Museum:Athens War Museum

I took the opportunity of a free day, and great weather, to visit the War Museum of Athens. I have visited it in the past, but wanted to see how a long-lasting renovation process had changed it. In simple terms, this has become quite a cool museum and is well worth your time. There is now even a model shop in the museum, and I bought a nice book on the Balkan Wars "Memorabilia of the Balkan Wars: by Vasilios Nikoltsios and Yannis Mylonas. This contains all the illustrations from the Mylonas book on Balkan War uniforms, and tons of other artifacts. It covers all the armies of the wars. A must have and it seems to be only available at the War Museum (in Greek and in English).

The museum covers antiquity to 1974, with special focus on the Balkan Wars, and World War 2. It does not cover the Civil War. It has fewer artifacts than the National Historical Museum, but more pictures and art.

For those of you who might not get a chance to see it, or who would like to check out pictures, here is a massive amount of pictures. I will not put captions beyond some points.

Greek fighter jets parked in the museum's courtyard

Kiss me Hardy at Athens

On the 23rds me and my friends in Athens, Greece, set up a session of Kiss Me Hardy. We played at the local Kaissa game store in Peristeri. A great and friendly store.

The scenario was set up by me, but not well thought out. A squadron of  4 French SOLs needed to survive 10 turns in an attempt to escape the outer squadron of a British blockade. The outer squadron was made up of  2 SOLs and 2 Frigates. Me and my friend Panagiotis commanded the British, while my friend Peter, 6 or 8 times Greek Warhammer 40k Champion, commanded the French.

I made some mistakes in scenario set up, and the combination of wind behavior and Peter's masterful gaming led to a resounding French victory. All French ships survived (their goal) and while no British ships were sunk, one of the SOLs was badly mauled. We were unable to close to short range and Peter kept the engagement at long and extreme. A frustrating, but still enjoyable game.

French towards you, British away.

Museum: The National Historical Museum in Athens

Here are some pictures from the National Historical Museum in Athens. Located in the building of the Old Parliament , very close to Syntagma square. I will keep commentary to a minimum. The museum is rather small, but rich, thus the perfect 2 hour excursion. Lots of great artifacts.

The old parliament meeting place

Busy update

Not much I fear on gaming or painting front. This has been two very busy months work wise, and I have not had the ability to even keep the 19th Century Group theme updated, let alone do much on the physical side. That said I did do a couple of small projects.

1) Finished rebasing a 6mm Prussian Napoleonic Collection from 60mmx30mm bases to 20x20mm bases.

2) Painted a portable cloth battlefield for the Bloody Big Battles Velestino Scenario. I can use that to set up a BBB battle anywhere in the world, and it can also be used for others games at the 2,6,10,15mm range scales

3) Begun the Ottoman 1877/1897 project. Two command bases and 4 bases of irregulars done. 38 more bases left.

4) Painted three 6mm Bacchus Houses.