Vengeful Trails - A Gatling Requiem

Since I played the Delta 6 rules by Adam L. Dobbyns earlier, I really wanted to try out the 'Hero section' in these rules with a 'hero going rouge' with a machine gun in a skirmish scenario and cinematic game. I know the rules says "1980's Hero", and therefore suggests some kind of (modern) 'Rambo Character'. I have no 'Rambo' figure, but when when I played and reviewed the Delta 6 rules, I got a feeling that these rules can be amended and used for several other periods as well. This made me think of a figure conversion I made as a 'Machine Gun Hero' last year; The Django looking Gatling armed Cowboy. I think the Delta 6 rules can be amended and played in an 'Old West' scenario. The Gatling will have the LMG stats. I will play the 19th century repeater rifles as the 'assault gun' as they are fast to reload. Other rifles will only score one hit on the roll of a 5. Pistols are Pistols according to the rules (a roll of a 5 can still score 2 hits as it can be 'fanning' the gun).

Preparing the game

I don't think the 'Hero' this game are carrying his Gatling gun on his hip all the time, so I found further inspiration from the Django movie to 3D-print a carrying case for it. This was printed just before the game, so due to time the settings were medium resolution and printed with a 'wood-looking' filament so it was 'ready made'. This 'wooden filament' was really challenging to print, clogging the nozzle and make the print look good. Won't buy it again (!)

Then the printed the coffin was blackwashed:

The Scenario

After a Shootout and killing an Army patrol of 5 in a shootout in 1884, the gang of 'Sinful Eight' was reduced to the 'Sinful Six', and wanted by the authorities alive or dead. They fled and hide in the small and remote frontier town of Dullstone, where they killed the Sheriff and kept the inhabitants under their 'domination'. Until the day 2 experienced Bounty Hunters who had teamed up for the large reward for the 'Sinfull Six', entered the town. After another Shootout the outlaws actually managed to take out the Bounty Hunters, but at the same time there was only 2 gang members back. They had to flee Dullstone as just the 2 of them couldn't keep terrorizing the population of Dullstone alone. They got even more wanted and the reward for them got higher after the last 'shootout'. So they're still chased by the law and Bounty Hunters alike. 

It's rumored that the 2 last gang members fled only a day of riding away from the Mexican border, where they broke into a house, killing the owner and kept his widow as a hostage. This way they could flee to mexico by horse if they were caught up by the law again.
- Until the day another stranger was passing by...

Forces:

• 2 remaining gang members from the original gang of 'Sinful Eight'. Both having a health of 6.
  
  
• 1 mysterious hero armed with a a Gatling gun with a health of 10.

Mission:

• Outlaws: To kill the mysterious Hero, or escape by their horses through the pass behind the building.
• Mysterious Hero: To kill the 2 last members of the outlaw gang and free the woman from captivity. 

AAR

Time:    20 minutes

Turns:   5

Result:  A victory for the Mysterious Hero

Since the Outlaws are unaware of our Mysterious Hero, I let the latter activate first; A stranger is slowly crossing the desert at foot dragging a coffin behind him. He can see a distant house ahead: 

When coming closer he uses his Army binoculars to better observe it. Are there any threats ahead? Then he recognize the horses and their saddles and immediately know they belong to members of the outlaw gang of the 'Sinful Eight'. There should be only 2 of them left now after the 'Dullstone Shootout':

He moves in a little closer, and slowly in the cover of some vegetation he opens his coffin and take out a Gatling gun:

Then he opened fire:

He shoots at the Outlaws' horses to cut off the Outlaws' retreat and escape possibilities. I don't let horses roll for a save when hit, and one off them drops dead:

The shooting alerts the outlaws in the building...

...and they rush to the window and door to return the fire:

As the Outlaws discover that they're taken under fire from a long distance, they understand that they'll need to get out of the house and get into more favorable firing positions if they'll manage to meet this threat. One of them gives covering fire...

