Moving from miniature tabletop wargaming...

... - to 1:1 scale wargaming. - At least for a short while. When you're reading this the large NATO exercise 'Nordic Response '24' has recently been held in the Northern parts of Norway, but due to I've registered that this blog has several visits from Russia I didn't want to post anything before it was all over. 

I am a reserve as a Military Police Senior NCO  in the Norwegian Combat Support Service Battalion, and still do Service with that unit every now and then. So now I'm back after about 3 weeks of service, so that has influenced on my time for modelling, wargaming and updates on this blog. I covered my absence with scheduled blogging posts, but my comments on fellow blogger's posts during the same period has only my name signed to it as I wasn't able to log in (and reveal positions to Google).

Nor CSS Bn is a unit which provide host nation support, service and logistics to USMC during their operations in Norway. 

I'm not going into details here, as this blog apparently also have readers in Russia, but I can give you some few general impressions.

In Norway civilian vehicles can be mobilised into military service. So this time my MP unit 'uniformed' 2 civilian cars into police patrol cars to try this out. The process looked like a giant kit-building with instructions to where to place the decals:

And soon we were ready for Service to support both Norwegian and American units:

And the vehicles performed very well under challenging conditions too:

Even if the accommodation is 'simple' members of the Nor CSS Bn are great to make it comfortable and give it a feeling of 'luxury':

The 'breakfast-buffet' is an important happening and social gathering

An improvised cinema was arranged in one of the tents. Off course a war-movie was chosen for the occasion

I'm very impressed by and proud to serve with so many good and skilled colleagues. They really makes the Nor CSS Bn perform beyond it's expectations. They're truly 'brothers in arms' (!)

By the way; The Northern parts of Norway is also a very good place to watch polar lights:

So now there will probably be some more time to do some table top wargaming and military modelling again. Follow this blog for updates to come.

Military trains in large scale hitting the news

I'm a subscriber to Norway's only model railway magazine called 'Mj-Bladet' (simply translated into 'The Model Railway Magazine'),  which have 4 editions a year.

When I receive a copy I usually sits down, relaxing with a cup of coffee and enjoys the issue.

When receiving the latest issue today, I was surprised to see this large photo of my large scale military trains, which I has covered in this blog, almost making it to the middle pages too.

This was a very nice surprise to see my work from this blog at print and published.

A LGB Toy Train wagon + salvages for the 'scrap box' = Another Heeresfeldbahn military load going to the front

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One of my other interests other than the military modelling, wargaming and railway modelling is riding my motorcycle. I'm not only riding it a lot just for commuting to work (60 km away), but for recreational rides as well. But motorcycles are a seasonal thing in Norway, as we have long, cold and snowy winters where running conditions are bad or non existent. So when I had to park my motorcycle for the winter in October, I said that when "when one mc-season ends, another one starts..." as I had a couple of indoor motorcycle modelling projects on my workbench for the winter:

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The plan was to make a Kettenkrad and a BMW motorcycle with sidecar on my 3D-printer as military loads for 2 flatcars I was going to use for my G-scale Heeresfeldbahn. The Kettenkrad-kit turned out just fine, but the motorcycle with the sidecar did not look good when upscaled and 3D-printed on my printer. Both of them was originally made to 28mm scale as wargame items, but only the Kettenkrad looked acceptable when scaled up to 1:19 scale. The sidecar-motorcycle didn't print well in my 3D-printer and looked so bad and crude that I finally replaced it with a 1:18 scale diecast BMW model I was able to get cheap instead. I was just going to throw away the parts for the 3D-printed one, but somehow I just kept them laying around on my workbench for a while as I could use them for paint tests etc.

