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Sturgeon

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Yet another suggestion:

 

Design an anti-drone system

 

Drones are everywhere these days, with more and more coming out each year as new uses are found for cheap, disposable and semi-autonomous air assets.

 

Lately the buzzword in drones is swarming, with systems like PERDIX and LOCUST demonstrating that hundreds of small UAVs could be used to perform missions. This poses serious challenges for traditional air defences systems, as the swarm may saturate an area with targets too small to be worth servicing with traditional air defence missiles. As a result, some new systems are being developed specifically for targeting small drones, with a recent Russian system claiming to be able to defend against swarms.

 

Your company is tasked with developing a system for providing cover against drones and drone swarms. The defence system should be mechanised in order to keep up with columns of vehicles (which are one of the most likely targets for drone attacks) and should provide hard kill options in addition to existing soft-kill (jamming, EM weapon) approaches. The system should be able to defeat 100 targets with wingspans of 20cm to 2m over the course of a minute, and should be able to do so even when the targets are moving at high subsonic speeds.

 

The system should have a range of at least 2km horizontally, with greater ranges being preferred. The system should work even where cloud cover and other weather effects are present. Ability to target and destroy UAVs with low-obserability characteristics would be preferred.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Contest Idea: You are an engineer at <Canadian Aerospace Firm> in 1954. The Canadian military is looking for a future replacement for their CF-100s, which will be lacking in performance by the late 1950s. The new aircraft much have good enough performance to intercept future Soviet bombers at long range, well away from Canadian or American cities. However, because Canada does not have infinite money, your design must also have some multirole capability, so that it is useful for fulfilling Canada's NATO obligations in Europe. Ottawa also dreams of possible export opportunities. Twin engines are recommended (Canada is big), but too large of an aircraft will cost too much.

 

Bonus points: build it in Quebec so they don't get uppity.

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Contest Idea: You are an engineer at <Canadian Aerospace Firm> in 1954. The Canadian military is looking for a future replacement for their CF-100s, which will be lacking in performance by the late 1950s. The new aircraft much have good enough performance to intercept future Soviet bombers at long range, well away from Canadian or American cities. However, because Canada does not have infinite money, your design must also have some multirole capability, so that it is useful for fulfilling Canada's NATO obligations in Europe. Ottawa also dreams of possible export opportunities. Twin engines are recommended (Canada is big), but too large of an aircraft will cost too much.

 

Bonus points: build it in Quebec so they don't get uppity.

lulz.

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  • 2 months later...

Contest Idea: Wehrapocalypse now

 

You work for a model-making company, and have been instructed to come up with a new line of tank/afv models to sell to punters. Unfortunately, the market for german tanks (ie: the biggest market in the industry) is completely filled - with manufacturers making every single variant of german AFV for which any historical documentation exists, usually in at least three paint schemes. Digging desperately through the archives one night for a varient which has not already been made, you have a flash of inspiration: why not design your own?

 

The tank/afv you will present to the board must be plausibly German (or modified by Germans, captured by Germans etc), and must fit into a 1939-1946 time period. It must be recogniseably teutonic in terms of design and construction, but must use the minimum number of existing parts and components in order to make a design/trademark filing easier and prevent your competition from reusing their old moulds. The history of the tank/afv must be plausible, and must include some reason why it hasn't been discovered up until now. This means that the design should be for a 'lost' prototype, limited production type or exotic conversion of a captured design done in very small numbers.

 

The design must be appealing to punters for some reason, which must be explained in the pitch. It should also be detailed enough so that said punters can get their wehraboner one by drooling over all the technical specifications and fancy-sounding german equipment names.

 

The winner of the competition will be judged by a board of wehraboo and model experts (I'm nominating EE and Walter to start with, please provide other suggestions), with part of the prize being that someone will try to slip the winning design into wikipedia in the hopes of getting it taken up by real-life model makers. The ultimate prize here would be to buy your own model back in 1:35 scale to mount of a plinth. For this reason it would be great for each pitch to include faked documentation, design drawings, archival footage and the like for inclusion into wiki.

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16 hours ago, Toxn said:

Contest Idea: Wehrapocalypse now

 

You work for a model-making company, and have been instructed to come up with a new line of tank/afv models to sell to punters. Unfortunately, the market for german tanks (ie: the biggest market in the industry) is completely filled - with manufacturers making every single variant of german AFV for which any historical documentation exists, usually in at least three paint schemes. Digging desperately through the archives one night for a varient which has not already been made, you have a flash of inspiration: why not design your own?

