Making New Military Train Loads for Winter Warfare

In our Garden Railway society we usually runs trains during the winter season as well. Winters in Norway are usually snowy and it's very intriguing to run trains in the snow. During winter the rails get Icey and very slippery so my locomotives can't haul so long or heavy train rakes in the inclines during the winter. Therefore I usually runs a little shorter trains than I do the rest of the year. When running fewer wagons I like to make them to a 'winter theme' or with winter purposed loads:

•  This is the 'winter train' I made for the winter 2023
• Here are some wagons and loads I made for last winter
• On this link there are some photos of the train in action and some updates. 

This winter I wanted to make some new winter related car loads to add to my existing wagons (as adding more wagons won't help on those icey inclines).

I wanted my new car loads to look so 'winterish' that it would be a loaded with items that could only be used during winter. - like a sleight or something, but I already have a sleight. When searching for suitable prototypes I found some Soviet ones from WW2 that would look good. Since my German Heeresfeldbahn is the same type as were used on the Eastern Front, I guess it could carry captured Soviet equipment back from the front for evaluation, or to be sendt back to the Reich to show off. When studying this prototype further, I found that when captured, these had been used by German forces and their Finnish Axis for transports, communications, patrolling and reconnaissance. The Finnish forces even used them for raidings and in combat roles. So these had actually been used by both sides on the Eastern Front during WW2, and would work as a plausible 'winter car loads' in my German train since Heeresfeldbahns also supported Finnish forces. Due to maneuverability and economics I guess vehicles like these were transported to and from the front and not driving there themselves, and therefore plausible train loads. Even for a narrow gauge train. Since my 'summer' trains are sometimes loaded with motorcycles suggesting transporting some reconnaissance unit, these Aerosans would replace the motorcycles for a winter reconnaissance unit.

The Prototype

Although being an older invention, it was the WW2 that led to a further development of Russian military Aerosledes, or Aerosans. An Aerosan is a propeller driven military vehicle that was operationally used in the snowbound parts of Northern Europe under conditions wheeled vehicles were restricted due to snow. To keep them light the Aerosans were often constructed of aviation plywood, had large skis instead of wheels and were powered by a truck- or 'obsolete' aircraft engine. The crew compartment was also often of typical aviation design with a 2 man crew sitting in tandem, with a driver and a machine gunner.

The Model

Not only because of the print size restrictions in my 3D-printer to 15x15x15 cm, but that I also should be able to fit then on my narrow gauge open LGB-wagons, I chose 2 smaller Russian Aerosans; The RF-8 and NKL-26 (which had an armored front plate to protect the driver). I found a couple of free printable STL-files for them in 1:100 scale at Thingiverse (link 1 and Link 2) which I resized before 3D-printing them. I opted to make them to 1:19 scale, but I had to make them slightly smaller to make them fit the wagons. Perhaps they're closer to 1:20th scale:

 

The Aerosans were printed in 3 parts each to make them fit my 3D-printer:

Then they were assembled...

...and coated with car body spray filler...

...then primed with regular car primer...

...and given a couple of coats of matt white:

I usually use spray paints to save time, but this time the painting prosess was very time-consuming and slow. I don't have a spray both and usually do my spraying outside. That was impossible for about 2 months due to constant rain. At the end I got impatient and improvised some spraying facilities in our dark and cold garage just to regain some progress on this slow project again. Details are painted with cheap acrylics and could be done at my workbench inside however:

When painting them I decided to go for just plain white winter camouflage without any insignias, as spectators can find the (Finnish) svastikas offending. -Which also can cause trouble posting photos of these models online. Besides, without any insignias they can double as recently captured Russian Aerosans going from the front, or captured Aerosans going back to the front in Axis service.

Since there is still no snow outside to use as a photographic background (as originally planned), I asked ChatGPT to place my Aerosans in the snow just to get an idea:

Fitting the loads to the wagons

Many of LGB's different goods wagons (which I uses some of in my Heeresfeldbahn train) have standarised sizes and share the same base measures. This means it's possible to make fake floors for some of those wagons to easily remove or change loads between them:

The Aerosans are typically 'winter loads' and I wanted to be able to remove them and use the wagons for other loads the rest of the year, so I made false floors or decks for them.

At this point it had finally stopped raining and we got some cold days again. Still no snow though. Perhaps this is the most 'winterish' weather we get in this part of the country this winter, so I took them out for a couple of photos during a running session in Heine's garden between Christmas and New Years eve:

More seasonal cargo

I already have a couple of soldiers sitting in one of my winter themed open wagons, and I think they're the crew for my reindeer pulled sleigh:

Last winter we had snow 

To make it easier for them to follow the sleigh I decided to 3D-print some skis for them:

While making a new 'Christmas tree-load' for my small Yule-Pizza...

...I decided to resize it and make a large scale 'Weinachtbaum' for a Christmas in the trenches as well. The 3D-file is actually meant for tabletop gaming, but works as seasonal loads as too:

This project revealed how much bad weather can slow down a project if spray painting is involved. To prevent similar situations in the future I've established a more propper facilities and a spray both at our model railway club house.

This photo also reveals another WIP for an upcoming project 

Despite preparing my train loads for warfare in the snow, it looks like 'Murphy's Law of Combat' are striking again...

Of the very same reasons I had to do my spray paints in our garage and the warmest December ever, there were no prospects for a white Christmas and I wonder whenever it will be possible to take photos of this rake in the snow?

Please become one of this blog followers, if you are not already, and find out.

Blog PostScript 

Despite not being 'super scale models' with photo-etch etc. they made it to a casual get-together for scale modellers in the city where I live yesterday. This was the first get-together for modellers in Moss and people brought mostly IPMS-quality scale models.