Category: Lights! Camera! Action!

Lights! Camera! Action! Take 2

For our next instalment in this series Tony starts with a couple of submissions:

Our title image is a scene from the film “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, the Charge of the Rohirrim, with Théoden at the fore during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Figures from Tony’s extensive collection.

Returning to history, Tony says: “I thought I’d have a go at recreating some WW2 historical photos for this. I dug out my copy of “Blitzkreig in the West” from After The Battle publishing, which specialises in showing contemporary photos and then retaking the scene as it was in the 70s (when the book was published…)”.

We can’t reproduce the photos from the book for copyright reasons, but here are Tony’s reconstructions.

On May 10th, 2nd Panzer Division was moving through the Ardennes – the original photo shows a PzIII passing a Protze truck. I used a Pz.III and a Horch field car – I didn’t have a Protze with crew figures, the Horch just looked better. In hindsight it needed a backdrop of some sort to hide the garden fence.

Horch field car and Pz.III

In the early hours of May 15th 1940, the French 26eme BCC (heavy tank battalion) encountered units of the 7th Panzer Division near Flavion in Belgium. After heavy fighting the Char B1s were stopped by German artillery. I found a fully painted B1 in my collection that was still awaiting its tracks, so I thought it would make an ideal stand-in for the disabled vehicle on the road.

Char B1s of the French 26eme BCC (heavy tank battalion)

Moving from WW2 to the Hundred Years War, Stephen gives us the Battle of Crécy

The battle of Crecy, 1346

And finally for this submission, a couple of scenes from the Original Top Gun film (1986!) provided by Marcus.

Scene from the original Top Gun, F14 and “Mig-28”, Watch the Birdie!
Scene from the original Top Gun, F14 vs 2 “Mig-28s”

Lights! Camera! Action! Take 1.

Shortly before Christmas Stephen issued a challenge, throughout the rest of December post pictures on our members groups.io page of famous scenes from military history, or myth, or fiction. Fantasy or sci fi, film or whatever, but using models from our collections.

Stephen kicked off the challenge with a picture of Grendel and Beowulf

Grendel and Beowulf

Moving from myth to history, Andy contributed Gaius Julius Caesar leading Legio XIII Gemina across the river Rubicon in January 49BC precipitating (another) Roman Civil War.

Alea iacta est

And going back to fiction, Andy staged the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog in the Mines of Moria:

Gandalf and the Balrog at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.

Marcus provided a scene from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

“Your dead sleep quietly, at least, Captain, out of reach of sharks” “Yes, sir, of sharks and men.”
― Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Stephen had a play with his camera to create a sepia print of Pickett’s Charge.

Picket’s Charge

Mark delved into comic-lore to give us a scene from the comic 2000AD, Judge Death vs Judge Dredd.

Judge Death Lives! 2000ad progs 224-228, “you cannot kill what doesss not live”.

Marcus offers a scene from an Iron Hand mission in Vietnam.

Two MiG 21 Én Bạcs pursue a pair of F105 Thunderchiefs on an Iron Hand mission. A SAM-6 site is the F105’s target.