Call for 2020/2021 GB Suggestions

[NARSES2]

Right as the title says it's time to let rip with your GB suggestions for the 2020/2021 Season.

Firstly can I remind you that the following ideas are excluded as GB subjects are given a 2 Season break.

In the Navy : Out of Retirement : Engines More or Less : Flying Machines of Unconventional Means : Racing and Competition : RAF Centenary GB :

Secondly and more importantly can I please ask you to think about your ideas before you throw them at me. Don't simply come up with ideas just because you can. Take a step back and ask yourself 2 questions 1) Are they practical ? 2) Would/will you take part in that GB if it is selected ?   

I'm not trying to stifle creativity but I'm trying to avoid diluting the Poll when it comes and having GB's that as many as possible of our members feel they can or could take part in.

The Poll will be organised in a few weeks time and as always I will combine any similar ideas.

Thanks

Chris

[sandiego89]

1) "War's End" GB:  75th anniversary of the end of WWII.  Subject would be something in service in spring or summer of 1945.  Axis or Allied, or in civilian service to reflect the return to peace.  Suggested as the first build of the GB season to best align with VE and VJ days. 

2) "Oh-snap" GB.  Substantial basis or portion of the entry must be from a snap or as marketed easy-build kit.  Who says these are just for kids?           

[Sport21ing]

"Captured" - "Your forces" captured so many enemy equipment, that you integrated into your own armed forces
- OTL exemples: Fieseler Fi-156 in RAF service; "Beutepanzers" of the Wehrmacht; T-26 of Finland

"Free Forces" - The enemy have captured your former homeland, now it's time to take it back!
- OTL exemples:  Free France, Free Dutch + Free Kuwait, "Free Cubans"

"TL-191" - The famous timeline where the Confederate States won the American Civil War

"Small nations" - Countries that rarely are though/ignored during world problems
- Exemples: Papua New-Guinea, Liberia, Haiti

[Dizzyfugu]

"Africa" or "South/Middle America" - after the "Asiarama" some while ago, a regional theme would offer a wide range of submission possibilities

"Science Fiction" (or "Into/from space")

Personally, I also like/support the "Small nations" theme and the "Oh-snap" idea.

[Sport21ing]

2nd round:

" 'VIP' " aircraft/forces - Personal aircraft of an head of state or (for example) an squadron with the sole purpose of protecting the head of state

Lend-Lease - Either Allied/Axis (later just because)

[McColm]

Twin modern twin-winged aircraft

Aerotrains
Any locomotive that uses an aircraft engine or engines as the main power supply.  A five mile stretch of track without any bends or low bridges.

Rail Guns
Any gun mounted on bogies or flatbed wagon including armoured trains.

Space Recovery Vehicles

Abandoned Cold War Relics
Including ships, planes ,vehicles, buildings
or hardware abandoned and left to nature to reclaim it.

Long Range Desert Group Vehicles


Holden Cars
Any vehicle with the Holden badge or eqvilant model

Alternative loco liveries

Rat Rods

Pirates of the North Atlantic
Any Pirate ship- rum optional!

[Snowtrooper]

The Interwar period
Thinking aviation first, there is a quantum leap from fabric and wood stringbags to cantilever monoplanes with retractable landing gear, but the road between the two was fraught with weird and wonderful contraptions combining archaic and streamlined in civil and military aviation alike. Creativity, scratchbuilding, and kitbashing are encouraged since this period has been left on the wayside because the World Wars attract so much more attention (and even the civilian car models seem to focus on post-war to modern subjects). Your favourite flying glasshouse from France or Poland is not available as a kit? Invent your own! On the ground, the development was remarkable as well - from the "cars" or wooden cabins on a chassis with spoked wheels to the sleek cantilever vehicles almost looking like post-war cars. Those with more military inclination can celebrate the last hurrah of land battleships and all the dead ends of tank evolution that lead to nothing.

Prototypes
This was inspired by steelpillow's post in the "kits we need in 1/72" thread:

There have been so many visually striking prototypes and one-offs, not just American jets like the X-planes, YF-23 and so on.

Obviously, since the list of actual kits of prototypes and one-offs is rather thin, conversions and kitbashery are encouraged - though surprisingly many supposedly "in-service" kits are of either a prototype or mock-up in the manufacturers' race to be the first to model any given subject: see for example Matchbox's Alpha Jet, A-10, and F-14 (well, technically a preproduction or very early series), Airfix's Viggen, Hasegawa's Viggen, the original F-15, and the woefully misidentified first "MiG-23", Revell's original F-16, original JAS Gripen, etc. Don't know as much about things moving on the ground, but I'd expect this to be true at least in the civilian car kits.

[kerick]

Trashcanistan GB. A tiny, broke and forgotten country that has to build its military and civilian equipment out of what everyone else has thrown away. From rifles to aircraft to busses everything is a hodgepodge of relics and junk. Rust is the primary paint scheme.
Run this alongside "clean out the junk drawer" GB.

