Friday, September 6, 2024

The Model, Military or Railway tour of '24 - The Epilogue

Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen

It's about 4 weeks since I went on a week and 2600 km tour with my motorcycle visiting air force museums, tank museums, heritage railways and exhibited model railways in Finland and Sweden. If you didn't follow the blogger posts from my trip, I'll add some links to them here:

It would be nice to finish off and visit the Norwegian equivalents to them all, but in Norway there is no own Tank or Armored Vehicles Museum. The Norwegian Defence Museum just stock it's collection of vehicles in a store not open to the public. So when there was arranged a military vehicles exhibition in the old camp of the Tank Corps last weekend,  I decided to go. Last time this was arranged in 2019, The Norwegian Armed Forces Museum opened their stores and exhibited their hughe vehicle collection. It was sunny and a nice day for a ride again....

Tankfest '24

When I arrived Trandum camp I was very disappointed. The Armed Forces Museum had just brought out and exhibit some very few of their own vehicles.  The rest of the 'exhibition' was just various military associations displaying thei private military vehicles...
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
A 'found' reunion with an old acquaintance from my own service
This is a modelling blog, so here is a couple of models too:
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
A 1:6 scale (RC) Leopard 2 tank in the livery of it's service with the Norwegian Army
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
A drive able 'model' of a Tiger 1, based upon half a chassis of BV206 tracked vehicle. This is not a model for the 'Rivet Counters'
Not too impressive this time, so I'll ad some photos from the Tankfest '19 instead, as this was far more interesting:
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Perhaps Michael at Wargaming with 54mm Toy Soldiers can find some inspiration from these Jeeps when super detailing them?
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Luckily the Norwegian Air Force Museum is located just right by this camp, so I decided to go there instead. 

The Air Force Museum at Gardermoen

The Norwegian Air Force Museum did not start off in very impressive premises nor collection:
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
A 1:72 scale model of the original Air force Museum from 'back in the days'
Today they're located in a brand new building and have a large collection of aircrafts and models related to Norway. They have recently started to display some few vehicles from the Museum of the Armed Force's collection too.
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Let's take a look at some of their models too:
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Several German aircrafts was left behind after WW2 and entered service in the Royal Norwegian Air Force 
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
A larger diorama of the base of the Norwegian squadron based on Iceland during WW2 for maritime operations. One of their missions was allied Convoy protection 
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Norwegian pilots did not only serve in Norwegian squadrons, but also served in British squadrons during WW2
They also have an own re-make of a old larger diorama that used to be exhibited on the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo, which was kind of inspiring me to go into model making when I was a kid. The diorama shows a lot of different scenes from a WW2 forwarded airfield on the continent:
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
These markings were based upon Norwegian pre-war markings, but were not approved during WW2. 
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Ground forces on the firing range...
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
...and during basic training.
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
This is a model of 'Little Norway' which was training facilities in Canada for the Norwegian Air Force during WW2.
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen

Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
Too bad I forgot to take photos from the Museum Shop this time as they have several kits there, mostly of aircrafts, but some Cobi armored vehicles as well. I bought a couple of 'pencil sharpeners', as they looked about appropriate for wargaming with my miniatures. The figure is for reference only:
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen
So this is how far it's possible to find the Norwegian equivalents to those museums I visited in Finland and Sweden, and I'll guess this concludes my travelling reports this summer. I hope other military modellers, railway modellers and perhaps also wargamers found something interesting in them, or wanting to go seeing some of these places.
Riding motorcycle and visiting Tankfest 2024, and looking back at Tankfest 2019 and visiting the Royal Norwegian Airforce Museum at Gardermoen

Friday, August 23, 2024

Making "V"-miniatures on a budget

I got very inspired by John Yorio at the 54mm or Fight when he painted his Sci-fi Warhammer miniatures and a Space Marine for his son. I'm impressed how he managed to bring out the details in the miniatures. I found this so inspiring that I wanted to try a similar project my self, but as I'm not into Warhammer miniatures it had to be some readily available 'Space Marines-Army men' I brought to the workbench in july (but not completed before now).

Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming

Since I'm not into GW I had no preferences to paint these 'Marines', but this year it's actually 40 years since the TV-series "V" was aired, and I saw it on Swedish television the first time. Perhaps I could turn a handful of these 'Space Marines' into lizzard troopers??

