Modellbau Schleswig-Holstein in Neumünster and Miniatur Wunderland 2025

As I've written earlier in this blog, members of our Model Railway Club usually goes on annual tours to model exhibitions abroad. Visiting the 'Modellbau Schleswig-Holstein' in Neumünster has almost become a tradition in our club as it is not too far away from Norway being arranged in the Northern Germany (we lives in the Southern part of Norway). Last weekend we combined the Model Exhibition in Neumünster with a trip to Hamburg to visit Miniatur Wunderland - MiWuLa.

On my way down to our club house in Sarpsborg to meet the other guys before we set off to Germany, I passed a shop where I saw a familiar layout as a window display. This layout was built by us on request from the shop in just 4 evenings back in 2006. On this link there are some photos and further description (which you need to 'Google translate').

Modellbau Schleswig-Holstein

There were not only trains on the trade stands:

I had Michael (Wargaming with 54mm Toy Soldiers) in mind when seeing this vintage tinplate armored car:

After the 'Wargame in a Matchbox Challenge' I guess there are more of us having leftover matches after emptying matchboxes. Here are a couple of suggestions what you can make with your matches. Perhaps an idea for another challenge? 

There were several layouts there in different scales and gauges there;

G-scale:

Let's hope no president finds out that he wants to expand this by adding another face...

New jukebox at the Diner

I've always been fascinated by layouts with maritime elements and transition by trains and ships:

Lego:

More G-scale:

Some alpine H0m (Furka Oberalp):

Some old, classic vintage tinplate trains:

Not every layout was of the too serious type:

I am also very facinated by small micro layouts:

T-gauge; 1:450

T-gauge

T-gauge 

N-scale; 1:160

Less than T-gauge. Perhaps 1:750?

There were also other scale models on display. These were in plastic:

Some scale models in paper:

The Norwegian Oslo-Kiel ferry (which I travelled with 2 weeks ago)

A (Paper-) model of the model

There were also a larger exhibition of radio controlled models. This were some few of the boats:

This was the most numerous vessel in the German Kriegs Marine during WW2; Kriegsfischkutter in a number of about 600-700 

I love the weathering and details on this civilian fisch cutter.

A kind of unusual subject for RC boats.

In the RC section there were also a large proving ground for 1:16 scale Panzers:

Miniatur Wunderland

After the Model Exhibition in Neumünster we drove to Hamburg to visit the Miniatur Wunderland. We usually visit the this layout when we're i the area or on our way too other model railway exhibitions. MiWuLa is the world's biggest model railway layout.

I've posted some few photos from this model railway before, so in this blogger post I want to show whats new, or other things that might be interesting out of a 'military modeller point of view'. 
The Monaco part is the newest part of MiWuLa opened to the public:

The Circuit de Monaco is the center piece and is really innovative, and was developed by MiWuLa them selves:

The Prince's Palace of Monaco:

The wedding scene for Grace Kelly was based upon a black/white photo, so therefore the scene was modeled in black/white too: 

When in Monaco there is not so far away to Italy:

And in Italy they have modeled a False Front Frontier city as a Spaghetti Western movie set. 

How many Westerns can you name from these photos?

They have also made a busy airport in H0 scale, but it was actually the display of old aircrafts that caught my attention: 

Another reasonable new part of the layout that has opened is Antarctica:

Drake's Passage which divides Antarctica and Cape Horn:

On Cape Horn is the area of Patagonia (Chile and Argentine). I'm impressed that they managed to model H0e/H0n30/009 trains on 9mm gauge that actually runs on daily bases without stalling or derailments. 

A further bit longer north on the American continent is Mount Rushmore again. Seems like a popular theme when Germans are modelling North America. 

In North America the outskirts of Area 51 is included:

Even if most of the facilities are located underground:

MiWuLa is full of small cameos. This I saw hidden away in a Redwood Forrest:

The H0 layout at MiWuLa is enormous, and even if there are made a lot of military model railway accessories in H0 scale, you won't find many of them in MiWuLa. This camp and training facilities are located rearmost on the layout. Actually so far away that it was challenging to take photos of it:

This was located in Scandinavia:

The team at Miniatur Wunderland has not only made the largest H0 scale model railway in the World, but they have also made a series of smaller dioramas to H0 scale to act as a German History lesson showing the development through history on a similar scene. This is The History of Civilisation:

5500 - 2200 B.C.

770 - 1330

1300 - 1600

1600 - 1789

1789 - 1848

1848 - 1910

1910 - 1933

1933 -1942

So where this diorama series ends, a second diorama serie continues; A City Divided. This diorama serie shows the development of how Berlin was divided in several stages after WW2, and how it was finally reunited again. Western Berlin closest to camera and DDR to the back. The border in the midle:

1945 - 1949

1950 - 1954

1955 -1960

1961

1962 - 1964

1965 - 1988

1989 -1990

1990 - 1999

2000 - 2009

After a long day with a lot of impressions it's always nice to take a brake in the restaurant at MiWuLa and enjoy their Curry Wurst and local brew:

Some new acquisitions to the collection

On my work we have a 'Secret Santa' arrangement each December, where we secretly draw a name from a box and secretly gives this person a gift for Christmas. Last Christmas one of my colleagues and 'not so Secret Santa' told me that he didn't pick my name from the box this year, but he wanted to give me something anyway. He just had to find it first. So last weekend while we were working together he handed me a reasonable full plastic bag, which contained several smaller bags:

I took a brief look at them and could tell that there were many plastic soldiers in 54mm-ish scale, mostly WW2 knock-offs from Matchbox. When I got home I finally got a chance to take a closer look at them.

