What If ideas/goals for the upcoming year, what are YOUR plans?

[DeeBob]

I have had a long-running plan to build an ongoing series of models representing a version of the Vietnam war where the USA wasn't involved and it evolved from the wider colonial wars of Britain and France in the era, largely because I discovered that Britain used defoliation and napalm and "New Villages" in Malaya, but in the process of researching the British and French colonial wars and reading about the various controversies and war crimes Britain and France carried out amidst the context of war in the real world my appetite for that had completely fallen away.

The things I do want to make, though, are a series of dioramas of beaten up, scrappy wartime vehicles in private hands post-war including:

A converted B-25 used by revolutionaries for moving supplies and people around (started, in so far as I've glued the wings together and painted the cockpit)

A Dc-5 inspired plane made by cutting up an old italeri dc3 to give it straight leading edges on the wings and high wings, belonging to a smuggler, with a jeep loaded up with packages approaching it, which I have also started by making the wings and then cutting them up.

A ragtag bunch of wartime trucks from both sides being used by anti-colonial rebels who learned their lessons from the LRDG

A variety of seaplanes and flying boats belonging to a micronation off the Australian coast

And the one that I'm really stewing on because I found myself reading about them waiting for a real plane- A Sunderland Mark V with the twin wasps, with no bombs and most of the guns removed, bit with Leigh Lights and the nose guns (and maybe an integrated 75mm or similar) belonging to a sort of Aerial Sea Shepherd organisation who would use the lights and radars and radios to find whaling vessels and entreaty them to stop whaling, with the nose guns as a backup if they're uncooperative. I didn't know that they ever got re-engined, and I didn't know that they were fitted with forward firing guns, and the image of a Sunderland diving on something for a strafing run has completely captured my imagination!

[McColm]

I'm still hankering to build a sailing ship,  traction engine and a tractor. Could form the basis for 'life before the combustion engine ' as a Group Build.

[kerick]

There's that kit of the post war Porsche tractor. I think I posted the pics I took of the real one I found.

Personally, I'm going to try and finish some things, but I'll probably start something new.

[Rick Lowe]

Personally, I'm going to try and finish some things, but I'll probably start something new.

Exactly what he said...   

[scautomoton]

Personally, I'm going to try and finish some things, but I'll probably start something new.

I'll third that. I really must finish this Lightning F.53..... I think subconsciously I'm putting it off because I want the NMF to be perfect......

[zenrat]

...And the one that I'm really stewing on because I found myself reading about them waiting for a real plane- A Sunderland Mark V with the twin wasps, with no bombs and most of the guns removed, bit with Leigh Lights and the nose guns (and maybe an integrated 75mm or similar) belonging to a sort of Aerial Sea Shepherd organisation who would use the lights and radars and radios to find whaling vessels and entreaty them to stop whaling, with the nose guns as a backup if they're uncooperative. I didn't know that they ever got re-engined, and I didn't know that they were fitted with forward firing guns, and the image of a Sunderland diving on something for a strafing run has completely captured my imagination!

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=38981.0

[DeeBob]

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=38981.0

Now that is lovely, as your stuff always is!

[zenrat]

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=38981.0

Now that is lovely, as your stuff always is!

Thanks mate.

[Diamondback]

It looks like other than pitching ideas and concepts my WHIFfing days are drawing to a close, setting aside the "Operation Fast Forward" B-36 project as my last (and probably only to see completion if I can get it there).

[McColm]

I've been trying to find the necessary aftermarket parts to convert the 1/72 Mach2 Bristol Britannia into a Canadair CP-107 Argus. AIM Transport Wings used to sell the conversion sets but I haven't been able to find any on the Hannats website nor the elusive vacformed kit.
Welsh Models did the 1/144 model kit for the Mk2.

Alternatively the Bristol Britannia BEWARE, Britannia Early Warning Airborne Radar Equipment, either using the Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star or the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye radar.

I tried and failed to build the Mach2 kit, gave up on the engines. Now that I know they can be replaced with the Wright R3350 turbo-compound radials but I'm leaning towards the Rolls-Royce Tynes.
The panier layout from the BAe Nimrod MR.2 could be used to form the MPA version or use one of the fuselage stretched conversion sets from the AIM Transport Wings range.

It's the 25th Anniversary of the release of the first Harry Potter movie. Not to everyone's taste but the fan base has grown. I occasionally watch a couple of the films and I'm always surprised in seeing something that I missed the last time I watched it . Yes HBO Max is going to release the TV series based on the books in December 2026 and from what I have seen there's a lot more scenes to keep the continuity flowing. Centered around the 1990s, even the filming locations have been changed.
There's a new Hogwarts Express, five Hall Class locomotives to choose from. It wouldn't surprise me if they have used one of the stations along the Bluebell line as Hogsmead.
Prices for printers have fallen so I should be able to get one and create my own Diagon Alley. The 3D printer will have to wait another year.

[McColm]

The stash for 2026 has grown so the Green Goddess based on the 1/24 Austin FX4 with parts from the LandRover fire truck.
The civilian BAe Nimrod using the 1/72 Airfix kit.
Another stab at the Avro Tauton using the Revell Douglas DC-4 and the Revell Avro Shackleton AEW2. This time build the wings, engines and landing gear first and then the new fuselage can sit on top.
The DC-4 wings will be used on the vacformed kit along with the Rolls-Royce Merlins for the Canadair Nort Star.
My version of the Lockheed XB-30 bomber.