I’m very much of the school of thought of model what you want, how you want. It’s all good.
I’ve only ever delved into Whiffing once, a campaign back on the old site. Did the old Revell Fairy Rotodyne in RAF markings leftover from a Chinook. Looked great in the colours.
I’ve got a bunch of old Matchbox Spey Phantoms I want to do something with. Especially as I’ve since bought a few of the much better Fujimi’s and the Airfix being widely available these days. Might do one in low-viz Falklands markings and toying with the idea of a US Navy variant. In the World Airpower special on the Phantom, it makes mention of McDD putting it to the USN as a replacement for the F-8 on smaller carriers but it was rejected. I’ve also heard some stories of Blackburn pitching the Buccaneer to the USN and USAF, but the sales team they sent were apparently useless and failed to get a deal. So, another idea brewing there.
The other way around Though reading back my post, I see how the sentence near the end can be misunderstood so it’s reversed from how I intended it. What I meant with “sloppily like you see too often for ‘hard’ what-if models” is that a lot of what-if models that try to be “hard”, don’t think it through far enough.
I used “hard” and “soft” in much the same sense as for science-fiction: hard SF tries to respect the laws of physics (within reason), soft SF doesn’t really care — Star Wars is soft SF, The Expanse is hard SF (at least where the protomolecule is not involved ).
So, with “soft what-if” I mean a model that was built because it looks cool, not because there’s a plausible reason behind it, even if the builder writes up an elaborate backstory — making it more historical fantasy than something that could conceivably have existed. “Hard what-if”, then, is something that didn’t exist for real but of which you might say, “I can see how that might have been produced in the real world” especially if you have some knowledge of the real-world thing it’s based on.
For the record, I don’t mean to say either of the two, or anything between the extremes, is better than the other. I myself much prefer hard what-ifs over soft, but anybody should decide for themselves what they want to build, and how. The only thing that counts in modelling, IMHO, is that you are happy with the end result (barring if you intend to enter it into a competition, anyway).
Well, thanks for the clarification. I think the analogy to “hard” and “soft” Sci-Fi is a nice idea and a handy way of talking about these things. I think it would be cool if these terms would get popular among us, modellers.
Have a nice day
Paweł
I like doing both personnaly, nowadays I’d like to go more “wild” with color schemes of my luft 46(I’d like to do a captured by the britsh horten 229 with this kind of african scheme for practice):
With what-if’s there’s sometimes an encounter with a Wehr-a-boo’s or Weeaboo or other subject matter aficionados that don’t know when to say when. Typically the blow back is more about what those personalities project not the model subject in my experience.
Wehr-a-boo’s someone obsessed with or who romanticizes the Wehrmacht or Nazi Germany, sometimes to the point of denying their historical war crimes.
Weeaboo non-Japanese person, stereotypically unsociable person who is overly infatuated with Japanese culture. A person who is obsessively interested in anime, manga or Japanese culture more generally.
Vatnik political pejorative used in Russia and other post-Soviet states for steadfast jingoistic followers of propaganda from the Russian government.
Etc
Many countries have a version of that personality type.
Haven’t encountered a Vatnik but have definitely ran into several American Weeaboo’s that just couldn’t shut up about how awesome Japanese WW2 heavy crusiers where at Guadalcanal. They typically get upset when the USS Washington blasting the IJN Kirishima into scrap iron gets mentioned. It’s as much fun as mentioning the Battle of Stalingrad too a Wehr-a-boo.
I remember years ago in FSM magazine there was an article featuring these kind of what-ifs, an Isreali A-10 ,an Australian F-16 for example,there were others.I would suggest a DAK Panther and the like
I recently bought this kit, it’s excellent, very highly recommended. Was it worth them including the 11" turrets though? I sort of doubt those would ever have been fitted, but it does add another building possibility. When finished, will likely sit next to my 1/350 HMS Hood, a nice comparison.
What Ifs are an established and respected aspect of modeling going back modeling eons. Nothing bad about What If modeling at all. Modelers who appreciate “W.If” modeling will enjoy your work, those who do not will pass it by. Nothing wrong with either reaction. The best part of W.Ifs is when documentation surfaces that lends credence that a “what if” existed, e.g., Japanese Navy aircraft painted “mustard”. Railroad Model Craftsman had (has?) the monthly section “That Ain’t Prototypic!” which presented real life examples of what modelers complained had never actually been done. Another aspect of W.If in model railroading is freelancing. Some model railroaders do not want to be constrained by trying to make a layout of a real railroad and all of the scrutiny that comes with that. But yet they like aspects and characteristics of different railroads so they can blend them into their own made up railroad. Mine happens to be the Jackson Purchase and Texas Railroad, a hybrid of the Santa Fe transcontinental and the Frisco, Illinois Central, Katy and Cotton Belt railroads.
I’ve taken similar license with military subjects, because I’ve wanted to experiment with camouflage patterns and unit insignias. Especially with the Japanese air forces, there were/are a lot of unknown units, and I think there were enough kampfgruppen with the Germans at times that there were strange mishmashes of temporary units, too.
Here is the archive of all of his W.If creations, including British and Japanese subjects:
My only real issue with what ifs is the opportunity cost of the manufacturer kitting a paper panzer (or overkitted vehicle like Tiger or Sherman) instead of an otherwise unkitted vehicle.
A while ago I posted a few photos here under the heading What about the What Ifs showing a few of my Paper panzer, (lets face it, most are German WW2) and recently I posted a thread about my building a version of the 1/72 P1000 and then the finished model with the P300, both by Model Collect. Both use actual equipment that was developed and deployed, and no, neither was a real tank, but both were great kits to build and enjoyable to paint. Right now, I’m building two more 1/72 What Ifs, an E100 Wotan and the original kit of the Haunebu 1 that went on to be reissued by Revell. It’s true, they’re as much sci-fi as they are afv/aircraft kits, but so what? If you don’t want them, don’t buy them, honestly, it leave more for the rest of us because kits like the Wotan are now selling for about three times their original price of a few years ago. I have quite a few What If kits and honestly, given that most are recently issues, they are invariably well detailed and enjoyable build. Weirdly though, there are still sizable gaps in some ranges of actual aircraft, tanks and ships that manufacturers haven’t tackled. No one has yet issued an Avro Lincoln in 1/72 scale, ships like HMS Vanguard and HMS Renown, let alone the Audacious class HMS Ark Royal and Eagle or HMS Hermes, HMS Glorious or Furious in 1/350. Then there’s the Liberty tank, surely that deserves to be issued by one of the main manufacturers. Lots of subjects still out there to be made available, but the What Ifs have a place in the stash of anyone, even if it’s just to be even more creative than usual.
Last year I posted about a scheme I “invented: for a Bandai Maultier - Panzer grey with an almost zebras-like disruptive pattern in lighter green. I was 13 or 14. I posted it because someone had posted a photo of the nearly identical scheme in a cammo thread. When doing 'what ifs” on cammo, who’s really to say if it’s never been done?
SMS Goeben from WW1 refitted with radars, Harpoons anti-ship missles, Tomahawk cruise missles, & Sea-Whizz point defense systems and COAL powered might be a fun what if…
Though reading back my post, I see how the sentence near the end can be misunderstood so it’s reversed from how I intended it. What I meant with “sloppily like you see too often for ‘hard’ what-if models” is that a lot of what-if models that try to be “hard”, don’t think it through far enough.
