Mad Steve 19,873 Posted December 12, 2022 Report Share Posted December 12, 2022 Hello everyone and welcome to the What If Continuous Group Build Very simple, this is the place for all those projects that never were, that stayed on the drawing board, or just an idea you had one night eating a curry Whether its a new camo scheme on an old favourite, something to do with an alternate history, or those weird and wonderful Luft 46 jobbies, you're in the right place. Now don't just go sticking Nasa stickers on an SE5a and calling it done, throw in a bit of a back story as well to go with your creation. This is open to just about every genre you can think of, so go for it, and remember... HAVE FUN! 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PaulTRose 9,082 Posted December 12, 2022 Report Share Posted December 12, 2022 A nasa se5a is just plain silly.........everyone knows they flew sopwith camels! 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BradG 863 Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 Hmm interesting, I may have to dig out my old IJn destroyer that I was going to upgrade with US 5inch and 40mm weapondary as a post war captured AAA destoryer. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ExNurseGaz 737 Posted December 19, 2022 Report Share Posted December 19, 2022 This is starting a just the right time for me! I'm about to begin work on the Airfix Skyhawk, but don't fancy either of the kit options. The idea of a RN Skyhawk occurred to me . . . Here is a reason to build one! 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 602 Posted December 19, 2022 Report Share Posted December 19, 2022 I started doing what-if paint schemes back around 1970. One that survives is a (rather inaccurate) Revell J-35 Draken with a green-and-blue wavy striped camo scheme. I'd like to claim it was pining for the fjords, but that sketch came a couple of years later. Can take a pic if folks are interested? Backstories. Yes. No whiff can exist without a minimal backstory, no backstory can exist without a minimal whiffy vision. Mine evolve side by side, each leading the other other by the nose. They tend to wrest control from me as they develop and crystallise. The backstory can, and in my humble opinion should, draw you into the technicalities of the design so that you become a better and better aero designer through each new whiff, as well as a more imaginative and more convincing whiffer. Four pages of my Whiffy aeroplanes below. Some have been posted here already. Some are models, some drawings, all have backstories. Aerospace Dreams Fantasy What-If Aircraft The Blohm & Voss Bergahorn A Trilogy of Twinfires 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 16,287 Posted December 19, 2022 Report Share Posted December 19, 2022 48 minutes ago, steelpillow said: Aerospace Dreams I particularly like the tailless Vampire. And, when are you going to sue NASA? 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 602 Posted December 19, 2022 Report Share Posted December 19, 2022 37 minutes ago, Gorby said: I particularly like the tailless Vampire. And, when are you going to sue NASA? NASA developed the thin-wing delta. This one is thick, like the Vulcan. Shame Avro are no longer around to cough me up a pension. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Vaastav 2,720 Posted December 20, 2022 Report Share Posted December 20, 2022 I am thinking of doing my T-55AD as an African one. The what if here being that an African country with standard T-55s bought an AD upgrade package. But the country has since disintegrated and the T-55AD is being run by one of the rebel groups. Lots of potential for camo and weathering 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Steve 19,873 Posted December 20, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2022 2 hours ago, Vaastav said: I am thinking of doing my T-55AD as an African one. The what if here being that an African country with standard T-55s bought an AD upgrade package. But the country has since disintegrated and the T-55AD is being run by one of the rebel groups. Lots of potential for camo and weathering Sounds good V. Theres a lot of Russian armour in Africa so that idea might not be far from reality at all 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Muttley 2,250 Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 Ooh, this may be a good way to get the new year mojo going. I'm going to have a think on what I can do 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jessie_C 10,952 Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 What-ifs are fun. Here's my BCATP Beechcraft Traveller used by the Commandant for his personal travel Here is MiG Ye 1.5, glorious triumph of Soviet fighter technology after having 'invited' former German designers to defect to Mother Russia following end of Great Patriotic War This one's not so much of a what-if as it is an almost-was. This is the Lockheed CL-282 design which eventually evolved into the U-2 . In the early 1970s, Air Canada accepted their first wide-body jumbo jet. This is another almost-was 11 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PaulTRose 9,082 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 i used to do lots of whiffs back in the day when i was into such things i even had a long running thread on one of the whatif forum that allowed me to build stuff for an Alternative Time Line WW2 MiG 3 of the Desert Airforce RAF @1945 RAF MiG15 Argentinian Me262 night fighter @1950 Wild Wombat Harrier of the RAusAF......SEAD aircraft in action in Western Africa did some other stuff too Republic of Texas F16.............texas breaks away from the USA along with a few other states to form a new Confederacy. sparks a new Civil War Red Arrows @2080 as flown by Captain Paul 'Scarlet' Metcalf 8 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 16,287 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 It always amazes me how different aircraft can look when dressed in unusual pyjamas. 2 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Steve 19,873 Posted January 6 Author Report Share Posted January 6 Those look great Paul. Now you have a new avenue for those What ifs Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PaulTRose 9,082 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 might just have to dust off that ATL story 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Steve 19,873 Posted January 6 Author Report Share Posted January 6 I always liked the what if ideas for afv's, but to be honest they just look odd. Take a Tiger and paint it Olive Drab and put stars on it. Noooooo , But they do look fantastic with alternate camo schemes. I saw a brilliant one years ago with the Black, White, Grey urban camo finish. