Wargaming - An exhibition within a museum

Hi,

there is a very cool museum about toysoldiers in Schmalkalden, Thuringia, Germany. It is called „Historicum“ and it shows about 25.000 figures of all periods of warfare and all kind of manufacturers. Each display is a little gem and if you ever have the chance to get there it is worth a visit.

The museum is owned by a private person and last year it had to be extended because the location got too small. So the owner, Stefan Gampe, took the chance to buy the house next to the museum and started to extend the museum.

Stefan also wanted to show a small exhibition about wargaming and asked a local wargaming club from Erfurt and also me to present some displays to fill this exclusive exhibition. I was honored and so I accepted.

Stefan told me about the measurements of the single displays and I got three of them to fill them with some wargaming themes. I phoned the club in Erfurt in order to avoid that they would do the same themes.

I never thought that it would be such a challenge to present a wargaming ruleset with its figures, the needed tools, the rules themselves and doing this in an appealing style, so that the visitors will have a closer look at the presented ruleset. It was even more a challenge as the space was very limited being 80cm wide, 30cm deep and 30cm high. I also had to test the settings at home for the Museum is about 200 kilometers away from my home. So everything had to be prepared at home to fit well into the displays of the museum.

I decided to show the rules of StarWars X-Wing, DeadMansHand and Muskets&Tomahawks.

Here are some photos of the test settings at home and also how the little exhibition looked like in the museum.

If you are interested into the museum and its great showcases just follow the link below.

Historicum

Cheers 

Mike

Trying to get an optimal overview on the ruleset of StarWars X-Wing

Trying not to get the display overloaded with information, but also enough for the
visitors to get the important and relevant information to get a feeling for the system.

How the display looked at Schmalkalden.

A test of the setup of Muskets&Tomahawks.

Another view on the test setup.

The final setup in the museum‘s exhibition.

The third chosen ruleset of DeadMansHand in its planning process.

Another view.

A total overview.

The presentation in the museum.

Some pictures of the displays of the wargaming club Erfurt.

There was also a display showing 1/72 scaled WildWest figures.

Napoleonics.

Some more napoleonics.

Of course Prussians mustn’t miss.

Checking the displays by a clubmember from Erfurt.

Busy actions during placing the showcases.

The corridor where the wargaming exhibition was placed is the connection
of the elder part of the museum to the newer part. 
While the club from Erfurt came with 6 members I was accompanied
by my little daughter to help me.