2022 Group Build suggestions and any other thoughts

[Rick Griewski]

On 8/7/2021 at 11:33 PM, Dave Williams said:

I like the Stalled GB theme.  Participants could refer to the GB it was originally intended for.

 +1.  I had to stop my BP Defiant build to wait for warmer weather.  I need to sand and prime out doors and in the garage.  

[Daniel Leduc]

On 8/7/2021 at 4:03 PM, Leaning_Dog said:

- Clear the Bench (SOD, Stalled prior GB project): Realizing this would probably violate the 25% GB rule - any project that is sitting there begging to be completed, regardless of how old it is, or how far along. Just get 'er done and into the display cabinet!

 

Cheers!

 

John.

 

OH boy, got ton of those...lol.. 

Dan.

[Sepp]

Stars of the silver/small screen?

 

Basically, any individual aircraft (rather than type) that has appeared or been depicted in a film or TV prog - could be restricted to one or the other.  Might be a bit wide-ranging, but I'm sure appropriate limits could be imposed.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Sepp

[Dave Williams]

Creatures of the Night

 

Night fighters and bombers.  For bombers, I’m thinking of aircraft painted black, or with black undersides, to bomb at night.

[jenshb]

2 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

Creatures of the Night

 

Night fighters and bombers.  For bombers, I’m thinking of aircraft painted black, or with black undersides, to bomb at night.

Spinning off from that; "Black Bellies" - anything with the belly and lower surfaces of the aircraft painted black (including all black aircraft, but not half-and-half early RAF BoB aircraft for example).

 

All my group builds tend to end up as non finished, so a "get it done" theme regardless of % finished would perhaps enable me to push one over the finishing line.  In fact, I have a Tamiya Spitfire that is close to painting, but the engine needs some more detailing, and that is the stumbling block.

 

I also like the theme of building a subject from your home country - given the international clientele here, it could provide a lot of variation.

 

[dutik]

South American air forces.

Falklands/Malvinas. Soccer war. Cavalier Mustangs. Gran Chaoco War. Bay of Pigs. SA participants in WW2 (think of Thunderbolts in Brasilian and Mexican markings!). The Argentinian jet program. Pulqui anybody? Narco wars. COIN. Covered operations. A plethora of aircrafts of all ages and origin, ranging from Potez and Junkers to Dassault, General Dynamics, Mig and Sukhoi. Great painting choices too!

 

Regards

- dutik

[RLWP]

1 hour ago, dutik said:

South American air forces.

Falklands/Malvinas. Soccer war. Cavalier Mustangs. Gran Chaoco War. Bay of Pigs. SA participants in WW2 (think of Thunderbolts in Brasilian and Mexican markings!). The Argentinian jet program. Pulqui anybody? Narco wars. COIN. Covered operations. A plethora of aircrafts of all ages and origin, ranging from Potez and Junkers to Dassault, General Dynamics, Mig and Sukhoi. Great painting choices too!

 

Regards

- dutik

 

Intriguing. Santos-Dumont?

 

Richard

[Dukie99]

19 hours ago, dutik said:

South American air forces.

Falklands/Malvinas. Soccer war. Cavalier Mustangs. Gran Chaoco War. Bay of Pigs. SA participants in WW2 (think of Thunderbolts in Brasilian and Mexican markings!). The Argentinian jet program. Pulqui anybody? Narco wars. COIN. Covered operations. A plethora of aircrafts of all ages and origin, ranging from Potez and Junkers to Dassault, General Dynamics, Mig and Sukhoi. Great painting choices too!

 

Regards

- dutik

I like that idea a lot. I would be tempted by a Venezuelan Su-30, a Peruvian Su-25, Argentinian Mirage or Columbian Blackhawk, indeed lots of choices.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[jenshb]

Given my track record for non-completion in group builds, I should probably keep my mouth shut, but how about "Test and development" for a theme?  Covering prototypes, experimental aircraft and airframes used for test and development of weaponry.  Could probably expand that to "paper projects" too... 

[europapete]

I would like to throw in a vote for Jenshb idea of a "git er done" theme of timed out group builds or SOD models, that would work for me! lol. 

[Rick Griewski]

Hmmm… “paper projects”.  Pick a paper model of an aircraft that has yet to make it to styrene, convert it to 1/32, 1/24 etc.  Use it as a template to build the aircraft out of styrene.  Many of the the between the war planes are fairly simple.  

[LSP_Ray]

4 hours ago, Rick Griewski said:

Hmmm… “paper projects”.  Pick a paper model of an aircraft that has yet to make it to styrene, convert it to 1/32, 1/24 etc.  Use it as a template to build the aircraft out of styrene.  Many of the the between the war planes are fairly simple.  

Yikes! How long is the GB? I would need at least two years to start a project like that!

How about a resin kit that hasn't been done in styrene? That SAAB is about to be shipped; could see a bunch of those in it.

[f5guy]

On 8/4/2021 at 11:43 AM, Dave Williams said:

Remember, Egypt and South Africa are included in Africa.  Egypt opens up Mirages, Meteors, F-4Es, and F-16s, at least.  South Africa also had Mirages, Mustangs, and currently has Hawk 120s.  A few countries flew Hawker Hunters.  Libya had some F-5Es.  A number of countries have Mi-25s and Mi-8 helicopters.  It’s a lot more than just MiGs.

 

I definitely like this suggestion! As Dave mentioned, there's an endless amount of options for the air forces of Africa, including some combat veterans like Hawks from Zimbabwe (Congolese War), and many different aircraft from the Ethiopian/Somalian War, including an Ethiopian Air Force F-5E with six Somali MiG-17/21 kills. Loads of helo options too. There's just an enormous amount of options in this catagory.

  

As a side note to Dave's examples, Libya never had F-5E's, but they did have F-5A's and B's, which unfortunately, there are no big scale kits of (other than the Belcher Bits F-5A conversion of the Hasegawa F-5E kit). Botswana has some ex-Canadian F-5A/Bs. If you want African countries that have the F-5E/Fs besides the previously mentioned Ethiopia, that would be Kenya and Tunisia. Interestingly, the Kenyan F-5E/Fs are AGM-65 Maverick capable. How's that for an obscure build idea!

 

I do think that the build should be limited to the actual air forces of the different African countries though. If you allow aircraft from other non-African nations that were deployed, or passed through, or whatever, you might as well call it the "Build Anything You Want" group build because just about every nation with an air force has had aircraft on African soil at some point in history. FWIW, Fred K.

[dutik]

Egypt AF operated post-war Spitfires, Meteors, Vampires ans even a batch of Macchis 205. T-33 were common in African AF too. Somalia operated P-51s. Ethiopia used Fairey Fireflies and Canberras, Trojans and Texans. A good number of choices away from Migs, Sukhois and Mirages.

 

Regards

- dutik

[BradG]

Africa and South/Latin America are on the shortlist. Clear the Bench of Doom is fine, I'll put it on the list as there seems to be a bit of a call for it. 

 

Not sure about the silver screen one. You'd need a group build of people who want to build a specific aircraft, might be a bit too limiting. Testing, prototype and development, in large scale I'm not convinced there are enough kits around to make it viable. I don't mind building 'what if' kinda stuff, but are there enough LSP builders her to make it an option?