Modelling alternate history?

eizzle wrote:

Can you explain the "alternate history" idea? I can't honestly say that I have heard of this.

Basically, go to a certain point in history and take a left turn.  As in 'How would things gone differently if Hitler would have held off on the invasion of the USSR and concentrated on the Western front.  Then you sit back and postulate as to how things would have gone.  Like the idea of the Me-262 being used exclusively as an interceptor instead of a fighter bomber.

I am interested by the idea, I read a lot of Harry Turtledove.  I've just never gotten around to building anything in that genre. 

eizzle,

The basic premise of "alternate history" is that at a particular time in history, something changed or happened differently.  For example, the Confederate States of America wins the Civil War instead of the Union or Hitler wins the Second World War.  There are several books out that are based upon this (or variations of this) premise.  The guys who model Luft 46 are doing a version of it.  They're building models of aircraft that were really little more than drawings, that didn't get built and are painted in schemes that didn't exist.  But they might have if WW II had lasted 2 or three years longer.

It's probably as clear as mud to you now but I hope I helped a little.

Alternate history is more than just choosing a later period or fictional paint scheme, it really should hold to the concept. You can certainly paint an Me-262 in a ghost or Ferris scheme, but would that make historical sense? What I'm saying is would it be feasable to have an Me-262 flying in 1980 when these patterns were being used or experimented with? Better to take design elements from the Messerschmitt projects and incorporate those concepts in an F-14-like airplane and evolve the camo patterns used by the Luftwaffe to this hypothetical aircraft.

Another area might be supposing that jet technology was perfected by the US in 1940. How would that have affected the aircraft we associate with the 8th Air Force, a turn and burn B-17 along the lines of a B-36? A P-38 with a jet engine in each boom? A P-51 with its intake moved to the nose and a jet exhaust midship?

Nitto's 1/20 fighting suit line was a great example of alternate history.

scottrc wrote:

Alternate history is a quit popular subject among ship modelers.  I have seen ideas and examples of Iowas converted to aircraft carriers and amphibious assult ships.  What if the Bismark survived another 20 years, how would it have been modernized?  What the Arizona may have looked like if it survived Pearl Harbor.  What ships might have looked like if the Washington Treaty never took place and supersized cruisers would have been built.  What if Germany started building carriers when Japan and Britain began their carrier programs and the carriers would have been the first fast attack supercarriers built on the Bismark hull.  The ideas are endless. Scott

I love hypothetical modeling, some who have been around this forum for a few years will likely remember my Italian ME-163 Komet in North African theatre camo.

The alternate history can be a great relief from the reality based stuff.

I have two "real" projects and two alternate history projects on the go right now.

The "real" ones are a 1/72 Czech SAAB Gripen and a 1/72 Czech Sukhoi SU-25 Frogfoot.

Alternate history:

1/72 RAF A-7 Corsair II, running on the premise that the Sepecat Jaguar never made it into service. It will be in mid 80s wrap around tactical camo serving with the RAF in Germany.

1/144 Soviet four engined interceptor based on the B-58 Hustler. The premise is that the Soviets captured a B-58 and ordered Tupolev to reverse engineer it into an interceptor. I've got the Academy B-58, I'm just trying to source some "Acrid" and "Apex" missiles for her.

Got to keep the hobby fun.

rebelreenactor wrote:

I'd havent done any yet but sometime I would like to build some 1946 German armor.

Kinda like this?

My old E-100 '46!

Duke Maddog wrote:

Thanks Scott! I enjoyed building my Tirpitz that way. It was a blast! Brian, I built one of those too! Not as good as yours, and mine is in 1/72 scale too. Another fun build from DML!

Darn fine E, Duke! I like your Tirpitz, too!

Duke Maddog wrote:

Glamdring, the WWII series is pretty good, but Harry doesn't go into too much detail describing the Race's tanks. Nor does he get too much into the geographic element much so you never really know where they've conquered and where Humanity is still free, more or less. I did enjoy his series immensely though!

Are you talking about the WW2 one where aliens invader or the Settliing Accounts trilogy?  I was thinking of the 2nd one where the Confederates start WW2 in "Drive to the East" and  "Return Engagements."

Glamdring wrote:

Are you talking about the WW2 one where aliens invader or the Settliing Accounts trilogy?  I was thinking of the 2nd one where the Confederates start WW2 in "Drive to the East" and  "Return Engagements."

I think it would be best to start at the beginning, since Harry's 3 series following this timeline have basically the same characters in them.  To jump into their storylines in the middle may be kind of confusing.  The order goes like this:

The Great War series -WW1

American Front

Walk in Hell

Breakthroughs

American Empire Series  - The 20s

Blood & Iron (I'm reading right now)

The Center Cannot Hold

The Victorious Opposition

Settling Accounts Series - WW2

Return Engagement

Drive to the East

And the 3rd isn't relesed yet.....

I hope this helps!

I once made an alternate history He-162 W (wasser=water) a flyingboat version of the volkjager.

As alternate history was the premesis that germany had only one carrier (the graf zeppelin) and they needed others ways to get enough fighters in the air.

Glamdring wrote:

I think it would be best to start at the beginning, since Harry's 3 series following this timeline have basically the same characters in them.  To jump into their storylines in the middle may be kind of confusing.  The order goes like this:   The Great War series -WW1 American Front Walk in Hell Breakthroughs   American Empire Series  - The 20s Blood & Iron (I'm reading right now) The Center Cannot Hold The Victorious Opposition   Settling Accounts Series - WW2 Return Engagement Drive to the East And the 3rd isn't relesed yet.....   I hope this helps!

Check out this site.

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/

This type of modeling has been popular for ages.  There are even decals available for the new Airfix TSR2 for what if schemes (US, Canadian, Australian, Desert Storm, etc).  The forum has some interesting alternate histories and some great profiles.

On the book idea, one of my club members did a dio of a scene from Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" which is still one of my favorite books.

So model what you want, plenty of us will enjoy it even if it isn't "historically accurate".

philp wrote:

On the book idea, one of my club members did a dio of a scene from Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" which is still one of my favorite books. So model what you want, plenty of us will enjoy it even if it isn't "historically accurate".