Entries for the 2025 Special Objective Build - Johan van Ooij "Red Herring Fish Factory"

 The contest is finished, and these are the entries. Name of the maker, name of the build, backstory and  details about the construction have been added, if available

(These are not presented in order of Alfabet or Publication btw, and each gets their own Blogpost)

Johan van Ooij "Red Herring Fish Factory"

Situated in in the coastal city of Aladinea, Republic of Wadiya, the factory supplies the beautiful people of Wadiya with work for 20 men and a few children. Most of the cans are exported to the Sovjet Union, where they are used to stock up air raid shelters with delicious and nutritious seafood. It is not exported to Western countries due to biased claims and market protection schemes. Listeria never killed anyone in Wadiya, so it is 110% safe. Very Aladeen.

The original factory was started in the early 1900's by the French in their colonial days. This factory later burned down.

In WW1 a new cannery was erected to supply the French army during the war. The building was finished in 1919 and subsequently burned down in the riots during the coup d'etat of 1927.

A new factory was built shortly before WW2 and this supplied canned fish to the Axis powers. This was then bombed by the British Royal Air Force in 1944 and burned down.

In what can only be described as sheer tenacity, another factory was built a few years after the war and as mentioned, supplied canned fish to the Sovjet Union.

Shortly after taking these pictures, a unfortunate incident happend and the factory burned down. Again. The resulting explosion of fish pulp and oil flung the massive Red Herring sign across the bay and right onto the yacht of the Admiral of the Wadiyan Navy, Abdel Ranka, killing him and seven of his mistresses.

Admiral Abdel Ranka was posthumously declared a Hero of Wadiya and mentioned in the Guiness Book of Records as the man who caught the biggest herring on record. Again, very Aladeen.

A complete scratchbuild, a core of foam coated in card, with some scrap lasercut card from other projects, lead wire, some magnets, and a 3D printed VW Beetle. A nice mix of old and new techniques (to me). Some things worked, others not so much. The signs are magnetised (else it would not fit in the storage box, plus that gives extra space to mount a AA gun or a glorious flag) and I've already started work on additonal pieces so I can use it for other games as well.

*10 x 3 inches base - Check

*Must have a vehicle on it - Check

*Must have a name badge/sign on it - Check, check, and check

*Can't just be a banana on a base - Check