An April Workbench update - Bombs Away! (Mostly 3D-prints)

As I've been away for almost a month there hasn't been much time for wargaming, modelling or to generate so many new modelling-projects for April. Now I'm back again, so I'm slowly starting to get something on the workbench again by preparing new modelling-projects by firstly making parts for them on the 3D-printer.

A friend and a member of my MRC was inviting other friends and members for a running-session on his garden railway this Easter, and I wanted to give him something back and an item for an 'Easter egg hunt' in his own garden and within my rake. Not making the gift too obvious it needed to be camouflaged into something that could be loaded on my military garden trains. Some few more pieces were 3D-printed. 

Assembled on a bottle of beer it becomes more obvious what kind of load I'm turning the gift into. Bottles of beer are usually best served cold, and they have a shape that can vaguely resembles grenades. That's why I usually just call them "Kalde Granater", which would translate into something like "Cold Grenades", and is a Norwegian jargon for practicing grenades. Despite being an aerial bomb, considering the scale, this is pretty much literally a "Kald Granat" I think.

To make it look like a load which belongs in a military train it needed some further cover. I decided to use the same technique I used when Covering a model not looking so good by adding tarpaulin to it.

I used gladpack between the bottle and tissue-paper when adding the diluted pva glue, so the tarpaulin could easily be removed from the bottle again and uncover the real load. It lifts of easily as a lid and can be reused several times.

Mounted on flatcar I think this looks pretty acceptable. Keeping in mind that the railcar is 1:19 scale, this must be a really big aerial bomb. 

 

This is another 'project' I've recently printed currently working on, and shows the different stages from a 3D-printed model into an assembled and ready for paint:

Some models needs to be divided and printed in smaller parts due to my 3D-printer which limits the maximum building size to 15×15×15 cm

They needs to be removed from the raft (base) and be cleaned for supports. Then I dryfit the parts to see that they fits each other and adjust if necessary 

I use CA-glue to attach the parts together. When fully cured I use filler in the cracks and sand them...

...To a smooth finish. This model is printed to a 'standard' resolution and have visible print lines. If you want to remove them you can keep on sanding the model...

...or use car filler from a rattle can. This is how smooth it gets with 3 layers. You can sand between the layers, but I didn't do so, and like how it turned out.

Due to work anf 'every day life' this project is still ongoing, and will return in a future blogpost when ready.

Please follow for updates

Since Alan from  The Duchy of Tradgardland showed his 'workbench clutter', I was inspired to show some of mine and reveal a hint or two of what to expect in this blog in the future...

Moving from miniature tabletop wargaming...

... - to 1:1 scale wargaming. - At least for a short while. When you're reading this the large NATO exercise 'Nordic Response '24' has recently been held in the Northern parts of Norway, but due to I've registered that this blog has several visits from Russia I didn't want to post anything before it was all over. 

I am a reserve as a Military Police Senior NCO  in the Norwegian Combat Support Service Battalion, and still do Service with that unit every now and then. So now I'm back after about 3 weeks of service, so that has influenced on my time for modelling, wargaming and updates on this blog. I covered my absence with scheduled blogging posts, but my comments on fellow blogger's posts during the same period has only my name signed to it as I wasn't able to log in (and reveal positions to Google).

Nor CSS Bn is a unit which provide host nation support, service and logistics to USMC during their operations in Norway. 

I'm not going into details here, as this blog apparently also have readers in Russia, but I can give you some few general impressions.

In Norway civilian vehicles can be mobilised into military service. So this time my MP unit 'uniformed' 2 civilian cars into police patrol cars to try this out. The process looked like a giant kit-building with instructions to where to place the decals:

And soon we were ready for Service to support both Norwegian and American units:

And the vehicles performed very well under challenging conditions too:

Even if the accommodation is 'simple' members of the Nor CSS Bn are great to make it comfortable and give it a feeling of 'luxury':

The 'breakfast-buffet' is an important happening and social gathering

An improvised cinema was arranged in one of the tents. Off course a war-movie was chosen for the occasion

I'm very impressed by and proud to serve with so many good and skilled colleagues. They really makes the Nor CSS Bn perform beyond it's expectations. They're truly 'brothers in arms' (!)

By the way; The Northern parts of Norway is also a very good place to watch polar lights:

So now there will probably be some more time to do some table top wargaming and military modelling again. Follow this blog for updates to come.