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Posted on Feb 17, 2007 in Front Page Features, Stuff We Like

Armchair General – Behind the Scenes

By Simon Delaney

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Seimon gets to work whilst we look suitably heroic

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The French Resistance arrive, as the Tank crew leave…

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Click here or on the image above to see footage of the German crew escaping the King Tiger (approx 4MB)!

I didn’t expect to have a job that day, apart from helping Seimon, but I was asked to be the Tiger’s Kommandant, so that was a difficult decision to make! This character didn’t have much to do, as the action focuses on the escaping crew for most of the shoot, but it did give me a great opportunity to compare the fighting compartment with that of the Churchill. There’s quite a difference, I can tell you. Much more room, a much bigger gun and different stowage facilities, It was just as spooky as the Churchill with the hatches closed and a Centurian being tested on the track just 30 ft away!

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The interior of an AFV is a rather cramped place to be

All in all, a fantastic opportunity to get really close to the vehicles, and especially to get inside them! The planning and execution of the shoot was precise and thoroughly accomplished very much like a military operation, ironically! Far from being a one-man show by Seimon, it was definitely a team effort and although several of us had not met before, we worked hard to achieve the results in the time we had.

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As you can see, very little headroom in places, with lots of protuberances,
but I guess in a battle it might beat being outside!

Links 

New King Tiger at Bovington

Richard A Underwood

ACG January 2007 Issue: Bradley

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

1 Comment

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