What's nice with the Holidays this year is that I finally had some time off for several days in a row. I find visiting museums both interesting and relaxing, so this was a good time to finally visit the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo and have a look at their new temporary 'Models and Miniatures' exhibition. I've kind of missed such an exhibition in Norway after Mark wrote about his participation in the exhibition 'Come as you really are'.
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| The dollhouse in the background is a full size model of the dollhouse in the front. It was large enough to allow kids to play in it |
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| The original model of the Norwegian Royal Palace as it was planned. Due to economic challenges in Norway at the time only the centerpiece (with a wing each side) was built. |
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| Norwegian toys from the 50ies and as they were made long into the 70ies. The Bobsleigh is still in production in it's original form. I got found memory of these. |
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| Now we're moving away from the toy-like part of the exhibition to the more model like. Here is a couple of old Airfix kits |
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| The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology has a large collection of models. The airship is a model of the one used by Roald Amundsen (the first guy on South Pole in 1911) to fly over the North Pole in 1926. The Gloster Gladiator is the fighterplane in service when Norway entered WW2 the 9th of April 1940. |
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| Kids (and grown ups as well I suppose) could race on a pretty large Slot-car race track. |
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| Old Scalextric cars, scenery and catalogues was displayed next to the race track |
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| There was also a display with old and new (er) model railways rolling stock in different scales collected from the different layouts the museum has had through it's history. Too bad many of these layouts doesn't exist anymore |
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| The Nohab H0-model in the foreground is a model from one of the museums 'old' layouts, but is not a really old model. The model of the O gauge steam locomotive in the background on the other hand is a really old one, as it was scratch built for a O gauge model railway at the museum in the mid 50ies. Too bad the layout was scrapped when the museum moved in the mid 80ies, and these items are some few of it remains. |
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| This was an interesting corner of the exhibition as it was dedicated to wargaming in different periodes and genres like historical and fantasy |
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| How wargame miniatures are mainly made with tin moulding at top, plastic injection in the middle, and 3D-printed at the bottom |
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| From the historical display... |
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| ...the miniatures looked like to be Prince August in about 40mm |
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| They also had a small display of more modern miniatures in 15mm and 28mm. I actually thought '28mm' was closer to 1:56 scale than to 1:64 scale as the sign states |
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| Ancient miniatures. They looked really good. It was difficult to get good photos of the fantasy miniatures due to bright light and reflections. |
When I finally got to visit the Science and Technology museum, it's well worth to look at their other more permanent exhibitions as well:
In 1954 there was made a (not to scale) model of a typical Norwegian industrial society. The model was trafficked with old H0-trains from Märklin. The tracks have been changed, but this layout has actually been in service more or less ever since it was built:
The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology has also bought a 'new' large H0-scaled layout (from a closed automobile museum):
The layout has several different cameos:
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| I'm not sure which movie this actually is... |
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Seems that someone's been a good boy or girl this year.
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The 'Models and Miniatures' exhibition is just a temporary one, but the museum actually plaans to have it open through 2025. -Perhaps even longer....
So if you're in Oslo this year and have som leisure time, I really recommend you to pay the 'Norsk Teknisk Museum' a visit.
Really enjoyed the photos and commentary on them. I had the Scalectrix car ( number two, dark green , at front of photo) or one very similar as a boy. I’d forgotten about it until the photo reminded me.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Thank you Alan!
ReplyDeleteScalectrix were great! I remember my first set, which my father bought while ashore somewhere in Scotland in the mid 70ies. It was the set with 2 Mini Coopers. I also got a couple of F1 cars, but they were far more simple than your dark green one. They were good quality too, as I set it up when my sons were younger, and it was working right out of the box again after years in storage. We bought som new cars though. Far more advanced than these. Good memories!