The fact that as of 30 Sept 2008, the United Nations have 88,754 peacekeepers stationed around the world is staggering. I am proposing a group build dedicated to the men and women of the 119 countries providing police, military observers and troops in support of global peacekeeping operations. I would propose a start date of January 1st, 2009 with an end date of October 24th, 2009, to coincide with the founding of the United Nations.
A listing of all current and past UN peacekeeping operations can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Nations_peacekeeping_missions
This group build would have the following requirements:
Any armor, aircraft, ship, or figure(s) representing a participating country in a UNPKO.
Any scale is welcome, from a 1/6th scale bust to a 1/720th scale warship.
Dioramas depicting events (checkpoints, etc) from a UNPKO are also welcome.
Any subject matter providing support roles for UNPKO are NOT eligible (US forces in Somalia operating under Operation Restore Hope, etc). Also, NATO troops not operating UNDER UN command are not eligible.
These PKOs run from 1960 to the present day, around the globe. Finding a subject should not be difficult, and even might teach us a thing or two about an obscure mission the UN had a part in. MANY of the items used by PKOs are US military equipment, etc. My view of group builds is that not only should you enjoy modeling the subject matter, but that you LEARN something about it as well, whether it’s a specific aircraft’s history (MiG Killers Group Build), or what a country used during a specific conflict.
If you are interested please post here. This is my first attempt at running a group build. I am on the forums daily, and I have seen group builds with great dialog that run smoothly, and I have seen those that die a slow and horrible death, with only a weekly “bump” post to try and keep it on the front page.
Thanks to all of you for considering this. I have a temporary badge designed. Here is my initial design:
