I'm working on a few plausible vehicles and want to know if anyone else has built or is planning something like it. I'm covering the hole in the upper hull of a M-2 Bradley and adding a 50 Cal./Mk-19 turret to it and designating it as a M-5A1, I'm also adding reactive armor to a M-247 Sgt York and am going to paint it in Israeli markings. Let me know what you've been working on.

Flhawk;

Hey check out the Twilight 2000 Campaign! What you're talking about building would fit right in.

Look at this link
http://armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Campaigns&file=index&req=showcontent&id=15

That's right Flhawk. Do check out the link Jaster provided. And DO JOIN IN as well with your mods! :-)

Currently doing for the Twilight Campaign are:

M1A2E1 Thunderbolt (155mm armed M1A2 Abrams with additional .50-calibre guns and add-on armor)
King Leopard (140mm. armed Leopard 3)
T-34/105 (T-34 with 105mm L7 gun)
T-2001 (light tank based on BMP-1 chassis with 125mm gun)

I've got a Sgt. York turret mated to a modified M1 chassis and calling it the M247A1 Sergeant Major York. A "what if" the York turret worked and was eventually mated to an M1 chassis. My project was put on hold in order to allow it to participate in the Twilight 2000 campaign, haven't started it up again, yet.

The kit has been modified by adding two Barrel Depot 40mm Bofors aluminum barrels, Eduard PE to the old Tamiya straight M1 hull, Trumpeter link&length T-158 tracks and other sundry fittings to the outside of the turret. I've also considered adding applique armor to the turret similar to the type used on the Tamiya USMC M60A1 as well as some mesh material to replicate RPG stand-off armor.

Sounds like the 2003 T2K Campaign is right up your alley - you are quite welcome to join up! Don't despair though - if the participants have fun with this one - a 2004 T2K Campaign might pop-up...

Gunnie

I think 'artistic licence' should be of paramount importance in anything we build, no matter how careful a model is painted, built or detailed, there is still going to be a certain 'representation' of certain aspects. The 'what if' dimension is accepted by most modellers, IPMS has a SIG based on Luftwaffe '46 due in no small part to the vast number of weird and wonderful prototypes on the drawing board and in prototype form...

Regarding campaigns such as 'Red Dawn' though the scenario of the film was a touch tongue-in-cheek, it still remains a fantastic source of modelling inspiration. My personal favorite of these 'what-ifs' is without a doubt, Harry Turtledove's books. While not wishing to give a complete bibliography, some ideas which come to mind are the following:

"Guns Of The South". The confederate states win the civil war using AK47s.....

"The American Empire series" and "The Great War Series" - tank development by both the USA and the southern states could produce some highly individual prototypes.

"Worldwar" Shermans and Grants against Alien MBTs and ICVs? AEW Lancasters, early Meteors with radar and the deployment of ME163s in 1943, drone vehicles used as decoys,and more bizarrely, Soviet and Nazi Forces joining forces against the invaders etc.

Now THERE is a campaign/group-build waiting to happen....Jim