Motto's Chev

[motto (RIP)]

Thanks Snowy, I will certainly give it a go. Perhaps some level of competency is on the horizon but I'll keep working on the catapult idea just in case.
Photo:- Your worthy correspondent on location in North Melbourne with one of the GMCs.
Vehicles used in the filming were a mixture of purchased and hired vehicles a lot of which belonged to private owners. A GMC owner could expect to get $875 a day, a motorcycle owner $500. This would only apply if the vehicle was on set.
The clothing worn on set was of course fully supplied and once fitted was racked for use on later occasions by the same person. It was strange to have this outfit referred to by the wardrobe people not as a uniform but a 'costume'. Dammit! I'm a soldier, not a bloody fairy!
David

[Keith Webb]

David how accurate (or otherwise) was that dark green colour we see on US vehicles in the series?

[motto (RIP)]

The green colour used on the vehicles was a topic of discussion and no-one seemed to have a definite answer as to its accuracy. I had not seen anything like it before and yet must have seen restored US Marine Corp vehicles in my travels some of which would have been restored by Marine Corp nutters who got the colour right.
Some held that this colour was used as it would look right when portrayed in sepia tones in the finished production such as was done a lot in 'Band of Brothers' but that didn't seem to be used much if at all in this series.
The Marine Corp did paint their vehicles a different colour to the army I believe but I doubt that it was this shade of green.
Hopefully someone more qualified than I am on this matter will see this thread and make some pertinent comments.
David

[Lynn Eades]

My Dodge gun motor carriage belonged to the Marine Corp. The forest green paint over the top of the original army green was very dark, in the sheltered areas of the vehicle, almost black. It was a pretty rough paint job, with no shortage of runs. It still has "posting instructions" on the front guards, stencilled in yellow.

[motto (RIP)]

The colour you describe is what I would have thought to be correct Lynn. I can't explain the colour used on the film vehicles. Considering the trouble that they went to to get things right I figured there must have been a good reason for it. They even had a couple of genuine ex-Marines commanding the troops to make sure the way they dressed, behaved and carried their weapons was authentic. There were some slip ups though. Hollywood just can't get away from depicting soldiers festooning themselves with belts of MG ammunition when the very last thing you would want is to risk feeding mud and debris into the gun. I'm certain it would have remained in the can 'til the last second.
Are there any pictures of your WC55 on the forum Lynn?
David

[motto (RIP)]

I wouldn't mind having one of these props at home. They just turned up one day from I know not where. They certainly looked real. I believe they were and that they were probably brought in from the States and went back again afterwards.
David

[Howard]

This is an excellent thread, David, keep it coming.
As you stated, don't worry too much about the accuracies of your story, those that know will correct where necessary, and then we all know!
Now, duck into the Holgate Brewhouse for me and down a "Hoppinator"... Yummy!

[warren brown]

G'day Dave - terrific post. Years ago I ran into Paul Naylor in Sydney, who'd just come back from the Daintree Rainforest filming The Thin Red Line. He said the director, Terrence Mallick (Badlands etc) was an absolute nut on detail , in particular paint colour for vehicles and he'd been consulting an expert, I think an ex-marine, at the museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky. I don't know what the colour was exactly, but Mallick had gone to great pains to match it with the Fort Knox recipe and all the vehicles were required to receive this colour - whatever it was. Paul also told this story of Mallick desperately needing a Diamond T wrecker and they located one way up in the sticks on an aboriginal mission. They negotiated a fee for it and spent ages getting it going - fitting with a Falcon motor or a Holden motor if I remember correctly - trucking back to the Daintree, giving it a coat of Fort Knox green and it appears in the film as a tiny, blurry speck on a distant horizon on an airfield for a millionth of a second. It's at least 10 years since I heard this, so I might be a bit rubbery on it's exactness but this is pretty much what I remember...

[lynx42]

G'day Warren,
About time you joined the MLU brigade. Good to see you've come out of the wilderness.
Regards rick.