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. 

Kitbashing a RTR model of an American patrol boat into a Norwegian Stridsbåt 90N

The model and the prototype

A couple of years ago  I bought a (military) radio controlled boat. It was a Ready-to-Run model of a Combat Boat 90 made by ProBoat, and was made as an American version of the Swedish designed Combat Boat 90 or just CB90:

ProBoat's heavily armed American Ready-to-Run just out of the box

This Combat Boat is of the same type as the Norwegian Stridsbåt 90N (N for Norwegian), 'the Navy's Terrier', which was used by the Norwegian Coastal Artillery, and are now in service with the Norwegian Coastal Rangers. ProBoat's model has several differences from the Norwegian versions:

So an idea was born to try to make my 'American CB90 Proboat' look more like an early version of the Norwegian Stridsbåt 90. The newer and upgraded versions have remote controlled weapon stations and differs even more from the Proboat visually, so that's why I opted for the earlier versions. My plan was not to copy exactly all the Norwegian details as there are more than 400 modifications from the original Swedish Stridsbåt 90, but to include those most visible details on the Norwegian version and make it recognizable as a Norwegian Stridsbåt 90N. This is a 'project' that's spendt too much time on my workbench, usually overtaken by other projects (over and over again). Does anyone else recognize this situation? Anyway, it got revitalized after I tried out some naval wargaming earlier this autumn and it was now about time to finish this project.

Making some few 'Norwegian' details

First of all some parts needed to be sourced, up-scaled and made on my 3D-printer. The file for the 'Gunner' was removed from Thingiverse when I was looking for it there again, but I manage to recreate the file through 'Wayback Machine'. The HMG-mount was part of a complete boat i a smaller scale, and I needed to remove all from that file BUT the mount it self and resize it. I think the M2 .50 cal is from a 'GI Joe' file. Together these few parts will probably contribute to make the boat look a little more 'Norwegian'.

Primed to easier spot imperfections::

Then sprayed with filler to get a smoother surface:

Then the parts was primed with 'car primer'. Too bad this gray color didn't match the gray color on the boat, or the tan (from the filler spray) to the Norwegian tropical uniforms, so some color-mixing and painting was necessary. 

Ready painted:

I also 3D-printed some parts to make a crib, so it would be easier to work on the boat:

Then it was time for trying these new pieces and detail on the boat, so see what it would look like:

Choice of prototype and painting

A visit to the Norwegian Naval Museum this summer gave answer to one of the challenges I had to replicate the camouflage pattern, which are about never photographed from the top. On the Naval Museum I found a Model of the boat, which I photographed top down and gave me the Camouflage-pattern for the decks.

The Camouflage-pattern on the Norwegian CB90s are all the same pattern but are different colors for different periods and versions. The most common is the one with different browns and dark grey, which meant that my whole boat needed to undergo a major paint job. But I found some very few photos showing that at least 2 Norwegian CB90s was painted in lighter colors for International service in the Mediterranean sea and in the Bay of Aden. Actually I only found 5 photos of boats in these colors. These boats also used this scheme in their service in Norway later on. This meant that I could keep the original lighter grey base color of the ProBoat as a base for this version:

The crew on the photos below wear the Norwegian version of 'Desert Camo' which I tried to replicate on my Gunner:

The camouflage pattern isn't very complicated,  but it really takes time to mask it:

It's taken a while to paint this boat, but to prevent the paint 'bleeding' underneath the masking tape for the camo pattern, I've varnished (matt) 3 layers along all edges from the masking tape to the areas to be painted each time. I also painted 3 coats of paint each color for a even and solid coverage. I kept the weathering just to a bare minimum and just to the grilles, figure and the HMG. I feel like painting this boat has been like painting my military G-scale rollingstock, being like:

Name and Number

I found a "hole" in the Navy's pennant number system for the Norwegian Combat Boats, an unused number, so I decided to assign this to my model; L4529, as this is also close to the 2 other vessels painted in this color scheme (L4527 and L4528).

These ships are also named after old Norwegian Coastal Fortresses (as they were first used by the Coastal Artillery. The KA-pennant numbers are from this period), and I found that one of our local Coastal Fortresses from where I live haven't given name to any of these boats (yet). So I decided to name my 'L4529' 'Rauer' after Rauer/ Rauøy Coastal Fortress. 

Rauer or Rauøy Coastal Fortress it self has a very interesting history as it was the very first one to open fire except for warning shoots and briefly engaged the German invasion-fleet bound for Oslo in april 1940, and surrendered after heavy fighting with German ground forces set ashore on the island. In the latter skirmish the Norwegian casualties was 2, while the Germans officially lost at least 60 but according to local eyevitnesess about 200. It could be a likely scenario for a future wargame perhaps.

These name boards are a mix of different STL-files blended together, resized and 3D-printed

The final result

When ready painted, it was about time to reassemble it with the 'Norwegian details' again to see how everything fit together again:

Conclusion 

This conversion from a 'ready-to-run' American patrol boat into a Norwegian one has taken considerably longer time that I've expected. I did have plans to finish it this year, but actually much earlier so it would still be season for taking it to the pond. But this project has been overtaken by so many others that it didn't. I managed to finish it this year at least. So after sitting at he workbench for about a year it's finally finished. I guess I will have to wait until next year to take it to the pond or a nearby lake though and then some updates will follow. This is how ChatGPT suggest my Combat Boat 90N will eventually look at the water:

20 Stridsbåt 90N was acquired for The Norwegian Navy in the 90ies, but today only 6 (very) upgraded are left operational. One is given to a museum and a number have been donated to the Ukrainian Navy along some Swedish ones. In Sweden they have also started to develop these boats into USVs (Unmanned Surface Vehicles). So I guess these iconic boats are about to become part of the 'Naval History' in Norway. I hope I managed to capture and preserve some of this history with my fictional Norwegian Stridsbåt 90N.

I'm really looking forward to bring this boat to the pond or a nearby lake for a test. As this 'Workbench Queen' are finally ready for some action, my workbench is 'cleared' and ready for new and other projects. Please become one of the followers to this blog to receive updates continuously.