Warbird Information Exchange

I have never heard of Tallichet having an SB2C mold. Did he ever have access to an SB2C?

BK

There's also the Proud Bird Restaurant just outside of LAX. I remember the first time I flew into LAX and peering down on the restaurant. Those fiberglass planes look awfully realistic from an airliner on final approach. I almost pooped myself when I saw it for the first time...but not as much as seeing a real PBY at Ft. Lauderdale...or a pair of C-47s at Charlotte.

Does anyone have contact information for Dave Tallechet?

What would one have to pay for one of these replicas??

I saw on the History Channel that "King Kong" director Peter Jackson had a Spitfire fiberglass replica made for some $80,000. Quite the price tag for something that does not fly.

I was quoted $127,000 for a "pole sitter" Corsair just a few months ago. And that was without landing gear and the estimated $8,000 to ship it east. Iguess Spits are cheaper to make!
Jerry

Well, whoever makes them made a few replica's for the Pearl Harbor movie too. It wasn't Tallichet, it was a British company.

I have seen ads in the back of FlyPast for the British company that does Spit replicas.

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I sure would like to see how the fiberglass B-17 came out. Never knew one existed. I would be curious to know its wherabouts.

I'm not aware that he actually made one either, but Rob says he has the molds so he could if one was needed in the future.

There are moulds in Aus for various Spits and a Bf109G and in NZ very nice Mk16 Spit moulds and the usual price here seems to be 15 to 20k USD

A lot of people make moulds of their aircraft - often while being restored so they can make glass ones later if there is a market so it makes sense to have the moulds at some time and use them when someone wants one.

Regards
John p

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

Col Rohr

greetings from the sunshine state!!

Don't think there were any 3d replicas done for Memphis Belle - think they were all 2d flats painted and put on the far view. Same with the C47s in Private Ryan etc

I really don't think a 3d B17 has ever been done and have never seen any coverage of this

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

I've never seen fiberglass melted , Rob. I've seen it burn ( at least the resin part ) but it's not very environmentally friendly when it does. After the fire you have to find somewhere to get rid of the glass mat. It's considered hazaedous over here, I can only imagine how they would classify it over in the U.K.

I was stationed in England when "Memphis Belle" was filmed, could have been a ground crew extra if I had been able to get off work. They used large scale RC planes for a lot of the exterior flying shots, along with the three (or was it four??) real B-17's they had. I had a british warbird magazine that showed pix of the filming of the movie, but don't know what happened to them.