The Diecast stuff seems to have a bunch of Potential!!!!!!

Roger that matt! The tandem dump truck could be developed into something that's for sure.
And the UPS truck reminds me of something I've been thinking on for quite awhile. I was thinking about entering this idea in the Sci-Fi Campaign. What I was thinking about was a T2K style version of an LAPD SWAT van. Only differently configured (of course ). In fact, the thought had hit me early on in the T2K Campaign about the military NOT being the only organization trying to reestablish/maintain law and order. So, I thought of the local major metropolitan police department's forming a kind of second-tier of law enforcement and social cohesion support.
Anyway, I was thinking of a SWAT van (similar to your UPS truck) painted black with all kinds of 'Urban' upgrades to support the other inner-city entries, such as the F-150 GT, the M1A1's, and the other entries that are set in the State's.
You can take that same idea of black painted vehicle's sporting the oversized white painted LAPD logo (plug in your preferred law enforcement agency here, NYPD, SFPD, etc.) and make 'requisitioned' military vehicles into police dept. vehicle's. Now, apply that idea with the other types of locomotion, such as Sea and Air. Since there's no requirement to keep everything in 1/35th scale (although it would be nice), this opens up ALL kinds of possiblities! Wanna get real crazy with this? How about the LAPD resurrects the Battleship Missouri and patrols the northern coastline of the America's pounding the insolent russian invaders who came down through Alaska? Or a C-130 Spectre Gunship sporting a midnight blue paintjob with the large white letters NYPD on the side of the fuselage?? Interesting huh?
Some of the ideas I just spouted (and others I didn't) will be incorporated into my T2K '04 stable of entries since I will have all year long to build as I see fit.
Heck, another idea (I'm going to have to mention this to our Campaign leader 'Gunnie' ) is to break the T2K Campaign down into sub-catagories (because I really don't want to wait another YEAR for the next Campaign). Maybe an 'URBAN' T2K Campaign, or specifically an 'AIR' T2K Campaign, and a 'SEA' T2K Campaign, and how about a 'NON-MILITARY' T2K Campaign?
I personally like this idea very much, plus it has the added advantage of (hopefully) drawing more participants into the ranks of the T2K modeling crowd. Maybe some of the guys from the 'wingy thingy' Forum's might find interest in building something a little 'different' than just another ME109. And the Warship Forum guys might lend an ear, or even some technical input regarding some of the SEA entries?......never know. :-)

Forgive my ramble guys........tell me what you think.

Tread.

TREAD,
Damn DUDE you make my brain HURT.
Here how's this for RIOT CONTROL.!!!
From what I hear NYPD uses The V100/V150 in the city. Has Riot water cannon mounted in the top turret.https://armorama.kitmaker.net/photos/showphoto.php?

Head........Pressure Building............She's Gonna BLOW................. Way too many Ideas #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-)

here is something else I ran across years ago...Not my pic, not my build, I will have to let the pic speak for itself:

Howdy Fellas,

Ya know, reading your reply posts first thing in the morning gives me a good laugh, and helps set a good tone for the rest of the day! Many thx for that. :-)

Rotor: Your pic link is exactly what I'm talking about (at least the first stage). Vehicle's like that on the front lines of law enforcement in support of some of the local, self-appointed (for lack of a better term) vigilante patrols in their 'technicals' and urban GunTrucks. Now, if you take that idea and crank it up a few notches, you get Land, Air and Sea vehicle's that serve both as local law enforcement and a 'Home Guard' of sorts.

