A February Workbench update

Some few of the secondhand figures I bought online described in the last blogpost, has already found fought their way to the workbench, suppressing some few other ongoing projects.

The barrel on one submachine gun was broken, and since these figures are quite small (40mm) they were too small to drill a new hole to insert a new barrel. Thats why I just glued a rod on the top. Hopefully the paintjob will 'cover' the 'quick fix' so it doesn't become too obvious. 

After they got painted they're up for Sealing using ModPodge as this gives them a sturdier cover for wargame handling.

With these new figures and their new plans orders, some few new 3D-printings seemed neccessary too. More will follow on this blog.

On the workbench this month is also something that turned out to be a not only one, but two small disasters. This distracted me so much that I didn't even take a photo of it, but I'll get back to it in a following blogpost if I manage to fix it, but that suddenly got the highest priority now...

I'm strictly not only doing military or railway modelling, as I like other modelling projects as well. -Like this 3D-printed kit of the Monaco Race Track requested by my son, who is very interested in F1.

Follow this blog for coming updates on these workbench projects 

A January Workbench update

2024 is still very new, and I'm impressed when I read other wargaming- and modelling blogs when I see how active many of those bloggers are all ready starting to realizing their plans for the new year. As stated in my previous blogpost I also have several plans for 2024, but my activity is merely up to the level of some of my fellow bloggers. Just before Christmas I read a fun meme on a Facebook-group I follow that the working space on our workbenches are usually very small, often just a few square inches, due to other projects, mess and general clutter we keep collecting there. -When I took a look at my own workbench, I recognized the meme as mine was just a mess after several projects in December. So I actually started this year not to realize any of my modelling plans, but to just tidy up my workbench, and hobbyroom/mancave in general as it was much needed. Now I don't think anyone who are reading this blog are very interested in reading about my cleaning, but now it was finally cleared some space to work on my planned 2024-projects. -So I'll share some images from my January workbench and those few projects I've barely started so far this year as teasers on what to  expect on this blog in the time to come instead. More info on each one of them will eventually follow in own blog-posts as I don't want to reveal too much yet:

An overview of my workbench and current projects after I made space there for them

Another 'bucket of soldiers'??

What is this, or what can it turned into?? These still  needs some more work, tweaking and adjustments before I'm happy.

Another Top Secret workbench-project just hiding away from the public, or is it crumbled household paper that's so useful for cleaning up spills etc???

And sometimes I try do do some smaller printer-jobs for my fellow MRC members in between my own projects.

If you're not already following this blog, please hit that 'FOLLOW-Button" and do for instant updates on it.

Stay tuned!

Making a small H0e/H0n30 layout in just 6 evenings

Small layouts and 'pizza layouts', and especially those made to narrow gauge and H0e/ H0n30 in particular, have always intrigued me. Several members of my MRC, Gleng Modelljernbane Klubb, have made such narrow gauged pizzas in different scales and gauges. Many of them are seasonal layouts and have a Christmas theme, which inspired me and made me thinking for a while to make one on my own.

My wife made a chess-table by painting a chess-board directly on a table. I 3D-printed her some black and white chess-pieces to go along with the chess-table. After a long while the varnish started to turn yellow and flaking off, and the table didn't look so good anymore, and she was going to throw it away. I've said before; Throw away nothing - it might come handy some day. By coincidence the table was circular and an idea to convert it into a small seasonal micro-/pizza- layout was born. Luckily I had some Roco H0e/H0n30 starter set and some other narrow gauge stuff laying around. At this time there wasn't that many days left before Christmas, so there was not much time to loose.