In the first bag I checked there were 100 German soldiers. It was a mix of Airfix infantry, Matchbox infantry and Matchbox German Africa Corps. It was a clear majority of Matchbox soldiers. What I really like with these knock-off sets is the number of officers. Where the original set have only one, this German lot have 12 + 5 "Rommels" (Useful for any high ranking officers though):

The second bag contained 66 British 8th Army figures in a mix of Airfix and Matchbox knock-offs, and again mainly Matchbox poses. 8 officers:

It seems inevitable that all lots of plastic soldiers also contains a detachment of American WW2 Infantry or 'Army Men'. This lot contained 70 of them, and they were all Matchbox. Looks like I got some 'Snowball-fighter' replacements.

There were also some 31 Japanese soldiers in one bag. Some few of them are Airfix copies, but the rest of them I'm really not sure. Perhaps Atlantic??

All of them togheter:

Being knock-offs they're usually not 'true 54mm scale', as they are often smaller. These are some 50mm+ and lines up pretty well to those Army Men I've already painted and used for wargaming.

All the different plastic soldiers in this collection are made to the same size:

They have some flash and mold lines, but that can easily be trimmed away. Those of them who have small wobbly bases I plan to equip with larger 3D-printed bases.

Adding these soldiers to the collection of the cheap plastic soldiers I've acquired earlier I now have a big stockpile of figures for future figure and painting conversions and wargames.

Mark Man of Tin Blog recently published a couple of very interesting postes regarding using pound store plastic soldiers to make wargaming inexpensive and achievable. There are some really interesting point of views in the comment section of those blogger posts as well. Please pay them a visit.

I belong to those who like to wargame on a budget using whatever available. I don't care if my miniatures are not made to a specific brand or rules, as I'm happy converting them to those wargames and scenarios I want to play (usually free rules found online. Check my rules menu in the menu to the right). So these new acquisitions makes it possible for further conversions and new scenarios.

Norway 1940 is mentioned....
- I don't want to rule it out.

In these bags there were also some accessories for my Army Men. They can get useful:

There were also some few other figures in the lot. Airfix Cowboy and Indians knock-offs, and an Airfix British paratrooper which is copied to the unrecognisable:

And some few 1:76 Airfix originals; RAF Ground personell, Washingtons army, German Gebirgsjägers, 8th Army and some very few French Napoleonic artillery crew. There were also some 1:72 scale American WW2 infantry which were knock-offs of the Airfix 1:32 scale originals:

And there were even 3 small (smaller than 28mm) metal miniatures. Looks like they are from 'The  Lord of the rings':

So thank you so very much for the gift not-so-secret-Santa Jørgen. These will provides hours of fun, converting them, painting them and deploy them in future wargames.

Please follow my blog for future updates.

DAS Pronto soldiers - A DIY soldiers moulding from air-drying clay

When John Yorio at 54mm or Fight was sculpting his own miniatures by using air-drying clay, it made me start thinking if air-drying clay also would be suitable for small plastic figure conversions?
When searching the internet for tips or tricks for using air-drying clay for plastic miniatures conversions, I didn't actually find much, so perhaps that's not a proven method??

- What I did find however was the product name of such air-drying clay I remembered using as a kid; DAS Pronto. It's an Italian product from 1963. This made me remember a birthday gift I got from my beloved sister when I was a kid; It was a DAS Pronto moulding kit for moulding your own Cowboy & Indians with the air-drying clay. Perhaps not a coincidence that such a set came from Italy at the time several 'Spaghetti Westerns' were made there? I remember DAS had other similar sets with football players, animals, custom cars and buildings too. 

You added clay to the pres fit mould, and after releasing it from the mould again, the miniature could be posed as desired and you could push-fit different weapons, hats, and different equipment in them while the clay was still soft. After the clay had hardened it could be painted and varnished. The only limitation to how many you could make was the available accessories. I'm not sure where I have my moulds anymore, but I've borrowed some images from different forums and adds at ebay to give you an idea. These are similar to the Cowboys & Indians I had:

What I've discovered recently, and didn't know at the time, was that there were similar sets from DAS to mould soldiers from the American Civil War as well. One mould for soldiers with kepis and one mould for soldiers or officers with hats, and you could off-course combine them and using them for making a blue and a grey army:

There was even a 'maxi' combination-set of the 2 sets above, with cardboard fortress and a 'battle mat' to be colored:

Another interesting thing I've recently discovered with these DIY 'DAS soldiers', is that they even made 'modern' Army Men. I can't remember seeing any of those in Norway:

While working on this blogger post I've also found out that the made Sci-fi Space warriors:

And D&D 'miniatures':

Here are some of the other DIY figure sets from Das Pronto with skiiers, American football players, soccer players and ice hockey players:

Of all these different sets, I've only seen the Cowboy & Indian set in Norway.

This is not a sudden change of focus for me in the wargaming hobby, as I have no plans for start making DAS figures again. I just thought I would share the information if someone finds it interesting. It would be interesting though if anyone has pictures to share of the 'finished product' of soldiers from DAS. -And especially if anyone used them for wargaming.

On the other hand, if DAS can be used for moulding figures, would the same air-drying clay be suitable for making smaller conversions on plastic figures? Anyone having experience with this??

It seems like DAS also was marketing and aiming towards the military modelling market too:

Thank you for the gift Sonja❤️