Want another idea?? (are you ready for another? ). This is another idea I like and think it would really add some 'juice' to the local (here in the State's) T2K survival/trying-to-maintain-order 'thing'.
Hear me out.
From my limited understanding of the general T2K storyline, most major U.S. metropolitan cities have been hit with some degree of destruction, nuclear, Bio/chemical, 'dirty bomb', etc. Most of the surrounding areas are much less 'physically' damaged, but most of the normal support infrastructure is incomplete, incapacitated, or non existant. Obviously normal staples like food, clothing, products, etc. are still needed and still have to be shipped and/or transported to the various regions to try to maintain as 'normal' a life as possible under the circumstances. So, obviously a new 'system' has to be established, or the existing system strengthened, to set-up and maintain the secure delivery of these needed supplies and consumables to the surviving public and keep them out of the hands of heavily armed hijackers and maruaders. Now, I still haven't thought this thing completely through, but what I'm imagining (Geez, I'm beginning to share all my ideas ) is a new form of the United States Postal Service, plus factions, possibly, of both Fed Ex and/or UPS.
This idea kinda of sprang from my trying to think of further uses of the Dreadnaught and Battlewagon series of new age GunTrucks here in the States. Picture a convoy of supply laden civilian 18 wheelers all painted up in various 'personalized' fashions cruising down Interstate I-70 just west of Kansas City, Missouri, escorted by several Dreadnaught style GunTrucks and more mobile GunJeeps sporting some 'new' version of the USPS logo and red, white and blue paintjob! You could even combine the services (USPS and Fed Ex for example) and have the HEMTT GunTrucks painted up in some new varaint of the Fed Ex logo, while the main, or central Dreadnaught class GunPlatform vehicle (possibly my Faun or Super HET tank transporter based GunPlatform) is a USPS vehicle, with the GunJeeps painted all-over 'Brown' representing the UPS contingent!!..................to further help with the mental illustration, imagine this super convoy having to pass thru modern day Ambush Alleys like the 'Nam GunTrucks did in the Mang Giang Pass. Or just about any part of old Route 19 for that matter. Conjures up a fairly potent picture huh?
Whadaya think?

This whole scenario is much more possible (and more probable) than you might think. The vast majority of USPS employees are ex-military from one branch or another, and from one MOS or another. Makes one think.

Tread.

Still trying to "shake your tree" Rotor! #:-) #:-)

Oooooooooooooo, Tread like! :-) :-) :-)


SEE, you guys know what I'm talking about!

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE....cool idea

TREAD,MATT,
WE must be on different planets. Not to seem like the "PART POOPER",
but its funny how the ideas you guys think of have already been worked on by the Large manufactures of Defense equipment ,and police, Riot control, Emergency services type equipment. CASE IN POINT : Go check out the web pages for United Defense or Cadillac Gage, or GM canada , or the company that does the Vehicle mods for the current line of trucks from Chevy and Ford,. They turn them into armoured car type vehicles.
Maybe its just me, or my direct link and exsposure in the military, but this is all OLD news to me. SORRY TOD (:-)

Geeez Rotor, there you go lifting that 'leg' again! I think we're all aware of the use of light armoured vehicles in law enforcement (and for the record here, it was my idea, noone else's, so I take the full blame for the "old news" crack of the whip). The suggestion/idea was simply based on expanding upon that concept. Heck, the British police have paved the way for the use of such equipment in that type of application during their 'stay' in Northern Ireland. And the Isreali police force is naught but a few steps behind them in terms of using normally military vehicles and such in domestic, and/or local urban conflicts. But.....unless there has been some rather recent 'breaking' news on CNN that I am not aware of, neither the British in Northern Ireland, or the Isreali's in Haifa, are still not employing AC-130 Spectre's for crowd control, nor retired U.S. 'Boomers' to patrol off the coast of Beirut!!.........or have they?
I intend to 'experiment' in this direction. If for no other reason than self enjoyment. I also intend to expand a portion of my T2K storyline to incorporate the idea. I can do it all by myself just fine, and hopefully, once the storys are read,and the models built, possibly some other modeler will find it interesting as well. .

Tread. :-)

TREAD,
TWO cheers for you my friend>!! I forgot all about the good old limies in Ireland (dont get me started on that feasco). And I DO agree about the Israeli's. They've been at it for 100 yrs. Wouldn't you like to be surrounded and have a neighbor that HATES your GUTTS. Not me. Two for our israeli bretherin.
Now on to your referance to the SPECTRE. I guess you dont get any periodicals from Airtime Publishing. ?? The ran an article on all the High Tech gadgets that the DEA, FBI, CUSTOMS, NTS, and MIAMI DADE, oh and FED. MARSHALS are using to combat the
DRUG trafficing that is taking place from Columbia. This has all come about because of our GREAT PRESIDENT's insistance on Decreased Drug trafficing to the US.
The Sherrif's Dept. and the Coast Guard have the neatest stuff. for instance. The Miami Coast Guard station is running a fleet of Augusta Mk139 FULL ATTACK helos armed w/ MA DUECE. Customs= MC-130J armed w/ the latest in suvailance goodies. They can take you picture and see you smile from 40.000 feet. Isn't this a GREAT country we live in. so much for NUDE sunbathing in the keys. And sppeking of High Tech Toys. Have u seen the High Speed Cigarette boat the Coast guard has. Its like the one that was on that show w/ the EX wrestler, (whom I met @ JFK airport) by the way.
I guess its time for not just the BAD guys to have all the TOYS !!!