...so the second one can run into cover and give flanking fire. Meanwhile the machine gunner has advanced further and is now in cover of a fallen tree. Both of the Outlaws are skilled shooters and scores hits on the mysterious machine gunner, but non of them are critical:

The mysterious Hero opens fire with his Gatling again, and take out one of the Outlaws with a 'headshot':

The last Outlaw fires another shot but misses. He's clearly outgunned by the massive fire from the Gatling gun. To continue to exchange fire will be useless and a 'deathtrap':

So the last Outlaw does the only reasonable thing he can; He makes a run for the last remaining horse to try to escape towards the Mexican border:

The mysterious machine gunner are more on the offensive now, and leaves his cover and moves towards the horse pen. He opens fire again...

...and takes out the last horse, and cut of the last Outlaw's retreat possibility:

The last Outlaw now understood that he could not escape this situation, and the only way was to take up the fight. He took cover behind the well and opened fire again. Unsuccessfully:

The machine gunner takes cover and returns fire...

...and successfully take out the last Outlaw with another 'headshot':

Our mysterious Hero silently wraps up his things and slowly continues ahead towards new 'adventures', leaving behind him a 'trail of death': 

Conclusion

Even if the Delta 6 rules clearly are made for more modern warfare in mind, I think amending them for a 19th century skirmish or a Old West shootout worked just fine. 

Even if the "1980's Hero" have more health and better close combat skills than 'regulars', he's still very vulnerable as it actually only takes a single unsaved 'headshot' to permanently take him out of action. Perhaps he should be allowed to roll 2 D6 for save rolls as well, keeping the best? - Or give him 'Johns' stats and let him 'Fade to Black'?

I had a good time and enjoyed the narrative and cinematic feeling of this game. Time will show when and where he appears next time, or if I actually get around to acquire a 54mm 'Rambo' figure...

Visiting Miniature Kingdom

On our way home after visiting Djurhedens Garden Railway, we took a little detour in the area to check if there were any updates on the public model railway Miniature Kingdom in Kungsör. I was there during a motorcycle tour in the summer of 2024 as well. Miniature Kingdom is a kind of Swedish equivalent to 'Miniatur Wunderland'; a public model railway with more than 700 meters of rails focusing on iconic Swedish landscape and a lot of recognizable Swedish signature elements. There were a lot of people visiting The Miniature Kingdom while we was there, but we were early so that's why it looks 'empty' on my photos below:

A 'model of the model'

I've seen on the Miniature Kingdom's FB page that they're currently working on some new projects which includes the Swedish Airforce Museum in Linköping and was curious to see that live. It seems like they're building their new projects elsewhere and bring them to the layout when ready to mount. So unfortunately I didn't see the model of the Swedish Airforce Museum this time (which is a reason to go back sometime). They had completed what was work in progress when I was there in 2024 though; the County of Värmland with it's Canals and Locks:

In this yellow building it used to be an annual model railway exhibition IRL in Mellerud 

Since I was there last they had also upgrades in the County of Södermansland:

In Södermansland they had also included parts of the Femöre Coastal Fortress:

When I looked through my photos from this visit I saw that I actually had taken many similar photos as from my previous visit 2 years earlier, so it's obviously what is my favorite scenes. I found a medieval tournament I haven't noticed before:

I made a YouTube-video to capture some of my impressions and those long ore trains in Northern Sweden which runs to Narvik in Norway:

I'm intrigued by that many of the more than 400 iconic buildings in Miniature Kingdom are 3D-printed. - And especially since they're filament printed on an FDM printer. They're obviously 3D-printed in parts, and assembled as regular kits:

19800 visitors in 2025 alone is impressive for an attraction like this. Not as exact statistic, but you can put a pin on a map (of Sweden) where you're from,and it looks like there have been a increasing number of visitors since I was there in 2024:

The Swedish layout of Miniature Kingdom is about 200 square meters today, and it's planned to expand further 120 square meters. So it should be no excuses not to visit this great layout in the future.

Blog PostScript

Just 3 days after our visit, the new Linköping modules with the Swedish Airforce Museum was installed at Miniature Kingdom...
-This is so 'Murphy's Law'...

So it looks like there will just have to be another revisit to Miniature Kingdom some time in the future...

