Herman's Turks go over the top and the ANZACs arrive

On his Wargames Obsession blog, Herman van Kradenburg (Paraparaumu) has posted a humourous look at his recent painting work

But be prepared - at the end of his article, the humour turns to pathos.

Jonathan's well-travelled figures

Here are some photos Jonathan Forsey (Canterbury) sent us of his latest batch of Turks and Anzacs, including casualty figures.

He painted these whilst on holiday at Lake Heron station up in the mountains near the head-waters of the Rakaia river.  These boys have travelled!

Jonathan has painted 45 figures so far, some already returned, and this lot due to go back to Tim at Comics Compulsion today.

Another Gallipoli diorama

Nick Papadopoulos of Papatoetoe is currently in the process of mustering 1/72nd plastic figures to produce two dioramas to display on behalf of the Papatoetoe Historical Society for the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC landings.

The dioramas will be a Gallipoli battle scene and a generic Western Front trench scene.

Nick is using HäT WW1 figures.  However, HäT are out of stock of some of the key packs Nick needs, so he is seeking help to find these.

He’s also looking for people to help him get the project completed as soon as possible.  As Nick says:

If you live in South Auckland (or the greater Auckland Metropolis) and can spare time on Saturday 28th March , send me an email or a phone call  [papafam@xtra.co.nz or (09)279 9239]. Bring along your 10x0 miniature brushes or a hot-wire tool – I will supply greasies and L&P for lunch … !!!!

Read more about Nick's request for help here on John Moher's wargaming,info blog.

'Once On Chunuk Bair'

I think these pictures from Maurice Shadbolt’s play Once on Chunuk Bair really convey the look and feel of the 'Fernleaf' side of the fighting. Click on the pics to see them in their full glory.

This particular performance of the well-known New Zealand play, which originally debuted in 1982, was put on by the Auckland Theatre Company last year. Twelve actors embraced the challenge of depicting that dreadful day in 1915 when the Wellington Battalion was fatefully tasked to take the strategic peak of Chunuk Bair.

The costume designer seems to have had good reference information to work from. Whilst I'm no expert, it looks pretty authentic to me. Even down to the red welts that were a feature of New Zealand infantry trousers (I presume we've not been asked to paint these due to the invisibility at our scale).

This play is being put on in at least to places this year - Hamilton and Porirua.

Nine-page thread at Pendraken Miniatures Forum

There's a (currently) nine-page thread on the Pendraken Miniatures Forum at the moment, in which Paul Reynolds gives us a session-by-session break down of his painting progress.

It's really interesting reading the other forum members' thoughts and comments about the project.

Plus you get to see some shots of Paul's terrific work.

Turks en masse

Jon's recently completed Turks look fantastic - and especially en masse like that.  But bear in mind this is only about 0.5% of the total figures that'll be in the diorama!

A rainy day's work

 

'Pelarel' from Wellington sent the above picture of batches 3 and 4 finished. He was happy for a rainy Sunday to get these done.

The picture below also shows batch 5 waiting for its washes.

One of our younger painters

This project encompasses quite an age range. Ben is one of our younger painters, seen here hard at work on his batch of figures for the diorama. 

Charge of the Turks

Rodger (Christchurch) has posted a picture of some of the Turks he has just finished painting.  Just for these photographs, he inserted the figures into some temporary terrain.  Simple, yet very effective!

More pics on his blog here.

The sign is up ...

The Great War Exhibition (and our diorama) is getting closer - the direction sign is now up.

Pics of Batch 7

In his posting today entitled The Last Stretch, Armchair General mentioned that he had now sent out the latest figures for painting.  Here are the pics of what is in this batch.

This batch includes the main character figures for the diorama, such as Lieutenant Colonel Malone (the subject of the book No Better Death that I previewed earlier) and the VC winner Cyril Bassett.

There is one more box to arrive, only a small one with mainly one-off figures.

Some of the one-offs

Russell Briant (Wellington) has sent in these superb pictures of his painting work on several of the one-off Turk and New Zealander figures.  These were first announced on the blog way back on 10th February.  He has really done them justice.

The Last Stretch

Last week I sent out the last of the big batches of figures.  When he is back from his trip north Roly will post the pictures that the Perrys have sent over showing these figures.  As you will see they have started sending the main character figures for the diorama, such as Lieutenant Colonel Malone (the subject of the book "No Better Death" that Roly previewed earlier) and the VC winner Cyril Bassett.  There is one more box to arrive, only a small one with mainly one-off figures.

With only a couple of weeks until Easter the final stretch for painting is here.  I know that after this long it feels like 3 pm on a Christmas day; having had the lunch, opened the presents and had a few glasses of alcohol time seems to drag and motivation to do anything is hard to generate.  At least with this painting you won't be treading on bits of the new lego set or frantically trying to find batteries in the third drawer down of the kitchen cupboards.

I have been steadily recieving figures back from around the country.  They look great and I don't think that a museum diorama anywhere in the world will have had the same amount of loving care put into all the figures to the extent that all of you have.  Well done, to you all.

Enjoy the last of the painting.

Armchair General.

Kapiti ingenuity?

Scott from Paraparaumu gets started on his final consignment.  But even a tight painting deadline can't get between a man and his Friday evening tipple!

No Better Death

I'm away from home for a few days, but to keep my connection with this project, I'm reading 'No Better Death', the collated diaries and letters of Colonel William Malone, commanding officer of the Wellington Battalion at Chunuk Bair.

Until recently, I knew next to nothing about Gallipoli, and certainly nothing about the Battle of Chunuk Bair.  I am so thankful that this project has now given me the opportunity to learn about such an iconic event in my country's history. And I'm even more grateful to have 'met' Colonel Malone.

'No Better Death' brings this stalwart, stern yet sensitive character to life.  We see how he really feels about the events around him, his ideas of leadership, and his intense pride in his battalion. And we share his longings for his wife and children.

The book concludes with a detailed description of the Battle of Chunuk Bair, which was Malone's finest moment.  Sadly this part of the book is written in the third person, as Malone was no longer around to write about the battle in his diary ... he was killed whilst holding the captured Turkish trench.

A thoroughly recommended book if you want to learn more about the figures we're painting.