1910 Browning restoration as used by James Bond in 'Dr. No'

In the 1962 film ‘Dr. No’ we are exposed, for the first time, what would become a franchise lasting nearly 60 years…that of that gentleman spy, James Bond.

In the film, Bond’s carry gun, the 1934 Beretta, is taken away from him and replaced with a Walther PPK.




Throughout the film, however, a lot of continuity errors can be spotted such as Bond’s PPK is, in fact a Walther PP.



In fact, at one point, they even substituted a 1911 when he’s shooting at a mechanized Dragon Tank. If you look closely, you’ll see that the pistol has a malfunction in that one of the cartridges ‘stovepipes’ the slide open…but we continue hearing it fire. It then ‘Magically’ turns back into the Walther PP.





In one of the scenes, Bond sets trap for one of the villains. Bond prepares for the encounter by screwing on a suppressor unto a 1910 Belgium Browning semi-auto pistol.






I recently did a restoration project for someone on a set of ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E. pistols and accessories.

(See the following link: https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t5569-the-man-from-uncle )
The person who purchased the U.N.C.L.E. pistols from EBay, for a mere $75.00 (I know…I hate him too!) had, as part of the sale, an MGC replica of the 1910 Browning.

I restored it as well and, luckily, it was in pretty good shape.

I disassembled the entire model and sanded the finish down to the bare metal then painted the parts with Krylon flat black spray paint. I gave it a metallic finish by scraping a Graphite art pencil with an Exacto knife until I had a small amount of powder. I then rubbed it all over the model and sealed it by spraying it with a clear coat of lacquer.











Next step is having a friend machine a dummy suppressor to complete the look of the gun used on screen.

I’ll post that image once I get the part.

Hope you enjoyed this and the UNCLE pistol restoration article. Should anyone need to have their replicas restored, drop me at e-mail at: thefudds@aol.com
Ed

Brilliant mate, excellent work. Thank god they changed to the walther, i know the Walther is still a small gun but at least it looks the part, that 1910 does not, even though i know a lot like it. The silencer will be a geat addition.
Another great Ebay find, unfortunatly in the UK Ebay wont allow any type of replica to be sold including airsoft so we miss out on a lot.

Excellent presentation! I haven't watched the early Bond movies since the 60's. I didn't realize there were so many discrepancies!  

Just a quick update:

In preparation in having a machined replica suppressor made, I did a quick mock- up so I could get proper dimensions.

The tube is simply a plastic tube I had laying around but the perfect diameter to use as a stand-in awaiting the real part.

Because the replica has an insert inside the barrel, I had to make an adapter that will fit inside around the insert.

I used a brass tube the same diameter as the barrel opening. The portion that slides down the barrel had to be cut in half to go past the insert. The other solid half of the brass tube fits inside the plastic ‘stand-in’ suppressor.

Stay tuned. More to come in the future. May be awhile as I wait for the suppressor part.
Ed

I am a big fan of the 1910 so this is wonderful to see! Really great work !

I am a big fan of skilled people who restore things back to life =)

Walther is iconic, but 1910 today looks quite distinct to the well-known guns.

I love it -

"You've had your six..."