 

The tank/afv you will present to the board must be plausibly German (or modified by Germans, captured by Germans etc), and must fit into a 1939-1946 time period. It must be recogniseably teutonic in terms of design and construction, but must use the minimum number of existing parts and components in order to make a design/trademark filing easier and prevent your competition from reusing their old moulds. The history of the tank/afv must be plausible, and must include some reason why it hasn't been discovered up until now. This means that the design should be for a 'lost' prototype, limited production type or exotic conversion of a captured design done in very small numbers.

 

The design must be appealing to punters for some reason, which must be explained in the pitch. It should also be detailed enough so that said punters can get their wehraboner one by drooling over all the technical specifications and fancy-sounding german equipment names.

 

The winner of the competition will be judged by a board of wehraboo and model experts (I'm nominating EE and Walter to start with, please provide other suggestions), with part of the prize being that someone will try to slip the winning design into wikipedia in the hopes of getting it taken up by real-life model makers. The ultimate prize here would be to buy your own model back in 1:35 scale to mount of a plinth. For this reason it would be great for each pitch to include faked documentation, design drawings, archival footage and the like for inclusion into wiki.

 

At first I was like, no we are not doing this, and then I read the last paragraph.

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This sounds like it could be fun.

 

For the design being believable, are we talking actual realistic and feasible designs, or something like the Krokodil that just makes for good Wehrabait?  Assuming the latter, but I figure it would be good to clarify.

Edited by ApplesauceBandit
typo
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8 minutes ago, ApplesauceBandit said:

This sounds like it could be fun.

 

For the design being believable, are we talking actual realistic and feasible designs, or something like the Korkodil that just makes for good Wehrabait?  Assuming the latter, but I figure it would be good to clarify.

I'm sort of conflicted on this.

Realistic and feasible would be great, as the design is supposed to slip into the historical record undetected. But then Krokodil was just so damn good at selling models to wehraboos, which is one of the major goals here.

 

What do other folk think?

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4 minutes ago, EnsignExpendable said:

Amazing idea! People believe me when I drew a picture of a PzIV turret on a T-60 hull, so literally anything is possible. 

 

Lunacy of an Inflamed Mind is a good source of inspiration, although there are fewer Germans in there than you would think.

 

Not sure how to feel about one of the kitbashes on there being almost a copy of what I had in mind...

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41 minutes ago, EnsignExpendable said:

Amazing idea! People believe me when I drew a picture of a PzIV turret on a T-60 hull, so literally anything is possible. 

 

Lunacy of an Inflamed Mind is a good source of inspiration, although there are fewer Germans in there than you would think.

The 'try not to use existing parts' stipulation was to avoid people from simply slamming things like the M IV Sherpanzer together - because it is literally too easy to dupe people with stuff like that :lol:

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Seeing the conflicts in Syria, Iraq etc I got thinking about the weapons used. It seems like none of the weapons are truly intended for their intended purpose. Not only that, there are also lots of home made weapons. We're seeing ATGMs being fired at groups of people, people dual wielding AKs, drones with what seems to be 40mm grenades, home made rifle grenades, home made recoilless rifles etc. The list goes on and on.

 

So your task is to design a weapon that will be the most effective in an insurgency role, like the Syrian and Iraqi* Civil War. It doesn't matter what type of weapon it is. It also doesn't matter for which side it is, insurgency or COIN. It can be a rifle, pistol, rocket launcher, tank, plane, helicopter, drone, you name it.

 

 

Requirements:

- None

 

Requests:

- Make it cheaper than weapons in the same category.

 

Competition rules:

- Submissions can be in text, 2D and/or 3D. What you submit must be enough to give the judges a good understanding of the weapon, how it's supposed to be used and how it's better than other weapons in the same category.

- Judges will be looking for effectiveness compared to weapons in the same category and usefulness in an insurgency.

 

Anyway, a competition like this should be open to everyone since it involves all weapon categories. With the other two contests I noticed that not everyone could take part because not everyone knows a lot about AFVs or small arms. But everyone here should know at least a thing or two about a single weapon system.

 

I have money set aside for this and if there are no major complaints (and if @Sturgeon gives the okay-signal) I'll make a proper contest topic tomorrow.

 

I'll be a judge (although I will submit something) but I'll need more judges, so those who are willing, step forward please (or if you have suggestions, go ahead).

 

 

 

*I have no idea why the war vs ISIS is called a civil war.

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1 hour ago, Bronezhilet said:

Seeing the conflicts in Syria, Iraq etc I got thinking about the weapons used. It seems like none of the weapons are truly intended for their intended purpose. Not only that, there are also lots of home made weapons. We're seeing ATGMs being fired at groups of people, people dual wielding AKs, drones with what seems to be 40mm grenades, home made rifle grenades, home made recoilless rifles etc. The list goes on and on.

