Military vets museum tank makes appearance in ‘Ant-Man’

No, they didn’t become friends with Paul Rudd or Michael Douglas.

But Dave Kersztyn and Shane VanLinn, who work at the Military Veterans Museum in Oshkosh, did spend more than two weeks on the set of the actors’ new film, “Ant-Man.”

Their claim to fame? A World War II Russian T34 military tank from the museum, which was transported to Atlanta for the film.

With VanLinn at his side, Kersztyn drove the tank in three scenes of the film, two of which were shown in the final version. Kersztyn went to a showing of the movie Thursday, July 16, in Oshkosh.

For the 19 days in October Kersztyn and VanLinn spent on set filming in Atlanta, Kersztyn said the tank is on screen for about 30 seconds total.

“That’s part of the magic of movie-making, isn’t it?” Kersztyn said. “It’s easy to see and the tank is obvious in the scene, but it’s very brief.”

Learning what it takes to film just a 20-second clip was surprising, he said. He had no idea how much work — they sometimes clocked 18-hour days — went into a feature film, nor how many people were involved.

On any given take, he said there were about 60 film crew, plus stunt people in addition to the director and anyone in the scene, which made getting it right as soon as possible even more important.

“I have never had that kind of pressure on me before,” Kersztyn said.

Despite the pressure, he said everyone on set was friendly, and within the first couple days, “everything just turned into one big, happy family.”

Representatives from Marvel Studios contacted the Military Veterans Museum early last year, Kirsten said, and after looking at several other tanks throughout the country decided to go with theirs.

The Russian tank is one of the main displays at the museum, and Kersztyn said artifacts and original artwork as well as fake scenery from the scene and photos from “Ant-Man” will now accompany it.

Because the museum is a nonprofit organization, Kersztyn said all of the money they made from the film will go right back into operating expenses of the museum.