[kitbasher]

Trashcanistan GB. A tiny, broke and forgotten country that has to build its military and civilian equipment out of what everyone else has thrown away. From rifles to aircraft to busses everything is a hodgepodge of relics and junk. Rust is the primary paint scheme.
Run this alongside "clean out the junk drawer" GB.

Well I'd have called it a 'scrapyard GB', more of a Frankenfighter/Frankenbomber/Frankentank, etc, idea where builds use up old scrapped models and stuff from the spares box.  No chopping up an unmade kit, just scrap and spares box material.   No 'rust as primary colour', but yeah, essentially the same idea.

Also we have 'in the navy' GBs, so why not 'in the army' (e.g. what if the RFC hadn't merged with the RNAS, the USAAF had continued to exist OR stuff used by air forces entered army service).  A chance for outmoded colour schemes to be applied (Defiant in Bristol Fighter colours, Lancaster in HP 0/400 paint, for example).  Vehicles and ships too.
Same could apply to 'in the air force' - navy or army stuff in air force colours.

Or a 'stealth GB' - tons of scope for curves and/or facets to turn something unsteathly into something stealthy.

Finally a revival of the re-engine GB idea.  The one where jets get pistons, steam gets sail, diesel gets steam, petrol gets horses, or the reverse.

[Dizzyfugu]

Prototypes is cool, too. 

[NARSES2]

Can I just say that there is one response so far that really does make me wonder why I bother ? And I say that not in anger, but sadness 

Please, please think about it before hitting the keyboard.

I may well say that some of the "more left field" suggestions require a seconder before getting put into the Poll, but I will make that decision nearer the end of the nomination period. If I go down that route then it will go in a separate thread so no need to do anything now.

These things do take time to organise and at the end of the day it's just more work, but I'll see ?

A feeling down Chris

[zenrat]

Consulting my notes;

Logistics train GB.  Cargo aircraft, freight trucks, container ships, etc.  Not sexy but vital.

Canberra GB.  The aircraft or the city, your choice.  It's a bit limited but I think it's a popular aircraft here (the city less so).

No extension GB.  Your subject must be reduced along one or more axis.  We could also try to make everyone finish at the originally decided time.  Although I doubt that will happen.   

Extension GB.  Your subject must be increased along one or more axis.

Pirates GB.  Same as Mac's suggestion only not limited geographically, or to the sea. 

It'll Never Work GB.  Build something so crazy and impractical it would need a rejigging of the laws of physics in order to work. or wouldn't make it out of the shed before needing refuelling, or would tear itself apart if taken over 1/4 throttle, or would capsize if turned at anything over walking pace, or...

[Weaver]

The James Bond GB.

Make a what-if vehicle, building or gadget from a James Bond movie. It could be something that Bond himself uses, or some villain's lastest toy for conquering the world. It might be your alternative take on something from a real James Bond movie, or the movie itself might be your invention, in which case you get to outline your own script and you can choose to play it straight or have a parody/comedy version.

I think this GB would serve two purposes well. On the one hand, it has a sharp focus that provides inspiration, concentrates minds and should produce a coherent set of entries. On the other hand, it's very inclusive of different modellers' preferences and talents because of the range of subjects seen in James Bond movies. Bond has used, or confronted, cars, planes, helos, boats, ships, spacecraft, buildings, and numerous hand-held gadgets, and they can all be represented by physical models, profiles, stories or even 1/1scale prop-builds (don't build a real flame-thrower into your fountain pen though...) .

[Weaver]

The Earlier Jets GB

We often see What-If scenarios where jet engines are never invented, thus giving an excuse for 'ultimate' prop-jobs to get into service. However, what if it was the other way around, and jets became practical up to ten years earlier? A lot of the delay in getting them into service was down to lack of support and funding, so you might imagine a scenario where governments get solidly behind them in the early 1930s, with the result that jet aircraft enter squadron service just before WWII starts.

There are some easy things you could do for this of course, such as Meteor/Vampire Mk.1s in green/brown cammo with black/white undersides, or operational He 280s. However there are also some more conceptual things to think about. The real-life early jets benefitted from experience gained on the brutal learning curve of the early years of WWII. Without that, if they were based on the mixture of right and wrong ideas knocking around in the late 1930s, what might they have looked like? Jet turret fighters? Jet three-seater 'fighter control' aircraft? Also, how many more Yak-15-style converted piston types with a jet in/under the nose would have appeared as first steps? Would the first Spitfire have been literally spitting fire?

[Weaver]

Things which other people beat me to, but which I wholeheartedly endorse:

Pirates GB

Sci-Fi GB (can be either wide open or more closely themed for my taste)

Bad Ideas/It'll Never Work GB