Day 1

The original circular table with the 'chess-board':

I thought the outer rim looked to deep for the layout, so I cut 2 pieces of foamboard which I put inside, so the rim didn't seem so deep anymore:

I had a H0e-starterset which fitted the table nicely. The track were glued down to the foamboard with some few blobs of PVA here and there. -And then some obligatory test-running. I then weightet the track down and let the glue set overnight:

Day 2

Some small blocks of styrofoam was cut to shape as small hills, and glued down to the foamboard with PVA. Then the chuncks of styrofoam were covered with drywall plaster. Now everything needed to dry overnight again:

Day 3

Now everything was covered with a layer of white matte household paint, needing another evening to completely dry:

Day 4

At the craft shop they sells a lot of things for christmas-decorations these days. So in my local craft shop I found some 'snow paint', which was very thick and actually more like a paste. After covering the whole layout with this snow paste, I used the brush to stipple some texture into it. Inspired by a recent trip to 'Lommedalsbanen', a narrow gauge heritage railway in the forrest, I wanted to make a heavy snow scene. Now it needed to dry to the next day:

Day 5

Now it was time to plan the details to put on this micro layout. Firstly I drybrushed some trees with white craft paint and 'snow paint':

I wanted the layout to work as a candlestick for advent candles, so I placed some bases for led-candles too:

The station building is scratchbuilt by a friend and was salvaged from another H0e layout I'm currently reworking. I just gave it another color and a station sign:

The Gingerbread house were made from a free STL-file from Thingiverse, resized to H0-ish and 3D-printed.

The 'Stabbur' (storehouse) was also 3D-printed as is from Thingiverse. It was like a kit were you printed the different parts. Details like figures and vehicles I planned to buy in a model railway store, but it looks like I was a little late as almost every seasonal details were already gone and out of stock. So I bought some few they had left and 3-printed the rest.

The few I managed to buy:

The rest I 3D-printed (and painted):

The most observant of you may recognize the sleigh and the load (load #2); It's the same I scaled up for winter-service with my G-scale Heeresfeldbahn. Now I've scaled the same sleigh down to H0. The original STL-files at Thingiverse are made to about 28mm scale:

Day 6

Now it was time to bring everything together at the layout:

This is a military modelling blog and I usually include some kind of military presence on model railway layouts. Even if the main theme on this layout was 'Christmas', I included some memories from my own service. 

I tried to replicate the temporary white paint used for winter camouflage on Norwegian vehicles back, as it did not turn out like a 'solid' white color, but somewhat more transparent. 

Finally at display in our living-room for everyone to enjoy just in time for Christmas.

Layout at a glance

Name: Svingen
Scale: 1:87

Gauge: 9mm Narrow gauge (H0e/ H0n30)
Size: Diameter 19 1/2"
Height:19 1/3"
Style: Circular table, island, micro layout
Period: 2000 - 2006
Locale: Norway, fictious - "Somewhere up North"
Theme: Christmas micro layout

Scenery: Styrofoam covered with drywall plaster and Snowpaint on solid table

Control: DC analogue

Roadbed: None

Track: Roco N-scale track

Max grade: None

Minimum radius: 7 7/8"
Backdrop: None
Fascia: Original table edging

Conclusion

Often I read and hear that if you want to 3D-print small miniatures and details, only a Resin printer/ SLA-printer will do. I must say I'm surprised with the results from my Filament printer/ FDM-printer. My miniatures are not smoothed with filler and sanded as there were no time to do so this time. Mine are only printed and painted. Being cheaper than Resin printers, I think Filament printers are highly underrated. 

I didn't plan to name this little layout, but as a Facebook-group I follow called 'Micro Layouts' planned to host a virtual model railway exhibition at Saturday the 23rd of December I decided to join. 

-But again, then my little layout needed a name to participate. - So I named it: Svingen (which is Norwegian and means "The Turn", as the trackplan is in a constant turn) after a popular Norwegian Christmas tv-series for kids.

This was a quick and fun build, and it certainly motivates me do do another micro in the future.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Season Wars 2023 - Once Upon a time under the Christmastree in the north

It's less than a week until Christmas, so it's about time to fight the annual 'season war'. Last year the 'Season Wars' was played with Thor Sheil's OMOK - One Man, One Knight free wargame rules, and 'The Ginger Bread Army' won the battle. 