25th Anniversary

Last Sunday our Model Railway Club, Gleng Modelljenbane klubb, turned 25 years.
It started quite coincidentally back in 2001 when someone asked on one of Norway's very first internet forums for model railways if there were any other railway modellers in or around the town of Sarpsborg in Østfold county. Some few responded, and even if I didn't live in Sarpsborg I'd recently moved to the county to the neighbor city, Moss, just about 30 km away. At the model railway forum we decided to meet for an informal meeting and a BBQ in a recreation area called Glengshølen between Sarpsborg railway station and a lake. After this very nice meeting we decided to meet again, and the name was given due to the place we met. This is how I coincidentally became one of the 7 founding members of Gleng Model Railway Klubb.

I'm the 3rd from the left with a blue caps

We started as a 'Round Robin Club' the first years and alternated by hosting meetings at each others. It was very social gatherings. Modelling vice we had very different preferences regarding scale and prototypes and it was difficult to agree on any least common denominator to build something together.

Later we was able to hire a very small place, actually nothing more than a room. Here we were asked to build a small classic and nostalgic H0 Märklin winter layout which should be used as a Christmas window display in shop in Sarpsborg. The only catch was that it must be completed in only 4 days (!). Finally something we could agree on as the guidelines was given by the client. We managed to complete it within the short time limit, and you can read more about the process and see photos of it on this link.

The winter layout was seen by others and soon our club was requested again to undertake another layout construction. This time we were asked by the local Lions Club to make a layout for public display with coin-inserts for making the trains run to give the Lions Club an additional income. Great! This was another layout we could make together as the premises was given by others. Lions Club are into charity ant the layout was constructed pro bono. On this link you can find tons of photos from the construction as well as more information about this layout. After being displayed at several local shopping malls for almost 6 years our club was offered to buy the layout back for a very symbolic sum as the Lions Club didn't need it anymore. The locomotives had been running for 100s of km and making thousands of quids for Lions Club. Now it's retired to our new club-house.

Our Model Railway Club has since then moved house a couple of times, and are located close to Sarpsborg Railway Station at the present. There we have finally started to build a Club-layout in H0 scale for both AC and DC. Our number of members has increased to about 30 and many of them are also heavily into Garden Railways, and several of them have layouts in their gardens which they hosts days out for the other members. Members in our Model Railway Club are also active travelers as we usually go on at least one trip to visit some of the bigger model (-railway) exhibitions abroad annually. 

If you want to know more about Gleng Model Railway Club, you can find more information and photos on:

• Gleng Web page
• Gleng Facebook Page

The Birthday Party

Through the last 25 years we have usually celebrated 'our Birthdays' by Barbecuing in Glengshølen where we initially met and established this society. This year Heine, who is also another founding member, suggested we could BBQ in his garden so we could run trains at the same time. -What a splendid idea! 

I prepared 2 wagon loads for this anniversary. One load of (3D-printed) "25" and one load with the 'What-if Airfix set'. To the latter I added a BBQ since Maudlin Jack Tar suggested so in the comment-section on that blogpost and it is so typical for our days out:

Here are some impressions of our 'jubilee running session' on the longest and brightest day; Summer Solstice:

When we first agreed to meet at the model railway forum back in 2001 none of us knew each other, so to have something to 'recognise' and identify each other when we first met in real life we decided to bring a 'yellow banana wagon' (in any scale) as literally everyone has one. So today's most original train was this one by Gylmer. Not only did he bring 'yellow G-scale banana wagons', but he also has a car load of H0 scale banana wagons like those most of us brought back in 2001:

Here is a YouTube-video showing the trains 'in action':

No Birthday Party without hotdogs and cakes!

Some of you might have noticed the flag on the table, which was there as this was also the day of Forest Finns. Congratulations! 

This is also a useful reminder that we've been married for 25 years this year as well.
Better not forget that one...

This is also my 200th blogpost since I started blogging in 2019. I know that's still less than some writes in a year, but I had quite modest ambitions when starting this blog in the first place. Thanks for reading!