The miniatures

The bucket of futuristic soldiers are usually available in regular toy stores from time to time:

Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
I picked out the reddis/brownish figures as these were closer to the uniform-color I was looking for in the first place.
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
I'm also very impressed by all the figure-conversions made by James at Quantrill's Toy Soldiersso I decided to try a simple one and just remove a bayonet and add visors to their helmets with miliputty.
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
This time I only primed them with 'plastic-primer' from a rattle-can...
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
...and a orange color-primer. I hoped that the primer would serve as base for the uniform color, but it didn't match so well...
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
So the uniform needed to be painted as well. Here are all the basic colors added:
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
And then they're given a dirty brown-ish wash, drybrushed with a lighter color and adding texture to their bases:
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Some close-ups of the completed figures:
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming

Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming

The Spaceship

My figures needed a space-ship so I found a 'Skyfighter' for free at Thingiverse, re-scaled it so it would look about right size for my figures and 3D-printed it. Even if it was 3D-printed as a kit the Spaceship needed a lot of filling and sanding:
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Then it was given a couple of coats of spray filler, which revealed that further filler and was needed.
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Then it was given a couple of final layers of spray filler, and the last parts added:
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Finally some paint to bring it all together:
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming

I'm looking forward to finally deploy these V-miniatures and their landing-craft in an upcoming game soon. Please follow the blog for updates.
Making V-miniatures and Visitors-miniatures on a budget using futuristic army men from a bucket of soldiers. 1984 "V". V wargaming. Visitors wargaming


Monday, August 12, 2024

For a Few Dollars More - Deleted scenes

When first playing the scenarios from the movie "For a Few Dollars More" and letting the results create the final storyboard, there was unfortunately some footage and scenes which was removed from the "Storyboarder's Cut" version. I regret that so much as there was scenarios from the movie I wanted to play to see how they turned out. Therefore I I played those scenes added the Deleted scenes:

On the way to rob the bank in Santa Cruz

As a diversion maneuver Indio sends 3 gang members and Manco to rob the bank i Santa Cruz, while Indio and the rest of his gang robs the bank in El Paso. Manco has no intention robbing the bank in Santa Cruz...
Playing a tabletop wargame based on For a few dollars more scenario. Old West miniatures made by Airfix knock off cowboys.
...and fans 3 shots rapidly on the outlaws...
Playing a tabletop wargame based on For a few dollars more scenario. Old West miniatures made by Airfix knock off cowboys.
...and are only hitting 2 of them. The third shoots back at Manco...
Playing a tabletop wargame based on For a few dollars more scenario. Old West miniatures made by Airfix knock off cowboys.
...and Misses (!)
Manco does not, and this was a success for Manco even being shot back at.
Playing a tabletop wargame based on For a few dollars more scenario. Old West miniatures made by Airfix knock off cowboys.

Wild challenges Mortimer to a duel

When Wild - The Hunchback recognizes Colonel Mortimer in the cantina, he seeks revenge for being insulted by Mortimer in El Paso earlier and challenges him to a duel...
Playing a tabletop wargame based on For a few dollars more scenario. Old West miniatures made by Airfix knock off cowboys.
-He shouldn't have. Facing the best shot in the Carolinas, The Hunchback is chanceless.
Another success for Mortimer.
Playing a tabletop wargame based on For a few dollars more scenario. Old West miniatures made by Airfix knock off cowboys.

The Final Duel

Mortimer eventually faces Indio in a final duel. Mortimer has lost his gun on the ground and Indio think he has the upper hand in this duel. -Until Manco arrives and add to the favor for Mortimer by lending him his gun:
Playing a tabletop wargame based on For a few dollars more scenario. Old West miniatures made by Airfix knock off cowboys.
And Mortimer draw and shoot slightly faster than Indio (needed a re-roll) and guns him down.
Playing a tabletop wargame based on For a few dollars more scenario. Old West miniatures made by Airfix knock off cowboys.
The deleted scenes played in these scenarios turned out more the way they did in Sergio Leone's final version of this movie, and our heroes probably lived happily ever after....
Unless Manco accepts Mortimer's invitation to a partnership 'next time'....
-Time will show.


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