The 'Ginger Bread Army' has hold the ground since then, but this year the 'Cookie Men Army' (called Gøttekællær in Norwegian) returns, trying to reclaim territory. The 'Ginger Bread Army' occupies 'Yule Village' beneath the Christmas tree, which they defend trying to avoid the new Circular Railroad Company to enter and cross through their precious little town. 

The white 'Cookie Men Army' decides to help the Railroad Company by fight the tan 'Ginger Bread Army' trying to force them to retreat so the Railroad Company can complete their Railroad and  at the same time let the 'Cookie Men' hold the ground this year.

For the battle this year I've decided to use another free wargame rules which you can download and readily play with your own miniatures. This years Season Wars will be played by the FUBAR free wargame rules. As my holidays armies are armed with swords, spears and bows I'll use FUBAR Medieval 2nd Edition. For FUBAR order-counters please see my review of FUBAR 4th edition. 

Since both the armies probably were 'Green' last year and gained some experience since then, I'll let both armies fight as 'Seasoned' according to the rules this year. Another lesson the white army learned last year, was to create warbands with similar weapons in each and not spred them out on all units.

The Battle

The white cookie men army rapidly gained the initiative and rushed to the battle with 2 of it's warbands. I'm not sure if the 3rd white warband actually was 'seasoned' as they hesitated to leave the safe train for 2 turns:

It seems like the Gingerbread army was taken by total surprise and was stunned by the white cookie men's advancement, and they didn't manage to take any initiative for several turns:

This gave the white cookie army the upper hand and they kept pushing. Finally their last warband found it safe to leave the train and join their fellows:

Not only did the white cookie men army have the leading initiative and drive in the battle, but their archers also seemed more skilled than their Gingerbread counterpart, almost annihilating a Gingerbread warband:

This left the Gingerbread army under pressure and it seems like they had no any other options than to counterstrike into a melee:

The white cookie archers were very effective and managed to make the rest of a Gingerbread warband retreat while they took out another enemy archer at the same time. This made a clear way for the white cookie men spear warband  to enter the battle...

...and engage outnumbered Gingerbread warbands. 

This started to take a toll at the Gingerbread army, which were starting to get outnumbered on the battlefield. The Gingerbread warband in the melee managed quite well though. -As did the white cookie men:

Now the distance was so close that the Gingerbread archers finally started to hit something:

-But too late. Soon they were assaulted and in a melee they could not win:

The only Gingerbread warband making to hold ground at this stage, was the swordfighters in the melee. As the other white cookie warbands defeated one Gingerbread warband after the other, they also entered the melee to fight the last Gingerbread unit:

The last Gingerbread knights were very brave and managed to hold the superior forces off for 2 more turns:

Slowly the last Gingerbread warband was halved in size, and was totally surrounded having no chance to win:

This made the White Cookie Men army win the Seasonal War this year after 12 turns and about 2 hours. Now they could finally enter the Yule Village and the Circular Railroad Company could lay the last track through the village and complete their railroad around the Christmastree. -Which is good as I wonder what rest of the family would have said if we didn't have a complete circuit under the tree ths year. Luckily the train was loaded with a tanker of Christmas Ale, so some celebration seemed to be in place:

Conclusion:

I've been doing a lot of model railway and garden railway stuff this autumn and winter, and not so much wargaming. Even if this wargame and scenario wasn't too serious I think it felt good finally doing some wargaming again. -Which again reminds me about not waiting too long to do another game. 

This post is not an ordinary game review as I usually does on other wargame rules, but I've noticed something about FUBAR Medieval 2nd Edition worth mentioning:

• In the rules firing ranges are given in inches an centimeters, whatever you prefer. But for all ranges from 8" and below, there are not exact compassion in centimeters, giving the cm much shorter range than inches.
• In this version of FUBAR unsaved hits are not taken as suppression. I don't know why not, but I think suppression is a nice game mechanic slowing down or pinning units or punishing units leaving members behind. Perhaps its omitted due to medieval tactics and warfare? Were they more likely to leave wounded behind? If you have any thoughts of this please comment in the comment section below.

