I was wondering if there are modelers who put kits together in a manner that reflects some perceived alternative History. I’m a big history buff and I toy with ideas in the vein of ‘what-ifs.’ Lately I’ve been inspired to make some kits and make it look like the Germans and the US are fighting along the Mexican border however inconceivable it might be. It’s all in good fun
Does anyone do the same?
Not as inconceivable as some might think . . . During the American Civil War, while we were otherwise engaged, the French were invading Mexico. Contrary to what many think, thats where the “Cinco de Mayo” battle came from.
I’ve built models of USS Arizona in the configuration of ‘if she had survived Pearl Harbor’, so we are all subject to the vagaries of fate and the unknown . . .
Anything is possible, especially if a sense of imagination is permitted access.
Go for it !!!
yes thank
I build quite a few Luft 46 and paper Panzer subjects. As i mostly build diorama’s, i always try and come up with a scenario for any build. For German whats if’s, the starting point tends to be the Ardenne’s Offensive and how things may have progressed if that had been successful.
A couple of years ago I read a fascinating book on the death of General Patton. In the course of the book it was mentioned that Montgomery stood ready to re-arm his German prisoners and that things had reached flashpoint between Patton’s troops and the Russians. It would make a hell of a story. I’ve seriously thought about putting it into a book. Could you imagine, the Germans and U.S. troops fighting side by side against the Russians? Talk about Luft 46!
That was **you-know-who’**s fevered dream to his very last day in the bunker…
Not just his, large concentrations of troops holding on in the East believed it too. However I don’t want to get political about this. Its an interesting concept and the politics of it would be fascinating. How could the West use German armed forces without de-nazification, how worried were Western leaders about the Soviets? As I say interesting. Units of King Tigers fighting alongside Pershings?
While not quite alternative history, I’ve made some upgraded versions of actual tanks as if they existed. For instance, I’ve been tinkering with the Dragon MBT70 as if the original concept of the tank worked and it was upgraded as if it had been deployed to Cold War Europe.
I’ve used an older Bradley fighting vehicle and upgraded the turret as if it fired a conventional cannon as opposed to the chain gun cannon it currently has.
The British and then the French used Japanese troops as colonial police in Indochina in 45-46.
I’m building the Minicraft 1/48 XF5F kit, as a hypothetical Marine bomber at Guadalcanal. The backstory is that the Navy wound up placing an order, decided the Skyrocket wasn’t carrier-capable, and handed them off to the Marines.
And it was beer company marketing in the USA that took an obscure Holiday in Mexico (think smaller than pretty much any observations in the US such as Armed Forces Day or Flag Day by several magnitudes) and into party day here akin to St Patrick’s Day.
On the original subject, it is kind of fun to do “what if?”/alternative history builds. It’s particularly fun with modern aircraft that were pitched and never sold to particular countries, or whatnot. There was a guy on here who made some presnt day “confederate Air Force” or Republic of Texas fighter Jets. I seem to remember a Mirage F1C in those markings of his. I built a Mexican Air Force F-20 Tigershark a few years back myself. I have another idea based of the pitched but never bought for a future project.
OMG I’m so glad you posted this! For years and years I’ve always wanted to put one together. I read Chaykin’s comic version of Blackhawks and always wanted to make a model with Soviet livery with the idea the US dumped the plane to the Russians much like the Bell Airacobra. And of course, the Soviets made the plane work for them.
Ohhhh I’m so glad you brought this up. Now I’m off looking for a kit.
I also had in mind a diorama of close combat between US and Soviet infantry in a hypothetical Russian invasion of Alaska. But I get ahead of myself. Need to focus on building the T-55 first, not start a collection!
Quite happy they did! Super fun festive event indeed. My Mexican friends do point out that a) it’s not Independance day and b) not a big deal in Mexico
Actually, I’ve known people of Mexican decent in the San Diego that did think it was their independence day, and others outside of SoCal that had never even heard of it.
The truth of it is, that it was not actually a Mexican victory; It was a hot day and the French didn’t feel like doing battle in the heat, so they just simply went around the town of Puebla after a very minor skirmish and continued on. Now if you go by the old standards of battle, where whomever holds the field at the end of the day, wins, Then I guess you could call it a Mexican Victory. So what the heck; hand me a cerveza mas frio and relax.
I read a lot of alternative history novels, and while I don’t model the subjects as depicted in the books I am usually inspired to build our timeline’s equivalent subject…if that makes sense. For instance after reading Harry Turtledove’s Great War trilogy for the 3rd or 4th time, I had to dig out a Mark IV from the stash, but with the standard Brit markings rather than a Confederate tank on the Roanoke Front.
Or any of the multitude of novels about the Soviet invasion of Europe in the 80, 90, or today usually make me grab a modern NATO armor kit to scratch that itch. Though after my last Red Storm Rising read through, I broke trend and built a Soviet Heavy Cruiser.
Maybe someday I’ll do that CSA build…and get a German WW1 tank for the USA.
I’ve read few of them, civil war, WW1, WW2 , Post War stuff, interesting, but it doesn’t inspire me do any models. Well, maybe the USS Hillary Clinton. Who read those books?
That ship name sounds as abhorrent as the premise behind The Man in the High Castle…
I remember at one point thinking about building one of the M1s from Team Yankee.
We did have a Red Storm Rising GB on here several years back. I built USS Chicago for that GB.
I find alternative history to be an exercise in “what if”, and “what if” is really “what wasn’t”.
As a reader of history, it has no interest to me.
Take Luft 46. Losers.
Anyhow, the real world has so much more to offer in terms of “what could be”.
USS Hilary Clinton. I have no issue with that except she was never a President, Congress person who steared $B to her district, or a battlefield, or Secretary of Defence.
Abhorrent would not occur to me. USS DJT would. So far two Navy Secretaries and one CVN commander notched. One convicted SEAL war criminal pardoned over the objection of the service. Oh, and the McCain thing.
There’s been a lot of thought put into what constitutes an exploration of alternative history. One serious test is plausibility. If something does not pass that test, it’s as real as Mickey Mouse vs. Road Runner as far as points of fact that can get rearranged.
US and Germany vs. USSR?
Our Germans were better than their Germans. And Erich Hartmann. Von Braun.
Read the March of Follies. Or do a search for any other topic including Folly and War.
A lot of ripe topics. Alexander doesn’t get sick in India. Hitler gets killed in WW1. But there’s always a germ of fact.
Bill
GM is right about the plausibility level. The more plausible the counterfactual, the more enjoyable the story can be.
The problem for anyone drafting a what-if story is that you can start with a single incident in history, propose changes to specific details and take your story from there. But the further you move from the original details that you set, the harder it is to say what would have happened.
There are some good authors out there. Read Robert Ferrigno’s “Assassin” novels. Or Robert Harris’ “Fatherland”. Or Harry Turtledove’s books.