The 38th Internationale Modellbahn Ausstellung and Märklin days in Göppingen 2023 - Not just only trains

The model railway club I'm a member of in Norway usually goes on an annual trip abroad to visit some of the big model railway exhibitions on the Continent. This year we went to the hometown of Märklin, Göppingen in Germany to visit the combined 38th Internationale Modellbahn Ausstellung and the 13th Märklin days. As the name suggests it's mostly trains. - So perhaps not so much for wargamers, but slightly more for military modellers. Here are some impressions. 

First some from the mandatory stop at the World's largest model railway layout at Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. These models are made to 1:87th scale.

It's difficult to get an overview and impression of the total layout due to it's enormous size, but here are some photos of a H0 scaled 'model of the model' of one of the floors:

Here are some non railway impressions from Göppingen (click on images for larger pictures):

The bridge over River Kwai was made to Z-scale/ 1:220

These wagon-loads were made to G-scale in approx 1:29th scale, and FDM 3D-printed 

Model railroaders are not exactly without humor or not updated on the current situation either:

Off course I bought some stuff at the exhibition as well, which will keep me busy throughout the winter. Perhaps some of these projects reach this blog with a  blogpost as well. 

I'm grateful for the friendly members of my MRC and the wonderful  travell companions they are.

Connecting military units of opposing forces

As some of you may already have noticed I've converted some LGB rolling stock into a Heeresfeldbahn rake. All these LGB-wagons are fitted with the original LGB couplings.

I'm also a proud owner of a British Roundhouse 16mm scale Livesteam locomotive in a military W^D livery (a 50 year gift from my beloved wife and kids),  which also runs on 45mm gauge track. It's fitted with it's original chain-link-couplings, and I want to keep it that way. I plan to build own rollingstock to this from kits, but at the same time I want to be able to connect it to my military LGB wagons (with the LGB couplings), so some modification was needed. 

I had a very plastic, brownish and toy-looking LGB wagon which I converted with different couplings in each ends; LGB coupling in one end, and a chain-link-coupling in the other. With this I would be able to connect the 'LGB rake' to my Livesteam locomotive if I wanted to.

The LGB-loop to the right work as a buffer to the lower buffer on the 16mm locomotive. It means it will be able to couple it to other LGB-stuff in both ends as well if desired.

The wagon it self had large DR (Deutsche Reichbahn) markings and looked very plastic and bright as well. To run behind both British and German locomotives I think it needed a more general look to it, so I simply sprayed it with grey car primer, picked out some few boards in another color and gave it a heavy black-wash.

Since it's open it would be nice to load it with some cargo. I had some very bright colored toylike LGB oil barrels (don't trow anything away) I simply repainted and removed the stickers. I also put in a couple of 3D-printed crates I've used for painting samples.