With this I wish all fellow wargamers and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Connecting military units of opposing forces

As some of you may already have noticed I've converted some LGB rolling stock into a Heeresfeldbahn rake. All these LGB-wagons are fitted with the original LGB couplings.

I'm also a proud owner of a British Roundhouse 16mm scale Livesteam locomotive in a military W^D livery (a 50 year gift from my beloved wife and kids),  which also runs on 45mm gauge track. It's fitted with it's original chain-link-couplings, and I want to keep it that way. I plan to build own rollingstock to this from kits, but at the same time I want to be able to connect it to my military LGB wagons (with the LGB couplings), so some modification was needed. 

I had a very plastic, brownish and toy-looking LGB wagon which I converted with different couplings in each ends; LGB coupling in one end, and a chain-link-coupling in the other. With this I would be able to connect the 'LGB rake' to my Livesteam locomotive if I wanted to.

The LGB-loop to the right work as a buffer to the lower buffer on the 16mm locomotive. It means it will be able to couple it to other LGB-stuff in both ends as well if desired.

The wagon it self had large DR (Deutsche Reichbahn) markings and looked very plastic and bright as well. To run behind both British and German locomotives I think it needed a more general look to it, so I simply sprayed it with grey car primer, picked out some few boards in another color and gave it a heavy black-wash.

Since it's open it would be nice to load it with some cargo. I had some very bright colored toylike LGB oil barrels (don't trow anything away) I simply repainted and removed the stickers. I also put in a couple of 3D-printed crates I've used for painting samples. 

From a LGB Starter Set to a 16mm-scale Heeresfeldbahn

It's been summer in Norway and not much time for wargaming or other indoor activities. The summers usually are quite short here so the time is mostly spent outside. Fortunately some aspects of military modelling are made for outdoor purposes. Some years ago I was in a model railway shop in the city where parents live, and I was at that time not into big-scale modelling or G-scale trains. -But in that shop I saw a very nice Starter Set from LGB in IIm/1:22,5/ G scale which depict a island train from the Frisian island of Wangerooge. It was a price worthy and high quality starter set and not the 'toy like' and 'sub quality' often found in such sets. The benefits of buying a Starter Set is that you get everything you need to be up and running for a reasonable price. What really caught my attention about it was the locomotive which was of the very same type which was originally built for the German Army during WWII to improve their logistics on the Eastern Front. The locomotive was a Heeresfeldbahn HF130C, which about 350 was built. After WWII many of these locomotives was decommissioned and saw mixed service on different civilian narrow gauge railways in several countries. Obviously also on the railway at Wangerooge. -And suddenly I was the happy owner of a new Starter Set and into large scale garden railway modelling.

LGB has never built a model of the HF130C-locomotive in it's original military livery, and an idea was born to revert it into it's original livery and use. In the Starter Set there were also 3 goods-wagons; a tanker-, a flatbed- and a boxcar. All of them would be very credible as German military wagons in a 'Heeresfeldbahn'-train with a new paintjob. I was also inspired to do a model of a German military narrow gauge as there was a such nearby where I live during WWII. -It served a small airfield with gravel, and probably also munitions and fuel. An old idea was about to come into fruition. The good thing with writing a blog, is that it helps pushing old modelling projects.

It's surprisingly few photos of this locomotive during it's military service due to some 350 was built

I discovered that the locomotive is made to 1:19th scale despite of LGB's general 1:22,5-scale. This really makes the locomotive to 16mm scale and not the ordinary LGB IIm scale. This makes it run well togheter with my 16mm Roundhouse Billy in WD-livery. The wagons in the starter set are closer to 1:22,5 scale though. 

