Military G-scale trains fighting ice and snow

I had a splendid day out with my military G-scale trains in the snow today. The weather conditions were challenging with low temperatures, snow and ice causing slippery tracks and less than perfect running conditions. It was a bumpy ride.
- Probably just like the real thing. I think this was most likely this year's last running session:

As this was probably the last running session of 2023, I would like to thanks my fellow MRC-members, who are all into different kind of prototypes and scales, but shares the most important; a common enthusiasm for railway modelling and in most cases the 'track gauge' too. I'm proud to be a part of this community and appreciate all their enthusiasm, courage and help. And a special thanks to the ones that hosts the very most of our running sessions; Astrid and Heine for your hospitality, great time and letting us run trains in your beautiful garden. 

Heine usually posts a lot of pictures from the running sessions in his garden and post them on his model railway Facebook group. I recommend you to visit it and have a look. 

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!!

Making supply-trains for winter warfare

There hasn't been so much time for hobbies like wargaming and model railways as I'd like to lately, and therefore it's been 'all quiet on the blogger-front' for a while. When I was invited by friend and his wife to join their annual 'winter/season/Christmas drive-in running session' in their garden, I decided to use my modelling time to prepare my military garden trains for winter warfare and giving them a season-theme due to the occasion.

The driver in the Heeresfeldbahn locomotive by LGB was given a winter-camouflage uniform. They're seldom completely bright white due to use and making them dirty on purpose for better camouflage effect. He is a 'mirrored' model of the driver in 'Feldgau' I usually use.

Firstly I just planned a kind of 'Santa theme' with red sleigh and reindeer. Then I found that Finnish and Soviet troops used reindeers to pull simple sleighs. I've also found some few photos of reindeers in German service. I found these reindeers in a toyshop.

Since it was not going to be a traditional 'Santa sleigh' after all, I needed to find some more realistic one. This one I found for free at Thingeverse, intended for some 28mm tabletop gaming. I resized it to the maximum my 3D-printer could do. I also added some sacks of potatoes and a barrel of herring for the troops at the front. Being traditional christmasfood some places, I'hope we don't get that to eat during our 'run-in session'. 

Not only bringing food to the troops at the front, I wanted to give them a Christmas-tree/Weinachtsbaum for the upcoming season as well. The hostess remarked that it might look like the tree Norway gives United Kingdom every year as gratefulness for help during WWII; Looking good on only one side....

The soldiers handling the sleigh and reindeers were given (again 3D-printed) braizer. I used a flickering tea led-light for the fire, just about fitting into the barrel. The smoke is some stuffing from one of our dogs toys...

I kind of get of "Where Eagles Dare"-feeling of those soldiers.

Keeping it serious with the German Heeresfeldbahn train, I decided to not take it to seriously with the W^D train. Due to the mechanism there is not so good place in in fitting a driver, so I found one slim enough. Besides he'sin 'Christmas-mode'...

On the wagon behind it that's not a 19:1 scale model of Glühwein for the troops. Thats a gift for the host and hostess opening their beautiful garden for letting us run our trains on their railway.

Here are some impressions of my military trains in action during their winter-service:

Here are some other impressions from the garden and other trains. And yes, there was a lot more crowded than the photos show though.

The HF110C belongs to a friend and the original is also of military origin:

Last year our MRC went to Germany and rode on the original in Harz:

And even som further years ago our MRC went to Switzerland and took a ride with the Glacier-Express:

If you want to read more about our MRC, Gleng Modelljernbane Klubb, please visit our website

Looks like there were no 'potatoes and herring', just hot dogs, gingerbread cookies, waffles, Glühwein and coffee. It don't get more Christmas than this(!)

We were running until it started to get dark (which is kind of early in Norway during the winter)

Looks like my lansers are keeping warm on the braizer as well

Finally it was so dark that some seemed to be afraid of it...

...so then there was time to finish up, and pack everything together. The weather was perfect for a winter running-session. Thank you Astrid and Heine for your hospitality, great time and letting us run trains in your beautiful garden.