Monday 1 May 2023

Lights, Camera, Action!

 Lights, Camera, Action!

In early 1914 the Mexican Revolution was big news in the United States and the name on everyone`s lips was Pancho Villa - bandit and revolutionary. With this in mind Villa in need of money to finance his revolution contacted movie mogul D. W. Griffith with the offer of an exclusive deal to film Villa and the Revolution (at a price). Griffith sends a young junior executive Frank Thayer down to the border with a film crew to negotiate and hopefully get and agreement and film Villa.

Thayer`s crew risked their lives in a wild mix of fiction and reality, eventually after a string a dangerous exploits, narrow escapes and double crosses worthy of any Hollywood movie; they make their movie "The Life of General Villa" which was released in the US to popular acclaim.

Just for fun I decided to model a film crew, these stared out as Italeri Italian Heavy Artillery crew, I head swapped the figures and pruned away any pounches and sidearms to give them a less military look. 

Before painting
The finished team

For anyone interested, there is quite a good movie about this "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself"(2003) with Antonio Banderas in the title role, which I enjoyed.






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11 comments:

  1. Cold War Commanders1 May 2023 at 06:09

    Nice little addition to the collection Mr B

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    1. Richard B1 May 2023 at 08:09

      Thank you, quite pleased how it looks, converting figures is a nice change of pace.

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  2. Stuart S1 May 2023 at 11:44

    That looks just the part Richard a very nice addition.
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. Richard B1 May 2023 at 11:50

      Thank Stuart, I pleased how the camera came out - only a bit of fun, but an enjoyable build.

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  3. Pete.3 May 2023 at 08:17

    Those are great- love the camera for them.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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    1. Richard B3 May 2023 at 10:13

      Cheers Pete, its quite surprising what my sausage like digits can produce at times when I try :)

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  4. Carl3 May 2023 at 12:23

    WOW! Great conversions Richard. Mind you Irregular Miniatures and B&B Miniatures both beat you to it in 20mm scale!! I modified the 'modern' crew from Irregular set to give me a 'news' (Pathe like) crew for reporting my 20mm miniatures Rif War; and later discovered the film crew in 1920s mode at B&B to provide two film crews one retro converted to Sudan and the Mahdiyyah of 1880s / 1890s and another for my 1913 'British' Somalia set up; all useful elsewhere like Palestine from late 19th to early 20th century. Of course news reporters could be scenario objectives (eg rescue mission) or battlefield 'clutter' that the CinC doesnt want but which political leaders say he must have and protect!! Enjoy adding them to your scenarios (imaginary or real in case of Mexican Revolution!!)
    You might enjoy "From our special correspondent - Victorian war correspondents and their campaigns" by R.J. Wilkinson-Latham; or 'Telegram from Guernica' by Nicholas Rankin which tells the story of George Steer, who reported from Ethiopia, Spain, Finland and who died in Burma while serving in British Army in a Propaganda Unit, but sadly dying on Christmas Eve night (or was it Christmas Day morning) 1944 in jeep crash. Carl

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    1. Richard B3 May 2023 at 13:51

      Cheers Carl, I`ve ordered the Irregular set, but got carried away and built these myself. As for "real" correspondents I have the works of Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett who saw the Siege of Port Arthur (Russo-Japanese war), Gallipoli (WW1) and the French invasion of Morocco (1908) books I`d really recommend.

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    2. Richard B4 May 2023 at 05:12

      I should add I knew about B&B Miniatures but that range appears to have become extinct - which is a shame as they did some excellent FFL in French sun helmet and some really good guns too.

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  5. Carl4 May 2023 at 11:09

    Richard, I haven't bought from B&B recently so I cannot confirm, but his website is still open for business at https://www.bandbminiatures.com/
    Carl

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    1. Richard B4 May 2023 at 12:52

      Thanks Carl, I couldn`t find that page with a Google search, maybe I`ll send him an email to see everything is still running OK.

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