Besides a new paintjobs, I decided to further detail the rollingstock by adding some load and details to them. First I wanted to add typical military loads like tanks and big cannons, but keeping in mind this is a narrow gauge railway I don't think they could carry so big or heavy loads. I could 'downgrade' the loads to armored vehicles and such, but think they might still be too heavy for such light rails. Besides I have not seen any photos of such carloads on any Heeresfeldbahn either in books or in WWII footage. What I've seen in photos it seems like such narrow gauge railways mostly carry general cargo and supplies and sometimes troops. I also wanted my military loads to have a slightly more 'general' appearance so the wagons would't look too completely out of place if I wanted to run them behind my British 16mm scale W^D livesteam locomotive every now and then. I discovered that there weren't many WWII German objects in 1:19th scale to be found, except for some very expensive ones in 1:18 scale. I searched Thingiverse for propper items and resized them to 1:19 scale and 3D-printed them on my aged FlashForge Finder (I think it's time to upgrade my 3D-printer soon). I've found the online Scale Converter by Scale Modelers World very useful in this matter. Even though converting different STL-files to exact 1:19 scale, they don't seems to be in same 'scale' sometimes (even if they are by measures). 

I haven't seen very many photos of these locomotives in military service, and certainly not in colors. I've seen some few color-photos of preserved ones in different military gray liveries, but as they are slightly different regarding colors and which part was colored which. I imagine that all these locomotives were not painted exactly to the same color codes. I've also read somewhere that German steamlocomotives operating near the front were painted in a very dark grey color during WWII. I went for a standard German color; Panzer Grey. I also replaced the under-scaled LGB-engine-driver with a 3D-printed one to the same scale as the locomotive; 1:19. While working on the loco I decided to go fancy here and add radio-control by Piko to it as well (as a lot of the other members in my MRC does). I think this must be the easiest and perhaps most inexpensive way to add RC to a garden train. 

This was the easiest wagon 'militarize', as it only got a new coat of paint, and new plates simply made by self-adhesive label stickers which can be printed from an ordinary inkjet:

Not much to repainting was needed on this wagon. My oldest son recently served 2 years in our naval forces in the Coast Guard, where he also operated fast patrol crafts. I wanted to make a homage to him and his service. As I suppose there were not many 'naval loads' on a Heeresfeldbahn (deep inland on the Easternfront), I had to look for some maritime items which were army related. I found the answer in the Sturmboot 39, and added some suitable loads to the 3 Sturm-boats as well; I guess the outboards are in the large crates and their machineguns are located in the smaller crates. I read somewhere that they carried 20L of fuel each , and added some Jerry cans as well:

Besides repainting and adding self adhesive label stickers, I replaced the disc-wheels with spoked ones to this wagon to make an appearance of an 'older' origin. I also improved the roof by adding 'tar paper' made with 'sport tape'. I'm not sure what kind of cargo the car is currently carry as it could be anything, so to add some interest to it I added some few military riders and their 'mascot' to it. The latter being a Jack Russell Terrier and a second homage in this train; This time to our beloved Linus.

After fitting the locomotive with RC reciver and battery, there wasn't much space left in it for other things in it. To add a little further interests to the train I placed a battery operated sound capsule with diesel sound from Train-Tech to the boxcar. The sound is not so loud, and not so annoying that sound equipped locos often are (to all others but the one driving them).

This is how  the starterset from LGB turned out after a 'revision', and how it could have looked like from the beginning. They have the models for making it, so I hope they will use them for making some sort of a military train in the future. There are several military modellers and wargamers who also are into model railways, and this would be a good entry.

It looks like it's approved by Linus too

I've converted the Starter Set into a very basic German 'military train', and to further expand my Heeresfeldbahn I have collected some more goodswagons from LGB, and due to they are very colorfull and toylike they will need some repainting and perhaps detailing.

3 other members in my Model Railway Club also has LGB models which has a military origin from WWII German Heeresfeldbahns, namely the steamlocomotive HF110C. They're not to LGB's general 1:22,5 scale either, as they actually are closer to 1:20 scale and 16mm than IIm. 2 of them are in civilian liveries, but one is in a freelanced German military livery. I'm looking forward to my MRC's coming running sessions, which we arranges at each other's garden railways through the whole year. It seems like they will have some military presence now...

My LGB starterset used to fit in my 30L panniers, which was practical when visiting friends. With somewhat more fragile models I think I need a bigger pannier (even if I have a Honda NC750X with a frunk).

Dedicated to Jørgen and Linus