Saving Private Ryan Matt Damon Helmet auction at Prop Store

[king802]

I remember it well when SPR and BOB props were for sale in the UK. They were all over the place at one point. I got a helmet and a M42 suit and my father got a helmet and the M42 suit worn by Doc Roe. The suit had originally been made for the character Forrest Guth but he didn’t end up being in the series. I’ve still got all my gear from BOB. 

[king802]

Also have a rubber Garand from BOB and a Ranger helmet and assault vest used on SPR. 
The helmet is made from Fibreglass.

[Adrian6256]

9 minutes ago, king802 said:

Also have a rubber Garand from BOB and a Ranger helmet and assault vest used on SPR. 
The helmet is made from Fibreglass.

 

 

These are Really Awesome!! Does the fiberglass helmet also have a liner?

 

Thanks for sharing 

 

Adrian 

[king802]

M42 suit worn by Shane Taylor who played Doc Roe. Helmet is also from BOB. 
 

 

[king802]

1 minute ago, Adrian6256 said:

 

These are Really Awesome!! Does the fiberglass helmet also have a liner?

 

Thanks for sharing 

 

Adrian 

Yes - the liner is just a Vietnam era one marked up ACAD.

[Adrian6256]

12 minutes ago, king802 said:

I remember it well when SPR and BOB props were for sale in the UK. They were all over the place at one point. I got a helmet and a M42 suit and my father got a helmet and the M42 suit worn by Doc Roe. The suit had originally been made for the character Forrest Guth but he didn’t end up being in the series. I’ve still got all my gear from BOB. 

 

 

 

Doc Roe was one of my favorite characters in the series. Do you happen to have pictures of that helmet. 

 

Thanks again, 

Adrian 

[Adrian6256]

2 minutes ago, king802 said:

M42 suit worn by Shane Taylor who played Doc Roe. Helmet is also from BOB. 
 

 

 

This display is wonderful! I love when collectors display these the way a quality museum would. 

 

Adrian 

[king802]

3 minutes ago, Adrian6256 said:

 

Doc Roe was one of my favorite characters in the series. Do you happen to have pictures of that helmet. 

 

Thanks again, 

Adrian 

Hi Adrian,

The helmet with Doc Roe’s suit isn’t the one that Shane Taylor wore. This helmet and the one I posted on its own were both worn by special ability extras. Another collectors who has a big collection of BOB props was able to tell me who wore the helmets since they are numbered inside with A and a number which corresponds with the special ability extras. 

[General Apathy]

On 12/8/2021 at 10:25 PM, General Apathy said:

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Easy Company Entering Carentan Then & Now Locations . . . . . . . 

 

These two shots show the film-set ( UK studios ) version of Easy Company entering Carentan and the reality of the real location taken 2003.  When they got to the bottom of this route they went left into the town centre where Winters was then wounded in the leg. Note the studio cafe' had an extra floor added to it making it a more impressive building. 

 

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regards lewis.

 

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Well I have to laugh . . . . 

 

Yes I have to laugh,  as this thread started with ' Saving Private Ryan ' which was made around 1997, I inadvertently carried on with that date and added to some of the Band of Brothers photos, as in the top photo above which should have been 2000 . . . . .  stupid is as stupid does !!!!

 

Too late to change now the forum edit facility ran out last week . . . . . . .

 

regards lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

On 12/2/2021 at 8:27 PM, General Apathy said:

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pretty much everything used in the film was agonised over to have it right or make it look right.

 

He was also instrumental in building the Tigers for Saving Private Ryan, from ex-Russian tanks.  

 

 

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Hi everyone,  the Band of Brothers tanks . . . . . 

 

The vehicle department with shots of the ex-Russian tanks being remodelled into German Tigers, as there's currently only one working Tiger in the world is was easier to make some . . . . . . . . . 

 

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cheers lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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Band of Brothers hard rubber belt and pouch fillers . . . . . . .

 

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regards lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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Rubber MG34 used on Band of Brothers series . . . . . . . . . one of my all time favourite machine-guns. 

