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.

Military trains in large scale hitting the news

I'm a subscriber to Norway's only model railway magazine called 'Mj-Bladet' (simply translated into 'The Model Railway Magazine'),  which have 4 editions a year.

When I receive a copy I usually sits down, relaxing with a cup of coffee and enjoys the issue.

When receiving the latest issue today, I was surprised to see this large photo of my large scale military trains, which I has covered in this blog, almost making it to the middle pages too.

This was a very nice surprise to see my work from this blog at print and published.

A LGB Toy Train wagon + salvages for the 'scrap box' = Another Heeresfeldbahn military load going to the front

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One of my other interests other than the military modelling, wargaming and railway modelling is riding my motorcycle. I'm not only riding it a lot just for commuting to work (60 km away), but for recreational rides as well. But motorcycles are a seasonal thing in Norway, as we have long, cold and snowy winters where running conditions are bad or non existent. So when I had to park my motorcycle for the winter in October, I said that when "when one mc-season ends, another one starts..." as I had a couple of indoor motorcycle modelling projects on my workbench for the winter:

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The plan was to make a Kettenkrad and a BMW motorcycle with sidecar on my 3D-printer as military loads for 2 flatcars I was going to use for my G-scale Heeresfeldbahn. The Kettenkrad-kit turned out just fine, but the motorcycle with the sidecar did not look good when upscaled and 3D-printed on my printer. Both of them was originally made to 28mm scale as wargame items, but only the Kettenkrad looked acceptable when scaled up to 1:19 scale. The sidecar-motorcycle didn't print well in my 3D-printer and looked so bad and crude that I finally replaced it with a 1:18 scale diecast BMW model I was able to get cheap instead. I was just going to throw away the parts for the 3D-printed one, but somehow I just kept them laying around on my workbench for a while as I could use them for paint tests etc.

The original motorcycle I 3D-printed, but decided not to use.
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I found this 1:18 scale ready made diecast model instead, which looked the part except for the postwar windscreen and seat. It would be easier to fix those rather than making the 3D-printed model presentable 
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About the same time I went on a trip with my MRC to a model railway exhibition in Germany, where I ended up buying another colorfull LGB flat-wagon, which I could use in my growing Heeresfeldbahn rake:

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This wagon was going to need a load to make it look more interesting. After seeing a video on YouTube on how to make tarpaulin loads, I was curious to try out the technique my self, and was happy that I didn't throw away the parts for the bad looking 3D-printed BMW motorcycle with sidecar.  It would work as a testpiece for the tarpaulin-technique, as it was ruined anyway. Now I could try to cover up the mistakes literally. 

Making a tarpaulin load

After assembling the motorcycle-model I didn't care to paint it. I just covered it with a sheet of regular tissue-paper (3 layers), and soaked it with diluted PVA-glue (close to 50:50 ratio) using a broad paintbrush to push it into crevices. I started on the highest part of the model, working downwards to the lower parts. I got a couple of rift and tears in the soaked paper, which I just patched up with small tissue- paper pieces and gave them the same treatment, and they blended in perfectly.

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I let the diluted PVA-glue dry until the next day. When I checked it the tissue-paper had turned into a hard shell, but still it felt kind a little fragile. As I was going to use it outside under different weather conditions, I wanted it to be much sturdier so it wouldn't dissolve in rain or snow. To make it harder and sturdier, I gave i 3 coats of ModPodge, which I have good experience from using it as a sealer for wargaming miniatures.

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Even if ModPodge include som kind of Vinyl, I wanted it to be sturdier against soaking, so I gave it a couple of layers of varnish as well. By now it didn't feel so fragile anymore. 

Next it could be painted:

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A wash and some drybrushing really brings out the 'details':

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-And finally placed on the (repainted) flatcar. The flatcar was simply painted 'Panzer Grey' with a rattlecan, and drybushed withe some brown acrylics.

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That motorcycle looks much better now hidden  under a tarpaulin. Throw away nothing, your scrap can be hidden under tarpaulin and be uses as loads or terrain-pieces in wargaming.

