A December Workbench Update - Preparing for winter and Christmas + A Wargame in a Matchbox test-play

Despite that I've postponed  some modelling project to attend to the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge', there are still some few other projects I needed to complete this month. This months Workbench update is characterized by that winter is here, and we're soon up for Christmas. 

The first project out this month started as a couple of photos on a 'WWII German Railway Facebook Group' I follow, featuring snowplows on German Heeresfeldbahn Narrow gauge locomotives of the same type as I've converted.last year (HF130c):

These photos made me want to add something similar on my own locomotive for our Garden Railway running sessions this winter, so I set off to resize and 3D-print some suitable files I found on Thingiverse:

I wanted to see if I could find any more information and photos of these snowplows in a German Heeresfeldbahns book I have, but there I also found drawings of other wagons and snowplows used by the German Heeresfeldbahn during WWII:

A couple of these wagons resembled one that I got in a lot with some other LGB-wagons I bought a long time ago:

Fitted with one of the snowplows I've made for the locomotive, it was loosely starting to look like one of the Herresfeldbahn snowplows in the book:

And it looked even better when painted:

This wagon is pretty light so to be able to move some snow, some weights were added and 'camouflaged':

In the same box l found another small stake-wagon from the same lot, which I haven't used in any of my military trains yet. I didn't buy the lot for any of these wagons, as there were other more interesting items in the lot. Therefore It's just been laying around for a while:

I think it looked almost OK for my use, just a little 'too clean'. I did not do a very elaborate weathering job on this one, just a simple black and brown wash:

I added some passengers and a braizer to keep them warm I made last winter:

One of the LGB wagons I bought at Faszination Modellbau has already made it to the workbench:

I added the (military) sleigh I made last year as a load, as it looks more appropriate on this car than the previous one:

I've wanted some kind of storage looking like wagon-loads to keep, for instance, my Piko remote controller for my locomotive when not in use or when it's parked in the fiddleyard. These crates has removable lids, so I 3D-printed 3 of them:

Last December I made a small H0e/009/H0n30 'Pizza-layout' in just 6 evenings as a Christmas decoration. Since I didn't spend much time creating it, I didn't feel it was quite finished. Even of it's very small size I think it needed more Spruces, so I tried to see how it would look like if I 3D-printed some actually made as wargaming terrain and cover it with snow. OK I think, so now I've doubled the number of trees at the layout (and you can't even notice).

This is not a 'military layout', nor is there any 'military trains' on it. But among all the (new) trees there are some military presence:

I also made and added another snowman (from one of my favorite Christmas shorts) for the layout this year:

He is made to 1:87th scale with a height of 19mm. Who claims small scale miniatures can't be made with fillametn/FDM printers??

I've also got a lighted Christmastree for the layout this year:

Not all the workbench- and modelling projects this month are of the too serious kind...

Finally completing all these 'projects' took a load off my workbench. It's still not a completely clean desk, but it's a start

And another important thing on my workbench this month is this little box (and what to fill it with or not). I've joined the 'Wargame in a Matchbox Challenge', and will cover this project in it's own blogger-posts except for this little 'Wargame in a Matchbox WIP'.

Inspired by the recent Man of TIN blog and Duchy of Tradgardland posts on Little Wars, I was kind of inspired to give my 'cannon approach' one more try with wargaming by firing objects on the opponents. The last one didn't fit so this time I reduced the size and 3D-printed another 'cannon' (merely just a barrel) so it would fit a matchbox along some troops and cannonballs:

The reduced size made the 'cannon' fragile and it malfunctioned, and completely broke down after a few shots. This was obviously not the way to go.

I'm OK that this approach didn't work nevertheless as I've already decided and working on (and are heavy into) another take on this challenge. It need to be completed and test-played before I can present anything, but I guess a (final) update shortly will follow.

I'm not sure how many who are into this challenge now, but it's very interesting and motivating to follow the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge' on other blogs. So far I'm familiar with these:

• The Duchy of Tradgardland
• Man of TIN blog
• Grid based wargaming
• Wargame Hermit: Solo Wargaming
• Deathzap
• Projects and Procrastination

Those not already there, are now added to the links to other blogs in the menu bar to the right. If you know about anymore bloggers participating in the Challenge, please post a link to them in the comment-section.

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Many of this months workbench-projects has already had it's first outings as I initially wrote in this post; it's winter and soon Christmas and our Model Railway Club was invited to join a 'Christmas market' a local museum.Thais was also a perfect time for this 'mini exhibit' as the International Model Railway Day was at the 2nd December.

My Pizza layout

Another H0e layout by another member of our Model Railway Club

A H0 standard gauge Norwegian layout by another member in our MRC

The Garden Railway temporary train display

Nearly all this wagons or loads has been covered in this month's workbench update

Edit 01.01.2025: Added another link to a 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge' entry.

Wargame in a Wee Matchbox? What will fit a Matchbox? #2

It's not only about to find a small and easy wargame scenario and rules, but what will actually fit a Wee Matchbox?

1:72 scale figures are about the smallest I have, so I thought it was natural to see if I could use any of them.-But the matchbox get stuffed when you want to fit a number of them inside and when adding some dice both for shooting and health points too. -This was even when using my 'smallest' dice and before trying to add any ruler or rules...
A traditional wargame with a number of 1:72 scale miniatures and some dice could almost fit, but seems to be out of the question for now, or....??