Hmhmhmhmmm,..lol, thx for the input Rotor. Apparently you are more 'up' on this stuff than I.
I cecede to your better intel!

But.......doesn't most of what you've just said support some of the ideas I'm trying to drop on the table? :-)
And it's OK my friend if you don't like the USPS idea, although I'm still going to 'toy' with it a wee bit. Maybe do a litle 'tweakin' on the concept.............
I still believe that the need for supply convoy escort would be a supremely viable idea.
Ha!...just a thought, but how about, instead of the militarized USPS running escort duty, how about the Teamsters!!!
Now, that would be some real world enforcement!!
#:-) #:-) #:-)

Tread.

The three trucks that I have built for the T2k were built for just this kind oduty you have been talking about. To support the supply convoys and to help get supplies to the remote areas.

JEEZ, I FORGET ONE THING,,and thats the thing you hit on.
Ya know the weekest link in this great country of ours is the transportation system.
OUR whole transport of goods are manly done by overtheroad TRUCKS. OUR RAIL SYSTEM, has fallen by the way side. I was in Europe and traveled by rail the whole time.
Traveled 2x the distance and got there in HALF the time. IT WAS GREAT> !!!!
Anyways. TRY this on for size: The RAIL. DRAGON and other companies have the German combat rail ARMOURED TRAIN models. So this would be an easy mod/conv. since
the basics are already laid for you. And UPS Armoured over the road w/ an armoured escort and armored trans truck is viable as well. There was a movie back in the 80's w/ this same premice. They had this 18 wheeler that was armored and armed to the gills.
YOU could have a pretty well outfitted TRAIN tho. The only thing missing is the Locomotive to pull it. BUT THIS has potential.

Many, many thx for your show of support on the idea animal, I should have known you'd agree with the need for convoy escort! :-)
Please correct me if I'm wrong here (I'm certain Rotor will ) and feel free to add your expertise animal, but a lot of people who even know of the convoy escort concept developed in the 'Nam, mostly think of small convoys. The truth of the matter was that a good portion of the convoys were easily eighty or ninety vehicles strong! One of the reasons for this was that I don't think there were enough GunTruck's to 'go around'. And this was true even after the successful role of the GunTruck had been established as paramount for safe convoy transit.
I have been considering the local of my T2K storyline line so I can post it on the 'Expands' thread. I think I have narrowed it down to the arid desert region of the Southwest United States. More precisely somewhere along the border we share with Mexico. I think a ground invasion of the States thru that border (ho,ho, what border?) would be extrememly easy for the russkie's, and as extremely difficult for the U.S. to defend/close off.
And this concept of convoy escort is very appealing to me in terms of storyline.
So, if I may be so bold animal, I would like to ask for your assistance/council/expertise on some of the basics of Convoy Escort to support my storyline. And just to show you (potentially) how little I know (Rotor will support me on this ) about convoy escort precedures, I'll tell you how I'm thinking.
I'm imagining a major supply convoy of civilian 18-wheelers, including tankers, and 'multi-pups'cruising down Interstate Highway I-10 which, as you know, runs along the southern end of our country. A major road that would be essential for feeding cities like El Paso, Tx., Tucson, Az., etc. But also 'ripe' for both russian assault (because of the recent intermittant border crossings by OPFOR forces) and roving marauder's.
My plan at the moment is to make the convoy approximately 200 vehicle's strong. So I'm trying to figure out proper deployment of supporting GunTrucks. (here's where you can 'step-in' any time animal ) I believe the proper spacing (in the 'Nam) was something like a football field between each vehicle(not really sure if they actually maintained that kind of spacing). But that was in a situation with dense foilage on many portions of the route, so the distance between the convoy and the nearest 'cover' was quite a bit closer. On these stretch's of I-10 in the essentially desert region of the southern states the amount of cover (if any) will be minimized.
So, I'm going to be the 'Colonel' here for a moment and maintain that 100 yard distance between vehicles (because the average road speed will generally be higher on an Interstate Highway). I've already said the convoy is approx. 200 vehicles strong, so I will have to have a minimum (I'm thinkin' ) of ten (10) GunTruck (Heavy) escort vehicles spaced evenly throughout the convoy (every twentyth vehicle?). Plus at least one(1) Super Heavy 'Dreadnaught' class GunPlatform (Faun Tank Transporter size) in the middle of each one hundred (100) vehicles. Now, to the Fuel/Tanker trucks.
At first I wanted to place all the volatile fuel and tanker trucks at the very rear of the convoy (to avoid the possibility of one exploding tanker taking out numerous other nearby vehicles. But, (thinking like the enemy), I would lean towards attacking the rear of the convoy because it would be much harder for the convoy GT escort to One; turn around from there present direction and head back to the rear to respond to the threat, and Two; The GT escort would not want to drop out and leave the main convoy to respond to the threat thereby leaving the main contingent either less, or totally unprotected (could be a decoy attack). And if you place the fuel tankers at the front of the convoy, one good shot brings the entire convoy to a screeching halt!
So, without taking anymore of your time with my placing my size 10 1/2's in my mouth, I would please like to have your experienced input on this whole subject animal.

