Another big battle diorama

Of course, Gallipoli isn't the only battle to be commemorated in 2015. This year is also Waterloo 200 - two hundred years since the Battle of Waterloo took place. And that too is being marked by a large diorama.

The Toy Soldier Factory in Ireland will be displaying the first phase of what they claim is the world’s largest battle scene, depicting the Battle of Waterloo.

Their huge diorama totals 26x13 feet (8x4 metres) in size. It houses 15,000 Prince August model soldiers, hand-cast and hand-painted by Andre Rudolph from Germany.

It took Andre eight passionate years to cast, paint and complete his creation (which kind of puts things into perspective for those of us who found painting 40 figures hard!).

The mighty scene will arrive on Irish shores over the next few weeks, and will be transported carefully to its new home in the tiny village of Kilnamartyra just outside Macroom town in West Cork.

Here's an excellent YouTube video showing this diorama [in German, but with lovely visuals]:

And then there is Agincourt 600 - but that is another story that'll have to wait ...

Our project on the German 'Brueckenkopf' website

Our project features on the German Brueckenkopf tabletop hobby portal.

If you can't read German, don't worry - just use Google Translate.  You'll get the sense of what is being said, albeit in a rather quirky fashion.

The Bunker Monkeys finish up

The Auckland Bunker Monkeys are finally done, with all their figures now collected in. This was a massive effort for the Auckland team, Vicky, David B, Matt, Sam, James, Saul, Dean and Justin. 

Below are some pictures of their last group painting day and some profile pictures.

"Thanks for the good times, war stories and brews," says coordinator Dave, "I hope to see our combined efforts soon."

Our southern-most painter?

"I still think I'm the southern most painter," says Steven Hill from Balclutha. He's painted 20 Turks and 20 New Zealanders.

"I really enjoyed contributing even in a small way, and thanks a lot for the opportunity."

It ain't ova till it's ova

"It ain't ova till its ova," says Alan from the Wellington group. "Here are three of us still going at it..."

Perry twins' portrait of me in miniature

The Perrys kindly sculpted this 54mm trench-digging New Zealander as ... er ... me, albeit in a much more heroic stance than I usually adopt.

I'm not sure if I've done the clever sculpting justice, not being a fine detail painter, but generally using a more impressionistic 'dry-brush and wash' technique.

I'm told the oldest Anzac soldier at Chunuk Bair was 53 years old, so I felt I could paint this figure with grey(ish) hair.  But if necessary I can use an ink-wash to darken it up before the figure is placed in the Gallipoli diorama.

I was really taken to be included amongst the Perry specials for this diorama.  But my wife slightly deflated my bubble when she asked why the Perrys 'hadn't sculpted my tummy'!   

Painting in Paradise

Being mostly Wellington based (but working in and now moving to Auckland), John Hutton has been gutted he hasn't been able to join the painting and terrain-making crew at Weta Workshop the last few days.

"Rather," he says, "this Easter I've been at a bach south of Whangarei, joining my partner's family as they gather to celebrate her grandmother's 90th birthday - the party was held at that classic venue, the Mangapai Gun Club.

"Thus while others have been labouring in a warehouse in Wellington, I've had great views and great sun to accompany my brush-strokes. Late last night I completed my last set of figures - ten falling wounded/killed Kiwis. I photographed them this morning in the rising sun."

"I then used up my left-over Ushabti Bone to dry-brush the brother-in-law's car. Kidding! But I'm sure Northland road dust is the pigment base for the most-used pot of paint in this project!"

"This really has been a great project," says John. "I'm looking forward to seeing the completed product. Below are some Kiwis in interesting poses I finished earlier."

Photos from Day 1 of Gallipoli diorama assembly at Weta Workshop

You'll recall that on Day 1 of the diorama assembly process, I couldn't post any pictures because they were stuck on my camera without a cord to transfer them onto my computer.

Well, I've now got them on my computer. Below you'll see a selection of these pics.

Most of the photos I took will have to wait until the diorama is finally revealed, as they show too much of what is going on in the background (we are under strict confidentiality instructions).

