LIfe Imitating Art

[Arun Sharma]

From the 1957 film "Hell Drivers" comes the real star of the film in 1/43rd scale - The Dodge Parrot Nose tipper truck as driven by Stanley Baker. The film also starred Patrick McGoohan, Gordon Jackson, Alfie Bass, William Hartnell, Sean Connery, Jill Ireland, David McCallum and even Sid James and Herbert Lom.  

 

This is a photograph of the test build and has a slightly different version of the "Hawletts" paint scheme compared to those in the film for the purposes of clarity and definition. 

 

Now available from Radley Models.

 

Edited February 7, 2017 by ted675

[BG John]

It would be great for fitting cheap radio control to, as it only has one speed - fast!

[Arthur]

 

 

I made up a small fleet in 4mm myself from modified BaseToys models with custom made decals. Not long after Road Transport `Images released them in their resin kit format.

 

 

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[rocor]

How was the colour decided upon?, the film was in black and white and the trucks shown on the film poster were a orange/brown.

[Arthur]

Good question and one which took a bit of research.

 

Obviously the film is b&w and, as you say, two of the contemporary posters show the lorries in red. These are illustrations rather than photos and are not accurate representations of the Dodges which puts doubts on their overall accuracy.

 

A search of film and truck fan websites eventually produced two bits of information. Firstly, the fact that a well known London based demolitions company called Drinkwaters loaned the lorries, and their fleet was dark green, and secondly, a recollection that they were green from someone whose father worked on the film.

 

We had this discussion a while back and somebody posted this, a clip from another film of the day.

 

 

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[G. Waddilove]

On 07/02/2017 at 13:06, Arun Sharma said:

From the 1957 film "Hell Drivers" comes the real star of the film in 1/43rd scale - The Dodge Parrot Nose tipper truck as driven by Stanley Baker. The film also starred Patrick McGoohan, Gordon Jackson, Alfie Bass, William Hartnell, Sean Connery, Jill Ireland, David McCallum and even Sid James and Herbert Lom.  

 

This is a photograph of the test build and has a slightly different version of the "Hawletts" paint scheme compared to those in the film for the purposes of clarity and definition. 

 

Now available from Radley Models.