Soviet Kitsch

Alternate history has always been somewhat of an interest of mine but I've never really taken any major steps in fully exploring the genre apart from miraculous short stories and the wonderful world of Red Alert. That was in-till I picked up the first book in John Birmingham's Axis of Time Trilogy, Weapons of Choice World War 2.2. That was a month and a half ago, now I'm up to the third and final book and I'm well and truly hooked. The jist of it is that in 2021 an experiment in experimental teleportation technology accidentally flings a modern naval taskforce back to 1942 and punched smack dab in the middle of the American taskforce a day or two before the battle of Midway. Modern tech falls into the hands of both the Allies and the Axis and doesn't take long for all hell to break loose.
The social and political ramifications of such an event are explored plus plenty of action and modern-warfare techno-babble thrown in for good measure. Not for the squeamish though, as it tends to get quite gory at times. It's got a fair bit of humour chucked in too, I particularly like Himmler's loathing of Microsoft products and his insistence of including music in all his Power-point presentations.

Onto the Mocs all ready..
From Trevor Van Aalst we have an unusual little creation, a mash-up of a classic 918 police car and a Classic-Space cruiser. Very cool, very cool indeed. I dig the T-shaped tail and the sloped rear compartment however I personally think the belly looks a bit weak.
From Dan Rubin we have a brand new Galactic inquisition Moc and it's about time too! A very cool cross shaped fighter with some seriously slick looking ordnance. The triple-missile packs are excellent.

From Peter Morris this week we have a pretty unique creation, The Rusty Pickup. What more can I say? This Moc will be love at first site for some and yet cause others to become involuntarily reacquainted with yesterday's breakfast. I love it, the whole thing’s a mess but for some reason it just works and blends remarkably well. But this aint no rainbow warrior, sure it's got the colour-scheme of one but what it doesn't have is a haphazardous design that one would tend to associate with a rainbow warrior. Beneath that rainbow guise is a nicely shaped ship. There's defiantly some tasty bits on it, I think the engine pods look pretty snazzy in a cool retro-ish fifties car kinda way and the spotlights are nice touch too. For some reason I really like the placement of those turret-ball bits on the front. Fuel tanks perhaps? Weaponry? External space-hopper storage? Whatever they are, they're cool looking that's for sure.
Zach, aka Bricknut brings us his very Arwing-ish PCS Fast Action Squadron-commanding Turbofighter or F.A.S.T for short. The pill like canopy design looks great as do the serrated wing edges and the diamond shaped ear-fins. The nose is lovely and smooth and its accompanying nose blaster is a nice touch. However I don't really think the rear antennas fit smoothly with the rest of the ship, they greatly reduce the overall swoosh factor of the ship and look pretty last minute.

I really like what Matt D has done with his CSF logo entry, The Crimson Fox. The vertical configuration as opposed to the horizontal looks really unique. One of the things I noticed about this one is the hinge plate in the fin that allows the canopy to open, bonus points for that one. And I particularly like the use of slopes down the sides there.
If you haven't all ready, check out the K-52 Abtula by Nnenn. I haven't got much to say about this one that’s already been said so you’ll just have to trust me when I say it's pretty darn good.
Yeah, here's another fighter and it's from Nnenn again, introducing the Live Gaming Fighter or the GLT if you prefer. This one boasts sharp and crisp clean lines with some nice features like the simple-but extremely effective intakes. I really like the painted on cockpit and pointy tail. The GLT reminds me of my own Falcon fighter as the two share a pretty similar profile. I never got around to finishing it because I never felt completely satisfied with any of the wing designs I came up with. But looking at the GLT I can see possible solutions to the Falcon's design problems. I might dust her off and make some kind of attempt to finish her, but at the moment most of her parts have been vultured and replaced for the benefit of other projects. The yellow, red and orange colour scheme isn't a very fetching fashion for a graceful lady such as the Falcon, no wonder she's been hiding away in a dark and dusty box for so long.

Be sure to check out Jehkay's Rabbit Rover, planetary exploration and mineral detection has never been cuter! Probably best not to get on its bad side though..