and Peter M Bowers, “Curtiss F8C, O2C Helldiver,” United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968, pp. 130-131.

The Vintage Aviator, “Curtiss F8C Helldiver,” available at Curtiss F8C Helldiver | The Vintage Aviator

Jenny Wake, The Making of King Kong: The Official Guide to the Motion Picture, New York: Pocket Books, 2005.

Warbirds Walkaround, “Curtiss F8C-4,” available at https://warbirdswalkaround.wixsite.c...-c-46-commando

Marc Wortman, “Peter Jackson and the Airplane Thief,” Vanity Fair, March 2021, available at https://www.vanityfair.com/style/202...airplane-thief

[rifleman]

great builds of these aircraft and great information got to love this forum well done gents

[Michael Mash]

Well . . . . now you’ve gone and done it. I had to find some videos showing those aircraft buzzing around the Empire State Building. I had never seen the 2005 version of this movie.

Garry’s superb rendition of the 1/100 scale aircraft, along with Don’s thorough research into the topic made this an engaging and pleasurable read.

Mike

[Butelczynski]

I have to find my DVD of that film. I have 1933 version handy but newer is unaccounted.

Great model Garry. Just yesterday I was looking at another movie star model of F-5 from Top Gun. I tried building another movie star too but I ha

[gomidefilho]

Is a wonderful thread make for two great friends and modellers! Thank you!

[Rata]

Thanks for the positive comments folks.

I have copies of and love both the 1933 and 2005 versions for different reasons. The older one has a real compelling 'atmosphere' about it while Jackson's has special effects beyond belief.

King Kong (9/10) Movie CLIP - Kong Battles the Airplanes (2005) HD - YouTube

King Kong | V. Rex Fight - YouTube