This was a fun and quick build and made me feel confident to make more such tarpaulin loads in the future. Just by following the instructions from the YouTube video, this technique worked the first time. Have a try for your self. 

Did I mention that I like motorcycles?

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My LGB Heeresfeldbahn rake so far:

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A March Workbench update - Creating an Ape Army

Ready for some action!
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Due to finnising a somewhat longterm conversion of LGB rollingstock into my growing Heeresfeldbahn rake and making a small army for a 'casual wargame in the garden', some other modelling-projects fell behind. One of those projects were the apes I briefly presented in my January Workbench update. 

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They were made up and sliced together by elements from a 'kit file' found on Thingiverse. When put together in desired positions, I found out that they were not so easy to 3D-print, and needed some tweaking and adjustments to suit my needs.

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The bases I'm basing them on did I also find for free on Thingiverse. They were originally made as 'Bolt Action' bases, but I just resized them to fit the Apes.

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After basing them, they were ready for some priming. I just used inexpensive mat black from a rattle can from the car shop.

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Just primed they looked almost ready for the gaming table already as they don't require an elaborate paint job.

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Not a very complicated 'scheme' on these miniatures; How they look after they got a basic coat of paint:

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Washing them with a brownish wash, drybrushing them and texturing the bases really brings out their details.

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My intention was to 3D-print some spears for them from a 28mm 'weapon-pack' on Thingiverse, but I suppose primates like these would only have very simple spears just made of wood. In the grocery store I found such spears made of the real thing and just about the right scale. Since you just can't buy a few 'coctail sticks' I've got enough to arm a battalion. The spears was given a coat of 'brown wash'.

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Bringing it all toghether. I don't think these look too bad considered they are 3D-printed on a FDM printer on not a 'resin printer'.

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Another unfinished project from the 'January workbench' is the 'piece of crumbled paper'. Now I finally got around to paint it, so now it's somewhat more obvious what it is and what it's hiding:

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Please hit the 'follow button' and subscribe to this blog to see updates on how I'm going  to use this month's workbench projects in coming blogposts of wargames and railway modelling.

A leaked battle report of a classified skirmish occurred during "Operation Highjump"

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Earlier this year I bought a lot of minitures, most of them being Airfix copies. As 'knock offs' they are smaller than their originals, but in this lot there was even some smaller figures closer to 40mm or 0-scale in model railway terms. These are notably smaller than the figures I usually use for (war-) gaming, and they were not so numerous in the lot I bought, so I decided to use these smaller figures for 'other small projects' not requiring a whole army.

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It has snowed heavily in Norway this winter and I've been running some military garden railways in the snow, so I'd thought I would try to do some casual wargaming in the garden in the snow too. There has been a lot of snow and very cold this winter so I thought I had plenty of time to arrange this game, but the last couple of weeks have been 'warmer' and rainy so the snow started to melt rapidly. So I had to speed up giving this priority over some other projects, and 3D-print the bits and pieces needed for this game as quick as possible in low resolution and without preferred finishing touches for a smoother surface on them except for some paint. I didn't know at the time that the winter returned with heavy snowfall and cold weather again. 

The 40mm-ish figures from the lot I'll use for this game are German and American infantry, and was given a simple paintjob.

I 3D-printed a couple of vehicles (so my miniatures can travel on snow) and a Bunker entrance to go along with the figures for this wargame.

The USMC reconnaissance team
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The Gebirgsjäger squad and their bunkers
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I've always had a soft spot for 1 BC (One Brain Cell) Toy Soldier Rules by Pete Kautz and it's been a while since I played them, so I decided to use them with the advanced options for a small skirmish only needing a few miniatures for a game that could be located in a cold, icey and snowy terrain. They are obvious popular rules and my blogpost on them are the second most viewed on this blog.

These are great rules, but some 'house rules' seemed necessary for this game. I know 1 BC Toy Soldier Rules doesn't include vehicles,  so I just treated mine as a 'unit' according to the rules, but with 3 times the move of a trooper. The vehicles act as a transport, cover and a 'stationary HMG'. These rules have no rules for SMGs so I gave them a firing-range between pistol and rifle, 16'', and letting them roll 2 dice.