If you want to take this to PM, that's fine. But I thought we could ALL benefit from your response!

Tread.

I even invite you Rotor to pick me apart as well.

Just kiddin' DUDE......all meant in jest.

The rail lines in my neck of the woods are starting to make a comeback......... It's getting more competitive to ship Large quantities via rail.

Howdy Rotor,

Yes, the Rail system is a good direction. I believe I mentioned that early on in the ' T2K, where is enryone?' thread. The Rail application here is ripe with possibilities. It would just get a wee bit expensive (from the model kit standpoint). But the ability to scratch all those wonderful flat panels of the armoured train cars would be very interesting. And IMAGINE what you could mount on those! Anybody thinking 'Dora'? Yeah, that's defintiely got some 'gravy' in it for potential projects.
Good on ya Rotor for bringing it up!
Now build something on Rails!!!

Tread.

Before I forget......You can get anyhwere for 3-4 48foot semi trailers worth of "stuff" into an Average size Boxcar. Just a tidbit of info........ #:-) #:-)

If you go to this site it will explain the harden convoy concept [urlhttp://www.eustis.army.mil/DPTMSEC/museum.htm[/url] The general rule of thumb was a gun truck for every 10 su pply trucks. Some of our convoys had as many as 150 trucks.

Try this url. Hope it works this time http://www.eustis.army.mil/DPTMSEC/museum.htm Good it works. Any way the whole convoy security thing is explain on this site.

Howdy animal,

Tried the link (thx), which button is it? I'll look again.

Tread.

http://www.eustis.army.mil/DPTMSEC/museum.htm Go to the Museum exhibits for the infomation

Many thx animal, I found it. My next question is, what was the name of Colonel Joe Bellino's maintainence officer?? I suppose he would in actuality be the 'Father' of the GunTruck wouldn't he?

Tread.

Damn!....almost forgot. It doesn't say anything specifically about proper protection for and from volatile shipments within the convoy. In other words, what did you guys do when you were escorting something like fuel tanker trucks as part of the convoy??
As I've already said, at the rear of the convoy they would be easy pickings and would be difficult to protect. At the head of the convoy they would jepordize the entire convoy.......that leaves either the center of the convoy, or in a seperate convoy. This latter idea also seems to have TARGET written all over it.................................help.

Tread.

You just drive as fast as you can... In all the convoys that I was in (I drove the fuel tankers) we were usually in a convoy by ourselfs. With convoy security of course. But there were times when there woudl be trucks loaded with everything and anything. It depended on what was needed and where it was needed. Charlie would usually let a few of the lead vehicles through and hit the fouth or fifth truck and mabe the last couple of trucks. But again it would depend opn how many were in the convoy. An average convoy would be made up of at least 40 trucks or more. I have been on some convoys where there were over 100 trucks. The bigger the convoy the more security was afforded. Not only the Gun Trucks and Jeeps but Helicopters M-48 tanks stationed at different points on the route, APC's and one time we had a couple of the old M-42 Dusters. I was more worried about getting hit in the smaller convoys (less than 20 trucks), than the larger ones. The biggest fear was breaking down. You had to stay with your truck with one gun truck and wait for a tow or for the mechanics to come out and try to get you going. For me this was the loneliest time in my life. If it was a particularly bad area we would destry the vehicle and its load if we could not transfer it to other trucks to keep the enemy from getting it.