Kitbashing Ultra-Moderns

So with the date of my fictional Israeli/Iranian/Syrian/Egyptian war pushed back to the early 2020s, I now have the opportunity to be somewhat creative with my armies while still retaining roots in modern reality. What I mean is that now my armies have had an extra decade to field more cutting edge equipment possibly narrowing the technological gap between the forces which I think will create a more balanced and fun battle.

First up are a couple of Merkava variants. This first variant is one that existed in the past as a prototype but was axed due to costs. It was the Sholef self propelled howitzer. The vehicle was basically an early Merkava chassis with an early M109 (a1?) turret mounted on it in essence giving the Israelis an M109 artillery piece with the armor of a main battle tank.

This kitbash is stupidly easy for my ultra modern Israeli army. US M109a6 + IDF Merkava MkIV = IDF Sholef MkII.

Next up I thought that by the early 20s that the Israelis would have a modernized bridgelayer that was able to take a beating. Drawing inspiration from the American bridgelayer, the M104 Wolverine, which is built on an M1 chassis, this kitbash was also a no brainer.

US M104 Wolverine + IDF Merkava MkIV = IDF Merkava Bridgelayer (researched name forthcoming).

Now onward to the Namer variants. Right now the Namer exists as a HAPC which is armed with a 12.7mm HMG mounted in a remotely controlled turret and a 7.62mm or 5.56mm LMG manually controlled from the cupola next to it. It can be upgraded to carry an automatic 40mm grenade launcher in the turret but this still hardly makes it an IFV. Possible variants to the Namer that are being planned are an IFV version with a 30mm automatic cannon and Spike ATGM launcher, a MedEvac, Command vehicle, and an ARV.

The first of these kitbashes I am showing is the ARV. Now I wasn't sure what I wanted to use for a crane so I ended up buying two kits for it and chose which I liked best. The US truck with the wrecker arm was good but the AAVR-7 A1 looked closer to pictures I had seen. I have not completely decided yet whether this kitbash will be done with the Merkava or the Namer chassis. Even though the Namer is basically a Merkava chassis, they are quite different especially in size.

US AAVR-7 A1 + IDF Namer = IDF Namer ARV (researched name forthcoming).

Finally is the Namer HIFV. Because I have no idea what the turret would look like I had several options here. I saw what a couple of the turrets that are possible looked like and they occupy the automatic turret spot, stick up really high and look funky like the turrets on the older Achzarit IFVs. The benefit to this type of turret is that the passenger compliment remains at 12 fully armed soldiers. The downside is that the turret doesn't look anywhere near as beefy or armored as the rest of the vehicle. From an aesthetics standpoint, this really bothered me so I instead started looking at "proper" turrets that I could steal from other vehicles. First I looked at the M2 Bradleys. I decided that if I would use a turret like these that it would be only fair to reduce the passenger capacity by at least 2 men to 10. The Bradley can hold 8 but since the Namer is so much larger I felt that 10 would be fine especially seeing as how it only has a crew of 2, driver and a gunner. But the Bradley turret seemed to iconic and American to stick onto an Israeli hull. Then the newest IFV by GHQ immediately popped into my head, the German Puma IFV. After looking at the pictures I was immediately sold. The Puma is armed with a really cool looking futuristic 30mm autocannon and Spike ATGM missiles which is already what the Israelis use anyway. I stuck the turret onto the Namer and that cemented my decision. Some people will bash me for the liberal nature of this design but I really think it fits well with modern IDF armor and it has the exact weapons the Israelis are planning for.

Please note that the Puma turret is just resting on the Namer and so looks funky and isn't positioned exactly where it will be. I have to cut off a hatch. It will be in a similar position on the Namer as it is on the Puma.

GER Puma IFV + IDF Namer HAPC = IDF Namer HIFV (researched name forthcoming).

These are just quick and dirty pictures to show off my ideas for my ultra moderns. There will be a little bit more to the conversions that this. For instance on the ARV mods I will be cutting off the little winches and such and using those on the vehicle as well. I may also end up screwing around with some modeling putty again.

Keep an eye out because I really hope to start showing off some completed work of both my 1/285 IDF and my 1/2400 USN soon. So much to do and so little time to do it in.