New steam locomotive for the Garden Railway

The new locomotive

Finally after all the Covid-restrictions we're, for the time being, allowed to take up normal activities again. Due to the Covid-19 I hadn't been to any Model Railway Exhibitions for about 2 years, either in Norway or abroad. So when there was a small Model Railway Exhibition held in Norway last week I just had to go. It was very nice to meet fellow modellers again. On this exhibition I also found a G-scale Steam locomotive from LGB that I've wanted for a while, but haven't seen in many stores, so I ended up buying it.

Like most LGB-stuff in G-scale it's narrow gauge, and it's made as an even lighter narrow gauge standard as it is a "Feldbahn". A prototypical Feldbahn would be made to 600mm gauge in real life, but LGB has made it go with their 45mm gauge tracks, so the model has a slightly broader gauge than the prototype. The LGB rolling stock in the "Feldbahn-series" is very short and will fit my very small garden railway well.

The model is very well made and looks good, and it runs superbly. I noticed that the cab is open, and you can see all the details in it, except for the crew (!). Usually LGB includes a engine driver in their models, but obviously not here where the cab is so open. On the label on the box there is a picture of the loco with an engine driver, but when I searched the internet for this model I found both models with and without the driver.

The Crew

It seemed obvious what I had to do; I had to add some crew, at least an engine driver. Before I went ahead and ordered one from LGB I wanted to see if I could find any suitable figures to print in our 3D-printer. At Thingiverse I found two I figured they could be used for an engine driver and a fireman; Man With Cap (1:32 scale) and a figure from the German Africa Corps (1:72 scale). I scaled both the figures to about G-scale, and mirrored the Man With Cap in the slicer, so I could have a conductor as well from the same figure. They were printed on "standard" resolution at our Flashforge Finder to save time, and to see if they looked good enough. After some painting with cheap acrylics from the craft shop, I think they did. They are viewed at a distance anyway.

You can still see the layer-lines from the FDM-printer, but I think they turned out surprisingly well keeping in mind that these are printed in standard resolution. So well, that I didn't consider to print them in a higher and more time consuming resolution    

The train

Fitted in the cab of the locomotive I think they look good enough. Instead of only having one engine driver if he was to be included or not originally, I now have an engine driver, a fireman and a conductor.

Exploring new Horizons in military modelling

I've been fascinated by Radio Controlled boats ever since I was a kid, both the fast ones and especially the true scale models. - And in particular military ones. Back then there were no RTR-models (like today), only kits of varying skill levels. I never got around to build a scale boat of my own because it just seemed way to complicated.

Recently I went with my son to hobby store i Oslo called Sami RC, when he was going to buy a petrol powered RC car. I was actually not so interested in those cars, so I went looking in the shelves with boats while he was shopping. And among all those not-'fine scale' racing boats, I saw one RTR scale model boat of a Combat Boat 90 by Pro boat. It needed not more than a battery to be ready for action. So while my son got his car, I finally got my RC boat. A boat which was both a military scale model and a fast one (just like the prototype).

It's planing easily as the prototype

The boat has a high level of details and looks great just out of  the box. Machine guns and flag was included and can be attached. No scale is specified on the box, but by it's size I've calculated it to be about 1:26,6 scale. With about only 55,88 cm it fits nicely into at toolbox with it's controller and is easy to carry along.

Every thing you need for a running session, fits in a toolbox

You also need a battery-charger, but I already had one from my RC Tank and RC Car which I could use. After charging the batteries it was time to try it out. Luckily I live by a lake, and I won't recommend to use models like this in the sea, as the salt will make metal parts corrode. 

At full throttle it looks like its going to fast, but I've calculated it to be close to the prototype though. I've found out that you can set the controller to 75% power, which actually looks better and closer to expected 'scale speed'. A benefit of this is that your batteries will last for a longer running session as well; about 30+ minutes contrary to the 14 minutes if you have 100% and full throttle almost all the time.

It is a fun boat to operate, and I think the only con is that it has no reverse. I also added powerfull magnets inside the hull on both sides, so I can dock to my friends magnetic quay which is built to about the same scale.

It's a nice Scenic quay my friend have made

With magnets in both boat hull, and in the tires along the quayside, it docks easily with a steady hand. 

Another benefit for me is that this model is of the same type of Combat Boat (Stridsbåt 90) that was used by the Norwegian Coastal Artillery, and are now in service with the Norwegian Coastal Rangers. This will serve as inspiration for me if I would like to personalize it through the winter, so my Combat Boat doesn't look like all the other similar Pro Boats. If so updates will follow.

A Norwegian Stridsbåt 90 (Photo: Forsvaret)

This is a summer hobby, and the season seems to be over here in Norway this year. It's very therapeutic just to sit back with a cup of coffee or a cold beer, and just navigate your own boat around.