 

So your task is to design a weapon that will be the most effective in an insurgency role, like the Syrian and Iraqi* Civil War. It doesn't matter what type of weapon it is. It also doesn't matter for which side it is, insurgency or COIN. It can be a rifle, pistol, rocket launcher, tank, plane, helicopter, drone, you name it.

 

 

Requirements:

- None

 

Requests:

- Make it cheaper than weapons in the same category.

 

Competition rules:

- Submissions can be in text, 2D and/or 3D. What you submit must be enough to give the judges a good understanding of the weapon, how it's supposed to be used and how it's better than other weapons in the same category.

- Judges will be looking for effectiveness compared to weapons in the same category and usefulness in an insurgency.

 

Anyway, a competition like this should be open to everyone since it involves all weapon categories. With the other two contests I noticed that not everyone could take part because not everyone knows a lot about AFVs or small arms. But everyone here should know at least a thing or two about a single weapon system.

 

I have money set aside for this and if there are no major complaints (and if @Sturgeon gives the okay-signal) I'll make a proper contest topic tomorrow.

 

I'll be a judge (although I will submit something) but I'll need more judges, so those who are willing, step forward please (or if you have suggestions, go ahead).

 

 

 

*I have no idea why the war vs ISIS is called a civil war.

 

You have my approval; sounds like a fun contest and we need another one.

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8 hours ago, Bronezhilet said:

Seeing the conflicts in Syria, Iraq etc I got thinking about the weapons used. It seems like none of the weapons are truly intended for their intended purpose. Not only that, there are also lots of home made weapons. We're seeing ATGMs being fired at groups of people, people dual wielding AKs, drones with what seems to be 40mm grenades, home made rifle grenades, home made recoilless rifles etc. The list goes on and on.

 

So your task is to design a weapon that will be the most effective in an insurgency role, like the Syrian and Iraqi* Civil War. It doesn't matter what type of weapon it is. It also doesn't matter for which side it is, insurgency or COIN. It can be a rifle, pistol, rocket launcher, tank, plane, helicopter, drone, you name it.

 

 

Requirements:

- None

 

Requests:

- Make it cheaper than weapons in the same category.

 

Competition rules:

- Submissions can be in text, 2D and/or 3D. What you submit must be enough to give the judges a good understanding of the weapon, how it's supposed to be used and how it's better than other weapons in the same category.

- Judges will be looking for effectiveness compared to weapons in the same category and usefulness in an insurgency.

 

Anyway, a competition like this should be open to everyone since it involves all weapon categories. With the other two contests I noticed that not everyone could take part because not everyone knows a lot about AFVs or small arms. But everyone here should know at least a thing or two about a single weapon system.

 

I have money set aside for this and if there are no major complaints (and if @Sturgeon gives the okay-signal) I'll make a proper contest topic tomorrow.

 

I'll be a judge (although I will submit something) but I'll need more judges, so those who are willing, step forward please (or if you have suggestions, go ahead).

 

 

 

*I have no idea why the war vs ISIS is called a civil war.

I'll happily judge if you need someone.

My qualifications are well known by now ;)

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  • 2 months later...
On ‎12‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 11:35 AM, Toxn said:

Contest Idea: Wehrapocalypse now

 

You work for a model-making company, and have been instructed to come up with a new line of tank/afv models to sell to punters. Unfortunately, the market for german tanks (ie: the biggest market in the industry) is completely filled - with manufacturers making every single variant of german AFV for which any historical documentation exists, usually in at least three paint schemes. Digging desperately through the archives one night for a varient which has not already been made, you have a flash of inspiration: why not design your own?

 

The tank/afv you will present to the board must be plausibly German (or modified by Germans, captured by Germans etc), and must fit into a 1939-1946 time period. It must be recogniseably teutonic in terms of design and construction, but must use the minimum number of existing parts and components in order to make a design/trademark filing easier and prevent your competition from reusing their old moulds. The history of the tank/afv must be plausible, and must include some reason why it hasn't been discovered up until now. This means that the design should be for a 'lost' prototype, limited production type or exotic conversion of a captured design done in very small numbers.

 

The design must be appealing to punters for some reason, which must be explained in the pitch. It should also be detailed enough so that said punters can get their wehraboner one by drooling over all the technical specifications and fancy-sounding german equipment names.

 

The winner of the competition will be judged by a board of wehraboo and model experts (I'm nominating EE and Walter to start with, please provide other suggestions), with part of the prize being that someone will try to slip the winning design into wikipedia in the hopes of getting it taken up by real-life model makers. The ultimate prize here would be to buy your own model back in 1:35 scale to mount of a plinth. For this reason it would be great for each pitch to include faked documentation, design drawings, archival footage and the like for inclusion into wiki.

Any folk feeling keen to get back into the saddle on this one?

 

I know we've been having a fallow period with contests, so all suggestions/improvements are welcome regardless.

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