 

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regards lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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a little more Then & Now of the 506th's route into Carentan . . . . . where fact and film converge

 

Photo #1.  the 506th approached Carentan along this route into Carentan and attacked the cafe / bar at the end of the road.  

 

Photo #2.  Here the road intersects with a road from the right and to the left which leads into town. To the right of the cafe was a Belgian gate road barrier as seen in the second photo, note the troops and machine gun squad resting in the bottom right corner. The cafe' side wall and chimney in the upper right of the photo.

 

Photo #3.  This is the same intersection, the cafe chimney is still upper centre of photo, a new recent house build is now to the side of the cafe', note that even after seventy years the two adjoining telegraph line poles are still there. A long nut and bolt still evident in both photos and some of the small knot holes in the poles.

 

( apologies that the second and third photos were not exactly taken at the same angle, but the knot holes do line up when stood next to the poles. ) 

 

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cheers lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

On 12/16/2021 at 3:19 PM, Adrian6256 said:

 

I imagine these are great memories for your daughter. It's crazy to think of how many uniforms has to be amassed for such a big production.

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Hi Adrian,

 

For the winter Bastogne / Foy scenes I provided 600 sets of ' M43 ' jackets and pants.  These were ex-Norwegian army supplies, at the end of WWII the Norwegian army bought vast amounts of surplus American uniforms and equipment.  The webbing items lasted well, however to keep the soldiers uniforms in good order it was necessary for the Norwegians to make very good quality copies of the ' M43 ' uniforms, it was these stocks I used.  So many jackets were required as it was proposed that when the jackets are initially seen they looked like newly issued stocks, many other of the jackets were then washed and broken down and distressed for the combat scenes, we distressed the paraboots using cement mixers, sand and broken house bricks.

 

The following shot came from the attack on Foy sets / shoots, it shows an indoor studio scene, the trees were cut and collected from local forestry supplies and stood in three feet of soil ( 1 Metre ), this allowed fox-holes to be dug into the soil, the whole studio was covered in fake snow, I recall that the crunch of boots on snow was evident if you watch the scene.  Shooting indoors also allowed the image of darkness encountered in a true forest of trees.

 

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regards lewis

 

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[manayunkman]

2 hours ago, General Apathy said:

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a little more Then & Now of the 506th's route into Carentan . . . . . where fact and film converge

 

Photo #1.  the 506th approached Carentan along this route into Carentan and attacked the cafe / bar at the end of the road.  

 

Photo #2.  Here the road intersects with a road from the right and to the left which leads into town. To the right of the cafe was a Belgian gate road barrier as seen in the second photo, note the troops and machine gun squad resting in the bottom right corner. The cafe' side wall and chimney in the upper right of the photo.

 

Photo #3.  This is the same intersection, the cafe chimney is still upper centre of photo, a new recent house build is now to the side of the cafe', note that even after seventy years the two adjoining telegraph line poles are still there. A long nut and bolt still evident in both photos and some of the small knot holes in the poles.

 

( apologies that the second and third photos were not exactly taken at the same angle, but the knot holes do line up when stood next to the poles. ) 

 

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cheers lewis.

 

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Hello Mr Lewis do you have any idea what that cage thing is sitting in the street in #2?

 

Thanks

 

Peter

[General Apathy]

13 minutes ago, manayunkman said:

 

Hello Mr Lewis do you have any idea what that cage thing is sitting in the street in #2?

 

Thanks

 

Peter

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Hi Peter,

 

Thanks for asking,  I did actually name it as a ' Belgian Gate ' but didn't add any further information regarding the item, here's a wikipedia link to details about them. They were actually on small wheels or rollers and this one has been pushed aside as the Americans advanced into the town. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cointet-element

 

regards lewis.

 

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[manayunkman]

19 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

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Hi Peter,

 

Thanks for asking,  I did actually name it as a ' Belgian Gate ' but didn't add any further information regarding the item, here's a wikipedia link to details about them. They were actually on small wheels or rollers and this one has been pushed aside as the Americans advanced into the town. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cointet-element

 

regards lewis.

 

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Thank you so much, I often wondered what they were.

