Battle of Britain Movie 1969

[Neil Corlett]

Does anyone have any further information or material on the modelmakers, models and equipment used in the production of the 1969 film Battle of Britain?

A team of respected builders and R/C pilots - Mick Charles, Jack Morton, Chris Olsen and David Platt - was assembled at Pinewood Studios in 1967 to produce a fleet of one eighth scale Hawker Hurricanes, Junkers Ju87s and Messerschmitt Bf110s, though the 110 was later dropped in favour of Spitfires and the Spanish versions of the Bf109 and Heinkel He111 to complement the full sized aircraft used in the movie. Jack Morton was, I believe, a pioneer in the use of glass fibre for aeromodelling and he used this to produce a great number of models in the fairly short period demanded by the film's producers. the team then went on to fly the models for filming in 1968, first at Lasham and Duxford and then, for better weather, in Malta towards the end of the year. Most of the models were destroyed there at the end of filming rather than the film company going to the trouble and expense of bringing them back to the UK.

Does anyone know if there were any articles in either the contemporary modelling press or subsequently? I'm interested not only in the team and the filming but also the type of radio equipment used, motors, construction, finishing, etc. In addition, some models seem to have been constructed just to be dropped from the film unit's helicopter to represent shot down aircraft crashing.

Any information or pointers would be appreciated.

[Trevor Crook]

There was an article in the last year or so in Aeroplane magazine on the movie, sorry I can't remember which issue.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I believe that Dave Platt is still an active modeller although living in the USA now. You might be able to contact him through this website.

[leccyflyer]

There were articles in the modelling press at the time and you are probably aware of the two books produced on the making of the film by Robert Rudhall - which has pictures of some of the models,

This site also has some details **LINK** and lists a number of articles.

[Phil Cooke]

There's some good info here, but as Trevor points out, there was a good article in the modelling/full-size aircraft press quite recently too.

**LINK**

[John Lee]

Welcome to the forum Neil.

Have a look at this thread where you will find much more, including copies of the contemporary model magazine articles.

[Dave S.]

I don't know about the models used in the film (though I am sure I ave read an article about them in a model magazine at some time in the past) but I do have a very clear memory of sitting on the village green at East Dean with my mum & dad, drinking a bottle of coke and eating packet of crisps from the Tiger Inn and watching a Spitfire and 'Me 109' circling round and round a helicopter. My dad filmed it with his home ciné camera, I might even have the film somewhere.

I would have been 11 years old at the time, same year I started flying models.

[Neil Corlett]

Many thanks for such prompt and very helpful replies!

There have been several articles in aviation magazines down the years though these tend to concentrate on the full-size aircraft. When promoting the film’s release, I believe that the studio wanted to downplay the roles of the models as they obtained maximum publicity from all the original aircraft they used (“the world’s 35th largest Air Force”, etc.).

Thanks for the link to Dave Platt’s site. I’d read elsewhere on a different forum that he was reluctant to discuss his work on the film but whether that’s true or not I’ll find out. It seems he emigrated to the US just around the time things were starting to get moving with the film.

The Dave’s Warbirds site is excellent and gives credit to the model work done. For those interested, there’s also this: **LINK**

I’m fortunate to have both the Rudhall books - they’re hard to come by and when they occasionally do pop up they’re quite expensive but are well worthwhile if you’re interested in the subject. There’s a short chapter on the models but it doesn’t go into too much detail on the technical issues.

Thanks very much for the lead to the other thread. It’s brilliant, particularly the link to the article in the July 1967 issue of RCM&E. This was obviously written when production of the film was paused for refinancing and the model team was temporarily stood down. It answers many questions I had, including why the Hurricane appeared to have a retractable undercarriage when those eventually used took off from dollies and belly-landed. (The Hurricane at this stage was also finished in the colours of the film’s principal RAF technical advisor, Wg Cdr Robert Stanford-Tuck when he flew in the Battle when the decision was later made that no real squadrons or front-line pilots should be portrayed.) Did RCM&E do any follow-up articles when filming was resumed or after the movie was released?

Edited By Neil Corlett on 23/01/2021 09:48:08