Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Model Boating => Topic started by: shipnut on January 19, 2019, 09:03:14 pm
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I was watching a movie on YouTube last night called 'Edge of Darkness'. At the beginning of the film aGerman plane flying overhead orders a patrol boat to proceed to a Norwegian village.I got a real kick out of the patrol boat, and grabbed a screenshot (very out-of-focus). My questions for today are: Is this a real design or just something made up by Hollywood? Any idea where I could get some lines for the underwater portion of the hull? I think I'd like to tackle this project. Any sane suggestions welcome....and thanks ahead of time. Hugh F. Mowat (Shipnut)
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Is this the one.
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Thanks for replying so quickly. Yep, that's the vessel I was talking about.It looks as though other people have already seen the movie.
I wonder if anyone went ahead with a model? Hugh F. Mowat (Shipnut)
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From IMDB.
Most of the film was shot in Warner Bros studios at Burbank with some exteriors in the town of Monterey. Warners rented two of the biggest piers in Monterey and a fleet of Monterey sailing boats; they lined the streets with Norwegian and Nazi flags and signs and cast several locals as extras.
As 'Edge of Darkness' was filmed in California, in 1943, it is unlikely that the patrol boat is a genuine German patrol boat. Most likely a dressed up fishing boat, or a US patrol boat (perhaps with elements of mock superstructure).
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A quick look through the Germany and Norway bits of my Janes WW2 doesn't show any matches. The ones that come close have the masts arranged differently. I wouldn't trust that to be a complete listing anyway, not for small vessels, especially ones that might have been acquired locally after occupation and militarised.
It probably is a locally available (Southern California local) tug or fishing boat dressed up to look "sort of" German, a procedure that was very common back in Errol's time and still goes on today, despite there being a vast army of anoraks pointing these things out. In 1942/3 I doubt that even Warner Bros could get hold of the real thing.
When you look at low budget movies involving tanks, how many Panzers have you seen that look amazingly like Shermans?
Afterthought - didn't the RN dress up a destroyer to look like a German patrol boat at about the same time? Art and life do imitate each other.
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The most usual 'dress up' involves vehicles, for a german halftrack it always appears to be the M3A2 US vehicle and tanks usually russian T72 (battle of the bulge i think) or similar, i'm sure I have seen a patton used as a german tank
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Malcolmfrary Thanks for looking it up in Janes. Many moons ago I had a couple of Janes...one real one from the end of WWII, and a couple of reprints. But they went long ago. I tried Google, entering 'German Patrol boat', but got everything from battleships to Confederate Ironclads.
Might have a go in cardboard, using lines from, say, a fishing vessel or similar. Building models does serve the purpose of keeping me from hanging out with bad company. Hugh F. Mowat (Shipnut)