First Project: The AE-35 Unit! Advice appreciated
- Thread starter Abitofcredit
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macropod80
Active Member
Well it looks like you dodged a 99p bullet nkg, because he's opened a '57-dated one same as you forgot to bid on, and it is indeed different inside:
looks like those different front knobs were a clue. And I see now one that sold back in Feb with the same knobs had a 58 date. So the one used in 2001 must have been only recently demobbed. (From a Meteor perhaps? That's where I've found the joysticks, rather than the oft-quoted Vampires.)
Mind you, he's wanting a bit more than 99p. Yet to negotiate on that. At risk of trying his patience, will suggest he finds one from the 60s.
looks like those different front knobs were a clue. And I see now one that sold back in Feb with the same knobs had a 58 date. So the one used in 2001 must have been only recently demobbed. (From a Meteor perhaps? That's where I've found the joysticks, rather than the oft-quoted Vampires.)Mind you, he's wanting a bit more than 99p. Yet to negotiate on that. At risk of trying his patience, will suggest he finds one from the 60s.
macropod80
Active Member
You've got one that's basically the same mechanism joberg: there's an electrically-driven gyroscope in the middle, that we're seeing bits of through the big 'D'-shaped openings on both sides. If you poke yours doesn't it move? Compare the two little screengrabs back in message #1 and #6 and you'll note the gizmo inside the red 'cage' has moved slightly between scenes. I presume on set it was aligned to look most interesting to the camera. You'd think they would have just glued it in the right position.Thanks for that macropod80Now, I've never seen one in real life, so question: does the innards are moving? It seems to me that, either some pieces were added to the screen-used one or the whole inside moves from side to side, or rotate, or...
I've noticed there is actually one scene where we can see the AE-35 from the opposite side:
but maybe it takes a 4k bluray to see it clearly and whether the inside has moved.
macropod80
Active Member
Oops, my mistake. I thought you must have found a different brand/model of aircraft gyro that was close enough. It certainly looks very 'manufactured' rather than just cobbled together from odds and ends. Well done.Sorry to dissapoint macropod80, but mine is just a prop I built from scratch. Nothing is real in it
Just got more pics from the UK and he's really pleased because he thinks he's found a match. For a few seconds I thought so too, but still not quite:
The two horizontal struts to the right of that grey plate are round in section, instead of flat-sided. For what it's going to cost me in postage alone I want spot on, not just nearly. With 50 to choose from, how can he keep finding weird ones? Considering he has no idea why I'm being so pedantic about what the innards look like, he's been very patient so far and I'm frightened he might decide I'm just jerking him around. Maybe one more try...
macropod80
Active Member
Currently looking like around 40 Pounds is his starting price, but his latest message included: "please let anyone else know who needs this type of compass as I'm tripping over them here " so I think there's room to haggle. Of course we've just seen one go for 99p, but several have sold this year around 25 Pounds from non-professional sellers. Guys selling them as functional aircraft parts ask around 200Pounds and this guy may be one of them, but he does know they're only good for parts or decoration. I've told him I know some guys who are pedantic like me, so if he can find a few that are spot on he's more likely to sell them. Obviously I'm waiting till I have a good one packed and posted before letting his details slip. Think I'm nearly there - I'd take that latest if he can't find one closer.How much does he want for those things? If it’s a reasonable price he could count on another sale.
macropod80
Active Member
Actually if you look at most stills from the film, it does look spot on. Without that good, sharp photo from the Trumbull video, you'd never tell those horizontal struts aren't round. And who knows, maybe they had several of those things floating around at the time and the example Trumbull has the photo of isn't the exact one made into the screen-used prop. There may well have been several iterations of it before a final was approved. We know the silver/grey rectangle on the side wasn't present in the film...That's very close and again: I think they moved the innards to make it look more "Sci-Fi". So I wouldn't sweat the way the major piece is turned in there.
That's the story I'm telling myself.
And here's an angle you don't often see, showing that gizmo inside has rotated significantly:
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macropod80
Active Member
Interesting update from UK:
"It seems the gyro your after has an early front casting and a later back section, I have opened a few and they either have the rear or front correct but not both so must have been a transition. The only option I can see is to remove the front off one with the flats and send that with the one with the correct rear casting and you put it together at your end"
By 'a transition' he means it was manufactured this way at the time Sperry was changing over from the early to later specification. So there won't have been too many made in this half-way state, and it's just our luck that when the props runner was picking up the pile of surplus aviation hardware this oddball was in amongst it.
