republic of texas apc

[pastafarian]

It appears that the Leopard MBT was scraped during the last massive cull.  However, the Texians have been able to procure security vehicles from Cuba during one of the frequent purchases of cigars (since the US still has the embargo going, Texans import Cuban cigars, repackage them, and ship them to the US - this is pretty much an open secret with everyone involved, though nothing is done to press the point). 

During one of the shipments, the Cubans also sold the Texians several surplus BTR-80s.  These were very basic stripped down versions that the Cubans had originally purchased from the Soviets. 




---this is a kit that I had originally built with another idea in mind.  Not sure if anyone's seen "The Pentagon Wars,"  but there is a scene during the opening of the movie where the US was conducting tests on heat seeking rockets.  They couldn't get the seeker heads to pick up low levels of heat, so they put a bunch of hot plates onto the side of a BTR.  If you haven't seen the movie, you really should.  It is unfortunately pretty close to what actually happened with the development of the Bradley AFV.    Anyway, I couldn't get the hot plates to look very convincing so I put the BTR in the junkyard for a while. 



John

[Jacques Deguerre]

A good idea to reuse your existing model. Of course, to really look the part, the tires will have to be much wider, there will have to be a bull bar up front and some "Truck Nutz" hanging from the rear undercarriage!  hehehe

[elmayerle]

Don't forget the mudflaps with the chrome silhouettes.

[Sentinel Chicken]

I suggest a set of longhorns on the front. Along with Evan's idea of mudflaps with chrome silhouettes.

[Frank3k]

Since it came from Cuba, add a "si esta oscilando no vengan a golpear" ("if it's rockin' don't come knockin'") somewhere.

[AGRA]

A good idea to reuse your existing model. Of course, to really look the part, the tires will have to be much wider, there will have to be a bull bar up front and some "Truck Nutz" hanging from the rear undercarriage!  hehehe

Why not take the pimped truck look (bull bar, mud flaps, nutz and horns) a step further and cut the top of the BTR, add roll bars and turn it into a ultra SOF gun buggy? Texas Special Rangers style... Acquire a US machinegun set and stick them all around the edges...

[Texgunner]

I say it needs the Yosemite Sam mudflaps that say, "Back Off"! 

[pastafarian]

I washed out the olive green with a tan top coat and am going to mimic some mesquite bushes so that my rig will blend in to the area of operation.

Plan to attach bull horns, yosemite sam mudflaps, bar armor, smoker, and a sun shade for the roof lookouts. 

Can't abide truck nutz. 

My folks are going to be stationed in the Carlsbad area of the extreme West Texas territories defending from encroaching New Mexicans.        I'm going on the premise that Texas was never annexed by the US, so they kept what is half of present day New Mexico.  There honestly was some pretty heated disputes between Texas and the New Mexico territory that lead to two major components of the Compromise of 1850 (New Mexico got a big chunk of Texas, and Texas got $10 million (I think) to pay down debts from the revolution.    AO is the territory surrounding the red star: 



John

[elmayerle]

Ah, somewhere around Roswell, TX.  Perfect ops area for this kind of vehicle.  -grin- You should do a vehicular variant of the "special" camo job that was done on a "sandbox" CH-53E that included a most attractive silhouette in the paint scheme.

[Jacques Deguerre]

Can't abide truck nutz.

Oh yeah, they're tacky as all heck. I just happen to observe them a lot on trucks around my area.

Now I'm curious about what version of the Leopard you had planned to use.