Models and Miniatures exhibition on the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology

What's nice with the Holidays this year is that I finally had some time off for several days in a row. I find visiting museums both interesting and relaxing, so this was a good time to finally visit the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo and have a look at their new temporary 'Models and Miniatures' exhibition. I've kind of missed such an exhibition in Norway after Mark wrote about his participation in the exhibition 'Come as you really are'.

The dollhouse in the background is a full size model of the dollhouse in the front. It was large enough to allow kids to play in it 

The original model of the Norwegian Royal Palace as it was planned. Due to economic challenges in Norway at the time only the centerpiece (with a wing each side) was built.

Norwegian toys from the 50ies and as they were made long into the 70ies. The Bobsleigh is still in production in it's original form. I got found memory of these. 

Now we're moving away from the toy-like part of the exhibition to the more model like. Here is a couple of old Airfix kits

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology has a large collection of models. The airship is a model of the one used by Roald Amundsen (the first guy on South Pole in 1911) to fly over the North Pole in 1926. The Gloster Gladiator is the fighterplane in service when Norway entered WW2 the 9th of April 1940.

Kids (and grown ups as well I suppose) could race  on a pretty large Slot-car race track.

Old Scalextric cars, scenery and catalogues was displayed next to the race track

There was also a display with old and new (er) model railways rolling stock in different scales collected from the different layouts the museum has had through it's history. Too bad many of these layouts doesn't exist anymore

The Nohab H0-model in the foreground is a model from one of the museums 'old' layouts, but is not a really old model. The model of the O gauge steam locomotive in the background on the other hand is a really old one, as it was scratch built for a O gauge model railway at the museum in the mid 50ies. Too bad the layout was scrapped when the museum moved in the mid 80ies, and these items are some few of it remains.

This was an interesting corner of the exhibition as it was dedicated to wargaming in different periodes and genres like historical and fantasy

How wargame miniatures are mainly made with tin moulding at top, plastic injection in the middle, and 3D-printed at the bottom

From the historical display...

...the miniatures looked like to be Prince August in about 40mm

They also had a small display of more modern miniatures in 15mm and 28mm. I actually thought '28mm' was closer to 1:56 scale than to 1:64 scale as the sign states

Ancient miniatures. They looked really good. It was difficult to get good photos of the fantasy miniatures due to bright light and reflections.

When I finally got to visit the Science and Technology museum, it's well worth to look at their other more permanent exhibitions as well:

In 1954 there was made a (not to scale) model of a typical Norwegian industrial society. The model was trafficked with old H0-trains from Märklin. The tracks have been changed, but this layout has actually been in service more or less ever since it was built:

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology has also bought a 'new' large H0-scaled layout (from a closed automobile museum):

The layout has several different cameos:

I'm not sure which movie this actually is...

Seems that someone's been a good boy or girl this year.

I'm not sure how this exhibition is compared to 'Come as you really are', but perhaps Mark can give a clue? 

The 'Models and Miniatures' exhibition is just a temporary one, but the museum actually plaans to have it open through 2025. -Perhaps even longer....

So if you're in Oslo this year and have som leisure time, I really recommend you to pay the 'Norsk Teknisk Museum' a visit.

A December Workbench Update - Preparing for winter and Christmas + A Wargame in a Matchbox test-play

Despite that I've postponed  some modelling project to attend to the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge', there are still some few other projects I needed to complete this month. This months Workbench update is characterized by that winter is here, and we're soon up for Christmas. 