Nothing's ever easy, is it?
I'm actually really starting to like the idea they made more than one..
"It seems the gyro your after has an early front casting and a later back section, I have opened a few and they either have the rear or front correct but not both so must have been a transition. The only option I can see is to remove the front off one with the flats and send that with the one with the correct rear casting and you put it together at your end"
By 'a transition' he means it was manufactured this way at the time Sperry was changing over from the early to later specification. So there won't have been too many made in this half-way state, and it's just our luck that when the props runner was picking up the pile of surplus aviation hardware this oddball was in amongst it.
Nothing's ever easy, is it?
I'm actually really starting to like the idea they made more than one..
joberg
Legendary Member
Interesting for sure, but looking at the pic showing the unit on the table, while Stanley is looking at the Discovery radar maquettes, shows that the unit is missing that grey rectangular plate at the front. As I suspected, they might have cobbled the whole final prop with other pieces/parts found in those different models...and yes, it's never easy
Fascinating! Well, I'm in the UK, so shipping for me would be pretty cheap (relatively speaking) if anything needs evaluating.
macropod80
Active Member
I suspect a reason he's been so accommodating is that I've actually already paid for one (and I had to take a deep breath when I saw the total with postage plus Australia's tax on the total!) I can't afford any more so I'm going with that one from post#86 because as he said, when I sent him a still from the film, it sure does look the same. (And sobering that after he saw the still with Bowman and Poole he asked 'what's the film?'.)
His name's Mike Ellis, north of Lincoln. He has a website at Quality RAF collectables in Scunthorpe from Avitech
Just heard we're about to go into lockdown here again. Been luckier than you guys so far, but it just won't go away.
joberg
Legendary Member
Thanks for the link macropod80. I tend not to mention any film or the statement "it's for a film prop" for the fact that, in the past, I was burned a few times with prices going up just by uttering that phrase So, when I saw a Graflex for $50, I shut my mouth, paid and jumped all the way home
So, when I saw a Graflex for $50, I shut my mouth, paid and jumped all the way home
macropod80
Active Member
I think we could all talk about getting burned, joberg.Thanks for the link macropod80. I tend not to mention any film or the statement "it's for a film prop" for the fact that, in the past, I was burned a few times with prices going up just by uttering that phrase
My usual practice whatever I'm after has always been never to say what it's for. If you're collecting - 'all collectors are rich' so the price goes up; if it's a hobby - 'hobbyists are all dumb and loaded', so the price goes up; anything to do with 'film', even if it's home-made amateur - 'everyone in films gets paid heaps', so the price goes up; if it's for home renovation - you must be a clueless amateur, so the price goes up. (And never tell tradespeople what it's for, because they insist on using their obviously superior knowledge on you - 'no mate that's not what you want, this other thing would work much better'.)
But after a week of exchanges with this guy I got to the point where he had to understand exactly what I was after, and I was pretty sure by then he wouldn't care. And of course I paid before I told him. (And he really does have 50, that don't work, and he needs to get rid of them.)
But hey, maybe this will turn out to be 2001's answer to the Graflex or the M38 sight, so get in now before scalpers buy them all.
macropod80
Active Member
So I can't go outside and I'm looking at gyro pictures planning what I'll have to do when my Sperry arrives and:
There were two.
There's one in the B&W Getty images that's different to that in film stills. Different circuit diagram on the top and different Sperry unit inside - not just dressed differently.
So are the Getty images from scenes that were filmed then cut, or are they earlier test shots?
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Lt Washburn
Sr Member
Is it different, or been rotated 180 degrees?
macropod80
Active Member
Both. There are a couple of little glitches in the printing and the folded red plate has cut-off corners (looks like a shadow under the corner-bolts) at the front end.
And look at the front left side between the two struts (that are either round in section or not): there's an extra little circuit-board fitted in the screen-used (colour) one that's missing in the B&W unit.
Also, the Getty image gyro looks like the one in post#82 - missing the three round bosses the post#86 gyro has.
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joberg
Legendary Member
Seems to me that the B&W pic is of an empty unit; maybe one of those with the lid on (scenes when Bowman and Poole are removing those units from the radar and/or for the actors not to hold a full, heavy unit while balancing on wires) The color one is the final, complete, unit seen in the film.
My thought of course...
My thought of course...
