| GROSSMAN | 22 Jun 2012 6:57 a.m. PST |
Saw RED DAWN on TV last night was wondering if that was a real Russian tank, it looks like a T-62/4? the BTR looks a little off as well, anyone know what it is? |
| nvdoyle | 22 Jun 2012 7:13 a.m. PST |
If memory serves, nearly everything was a vismod, as authentic WP stuff was hard to come by then. |
| Lobsterback | 22 Jun 2012 7:35 a.m. PST |
Everything was Vismod. The tank was built on an old US hull (M48 I believe – if you look at a side shot you can see the struts/shock absorbers). The Hind A was built on a Puma. All in all they did a very good job! |
| Milites | 22 Jun 2012 9:14 a.m. PST |
Scroll down this link, imfdb.org/w/Red_Dawn They were M8A1 carrier chassis. All the Soviet weaponry was Vismod as nothing was available, for the film. Loved the fact that the fuse on the RPG round was a toothpaste cap! |
| 15mm and 28mm Fanatik | 22 Jun 2012 9:49 a.m. PST |
I'm STILL waiting for the new RD with the NK's. |
 javelin98  | 22 Jun 2012 10:45 a.m. PST |
Grossman, your Caps Lock seems to be on! On the vismods, one of the funniest things is this piece of trivia (thanks to IMDB): "The film's replica Soviet T-72 tank was so precise that when it was transported to the studio, two CIA agents followed and wanted to know where it had come from." Classic. |
| GROSSMAN | 22 Jun 2012 11:01 a.m. PST |
Nice link Milites. The bumper sticker shot was from the directors truck, he carried a loaded pistol with him on set every day. Red Dawn was the first ever PG=13 movie due to the violence averaging 2 deaths every minutes won the guiness book of world records for most violent movie that year.
I saw a T-72 on a transporter on I-95 near Savanah GA a few years ago and followed it for about 10 miles just staring at it-wonder the cops didn't pull me over. I was surprised how small it was. |
| Scott Kursk | 22 Jun 2012 8:36 p.m. PST |
The DShK's were made from M-60's. |
| Lion in the Stars | 23 Jun 2012 12:44 a.m. PST |
A friend of mine about climbed out of his skin when he saw the tanks for Red Dawn. Seems that Palmdale, CA included classes on 'know your enemy' back in the day! |
| Milites | 23 Jun 2012 2:55 a.m. PST |
Grossman, the difference in design philosophies is most striking when they are next to each other. In Duxford's Land Warfare Hall The T-72 is next to the Challenger and it dwarfs it. I always wondered if rules short-changed the smaller Soviet kit, when calculating spotting targets and hull down capability. Prefering to penalise them for their auto-loaders and main gun depression, both factors allowing them to be smaller. |
| Milites | 23 Jun 2012 8:35 a.m. PST |
Idiot! Should read "the T-72 is next to the Challenger which dwarfs it" |
| GeoffQRF | 25 Jun 2012 3:55 a.m. PST |
link "The Veluzat brothers of Southern California have been providing military vehicle props for Hollywood for over 20 years. Veluzat Army Retails has a large motor pool which includes vintage condition military trucks, jeeps, and tanks as well as vehicles that have been extensively modified to represent rare or otherwise unavailable AFVs in movies. Excelling at the art of VISMOD, The Veluzat brothers supervised the construction of a small army of full scale prop replicas of Soviet vehicles which included: two T-72s main battle tanks, a tracked BMD APC, an 8 wheeled BTR-60 APC, a tracked ZSU-23-4 anti-aircraft vehicle, a number of 4 wheeled BRDM-2 armored cars, and 3 Hind attack helicopters for the 1984 film "Red Dawn ." In 1984 the Cold War was still being waged and all these Russian vehicles were still front line weapons in Soviet and Warsaw Pact armies, so there was no chance that the production company, United Artists, was going to be able to use real vehicles to stage mock invasion of the US by Soviet, Cuban and Nicaraguan forces. The Veluzat rendition of the Russian T-72 MBT was so good that supposedly a heavy hauler moving one of the vehicles was stopped on the road by U.S. government authorities who believed the VISMOD was really was a Soviet tank. Veluzat used a number of surplus U.S. Army M8A1 Cargo Tractors as the surrogates for their T-72s, ZSU-23-4 and an American M1 Abrams tank in "Red Dawn." The M8A1 Cargo Tractor was an ideal surrogate for the T-72 and other AFVs because of the size and profile of its chassis, its type of running gear and number of road wheels, and most importantly the ready supply of Army surplus spare parts. The M8A1 shared the many of the same parts as the M41 light tank and while both vehicles were retired from U.S. service well before 1984, a large pool of spare parts was available due to M41s still in service with a number of other armies around the world. This is apprently the VISMOD T-72 they produced:
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expands his 15mm modern building collection.