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PaulTRose 9,082 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 (edited) 1 hour ago, Mad Steve said: I always liked the what if ideas for afv's, but to be honest they just look odd. dont know if ive shared this story before someone had given me a big box of built 1/35 armour (id bought a pile of kits off a local guy on ebay, went to collect them and he gave me the box 'if you dont take them er indoors will throw them in the bin' ).....and i never say no to nowt plan was to simply break them for the spares box but i was bored one day and started messing around with a Crusader hull and a some plasticard and ended up with the Adder mk1......on the right in the pic......posted it on the whatif forum and they liked it but i thought i could do better............found another Crusader hull in the box.....and a plastic 'elf n safety sign at work for the body work and lots of other gubbins....and made the Mk 2 on the left so obviously the whatif guys 'got it' but on another forum, forget which, might have even been the Airfix one, cant remember, i just casually dropped a thread....no wip pics......no description that it was a whiff,,,,simply a story of how after the North African campaign there had been a surplus of Crusader tanks that had been replaced by Shermans ready for the push northwards thro Italy so they had used them to make some JagdPanzer style assault guns by seriously up gunning them, how they had only made a short run of them but they had proved to be invaluable when taking on German heavy tanks like Tigers, etc a few hours later i logged in, as you do, and the thread had gone manic!..........they had took it hook, line, sinker and copy of the Angling Times! 'whos kit is it?' 'its the new Tamiya one, ive seen it on another website' 'i need more info...cant find anything on Wikipedia about it!' but the thing that really threw them was cos i called it the 'Mk2'......cos that implies there was a 'Mk 1' so i dropped in that pic with how that was the Mk 1 that they only made a dozen of before coming up with the even better Mk 2......and that gave it even more credability................and i logged out again few hours later logged back in...............melt down!! i had messages 'demanding' to know where i got the kit from cos they were desperate to get one too...the thread was a few pages long...people discussing how it had struggled with weak suspension cos of all the extra weight of armour........how it must have been a top secret project cos of lack of info out there i had to tell them it was a whatif, i couldnt stop giggling some people take life far to seriously! devil made me do it Edited January 6 by PaulT 1 8 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 602 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 Yes, the backstories do take on a life of their own. I like to stitch the whiff into detailed historical research, citing arcane sources such as the Science Museum Archives or a family connection. The model affects the backstory and vice versa. Often I just draw up a three-view as it's quicker than kitbash/scratching a model. Even when I drop clear hints, all but shouting "THIS IS A WHAT-IF!", people will ask me if it is real. Others will take away obscure fact as fantasy, and vice versa. Most amazing is how often I burrow down some rabbit-hole and discover my invented fiction is down there already. For example I got into a discussion about buying the Mirage IV off France when TSR-2 was cancelled. Would be at least fitted out, if not built, in the UK: Olympus-powered and with much TSR-2 avionics, natch. That would dictate an enlarged fuselage. So I gimped-up a TSR-2 fuselage with Mirage IV wings. Blow me but BAC and Dassault actually put together a proposal; not the TSR-2 fuselage as such, just stretched and tweaked a bit, and Speys instead of Olympus, but all else really was in there. It was known variously as the Mirage IVRU (Royaume Uni - United Kingdom) or Mirage IVS (Spey); Of course Chancellor Dennis Healey went bananas and cancelled it in a rage because he wanted to buy American at any cost, but here's the whiff: And with added canards for the inevitable requirements creep: 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PaulTRose 9,082 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 thats as pretty as the TSR2! bloody politicos have a lot to answer for 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Steve 19,873 Posted January 6 Author Report Share Posted January 6 Paul, I like your Adder's, they really are excellent. Have an idea that I've been mulling over for a couple of years now and the What If build might just be the right place for it and Your builds inspired me to tackle it. Steelpillow, many many years ago on a forum I can't even remember the name of, a what if build was started 'The special relationship ended after WW2' Basically, after WW2, the US decided to go it alone, Told the world to go away and did its own thing. It was a fantastic build because people mainly concentrated on British aircraft sort of late 40s to 70s and there were some amazing builds. (so none of this we must buy American rubbish, it was all developments from lessons learnt in WW2. I might still have some pics saved; I'll go look on my old hard drive.) Anyhoo, to the point, someone did something very similar, a cross between a Mirage IV and a TSR 2, basically the wings of the Mirage grafted onto the TSR2. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PaulTRose 9,082 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 5 minutes ago, Mad Steve said: Your builds inspired me to tackle it. crack on! 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 16,287 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 Not long after I started modelling again I did this what-if build and was wondering if anyone knows what the nationality of it is…. You won't have guessed correctly because when I was kid I didn't have an imaginary friend, I had an imaginary country called 'Lynx' and that was the design I did for the insignia. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Steve 19,873 Posted January 6 Author Report Share Posted January 6 I like it 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steelpillow 602 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 1 hour ago, Gorby said: You won't have guessed correctly because when I was kid I didn't have an imaginary friend, I had an imaginary country called 'Lynx' and that was the design I did for the insignia. Amazing that they named an aftershave after it, congratulations. Why did they change the logo? Were you being too greedy over licensing fees? 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gorby 16,287 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 23 minutes ago, steelpillow said: Amazing that they named an aftershave after it, congratulations. Why did they change the logo? Were you being too greedy over licensing fees? Yes it was that stylish and sophisticated . They obviously climbed into my mind and pinched my idea! I hope they had a wash afterwards, it's filthy in there. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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