Historian/author's impressions and photos of the Chunuk Bair diorama

Historian and author Matthew Wright has posted his impressions of the Chunuk Bair diorama on his blog today. His posting includes some great photographs, too.

Peter Jackson’s re-definition of awesome – the Gallipoli diorama, close up 

 by Matthew Wright

Last weekend I visited Sir Peter Jackson’s giant diorama of New Zealand’s attack on Chunuk Bair at the height of the Gallipoli campaign in August 1915. Giant? You betcha. With 5000 custom-posed 54-mm figures, individually painted by volunteer wargamers from around New Zealand, the only word is wow! Read more ...

One of Matthew's books, Shattered Glory (Penguin 2010), is about New Zealand's human experience during two First World War campaigns, including Gallipoli, "exploring the darker side of New Zealand's iconic symbols of national identity and explaining some of the realities behind the twenty-first century mythology".

Father and son bonding at Waterloo

It’s 200 years today since the Battle of Waterloo. It’s therefore apt to post this link to my 2012 article about myself and my son’s experience ten years ago at the 2005 reenactment of Waterloo.

Taiwanese military history mag features Chunuk Bair diorama

Our Chunuk Bair diorama is the subject of an article in the latest issue to the Taiwanese magazine Illustrated Guide for Weapons & Tactics (Chinese: 中國之翼.兵器戰術圖解~ 軍事圖書.雜誌專賣店). This is one of the main periodicals about military issues and war history in Taiwan. 

Recently they've been covering some history of the Great War, for example about the Ottoman armed forces and their efforts during WWI, to show their Taiwanese readers a broader view of the Great War than the trench warfare of the Western Front. So when the editor stumbled across pictures of our diorama, he contacted us about running some photos in his magazine, and telling the story of Gallipoli and the armed forces of both sides.

Here is the front cover of the magazine.  The red text near the top describes this issue's special feature. These Chinese characters literally mean "The 'Lord of the Rings' Style Gallipoli Battlefield", but a more accurate meaning might be "The Gallipoli Campaign Diorama Created by (the Idea from) the Team of 'Lord of the Rings'".

As you can see from the pictures on the Contents page, the magazine covers a wide range of topics. Our article occupies a chunk of pages near the middle.

One of the pages includes a picture of volunteer painter Vicky Bleaken at work on her batch of figures. When he noticed the Humbrol cans on her table, the editor wrote, "some modellers of the Commonwealth still use this great British brand enamel paint!"

Overall. it is wonderful to see the continuing international attention our diorama of Chunuk Bair is attaining.

Mini-diorama at Kapiti Wargames Club open day

This display of the left-over figures from our Chunuk Bair diorama was set up at today's open day of the Kapiti Wargames Club in Paraparaumu, New Zealand.

The Kapiti club were heavily involved in the team of volunteer painters for the diorama project, especially in the final throes as the opening day loomed ever closer.

So when the club asked if they could borrow some of the reserve figures being held by The Great War Exhibition, the request was granted with pleasure.

Club president Sam Campbell quickly put together a rugged terrain board for the loaned figures to fight over. The resulting mini-diorama was a real crowd-pleaser at the open day.

Teaser for 'Wargames Illustrated' article on Chunuk Bair diorama

The first inkling of the much-anticipated Wargames Illustated article about our Chunuk Bair diorama has just appeared on their FaceBook page.

This article to be published in their August issue will feature not only some of the great pics we've already seen here on the Mustering The Troops blog, but also some amazing professional photographs that have been held back especially.

On their FaceBook page, Wargames Illustrated have released a small teaser picture of the opening spread of what is going to be a ten-page article. Using one photo splashed across both pages looks pretty impressive, even at the small size of the picture they've released!