Recently I've been playing a game of 'One-Hour Skirmish Wargames' (I will eventually post a battle report here, but postponed it to join this challenge), and thought that it perhaps could be simplified to fit a matchbox as it doesn't require many miniatures. I found a 'mini' card-deck in a shop, but even being small it was about the size of the Wee Matchbox it self. -And to play OHSW you do actually need 2 decks. So that option was now eliminated:

So I was trying to 'think outside of the box' and make a little different wargame; In H.G. Wells style shooting down small (paper) miniatures with a small (3D-printed) working cannon:

Despite being small, the Cannon didn't fit my Wee Matchbox (so this was also out of the question), but the paper miniatures (and shells) did however. I've used paper miniatures from Junior General before, so I'll think they might be part of my solution to this challenge. I was more impressed by, however, the power of the cannon and the fact that the working cannon, which was spring loaded, could be printed in one piece and without any supports. I don't think it would work to try printing a smaller version of it as the firing pin would be too fragile.

When coming to game mechanics it seems like there will have to be something traditional after all. I'll just have to overcome the challenges with fitting multiple dice, ruler and rules...

Please follow this blog for coming updates on the Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge.

New acquisitions added to the collection

From a Norwegian online second hand market I recently bought a lot of 46 toy soldiers for only about £8/$10/€9. -That's pretty cheap in Norway. They're mostly Airfix knock-offs in 'the lower end of the 54mm-ish scale'. Except for some odd figures, all of them seems to be about the same size, so perhaps they're from the same set or something?

I actually bought this lot for the Australian Infantry, as I would like to convert them into mercenaries for my Congo Crisis wargames. I know they're 'small' but I don't mind as my UN-troops and Katangan Gendarmerie is too (being around 50mm)

Some Africa Corps figures, which can be converted into regular Wehrmacht, or perhaps one or two of them into mercenaries for my Congo wargames.

A couple of the 8th Army can also be converted into mercenaries from the Congo crisis. I've seen photos that some of them were wearing shorts.

It seems like you can't buy a second-hand lot without getting some occasional Americans along with it. -It seems like there is a kind of 'Murphy's Law of Wargaming'

...And finally some odd pieces and figures. The broken Germans seems to be Airfix and Matchbox originals.The 2 blue service men I don't know the origin of. -Perhaps any of you do?

The price I paid for these knock-offs are quite acceptable in Norway, and lots like these are not that common either. The figures are 'small' but I plan to use them along my UN and Congolese figures which are small too, so I actually don't mind. So within 2025 it seems like I can make some mercenaries to add to my Congo crisis wargames.

Wargame in a Wee Matchbox? Challenge Accepted #1

I belive this challenge to fit a complete wargame into a Wee Matchbox came into being through a dialogue between Alan and Mark in the comment-section on their excellent blogs, The Duchy of Tradgardland and The Man of Tin Blog respectively. Very soon they invited others to join the challenge as well. 

In June I 3D-printed a small 'travel dice-tower' and tried to make a QRS of the rules for using during a game of One Brain Cell Toy Soldier wargame outside. Since then I've been tweaking to make it even smaller and easier to carry along, so I purchased smaller dice to fit in numbers (12 to be exactly) inside the tower when on the go, and the smallest tape-measure I could find. All just to try making a 'portable wargame (no pun intended) arrangement' which would be easy to bring along for wargaming outside battles. 

Even being small, it's far away from from fit a Matchbox and particularly not a Wee one. So, is it possible at all to make it even smaller and to fit a wargame in a Wee Matchbox??

So how small (or large) is exactly a Norwegian Wee Matchbox, as these are crucial limitations to this challenge?

Outer dimensions are 57mm x 37mm x 17mm. Gee, that's small (!). I don't know how these dimensions match up against it's British counterparts? How large are your Wee Matchboxes?

Already thinking about making wargames small and portable, I was really tempted to join this challenge, and when Alan suggested a deadline within December I decided to postpond a couple of other projects and wargames to join this challenge(!)

So before setting off I just needed to repeat the limitations in this challenge:

• The rules have to be in the (Wee) box, or written on it.
• Everything needed, except playing surface, to be in the box. -So no support of online rules or 'dice-apps' to save space...

As most of my wargaming has a 'budget approach' I decided that this should be no exception.

Now I need to start thinking about suitable scenarios and rules. It must be something simple, yet interesting. Some kind of duel perhaps? By the way, are 'home brewed' rules accepted?

Meanwhile it's very inspiring and informative to follow Alan and Mark at The Duchy of Tradgardland and Man of TIN blog and their development and how they tackle this challenge. I encourage other wargamers to attend to this challenge. 

Wargame in a Wee Matchbox? Challenge accepted! 
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The reason that time was a factor among other things to me attending this challenge, was that I've been away, and more or less off line from internet an hobbies, for the whole week visiting my oldest Son in Ålesund where he studies. I visited the old Devold factory close to Ålesund were there is a big H0 model railway display claiming to be the biggest in Norway. They are about to open a section of the nearby Rauma Line from Åndalsnes to Dombås, which the real thing was opened 100 years ago this Saturday:

This is the New Rauma Line Section

From Åndalsnes. Not completely finished yet

All the buildings are scratch built after the prototypes

Kylling Bridge

They also have a small section from the old and closed Flakvands line:

Even if it's a Norwegian model railway, they also have a small Danish section:

Another cool feature on their model railway

Due to it's soon December and Christmas. they invites local schools and kindergartens to make Gingerbread-buildings to a 'Gingerbread Village' with G-scale trains. It's yet early of the season so there was not so many Gingerbread buildings yet, but the LGB-trains were already running:

If you are in the area of Ålesund I highly recommend you to take a tripp with the Rauma line as it's one of the most scenic railway-journeys in Norway, and please pay the model railway at the Devold Factory a visit as well if you're there on a Saturday.

Now I'm off to make a closer study of my matchbox....