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. 

2023 - A brief sumary - 2024 Quo Vadis?

Well it's soon the end of the year and probably time to look back on the past year, and share some thoughts for following one.

This is not a big blog with a lot of blogposts or having a very large number of followers, but 2023 has been the most active year on this blog so far. Most of the readers are located in United States of America, followed by Singapore (!), followed by United kingdom. I'm not sure if there are so many actual readers from Singapore, or if it's some sort of web crawlers or search spiders located there??
Anyway, I appreciate all of you who are following it, reading it, and contributes with your comments. Especially thanks to all of you that have been promoting this blog and linking to it through your own blogs, Facebook pages or other websites. Even if my settings are set to be searchable by Google and search description added, I actually got few hits from Google (only 115 through whole 2023), and when I do it's usually just right after posting a new post. So, you're all responsible for this years growth of members and blogposts, which motivates me to follow up with more. - Thank you!!

2023 - Status

In 2023 I continued to review free downloadable wargame rules that can be played with ordinary Army Men, which I started to in 2022. It seems like 'Old school gaming' from for instance Donald Featherstone are more popular than other free rules reviewed in 2023. I've been playing a lot of the free rules I found and was personally keen to try out, and there are still some few free wargame rules I want to try out though.

During the year I developed my own 'home brewed wargame rules', Rules of Engagement, based on experience from these other free rules I've played so far. Even if I think they turned out to be playable and pretty good as I achieved a lot of my goals for it, I still thinks they need some further development. I also used a periodic version of these home brewed rules in combination with free paper miniatures for a prehistoric game.

This year I also reviewed a commercial wargame rule, Bolt Action, as I found a way to play it for free. I recognize a lot of game mechanics that can already be found in many of those free wargame rules already mentioned, but I liked the way Warlord Games have combined them in Bolt Action.

2023 was also the year I tried out to use AI for wargaming either to develop rules or using it as an AI-opponent. During the process I experienced that the use of AI in general is controversial, and there was obvious no exception among wargamers.

Some of the Free Wargame Rules I played in 2023

Summers in Norway are usually short with mostly nice weather, so during that time of year it's more tempting doing 'hobby stuff'outside. Since I'm into model railways as well, I finally got around to convert a LGB-starter set I've had for some while into a Narrow Gauge Military German Railway. Since it was a starter set there wasn't so many wagons to form a larger train, so I started up converting even more LGB-wagons I got cheap. Converting them and making credible loads for them took longer time that I've expected, and it kept me busy through the autumn and winter, and it looks like it will still keep me busy for a while. 

During a running-session in a friend's garden early this winter I had a derailment which sent my German military LGB-locomotive into the ground, smashing the front of it. Luckily I wasn't running my Live Steam Locomotive at the time. Anyhow, this made me use more of my precious modelling- and gaming time to re-construct and getting it back in running condition again. Now I probably got a feeling what it's like to be into RC planes...

I added some more details like building plates, a hatch and grille to it while it was in the workshop. 

This left me in a situation where I had less time for wargaming and writing battle reports of my games than I expected, and therefore less activity on my blog from late autumn. Until now recently when I've been doing some quick projects on winter and Christmas related modelling.

2024 - What to expect?

Because my military garden modelling and locomotive mishap seized most of my modelling time at the end of the year, it meant that there were a lot of my planned activity I didn't have time to do during 2023. So this gives a good starting point for 2024 though. I hope I'll manage to cover them all this time:

• I plan to play and review at least one more new free wargame rules which you can find online and play with ordinary Army Men. If you have any suggestions, please post them in the comment section below.
• Finish a G-scale rake of cars for my LGB Heeresfeldbahn.
• Last year I played one of the first conflicts in history, so in 2024  I plan to prepare some figures and play one of the most recents conflicts in history. 
• I plan to prepare some miniatures and play at least one game of 'Fantasy Scenario' or probably also a 'Wild West Scenario' or both.
• I plan to do another 'Print and Play for Free', but with another period and scenario this time.
• If I can find a budget way to do it, I'll play another commercial wargame.
• As summers are short and intense in Norway, I'll do some outdoor military modelling in 2024 as well. Perhaps make an UK-military rake for my Live Steam locomotive, or make my RC-boat look more 'Norwegian'.
• Complete another indoor model railway layout.

-Time will show! 

I hope all of you will keep following for updates through 2024 as well, and comment and share the blog's contents. I'm certainly looking forward to follow your activities in the coming year!

I wish you all the very best for 2024!!

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