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.

Terrain for Wargaming - "House in a box" created by Gerard Boom aka "Shiftinglands"

Manufacturer:   GeBoom aka "Shiiftinglands"

Scale:   28mm or also 20mm

Hi,

Just wanted to share this video from Gerard Boom on YouTube. Gerard has designed a series of very nice foam buildings he called "House in a box". These houses will come as kits. So anyone can build very cool looking buildings for wargaming in 28mm or 20mm without using a foam cutter by himself.

I like the creations of Gerard very much and it is always impressive to see what this guy has in mind and what he already did and still does for the complete community. For me he is a incredible master mind in foam modelling. He developed a series of tools to make working with an Proxxon foam cutter much easier. He builds fantastic creations and everything he does looks so easy, but if you ever tried to do the same things, you will recognize that to reach these skills needs a lot of practice.

The new series of "House in a box" is announced to be released in December. I am sure that I will order at least three of four of these houses.

Cheers

Mike

Gerard Boom - "House in a box" 

Dead Man´s Hand - WIP Part 4 and Final - Buildung a Ranch from Sarrissa

Manufacturer:   Sarrissa Precision

Scale:   28mm

Hi,

I finally got my Ranch from SarrissaPrecision done. Due to a lot of other projects I always had to put the model aside - sometimes for months. But in November I wanted to show it at an exhibition from my club, integrated into a battlefield using the rules of "Rebels and Patriots". Therefore it had to be finished. Sometimes some kind of pressure of time helps finalizing projects. :)

If you have already seen the other WIP´s on my blog, you will have noticed that I didn´t just want to build this model. I wanted to give it some more detail like wallpapers or real shingles for a better look. Though this was combined with very time consuming work it was also fun and I am proud of how it came out.

If you have not seen the other parts of the tutorial on my blog please feel free to follow these links. By searching my own blog about these posts I realized that the first part was published on May 28th in 2024. So it took me 18 months to get this project finished. I am a really lazy guy. :)

WIP Part one:  https://dreispitz.blogspot.com/2024/05/dead-mans-hand-wip-building-and.html

WIP Part two:  https://dreispitz.blogspot.com/2025/01/dead-mans-hand-wip-part-2-building.html

WIP Part three:  https://dreispitz.blogspot.com/2025/03/dead-mans-hand-wip-part-3-buildung.html

So here is the final result of my efforts on this model. 

Please feel free to share your oppinions about this building with me.

Thanks a lot.

Cheers

Mike

Before I got this result there was a lot of work to do. Here are some WIP-pictures.

I did not like the flat look of the roof - so I gave it shingles.

Cutting coffee stirs into small tiles...

...and glueing them onto the roof one by one.

In my opinion the roof looks more realistic with these shingles.

This had been a lot of work...

...but it was worthwhile.

Painting the roof sections.

The outcome after a first dry brushing.

A second dry brushing. Now the not yet painted windows had to be smeared
with white paint.

Also the edges of the walls, the brown middle section and also the railing of
the veranda still had their original brown that I didn´t like.

After all parts had been painted the roof needed some tufts and flocks.

Ready for action.

As the buiilding will be used for our games of "Dead Man´s Hand" it is
necessary that you also can play within the house. So it is nicer to have 
some wallpapers within the rooms. A look at the ground floor.

And another look, now at the first floor.

Yippieh - it´s finally done.

This is how the model looks like unpainted...

...and this is an example of Sarrissa how it could look like painted.

Hobby in general - A church from "Chicken´sTabletopCrafting"

Manufacturer:   Chicken´sTabletopCrafting

Scale:   28mm

Hi,

today´s post is about the marvellous church I got fron Thomas Hahn aka "Chicken´sTabletopCrafting".

This church was an order I gave to Thomas as I already got some of his wonderful buildings made from styrofoam. It fits perfect to the other buildings and my thoughts are to use it especially for my project of the "Tyrolean Rebellion" I want to play using the ruleset of "Muskets&Tomahawks" and its supplement "Shakos&Bayonets"

I always like the style of Thomas´ building very much and this church surely won´t be the last one to become part of my collection. 

If you are interested in how Thomas made this little piece of art just follow the link to his YouTube-Channel. This video is a tutorial about the church this post is about.

And of course here are some pictures of how this building was integrated into my collection.

I hope you like it. :)

Cheers

Mike

A small scene using another building from Chicken and also some painted miniatures from the
fantastic range of Tyrolean rebels produced by PianoWargames.