[daswrack]

On 12/16/2021 at 10:00 AM, king802 said:

Also have a rubber Garand from BOB and a Ranger helmet and assault vest used on SPR. 
The helmet is made from Fibreglass.

fibreglass helmet? could they not take the 3 pounds of the steel? getteing a regular repro would probably have been cheaper than custom making those 

[General Apathy]

9 hours ago, daswrack said:

fibreglass helmet? could they not take the 3 pounds of the steel? getteing a regular repro would probably have been cheaper than custom making those 

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It was more a question of how quickly they could assemble three or four hundred helmets and at what condition and cost, with the resin helmets they had a cheap and consistent pattern. 

 

There was a small number around 30 or so of the football style training helmets made for just one scene during a training jump if I recall, now these were expensive copies to make, it would have been impossible to assemble 30 original ones.

 

Filmwork is a lot of fakery . . . . . . . . . .

 

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regards lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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More fakery . . . . . . . . . . 

 

Some of the background shots of Waco's and C47's were actually 8 x 4 sheets of painted plywood as in the image, the small section of mangled undercarriage is just another separate small sheet of painted plywood giving some of the flat panel boards more of a three degree image.  Note the join line running down past my daughters shoulder and another join line mid wing.

 

More fakery, there's just not enough C-47's and Waco's to be hired or bought out there.  During the remake of ' Memphis Belle ' released in 1990 five airworthy B-17's were used and again B-17's seen in the distance were painted boards.  During filming one of the two French owned B17's had a minor accident but burst into flames and was a total loss, the ten people in the aircraft survived the incident, at the start of filming it was two American owned, two French owned and one British.  These aircraft had different aircraft names and numbers on each side so during filming from different sides it appeared that there were far more actual aircraft.  Oh and while I recall there were several large scale radio-controlled flying B-17's used in shots, somewhere in my files I have a shot of these with their operators.  

 

painted plywood sheets come more easier and cheaper than real aircraft.  

 

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regards lewis

 

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[General Apathy]

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Hi everyone,

 

here's a shot from the scenes were Easy Company meet the tanks advancing from the beaches.  I carried a spare ammunition bag with various spares and repairing items, a small roll of baling wire being the most used, during breaks in the shooting it was necessary to repair many of the cartridge belt buckles, being made of cheep metal they would break frequently and it helped continuity and speed re-takes to just wire the front sections together.

 

Extreme left of this shot can be seen the head of a dead horse, obviously a resin reproduction,  but I have to say standing next to these beasts they were quite scarily real, the glass eyes laying dark and motionless in the heads.

 

If I recall correctly somewhere down the track behind the building on the left is where Ronald Speirs massacred the German prisoners, shot around the same period.

 

There was almost a tragic accident whilst filming with the tanks,  whilst the tanks were being reversed for another take a well known member of the production team jumped a ditch and slipped full length on the floor, we all had to scream for the tanks to stop, which I am sure the actors and crew involved that day will remember . 

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 05  2022.

 

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[ccmax]

On 12/16/2021 at 12:59 PM, king802 said:

I remember it well when SPR and BOB props were for sale in the UK. They were all over the place at one point. I got a helmet and a M42 suit and my father got a helmet and the M42 suit worn by Doc Roe. The suit had originally been made for the character Forrest Guth but he didn’t end up being in the series. I’ve still got all my gear from BOB. 

Is the helmet a US WW2 shell?

[General Apathy]

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Back to the top . . . . . . . . .

 

My daughter at the Band of Brothers studios, Hatfield.

 

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cheers lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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Thanks jmd62, elh1311 and mikie for the ' likes '.

 

Apologies that my daughter featured heavily in a lot of the studio shots, it was all about creating memories for her, youth so soon passes.  When we lived in the UK starting at the age of two I used to sit her annually on a wall out front of the house so that the background was virtually unchanging but it showed how she was growing . . . . . . . . despite the menacing grimace and weapons she didn't go into acting.  

 

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regards lewis.

 

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[jmd62]

LOL! Great photos and yes, they grow up way too fast :)