Hi guys,
I was laying my peas down for my road on my current very long project and got to thinking about the time I spent in Iraq during my service. It has been hard transitioning out of such a structured environment and I have had some trouble sort of..."letting go" of my experiences.

Somewhere along the line of my current build, someone told me that to keep going on such a big project, there must be some internal motivation...either to preserve a memory, do it out of the memory of those lost in the battle I (we) are building in small scale and I thought...maybe a good way to come to terms and preserve my experiences would be to build them. Build something I know like the back of my hand, though it was years ago. Build something that has had a significant impact on my life in both a negative and positive way.

All that said, would there be any interest in doing a campaign based either on your own personal service, or maybe a close friend or relative? If so, please post it here.

I have never participated in a campaign, so don't know exactly the inner workings, but it seems straight forward enough. If this gets enough interest, I'll submit the form and we can all talk about the dates and other things.

Thanks a lot.

And for any vets out there or current service men or women...thank you for everything you did or do. We should acknowledge our experiences and band together as veterans or as family and friends of people that served.

I think it's a brilliant Idea, I've been wanting to build a Model as a gift for my father of one of the vehicles he worked with during his service and this kind of campaign would be perfect for it.

Sounds interesting, I might in. Are you willing to allow aviation builds? What kind of time frame are you looking at for this campaign to run? The resason I ask is that I was an OH-58D mechanic while in the army and have some fond memorries.

There would be no real rule on what type of armor is allowed. I'd like to keep it to 1/35th scale, but that is not set in stone, of course.
As far as time frame...it's when you or a friend/relative served...so if your Grandpa served in WW2 and you would like to honor his service and memory, then you could definitely do that as long as you're aware of the details, where he served, etc. If your uncle or your friend served during desert storm or Vietnam, then, you can do that as well, same provisions as above. This really more about honoring those that served, or just cementing our experiences and memories of where we served as vets.

I am glad to see this already has a tiny bit of interest!

I'm in. Great idea. This is what I have been trying to do with our veterans hobby program, I think it's a great idea. Cheers.

I'm in. I built models based on my experiences after both of my tours. It's good stuff.

Chris

Great! I'll give this a couple more days to see if anyone else wants to join in and then I'll submit the form.

An idea for the badge: maybe photos of coins from each branch, or the seal of each branch with "Where I Served" listed...any other ideas on what to call this, since it could be for others that served as well? Or other ideas on badge design?

Here's my view on this.

First I think its great to have a campaign based on our own or someone else's service. I would love to do something to honor my father's service over 2 wars and one of my career.

But, like my dad and many service members during WW2 and Korean War never served with vehicles.

Ok, going to put myself out here, my dad served for 32 years. He left the army to start a business with me after I left school. We both started working in the building trade, to cut a long and pretty horrific story short, he was killed on a building site 6 months after finishing with the army. In this event I was also injured, this affected my knee, in turn it prevented me from joining up. I always admired him and thought he was amazing for surviving so long in the army yet to be beaten by a scaffolding accident, its always been hard to deal with. So I would like to come up with something for him, in his memory.

Bronzey

A very good proposal for a campaign. Because we are an international group I would recommend a white campaign ribbon with the word Service in red.

Hi Brent,
I know nothing of ribbons, so I really like your idea.

Alex, I am very sorry to hear about your dad. I hope you'll be able to honor his memory with this campaign.

Also, I think dios with just figures loading a vehicle..if that's a memory for you, is okay. This isn't so much about cool tanks and guns, but really about capturing a moment in our lives, or someone we knew/know. So, start thinking of what sort of memories or ideas you feel would really capture your emotions of your service at a particular time. This should be a great way for all of us to bond and get to know each other.

Service memories, are very individual, this campaign may fit best under the broad Kit Maker banner. All scales, figures, all vehicles, dioramas, objects, etc.
.
One of my memories is deciding to run a traffic stop in what had been one of the more heavily mined towns in Croatia. It was in 1996 while I was working as a RSN representative for NATO traveling solo in civilian clothes in a rental forest green 1995 Ford Mondeo. At the time, following the civil war, UN and then NATO -Joint intervention it was difficult to trust some local authorities. The road had been declared cleared of mines by IFOR so I decided to use speed as my defence. I threw my IFOR placard up in the wind screen and waved to the cop as I passed at speed.

Hey I'm in. As a former grunt and being stationed in Europe twice and deployed to Desert Storm, all kinds ideas and memories come back.

This is the ribbon that I would propose.

Hi Brent, that is nice!

How do I suggest this as a larger group build on the Kitmaker network? Thanks for all the help!

I'd be in as well ! The ribbon proposal is also very cool, encompasses our different nationalities


hmm....now what could I build from Ft. Hood....

I would PM grayghost666 to find out how to change the string to Kit Maker or he may have another idea. He was very helpful with the Club Med Campaign that I'm hosting over on Aeroscale.

Well, I sent him a PM and have not heard back yet. Once I hear back, I will submit the form.

When would you guys like this to start/end?

IMHO alot of folks will want to do a dio for this campaign, so it would have to be a kinda long one. How about early 2014, and run 9-12 months?

Hi Brandi,
I just got onto the Aeroscale and Model shipwrights forums and posted the same campaign proposal as I did on here. It was Exer (Pat McGrath) who told me to advertise there. Just tell them who you are, what the campaign is about and where to find it and that should do it. I got a good response, so you should also.

I´ll probably join in and do a Para in Arnheim, my uncle. Or a DUKW just after the D.Day landings which my Grandad drove across the channel.
What do have in mind for dates?

Cheers

Paul

Thanks Paul,
Seems like the longer build would be the way to go I think, since we all have stuff going on outside of modeling and other builds going on. We could start at the end of the summer, say September or even early next year and run it for about 12 months.

I will go post on those sites, thanks!

Well, my grandad, dad and uncle did 55 years in the RAF between them, so I'm so I could come up with something

I am so happy this seems to really be gaining interest! Yay!
I finally feel like I am giving something to this awesome community, and that feels good

Howdy Y'all
I would love to build a Marlin P5M for my father. Would all models be eligible, including aircraft?
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

I am 100 percent good way to show and remember our time in uniform