The first project out this month started as a couple of photos on a 'WWII German Railway Facebook Group' I follow, featuring snowplows on German Heeresfeldbahn Narrow gauge locomotives of the same type as I've converted.last year (HF130c):

These photos made me want to add something similar on my own locomotive for our Garden Railway running sessions this winter, so I set off to resize and 3D-print some suitable files I found on Thingiverse:

I wanted to see if I could find any more information and photos of these snowplows in a German Heeresfeldbahns book I have, but there I also found drawings of other wagons and snowplows used by the German Heeresfeldbahn during WWII:

A couple of these wagons resembled one that I got in a lot with some other LGB-wagons I bought a long time ago:

Fitted with one of the snowplows I've made for the locomotive, it was loosely starting to look like one of the Herresfeldbahn snowplows in the book:

And it looked even better when painted:

This wagon is pretty light so to be able to move some snow, some weights were added and 'camouflaged':

In the same box l found another small stake-wagon from the same lot, which I haven't used in any of my military trains yet. I didn't buy the lot for any of these wagons, as there were other more interesting items in the lot. Therefore It's just been laying around for a while:

I think it looked almost OK for my use, just a little 'too clean'. I did not do a very elaborate weathering job on this one, just a simple black and brown wash:

I added some passengers and a braizer to keep them warm I made last winter:

One of the LGB wagons I bought at Faszination Modellbau has already made it to the workbench:

I added the (military) sleigh I made last year as a load, as it looks more appropriate on this car than the previous one:

I've wanted some kind of storage looking like wagon-loads to keep, for instance, my Piko remote controller for my locomotive when not in use or when it's parked in the fiddleyard. These crates has removable lids, so I 3D-printed 3 of them:

Last December I made a small H0e/009/H0n30 'Pizza-layout' in just 6 evenings as a Christmas decoration. Since I didn't spend much time creating it, I didn't feel it was quite finished. Even of it's very small size I think it needed more Spruces, so I tried to see how it would look like if I 3D-printed some actually made as wargaming terrain and cover it with snow. OK I think, so now I've doubled the number of trees at the layout (and you can't even notice).

This is not a 'military layout', nor is there any 'military trains' on it. But among all the (new) trees there are some military presence:

I also made and added another snowman (from one of my favorite Christmas shorts) for the layout this year:

He is made to 1:87th scale with a height of 19mm. Who claims small scale miniatures can't be made with fillametn/FDM printers??

I've also got a lighted Christmastree for the layout this year:

Not all the workbench- and modelling projects this month are of the too serious kind...

Finally completing all these 'projects' took a load off my workbench. It's still not a completely clean desk, but it's a start

And another important thing on my workbench this month is this little box (and what to fill it with or not). I've joined the 'Wargame in a Matchbox Challenge', and will cover this project in it's own blogger-posts except for this little 'Wargame in a Matchbox WIP'.

Inspired by the recent Man of TIN blog and Duchy of Tradgardland posts on Little Wars, I was kind of inspired to give my 'cannon approach' one more try with wargaming by firing objects on the opponents. The last one didn't fit so this time I reduced the size and 3D-printed another 'cannon' (merely just a barrel) so it would fit a matchbox along some troops and cannonballs:

The reduced size made the 'cannon' fragile and it malfunctioned, and completely broke down after a few shots. This was obviously not the way to go.

I'm OK that this approach didn't work nevertheless as I've already decided and working on (and are heavy into) another take on this challenge. It need to be completed and test-played before I can present anything, but I guess a (final) update shortly will follow.

I'm not sure how many who are into this challenge now, but it's very interesting and motivating to follow the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge' on other blogs. So far I'm familiar with these:

• The Duchy of Tradgardland
• Man of TIN blog
• Grid based wargaming
• Wargame Hermit: Solo Wargaming
• Deathzap
• Projects and Procrastination

Those not already there, are now added to the links to other blogs in the menu bar to the right. If you know about anymore bloggers participating in the Challenge, please post a link to them in the comment-section.

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Many of this months workbench-projects has already had it's first outings as I initially wrote in this post; it's winter and soon Christmas and our Model Railway Club was invited to join a 'Christmas market' a local museum.Thais was also a perfect time for this 'mini exhibit' as the International Model Railway Day was at the 2nd December.

My Pizza layout

Another H0e layout by another member of our Model Railway Club

A H0 standard gauge Norwegian layout by another member in our MRC

The Garden Railway temporary train display

Nearly all this wagons or loads has been covered in this month's workbench update

Edit 01.01.2025: Added another link to a 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge' entry.