The original motorcycle I 3D-printed, but decided not to use.
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I found this 1:18 scale ready made diecast model instead, which looked the part except for the postwar windscreen and seat. It would be easier to fix those rather than making the 3D-printed model presentable 
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About the same time I went on a trip with my MRC to a model railway exhibition in Germany, where I ended up buying another colorfull LGB flat-wagon, which I could use in my growing Heeresfeldbahn rake:

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This wagon was going to need a load to make it look more interesting. After seeing a video on YouTube on how to make tarpaulin loads, I was curious to try out the technique my self, and was happy that I didn't throw away the parts for the bad looking 3D-printed BMW motorcycle with sidecar.  It would work as a testpiece for the tarpaulin-technique, as it was ruined anyway. Now I could try to cover up the mistakes literally. 

Making a tarpaulin load

After assembling the motorcycle-model I didn't care to paint it. I just covered it with a sheet of regular tissue-paper (3 layers), and soaked it with diluted PVA-glue (close to 50:50 ratio) using a broad paintbrush to push it into crevices. I started on the highest part of the model, working downwards to the lower parts. I got a couple of rift and tears in the soaked paper, which I just patched up with small tissue- paper pieces and gave them the same treatment, and they blended in perfectly.

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I let the diluted PVA-glue dry until the next day. When I checked it the tissue-paper had turned into a hard shell, but still it felt kind a little fragile. As I was going to use it outside under different weather conditions, I wanted it to be much sturdier so it wouldn't dissolve in rain or snow. To make it harder and sturdier, I gave i 3 coats of ModPodge, which I have good experience from using it as a sealer for wargaming miniatures.

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Even if ModPodge include som kind of Vinyl, I wanted it to be sturdier against soaking, so I gave it a couple of layers of varnish as well. By now it didn't feel so fragile anymore. 

Next it could be painted:

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A wash and some drybrushing really brings out the 'details':

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-And finally placed on the (repainted) flatcar. The flatcar was simply painted 'Panzer Grey' with a rattlecan, and drybushed withe some brown acrylics.

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That motorcycle looks much better now hidden  under a tarpaulin. Throw away nothing, your scrap can be hidden under tarpaulin and be uses as loads or terrain-pieces in wargaming.

This was a fun and quick build and made me feel confident to make more such tarpaulin loads in the future. Just by following the instructions from the YouTube video, this technique worked the first time. Have a try for your self. 

Did I mention that I like motorcycles?

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My LGB Heeresfeldbahn rake so far:

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A March Workbench update - Creating an Ape Army

Ready for some action!
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Due to finnising a somewhat longterm conversion of LGB rollingstock into my growing Heeresfeldbahn rake and making a small army for a 'casual wargame in the garden', some other modelling-projects fell behind. One of those projects were the apes I briefly presented in my January Workbench update. 

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They were made up and sliced together by elements from a 'kit file' found on Thingiverse. When put together in desired positions, I found out that they were not so easy to 3D-print, and needed some tweaking and adjustments to suit my needs.

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The bases I'm basing them on did I also find for free on Thingiverse. They were originally made as 'Bolt Action' bases, but I just resized them to fit the Apes.

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After basing them, they were ready for some priming. I just used inexpensive mat black from a rattle can from the car shop.

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Just primed they looked almost ready for the gaming table already as they don't require an elaborate paint job.

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Not a very complicated 'scheme' on these miniatures; How they look after they got a basic coat of paint:

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Washing them with a brownish wash, drybrushing them and texturing the bases really brings out their details.

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My intention was to 3D-print some spears for them from a 28mm 'weapon-pack' on Thingiverse, but I suppose primates like these would only have very simple spears just made of wood. In the grocery store I found such spears made of the real thing and just about the right scale. Since you just can't buy a few 'coctail sticks' I've got enough to arm a battalion. The spears was given a coat of 'brown wash'.

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Bringing it all toghether. I don't think these look too bad considered they are 3D-printed on a FDM printer on not a 'resin printer'.

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Another unfinished project from the 'January workbench' is the 'piece of crumbled paper'. Now I finally got around to paint it, so now it's somewhat more obvious what it is and what it's hiding:

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Please hit the 'follow button' and subscribe to this blog to see updates on how I'm going  to use this month's workbench projects in coming blogposts of wargames and railway modelling.