The Scenario

I've placed this scenario to 1946 and "Operation Highjump", which was a major American exercise in (Ant-) Arctic warfare and establishment of the Antarctic research base 'Little America'. Conspiracy theories claims that it was an offensive operation to fight secret nazi bases established in the Antarctic at the very end of WW2.

During the operation a maritime reconnaissance plane observed some odd shapes on the ground deep inland Antarctica, but couldn't get a clear view of it. To further examine this strange observation, a Marine reconnaissance-patrol of 8 members are sent in with 2 M29 Weasels (one of them with a HMG) for closer observation and further investigation. They'll fight as 2 fireteams of 4 each (as a Weasel can only carry 4 persons).

The aerial photo which demands a cliser look
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When approaching their object, the Marine reconnaissance-patrol are unaware that they also enters the line of sight and fire-range from a hidden and dug-in German Gebirgsjäger squad from the Neuschwabenland Division, guarding the entrance to an underground facility. The German squad fight as 2 fireteams; a Rifleteam of 6 and LMG-team of 3. The German squad was based upon graphics from Battle Order (which is a good website for references when building your army squad by squad).

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The Game

The engine noise of the approaching M29 Weasels with the Marines gives away their position and alerted the German sentry in the else so quiet Antarctica, so the rest of the Gebirgsjäger squad on guard was scrambled into their fortified positions made by ice.

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When approaching the coordinates for their objective, the sergeant leading the reconnaissance patrol gets careful and orders the HMG armed Weasel to drive up and secure an ice pass in front of them...

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...When entering the ice pass the HMG armed Weasel are met by intense fire, and get pinned there as some Marines go down...

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...Luckily their HMG is still operative, so it starts to return fire and secure the second fireteam's advance into the ice pass.

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Even if they are under heavy fire, the Gebirgsjäger rifle team holds their battle stance, and even takes down a couple of more Marines. But they don't manage to take out the American HMG...

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...- Which starts to take a toll on the Gebirgsjägers. Fortifications made by (hard) ice can be effective, but the 12,7mm HMG effectively starts 'chewing up' the ice-cover piece by piece, taking out Gebirgsjägers...

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...- after Gebirgsjägers...

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The Gebirgsjäger rifle team has no support of their LMG team as the Marines are too far away for it to be effective. Soon the German rifle team has lost so many members that their morale finally fails. I know the the rules says that remaining miniatures should be removed from the game, but we're in middle of Antarctica and there are no places to escape. So I just make them retreat to their Bunker entrance, which would be a 'safe zone' for them. The other Marine team exploits the German retreat and pursues the retreating forces. This was not a tactical success for the Marines...

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...The German Feldwebel is the last one of his rifle team, and he just empty his magazine against those following Americans, killing one and dazed another.

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When the American corporal recovers again, he finish off the Feldwebel, But now he comes under fire from the German LMG team. The American HMG returns fire, but doesn't hit very well as the Germans are in a heavily fortified position.

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The USMC reconnaissance patrol are so reduced by this time, and their HMG has problem hitting the LMG team in the fortified position, so they decides to pull out...

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... - and report their observations to HQ, so they can send in 'the cavalry' next time. They had to leave one fully functional M29 Weasel behind to the Germans though.

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Conclusion 

I guess it was a partial victory for the Germans as they managed to defend their bunker entrance, and partially an American victory as they managed to return to their own lines and report about their observarions and small skirmish to their HQ. -Their report was never known to the public tough, and probably classified as a lot of other things about this operation. Probably the Americans returned with a larger force. Operation Highjump lasted for 6 mounths which is pretty long time for an exercise...

This little game was a quickie, just taking 45 minutes to play 10 turns. Keep in mind if you want to game outside in the snow, that it's wet and cold so:

• Seal your miniatures before bringing them out in such conditions.
• Have some sort of dice tray.
• Laminate your rules.
• Let your miniatures dry thoroughly before putting them back in storage.
• Remember warm clothing...
• ...and something hot in your cup (!)

Enjoy!