The local science-fiction model group is having a challenge; we were each given a cheap kit of an HH-43 Huskie helicopter (think cute little box with twin rotors and lots of rivets), and told to do what we liked with it.
All those rivets appealed to me, so I’ve poised my fuselage, sans rotors and tail, way up on top of a WWII tracked cargo vehicle chassis, and am building an imaginary tracked cargo vehicle, such as might be used by His Majesty’s forces when policing the far reaches of the Empire in 1934. It’ll be tall and ungainly and ever-so-British.
So I’m looking for a British-y name for it. It’ll be the “Armstrong-Vickers xxx Mk IV” (I love calling things “Mk IV”); the job is to fill in the"xxx".
Ideally, the name would have connotations of strength and/or endurance, as well as being just-ever-so-faintly ridiculous. I thought of “Mastodon” and “Merseyside”, but neither of those quiiiiiiiiiite does it for me. Aaaaaand I thought, well, what the heck, there’s lots of people smarter than me on the Dope.
So tax your brains and name my poor beast.
I can even offer a prize, of sorts: The winner gets an authentic jpeg of the project under construction. (whoopee!)
The Valiant was one of the V-bomber series of the 50s and 60s, so might get a bit confusing.
WW2-era British cargo vehicles didn’t really have an interesting naming scheme- they tended to be letter/number arrangements (like K2). However, you could use something like “Trailblazer” or “Explorer” to fit in with the one named one I can think of, the Scammell Pioneer. (Remember, the Trailblazer and Explorer were not yet shitty SUVs back then)
Also, it’s Vickers-Armstrong.
ETA: There was an air-drop capable WWII Vickers tank called the Tetrarch, and most British tracked vehicles were named for military ranks initially…
Vickers-Armstrong Centennial Mk IV (it being approx. 100 years after Victoria’s coronation, they might have celebrated it that way in your fictional universe).
The Humbrol (yes, I know)
The MacDuff (after the character in Macbeth)
The Clydesdale (after the horse)
The Wilberforce
The Gertrude
The Bolsover
The Ormondroyd
The Margrave
Antaeus- a fictional giant who could support many times his own weight so long as he remained in touch with the earth. (Nickname could be “Anteater”.)
Vickers-Armstrong Antaeus Mk IV
Mora- the name of William the Conqueror’s flagship in the huge amphibious troop transport from Normandy to England in 1066. (Nickname could be ‘sodom’ from British rhyme slang- “sodom & gomorrah/mora”, or if you want something less obvious using rhyme slang, “The Talmud” [from talmud & torah/mora- I know it doesn’t quite work, but who says these people would be Hebrew scholars?)
Vickers-Armstrong Mora Mk IV
The Mary Rose- Henry VIII’s flagship.
Vickers-Armstrong Mary Rose Mk IV
Sirius was the flagship of the first fleet to transport British convicts to Australia.
My personal fave of the ones I’ve mentioned is still MORA, though; sounds similar to Morgan (as in le Fay) and is a pleasant sound for a ship that [by transporting William] caused the utter collapse of the British social order.
Though to be pedantic, the British word is “Centenary”.
You could also have:
The Romford (will raise a knowing snigger from time to time)
The Hampden (after what was the largest stadium in the world in the 1930s)
The Odin
The Scrummage (from rugby)
The Pagan
I thought of “Mastodon” and “Merseyside”, but neither of those quiiiiiiiiiite does it for me. Aaaaaand I thought, well, what the heck, there’s lots of people smarter than me on the Dope.
