Visit to Hamburg

Visited Hamburg over the weekend and met up with my brother and niece. They were keen to show us Miniaturen Wunderland and said it would be up my street - hmmm, I thought, once more wargaming is tarred with the very wide brush of all things little and toylike!  I was wrong, it's an amazing place of huge dioramas in 1/72 scale - but I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Not a great photo - but in the German tradition of liberal realism this is the end diorama of a series showing the development of a city over the millennia  and this is its final manifestation at the end of WW2 amid utter destruction and occupation by the Soviets - its not toy town kids!

This one's for Phil

Giant floating dock in a Scandinavian fjord - that's real water and there was welding going on.

I think it would have looked better with an armoured recon battalion surging across and Para's waiting with 6 pounders. 

The operations hub for all the trains and automated vehicles - one day our operational games will have one of these.

An Alpine scene in Northern Italy - an excellent place to build the Gustav Line.

Hamburg airport - which was massive.

These vehicles were moving, stopping at lights, being unloaded via magnets and an electrical circuit below the layout.

That aircraft has just taken off and is now flying on another behind the scenes circuit - there was an actual departure and arrivals board.

Another view of a departing aircraft - as it was Germany there were models of a "dogging" meet outside the secluded Air traffic tower - Jon you would have felt at home!

This is the Swiss Alps - it stretched over two floors.

I tried to catch one of the many moving trains but failed.

Each of the layouts took between 100000 and 150000 man hours to build - apparently they are all volunteers.

The alps from below.

I think that's the Matterhorn 

In one of the rooms they were beginning to build Venice.  I should have taken a photo of the work stations in which they built the individual buildings, vehicles and accessories - very organised with all the tools to hand and racks of paints.  These were in rows of ten and the electrical modelling stations had their own welding equipment.

Hope the pictures do it justice and I would recommend a visit if ever you find yourself in Hamburg.