After The Great War Exhibition is opened later this month, I'll put all my photos up on DropBox or similar, so anyone who wants copies can grab them from there.

Even simply unpacking thousands of figures took ages!

Alan and Michael appear to enjoy their work on Day 1 - will they be smiling as easily by the last day before opening?!

Michael examining the painting of the figures.

Terrain making in progress - it was good to have professional facilities for doing this.

Touching up and repairs.

More painting and touching up.  These guys were painting machines.

The Day 1 team.The background has been painted over for confidentiality reasons. 

Yep, they may be painted in different styles and shades - but en masse they look just great.

The Perry twins in New Zealand

If you haven't been doing so already, make sure you keep an eye on the Perry Miniatures FaceBook page. Alan and Michael are posting about their experience here in New Zealand as they work on assembling the diorama.

An extra special paint-job

Mercury 6 ended up churning out 30+ Turks for the project, and worked on dozens more while touching up and repairing models that were damaged in transit.

"Usually after painting a unit of wargaming models I'll reward myself with a character model," he says. "But in this case my reward was one of the beautifully crisp resin Anzacs. He's a casualty, sadly, but still a great model to paint. It was nice to be able to spend a bit of time on a model rather than hurry through a mob of troops with one eye on the clock.

"I also picked up a New Zealand officer who I'm spending some time on, but this guy is my favorite so I thought I'd share a few pictures."

Group photo of Day 2

The happy team of wargamers, painters, figure sculptors, Weta staff, and even a film director who dropped by, who took part in Day 2 of the Gallipoli diorama assembly process. 

Day 2 of assembly of giant Gallipoli diorama at Weta Workshop

The Wellington team has turned up in good numbers again to help with assembling the Gallipoli diorama.  Within the confidentiality strictures for our work at Weta, here are a few shots of what's going on today.

Michael Perry and Armchair General survey the ground.  Herman from Kapiti standing on the left. 

McBeth, Brian and Nick hard at work touching up and painting the last few figures. 

Paul (back) and Alex from Wellington were also involved in touching up.

I was really honoured when the Perrys modelled one of their figures on me! 

Nick concentrates on the fine touching up.

Brian got the task of painting the two Turkish standard bearers, and touched up many more figures.

Alan and Michael Perry confer with Sir Peter Jackson on the finer points of Turkish tactics.

Caption competition - the Perry twins and their horde

What caption can you come up with for this pic of Alan and Michael Perry and just a few of the 54mm WW1 figures they've been creating recently?

The Perry twins are now in New Zealand to oversee the installation of the 5,003 Anzac and Turk figures they sculpted for the giant Gallipoli diorama in The Great War Exhibition, opening in Welington on 18 April.  

A tale of the lost soldiers

Last week, one of the Hutt/Tawa painters, Reinhold, was transporting nine New Zealand figures he had just finished painting. Whilst putting his gear into the car, he placed the box of soldiers and a wooden stand on the roof and (gulp!) forgot about them as he drove off.

Two hours later at the Marklin Model Railway Club, where he was to show the soldiers that night, he realised the figures weren't in the boot. With horror, it dawned on him what had happened. Immediately he went back to find them, but it was already dark. All he could find was the wooden stand.

Next day he searched again, with no luck. He even went through the rubbish containers as someone might have thrown the box in the rubbish - nothing!

On Monday, he designed and printed 40 flyers, went along Ward Street and put flyers into letterboxes and onto power poles.

That evening, a young chap rang: "I found your soldiers. Good that you put that flyer in my letterbox." First thing Tuesday morning Reinhold picked up his soldiers undamaged, much to his relief. He gave the young chap who was living in a simple flat a cash reward. Tuesday evening he was able to deliver the nine Kiwis, plus another ten he had finished, to his team coordinator.

A question of size

Look carefully at these two pics. They're photos that Paul R has posted over on the Pendraken Forum, showing some 10mm figures he's been working on, posed in front of some of the 54mm Turks he has painted.  As he says, they compare well!