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Flight 714: origin of the guns used in the book?

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spirofantasio
Member
#1 · Posted: 24 Mar 2006 17:06
In Flight 714, are the machine-guns used by Tintin and others actually based on real weapons?
szplug
Member
#2 · Posted: 25 Mar 2006 14:54
I had the same question in mind for a long time but it somehow escaped me.
Anyway, the guns shown in that book have always facinated me, such as the scene with the gun bending and going off after the lava flows over it.
SingingGandalf
Member
#3 · Posted: 25 Mar 2006 15:06
Herge undoubtedly used a real weapon for his designs. He was very meticulous about these sorts of things, particularly in later books like 'Flight 714'.

In fact, I think I read somewhere, possibly Farr's The Complete Companion that Hergé copied them from a weapons brochure.

Moderator Note: The reference doesn’t appear to be from The Companion
Danagasta
Member
#4 · Posted: 25 Mar 2006 17:40
Well, the one Skut had looked like an AK-47 to me, but I could be wrong....I'm guessing they were definitely taken after real weapons.
mct16
Member
#5 · Posted: 6 Apr 2007 16:55
In Flight 714, the sub-machine guns used by Tintin, his friends and their enemies do not appear to be based on real weapons.

For example, the drum magazine on Haddock's gun is strangely positioned on top of the main weapon, which would hinder aiming and the feeding of bullets.

This is curious, since much of the background, cars, ships, aircraft and other items used in Tintin's adventures were based on extensive research.

Can anyone explain this?
Isabel a marche sur la lune
Member
#6 · Posted: 8 Apr 2007 02:52
I'd always noticed that myself, but I have no explanation. I can speculate that since the entire episode was very, er, out there, Herge might have felt inclined to be creative with the designs of things. It's somewhat similar with the 'native' sculptures and drawings on the walls that depict the aliens, because they do not appear to be based on a particular indigenous group, or were they? does anyone know this either?
mct16
Member
#7 · Posted: 9 Apr 2007 20:39
Granted there is the flying saucer, and Carreidas's plane is also imaginary. Swing-wing aircraft are almost all exclusively military.

On the other hand the animals on the island are based on real ones: a proboscis monkey and a Komodo dragon.

Even the mysterious man they meet in the middle of the volcano was based on Jacques Bergier, a Ukrainian-French expert on such things as magic.

It just seems odd that Herge decided to make imaginary guns when they could so easily have been based on real ones: Haddock's for example could have been a plain old Tommy gun of the sort used by Chicago gangsters.
motheroftintin
Member
#8 · Posted: 12 Apr 2007 01:31
What I also find strange is that those guns seem really modern, but then there's the gun that Archie broke when chasing Rasapolupdowecare is one of those shoot-and-reload, shoot-and-reload kind.

http://emf-company.com/images3/1892-rifles-carbines.jpg

This is what it looked like, right? There Winchester rifles made in the late 1800 and early 1900. Not so modern now, eh, Archie?
Balthazar
Moderator
#9 · Posted: 1 Jun 2007 09:35
mct16
It just seems odd that Herge decided to make imaginary guns when they could so easily have been based on real ones

Maybe Hergé's hatred of arms dealing made him decide not to give any "product placement" to actual modern makes of gun in this book.

That's only a theory, and admittedly it seems contradicted by all the real weaponary and real military vehicles in his next book, Picaros. But then, there's an overt anti-war theme running through Picaros, so in that case, maybe Hergé thought that showing the real makes of weapon that get supplied to "third world" conflicts would strrengthen that aspect of the book.
tuhatkauno
Member
#10 · Posted: 3 Jun 2007 09:31
Take a look at this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degtyarev_light_machine_gun

This "guy" is familiar to Finns. We both (Russians and Finns) used this LMG in Winter War and Continuation War during 1939 - 44. Why did we have same weapons? During the Winter War Russians were so friendly that they gave us their own weapons and surrendered. That's why Finns had a lot Russian army material. :)

For example, the drum magazine on Haddock's gun is strangely positioned on top of the main weapon, which would hinder aiming and the feeding of bullets.

The weapon is imaginary SMG, it looks like a combination of many guns, but it is very strange. M3A1 or MP5 could be the origing of Haddock's SMG.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_submachine_gun
http://world.guns.ru/smg/smg14-e.htm

In Flight 714, the sub-machine guns used by Tintin, his friends and their enemies do not appear to be based on real weapons.


Tintin's gun is a sort of combination of Thompson M1928A1 and MAT-49
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAT-49_submachine_gun
http://world.guns.ru/smg/smg29-e.htm

Grenade is Mils MK1.
Allan's revolver is Colt single action army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Single_Action_Army

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