Group Build Title: Best Tank that Never Was - Part 3!
Group Build Leader(s): @barkingdigger
Group Build Description: This is a follow-on campaign to last year’s “Best Tank that Never Was” build, and any kit started or proposed for that build can be carried on to completion here for an award! From the previous blurb:
Ever seen a prototype that didn’t quite make it to series production? This campaign is all about those “more than a sketch on an envelope” concepts that for whatever reason failed to make the final hurdle to standard-issue equipment! It can be something already kitted, such as the T29/T30/T32 heavy tanks the US played with at the end of WW2, or something more obscure like the Canadian Skink AA tank or the US T31 demolition tank that require kitbashing or scratchbuilding. Not to mention Maus and other paper panzers (if they got further than a sketch, that is!) or indeed many of those odd Soviet beasts like the Objekt 279 “flying saucer” tank. We’ll need to see photos of it in testing or at least as workable factory blueprints (or as part-built captured hulls…) to weed out the more outrageous Rattes etc, as well as some build pics along the way. And it could be a cancelled upgrade to an existing vehicle (such as the 120mm-gunned Leopard 1) rather than a whole-new platform. There will be a badge (eventually!) and extra kudos to those doing more obscure subjects - plenty of backstory is always welcome. And don’t get too hung up on “tank” - I’m sure we can all appreciate wheeled vehicles, APCs, and other battlefield would-be developments as long as they ultimately failed to go into service!
Event Details: (Remember to click “Going” if you want to join the build!)
Completion Award: A badge will be announced and awarded to those who complete.
A Note about Awards: The following text is a reminder that in order for people participating and finishing their projects to receive a badge on their forum profile, they will need to provide their account username to the group build leader by the completion date of the build. The leader will then provide this list to the site admin who will bulk award the badges to those users who have finished the group build. If you don’t provide your username or finish the project on the timetable the leader has setup you will not be able to receive an award.
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Calling all fans of failed designs! I promised a third campaign, and here it is! Please hit the “Going” button so I can justify the interest in this group build…
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Well I’d hit the button but I don’t know that I have anything to build for this! Model stores, here I come! 
I will let you know, and I’m sure people will be interested in this.
On a side note, would a Panther F count? I’m assuming it would since there are the turrets and I think some hulls that were produced but I don’t know for sure.
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Sure it would! And I’ve seen the shattered turret they have here in the UK - how on earth did the crew manage to work in such a tiny space?
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In. Maybe a Cyber Hobby (Dragon) Raketenwerfer auf Fahrgestelle Pz.Kpfw. IV
or the old Trumpeter 12.8 cm Selbstfahrlafette auf VK 30.01(H) “Sturer Emil”
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Now if only the Germans had enough resources left to build and field even a fraction of these weird and whacky gimmicks! This is shaping up for a fine parade of oddities…
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This is a fun campaign subject. I wanted to join the previous version but ran out of time. Sadly, my plate is already very full so I’ll probably need to wait for Part 4. 
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I hear there is a new Takom kit or two…
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Everyone getting ready for tomorrow when this gets going?
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If I can manage to find the time! I have a Panther F started.
I also have a Rheinmetall turret Panther II kit that would be great, I think. Box art illustrates it in MNH livery, but I think MAN would be more appropriate.
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I will be a late starter Tom, a VERY LATE starter. I am going to be travelling for the next 6 months.
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Travelling for half a year? That sounds awesome!
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I’m about to go offline for the night, but the countdown says we start in less than 15mins, so I hope I’ll log in tomorrow to a blizzard of wacky model plans!
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Thanks Matt! I wasn’t going to check back so soon but couldn’t resist. I’m dithering on my own first entry, but I think it’ll be the DIVAD competitor that was to mount the Gepard AA turret on the M48A3 hull…
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The DIVAD tank I’m building never made it to actual metal, but there’s a grainy tiny pic I found of the mock-up:
Tamiya conveniently has the hull and the turret, and I happen to have both in the stash. I’m slowly building the whole DIVAD collection - there’s an M247 Sgt York (Takom) in the stash too…
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According to Ground Defense International magazine in the early 1980s, Saudi Arabia did something similar by mounting Gepard turrets on M60 hulls. No photos were included.
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That makes sense as the M60 was more modern than the aging M48. I wonder why the US didn’t change the Sgt York to an M1 Abrams hull for manoeuvrability - I’m sure the hull could fit the turret!
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I thought long ago of kitbashing one, but never got around to it.
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