Kübelwagen + Anti-Tank gun = Iconic Toy

In the 60ies and 70ies both Dinky Toys and Britains made similar looking sets in 1:32 scale with a German WW2 VW Kübelwagen and a Pak 38 spring loaded Gun:

As a kid I really wanted those sets, but unfortunately I never got any of them. One of my friends had the Britains set, which I played with when we were playing with our Airfix soldiers. Since then they have kind of 'followed me' in the back of my mind, and today they are collectibles and 'costs an arm and a leg'. I find the combination with the Kübelwagen and anti-tank gun so nostalgic and visually pleasing that I still wanted one one. - But I'm not very concerned with that they needed to be originals or to the same scale. -Just something reminding of these 2 sets.

Last summer I bought a some LGB goods wagons I intended to convert and use with my G-scale Heeresfeldbahn. Some of these wagons are open, and I like the idea to be able to add loads to them, and especially military loads. So an Idea was born; Perhaps I could recreate a similar set by making a Kübelwagen and a Anti-Tank Gun to 1:19th scale, and add them as load to my military train?

When doing research on the prototypes for this potential project I discovered that the VW Kübelwagen wasn't made for towing a heavy Gun as the Pak 38. Some Kübelwagens (Type 276) were made with a towing hook to pull the lighter Pak 36 gun or small ammunition trailers. So I decided to be realistic and follow the prototype here when coming to the AT-Gun and changing the Pak 38 for a Pak 36.

Searching available models I didn't find any easy to get 1:19th scale Kübelwagens or Pak 36s. I found some in 1:18 scale Diecast models costing another arm and leg however. -Before adding the shipping costs to Norway that was (!). So I decided to try to search for suitable models which I could cheaply 3D-print on my 3D-printer instead. -Which I actually did:

Kübelwagen by Windham Graves

Pak 36 by TigerAce1945

The challenge was that my 3D-printer is limited to print items with the maximum measures of just 15x15x15 cm. Both the VW Kübelwagen and the Pak 36 gun would exceed these measures in 1:19 scale, so I needed to slice them in parts, and 3D-print them in parts and assemble them as a kit afterwards. Not very difficult kits though, the Kübelwagen being 4 parts and the Gun only 2:

I usually prefer to 3D-print all parts going together in one 'kit' in the same color, but I ran out of the grey filament just when the first half of the gun was ready. I didn't want to wait to the shop to open or go to the city, so I just used the filament I had at hand and another color this time. It will be covered with (spray-) filler and paint later on anyway:

Due to the same size-limitations on my 3D-printer, the Kübelwagen was printed in 4 parts:

Then these easy 'kits' was assembled:

Even if there were few parts some filling in the joints were necessary: 

Then I added a couple of coats of car body spray filler:

Inspired by Peter at the Grid Based Wargaming blog, I wanted to try to use Gesso (from the craft store) to add some texture to the Kübelwagen's soft top. Peter has used Gesso to add structure to miniature tents made of blocks of wood. I applied the Gesso with a brush and stippled it with a sponge:

I also found a free STL-file for a Kübelwagen licence plate which I could resize to 1:19 and 3D-print:

Then they were finally ready for some paint. I didn't  follow the Airfix and Dinky Kübelwagen originals by painting it grey/ green-ish (Feldgrau?) as it was going to be used as load in a train with mostly some shade of grey railway cars. Insted I wanted something more 'colorful' so I went for a camouflage scheme. I really like the base-color of the car body spray filler as it's very suitable for the base-color of factory painted Wehrmacht vehicles, so I kept it as a base for the camouflage scheme.  Unlike the Dinky Toys and Britains Kübelwagens, I omitted the Balkenkreuz on my Kübelwagen. The Balkenkreuz was seldom used on these kind of vehicles, as it was a insignia for armored vehicles. In (old) movies all kind of German vehicles like trucks and Kübelwagens has the Balkenkreuz simply to make them 'look more German'.

The Gun I painted Panzer-grey however, as most of the prototype photos I found of the guns was grey and seems to be more usual and prototypical: 

I think my interpretation and representation of the Dinky Toys and Britains originals turned out satisfying:

To be able to easily load them and unload them on my G-scale railway cars I 3D-printed and painted a couple of 'standard-sized' false floors onto which I could 'tie down' the Kübelwagen and the Anti Tank gun:

I didn't simply just glue the Kübelwagen and the gun onto their false wagon floors. As a reserve Military Police officer I'm above average interested in load restraint. I think they're properly secured now:

There is a great portion of 'modeller's licence' in this project as I haven't seen any references on vehicles being loaded on German narrow gauge Heeresfeldbahns. Small guns I've found  information was transported by German narrow gauge railways however.

Considering the cost of 1:18th scale diecast models of Kübelwagens and guns, this has been a really budget-friendly project. -And fun too!I'm looking forward to the opportunity to to take them out for a ride on the rails. Let's hope it won't take too long. Follow this blog, stay tuned and find out.

