Live update 2: Anzac diorama working bee at Weta Workshop

Saturday 11 April, 1530hrs:  Afternoon tea time at Weta Workshop.  It's been a productive day, with hundreds of figures sorted, repaired, painted, touch-up, dusted, varnished ...

Everybody I've spoken to has been immensely positive about their experience in this project.  Whilst it is a sombre commemoration, the cooperative nature of the whole painting process has opened up communication between members of various clubs, between fantasy and history gamers, between painters and gamers, between club members and solo hobbyists.

By the way, keep an eye out on TV One.  Their film crew spent a considerable time with us this morning, filming the figures and interviewing several of the painters.  For non-NZ visitors, I hope to be able to put up a link to this television item once it is on their website.

Here are some photos of this afternoon's efforts at the Weta Workshop warehouse:

Yours truly and Armchair General lead the charge!  

A third painting table gets under way (though in this photo it looks like a very weird job interview!).

A happy camper (Scott Bowman from Kapiti).

A study in concentration.

Our youngest painter?  Mortimer Campbell takes an interest in the action.

Hive of activity at Weta Workshop on the big Anzac diorama

Saturday 11 April, 1300hrs:  It's a hive of activity today at Weta Workshop today, as we work on the final touches before the massive Chunuk Bair diorama is opened to the public next weekend.

About 30 wargamers gathered this morning, and have been busy sorting figures, painting, air-brushing and gluing terrain.

It's now lunch-break, so here are some pics of the morning's activity.

Armchair General surveys just some of the masses of painted figures.

One of the painting tables in full swing.

First lot of figures heading from Weta Workshop to the Dominion Museum.

Air-brushing dust onto every single figure's boots. 

Another painting table hard at work.

Sorting out the figures into different poses.

An action-filled scene - two painting tables, a sorting area, visiting media - as the title of this post says, a hive of activity!

One week till opening day!

Well, it's the home straight now!  One week exactly till the opening day of The Great War Exhibition, which includes our massive Chunuk Bair diorama.  Exciting!

During the week the diorama terrain was moved in blocks from Weta Workshop to its future home in the old Dominion Museum.

There's still a lot to be done, though, before the diorama is finished.  But fortunately Wellington region wargamers are rallying around to volunteer yet another weekend to do the final touches on this tremendous project.

This weekend the tasks that the team will be working on include:

• sealing up the joins in the terrain and fixing any damages from the transport (mainly being done by the Weta crew)
• doing any additional scenic work to cover over the joins
• doing painting touch-ups to the figures
• spraying dust on the boots and lower legs of the figures
• varnishing the last lot of figures
• further organisation of the figures into their groups for placement into the diorama
• sticking the figures in.

That last task is so simple to say, yet it is going to take quite some organisation to stick 5000 figures all in their correct places on the 10m long diorama!  

Tauranga locals help paint model soldiers for diorama

Here's another newspaper article about our project.  This time it is the Bay of Plenty Times with a story about our Tauranga crew. The journalist interviewed Bruce Balfour over the phone. The article included the above picture of Greg, who runs the local store and was the distribution centre for the models in Tauranga. 

The last few figures stagger in ...

Campbell from Wellington has submitted this photo of his 62nd/63rd (and hopefully last) miniatures.

"It was a bit of a rush to paint this and another 13 Turkish casualties in the last four days," he says, "But just in time for Saturday."

A fantastic job, especially portraying the forlorn look of the wounded man. 

Behind-the-scenes videos of Te Papa exhibiton

Have you been watching the behind-the-scenes videos of the building of our brother exhibition Gallipoli: The scale of our war at Te Papa?

There have been three episodes posted now, with more to come shortly.

I found Episode 3 particularly interesting.  It covers two aspects: the story and sounds of the Maori contingent, and the unique art design of this exhibition.  

Last dash from Otago

Graham Johnston from Otago inherited figures #51-87 at the undercoat stage over Easter. With the tight deadline, he had to resort to dry brushing to finish more quickly. But he delivered them to be posted with the others late in the night. "Talk about sleep deprivation!" he commented.

However, the upside was that he got to work on quite a lot more model variations. "I have been amazed how full of character  each individual is," said Graham. "I've almost developed an empathy with my wee Turks having to charge up that hill. Those sculptings are amazing."

It also promoted Graham's interest in what happened after WW1 in Turkey. "That campaign was almost as formative for their country as it was for ours. No wonder the Turks were so friendly to Kiwis when we visited several decades ago."

"Thanks for the opportunity to work on this amazing project. I really look forward to seeing the final set up. Maybe I'll even play 'spot the Holly-dog assisted Turk' some time! Thank you, and now sleep for me!"

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.