2025/2026 GB Season - Call for Ideas

Right here we are, this is the place to submit your ideas which will then go forward for voting to determine the subjects of the 2025/2026 GB Season.

The top 3 in the final poll will be the subjects for this year's Group Builds.

Now I know I'm banging my head against a brick wall, but please, please think about your ideas before submitting them, particularly that they offer a broad enough canvas so that as many members as possible could and would be able to take part plus try and ensure that they are at least practical in terms of building them as well as asking yourself if you would take part in that GB if your idea was  chosen.

Can I also remind you that subjects from the previous 2 GB Seasons are not eligible. Thus : The Re-engine It, the Buccaneer/Hunter/Jaguar,the 60's, Polar Wars and the Bad Idea GB's  are not eligible as subjects for this season's GB's. (the third GB of this years season was the In Memorium GB)

I will aim to run any necessary preliminary poll round about the 7th April and the final round of voting will take place on or around 14th April.

Thank you

Chris

The movie prop GB. As simple as repainting a Cessna in USAAC colors or as complex as a T-34 made to look like a Tiger tank. It doesn't have to be a specific TV show or movie just something that might have appeared in one. This could include the whole "road warrior" or zombie apocalypse style too.

Okay, someone  has to make an all embracing suggestion, and it might as well be me.  How about   "Ploughshares into swords"  This allows everything from a US army Wright Flyer reconnaissance aircraft to a Concorde strike airframe,  Civilian vehicles with "Ned Kelly" armour,  supertankers with their own flightdeck and self defence force............or think what could be done with the old Revell trawler kit  . 

I've got two "weird and fun" suggestions. 

Idea # 1  The Mad Scientist Group Build
Pretend you're a mad scientist determined to take over a country, the world, or even the What If forums.    What vehicle, gadget, or weapon system would you create? The crazier and mad the idea, the better! 

Idea # 2  Alien Invasion of the World Group Build.
Pretend you're an alien species intent on conquering the world. What vehicles and devices would you create to do such a task and subjugate the human population?
Or.........create a vehicle or weapon system that the human defense forces would use to try and repel such an invasion.

I'll take the opportunity to suggest a theme I'm almost constantly adhering to, one way or another while whiffing, the Will it never die? theme.

The general idea is to build and modernise any equipment to make it serve long past it's real out-of-service date. It can be as easy as my 1960's J35A Draken gaining the IRST from a later version, more modern armament and a modern grey air-to-air paint scheme, but it could also be a Mosquito with a targeting pod and Maverick missiles. Or a Spad VII armed with Sidewinders. Or anything in that general direction.

Being a very sporadic GB participant, often due to my current mojo not matching the current GB, this would definitely suit me as it's allowing most of what I build as entries.

Yes, it's a selfish suggestion. So bite me. 

- Lend Lease Act
The well know US policy to supply food, oil and equipment, mostly the point of this possible GB, military equipment. While most famous been the US giving such equipment to the other Allies, theres also a British "version" to the USSR, and also an "reverse LL" were the Soviets gifted one T-34 and one KV-1 to both the US and UK, plus the US using British equipment as a stopgap while waiting for their own home-made. And it doesn't be just WW2 - theres also the (during Biden administration) current version with Ukraine, and since this is a "whatif" website, more could be made

I will think of more, if I can

Here's the list i've been making since the last time we were asked this;


Soviet GB (last done 2017). 


Back of the Hanger GB.  Build something found at the back of a hanger/shed/storage facility/warehouse, dragged out and put into use.


M113 GB.  Build something/anything using M113 parts.


Trans Tasman War GB.  Australia vs New Zealand.  Navy, Marines, Airforce, Army, Special Forces...


Smuggler GB.  Vehicles for smuggling.  From cocaine subs to 'shine runners and everything in between.  Maybe even "Tariff Busting" container ships?


Stop the Pigeon/Whacky Races GB.


Car GB.  Let's all build whiffed cars.  No planes, tanks, or ships.  Just cars.


Amphibian GB.


Lifetime GB.  Everyone must make two or more builds of the same whiff at different stages of its life.  If we went forward with this one i think it'd take the record for most failures to finish...


Italy 43-45 GB.  Build something that might have been used by either side during the liberation of Italy in WW2.

Right I have a suggestion :-

Versailles to Molotov/Riibbentrop. Build anything - air/sea/land - military or civil - that was used/built/thought about in the period between the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the end of the Great War 1919 and the signing of the Moltov-Ribbentrop pact and the begining of WWII in 1939.

Operation Downfall

Operation Unthinkable

The Russian Civil War

Quote from: NARSES2 on March 22, 2025, 06:51:18 AMRight I have a suggestion :-

Versailles to Molotov/Riibbentrop. Build anything - air/sea/land - military or civil - that was used/built/thought about in the period between the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the end of the Great War 1919 and the signing of the Moltov-Ribbentrop pact and the begining of WWII in 1939.

Is this anywhere in the world or just Europe, Chris?

OK my suggestion - Tried and Tested GB. 
Anything anywhere real or fictional undergoing real or fictional trials and tests.  But not anything real undergoing real trials and tests it was actually used in/for, must be a whif scenario. 

Might just be a change of colour scheme, such as a Raspberry Ripple A&AEE Tiger Moth or an X-35 painted up as though it were the prototype Seversky P-35.

Or it could be a Halifax/Halton acting as a flying test bed for Nene jet engines rather than a Lancastrian.

Let me also add, and this will be a truly creative one, serials/B movies.  Anything ranging from the classics like Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers on up to Hammer Pictures and the biggest low budget movie there ever was in '77

"Better late than never"

As 1945 represents the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War 2, enter a subject that just made into service for VE or VJ day. 

"The South"

Enter something in Southern service. South America, South Dakota, South Africa, South Korea.....or a Croydon street sweeper.....     

Quote from: Pellson on March 21, 2025, 02:00:11 PMI'll take the opportunity to suggest a theme I'm almost constantly adhering to, one way or another while whiffing, the Will it never die? theme.

The general idea is to build and modernise any equipment to make it serve long past it's real out-of-service date. It can be as easy as my 1960's J35A Draken gaining the IRST from a later version, more modern armament and a modern grey air-to-air paint scheme, but it could also be a Mosquito with a targeting pod and Maverick missiles. Or a Spad VII armed with Sidewinders. Or anything in that general direction.

Being a very sporadic GB participant, often due to my current mojo not matching the current GB, this would definitely suit me as it's allowing most of what I build as entries.

Yes, it's a selfish suggestion. So bite me. 

This would definitely include the M60 Patton tank. Glue lots of sheet plastic to the outside for bolt on armor and ERA panels.

Quote from: kerick on March 22, 2025, 03:56:21 PM

Quote from: Pellson on March 21, 2025, 02:00:11 PMI'll take the opportunity to suggest a theme I'm almost constantly adhering to, one way or another while whiffing, the Will it never die? theme.

The general idea is to build and modernise any equipment to make it serve long past it's real out-of-service date. It can be as easy as my 1960's J35A Draken gaining the IRST from a later version, more modern armament and a modern grey air-to-air paint scheme, but it could also be a Mosquito with a targeting pod and Maverick missiles. Or a Spad VII armed with Sidewinders. Or anything in that general direction.

Being a very sporadic GB participant, often due to my current mojo not matching the current GB, this would definitely suit me as it's allowing most of what I build as entries.

Yes, it's a selfish suggestion. So bite me. 

This would definitely include the M60 Patton tank. Glue lots of sheet plastic to the outside for bolt on armor and ERA panels.

Yup. Or an M48, or even a Centurion.