White Elephants - The 'War Elephants' of the United Nations

Regulars readers of this blog may have noticed that I've been using the UN Operations during the Congo Crisis in the early 60ies for many of my wargaming scenarios, as these were very offensive peace enforcement operations. For these wargames I painted regular plastic Army Men as generic UN-troops from the 60ies. For some of my wargames I've been improvising some vehicles, but eventually I wanted to add some prototypical vehicles to bring my UN-troops into battle and be able to provide some fire support as well. 

During WW2 Sweden designed an Armoured Personel Carrier based on a 4WD truck chassis; M/42 KP or KP Cars. This design was so successful that it was still in service Post War and it was brought to Congo by Swedish UN Forces. It was so successful that the UN even bought 15 of them to deploy with other UN units as well. In UN service they were nicknamed "White Elephants". They were later also deployed in other UN-missions. The last KP-cars were withdrawn from Swedish service in 2004.

During my Motorcycle tour to Sweden in 2024 I saw one of the KP-cars from Congo at the Swedish Tank Museum Arsenalen:

So a KP car would be a suitable vehicle for my miniature UN troops. At Thingiverse I found a free STL-file of a KP-car for 3D-printing:

It was designet to 28mm scale, but I resized it to roughly 1:35 scale to go along with my Army Men and 3D-printed it. -And some 5 hours later:

The bonnet didn't look so good due to the angle it was 3D-printed and the layerlines involved in this type of 3D-printing. Since I read a blogpost at Grid Based Wargaming where Peter used Gesso to add texture to some models, I've been curious to try out a similar method on 3D-printed models. It was soon clear that the Gesso was a little too thin for this purpose, so I used a more thicker variant from the craft store; Acrylic modelling paste.

Then it got some coats of auto body filler spray:

Then it was painted:

I then added some 'UN decals' which was simply just printed self-adhesive labels. From reference photos it looks like there were no norm of marking these vehicles, as they had a lot of different variations on their 'UN markings':

I also wanted to add a crew-member to operate the machineguns. Since I'd 3D-printed this APC to 1:35 scale, I was looking in an old box for old and odd bits and pieces from different old 1:35 projects. I found a useful 'upper body' which I altered the arms:

Now my miniature UN-troops can drive into battle in a periodic and prototypical vehicle which also will provide them with some firing support. One single vehicle is actually enough to carry 2 squads with 8 men each. 

Now it's just to find some (free) usable wargaming rules and make a scenario so I can put this APC into service. Stay tuned and please follow this blog if you aren't already.

MOW/PWM-Train Part 3 - Making a Crane Wagon on a budget, followed by another 'Day Out'

Earlier this spring I've converted a couple of LGB-wagons for Maintenance of Way and Permanent Way Maintenance uses.

You can read more about these conversions on these two links:

• Remodelling a Permanent Way Department wagon
• MOW/PWM-Train Part 2

To help the maintenance crew getting sleepers and rails on and off their wagons I thought it might be helpful to add a small crane to this Maintenance rake and get a complete Maintenance of Way/ Permanent Way Department train. I found free STL-files to 3D-print for a complete Crane Wagon on Thingiverse. Even if it was made to Standard Gauge in 'Gauge 1' (1:32) it still had the same gauge (45mm) as my narrow gauge 16mm (1:19) military trains, and could be printed and used as is:

I already have several similar looking G-scale wagons primarily from LGB, and didn't actually need to add another one to my growing fleet at this point. Besides this was a Gauge 1 wagon with standard gauge buffers which would look a little too small and odd for my 16mm narrow gauge. Therefore I decided to just make the crane on a removable false floor just like I did with the rails and  sleeper load so I could add it to an existing wagon when needed. I have too many wagons to run them all at once anyway, as my engines can't pull that many. To make the crane base fit my standard-sized LGB-wagons and making it less like 'Gauge 1', I increased the size about 30% before printing it. 132,64% of original size to be exactly if you are going to follow this description and make one for your self.

Than all the 3D-printed parts was assembled and painted. The stones for the countherweight I found at an island at our cost during a day out with my family.

This can be fitted into any 'standard sized' LGB-wagons to temporarily turn them into a crane wagon:

Togheter with the 2 earlier mentioned MOW/ PWM wagons I can now make up a short Maintenance of Way/ Permanent Way Maintenance train:

Another 'Day Out' at Heine's Garden Railway

When I finished this project fellow model railway club member Heine coincidentally suggested that we could take our weekly club-evening in his garden for a running session as the weather was good. This was my first chance to run all my MOW/PWM wagons together as a complete Maintenance of Way/ Permanent Way Maintenance train:

These smal rail-buses were also used to haul local goods on Branch lines

This maintenance of way train rake is perhaps not so 'warlike', but I imagine that military railway operators use many of the same kind of cars as civilians. Besides, now my military trains are able to repair any (battle-) damaged tracks if it gets blown up by partisans or aerial bombings.