Water Scorpion

[Weaver]

Okay, well better late than never, and to nobody's great surprise (given recent discussions), I am embarking on this:



Obviously, I'm going to put a Jeep in the back of a Scorpion... er, sorry, I meant I'm going to put a Scorpion turret on a Buffalo hull. The idea is that sometime in the 1970s/80s a military with LVT-4s (front engine+MGs+tail ramp) decided that they wanted something equivalent to an LVT(A)-4 (rear engine+75mm+roof) but didn't have any, so they got creative. I've given up trying to figure out how heavy a Scorpion turret is, but it's aluminium so it's probably okay.

Havn't yet decided which country does this. Possible options are:

1. Entirely made-up country
2. Real country with a credible story
3. Real country with a mickey-take story

We shall see...

[JayBee]

Thinking 2. I wouyld go for Middle East, they have the money to do it.

[Weaver]

Thinking 2. I wouyld go for Middle East, they have the money to do it.

On the other hand, the Middle East has the money to not to need to do it. Also, most of them don't have a need for much of a Marine Corps. I'm thinking of places more like the Phillipines or various places in Central America or the Carribean, who both need marines and who have a history of keeping WWII hardware in service forever and modifying it extensively.

[Leading Observer]

How about an African country, one subject to an arms embargo where necessity is the mother of invention?

[Old Wombat]

Australia has a history of putting Saladin & Scorpion turrets on M113's.

[Weaver]

How about an African country, one subject to an arms embargo where necessity is the mother of invention?

How many of them need marines though? Remember LVTs aren't great tanks: they're big, poor on hard surfaces and thinly-armoured at best.

[Weaver]

Australia has a history of putting Saladin & Scorpion turrets on M113's.

Indeed, and Canada put them on MOWAG Piranhas. The Phillipines also made their own copies of the M113 MRV, which is what put me onto them as a possible user. They also seem to have a habit of buying exotic vehicle types where they end up as the only user.

[zenrat]

The Martian People's Front already have a history of using something similar...

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=40129.msg671322#msg671322

[Weaver]

The Martian People's Front already have a history of using something similar...
https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=40129.msg671322#msg671322

Nice one - I'd forgotten about that.

Funnily enough, the reason why I got a Buffalo in the first place was because the hull shape sort-of reminded me of some vehicles in a Fred Gambino sci-fi painting.

[kerick]

Trashcanistan! They have a whooping 5 miles of beach to defend. The occasional shipwreck survivor who washes ashore is the only source of outside currency.

[Rheged]

There's a lot of swamp around the Niger delta, along the BurmaMyanmar coasts and rivers, even the Bangladeshi Ganges .  There's also the lower portions of ANY great river in South America.  Lots of places to consider!!

[Weaver]

There's a lot of swamp around the Niger delta, along the BurmaMyanmar coasts and rivers, even the Bangladeshi Ganges .  There's also the lower portions of ANY great river in South America.  Lots of places to consider!!

That's a fair point: LVTs were originally invented as swamp rescue vehicles and the French used them in that kind of environment in Indo-China.

There's an option 3 possibility that depends on this fact too...



In case anyone's wondering, today has been a bit of a dead loss building-wise, since my auntie's been in hospital again, and unusually (but understandably) they're discharging her later today (Sunday) so I've been waiting for phone calls and havn't wanted to get into anything I can't put down.

[Weaver]

Well that turned into an evening of elder-wrangling - details not required. No modelling done....

[zenrat]

There isn't much of Bangladesh which isn't river delta.

Hope Auntie is OK H.

[Weaver]

There isn't much of Bangladesh which isn't river delta.

Hope Auntie is OK H.

Was hanging on the 111 line (NHS non-emergency) for over an hour without a reply until we gave up, took a different tack, and it turned out to be the right one (we think). God help you if you actually need it...