Kiwi painters sought for Peter Jackson's Gallipoli diorama

[nicknorthstar]

We're helping out in our own little way on the production side.

[Brian Smaller]

Well spotted, that man.  Only a minor 75% discrepancy!  It's now been corrected to read 4000.  Thanks for the heads-up.

And I bet you somewhere or other I'll call the blog "Mustering the Lines" instead of "Mustering the Troops", because my own blog is called "Dressing the Lines"! 

Great new site Roly. The added forum is a good idea. So...when do we start?

[Arteis]

Have you filed in the little registration form up on the site, Brian?  These registrations all go automatically into a database that Rhys will then use to figure out how and who to send the figures to.

I've put out a call on the site's regional forum for Kapiti-based painters to get together for a group prep and priming session, and also to jointly purchase any paints that we don't already have between us. 

I already have ten of the Kiwi figures here on my desk.  They're terrific!

[beefcake]

On second thoughts, I'm going to pass on this. 40 minis is too many in too short a time for me. Good luck everyone else involved.

[Arteis]

No problem, Beefcake.  You could still register and say you want to do a lesser number - if there are enough painters in your patch, that should still work.   

I figure 40 is less than the 60-man Minden Miniatures units I've been painting lately, so two months will be fine. Of course, this depends on what else you're painting - in my case I've hit the bottom of my lead-pile! 

In fact, if I can organise some joint painting days with mates to do the prep and to block in the first colours with spray paint, I figure it isn't going to take overly long.  One Wellington group are well under way already (they're having a painting day today, so hopefully will put photos up on the regional forum soon).
 

[Arteis]

First painted 54mm Turks starting to appear already:

See here: http://anzacdiorama.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/wellington-races-ahead.html

Painter Alan Hollows says they're not quite finished - hopefully he'll do last tidying up will be done after work tomorrow.

[Arteis]

The painting project has gone exceedingly well.  The diorama will open next week (2 May).  It has actually been ready since before Anzac Day, but other items in the New Zealand Room of The Great War Exhibition are still having some finishing touches done.

Having seen the diorama in its last stages of development, I can say the result is absolutely stunning. And I mean not just 'stunning' in the way it looks with so many lovingly painted 54mm figures on such a large terrain, but actually 'stunning' by its emotional impact on the spectator with the huge amount of carnage it shows.  This is no sanitised or heroic version of battle - it is a no holds barred freeze-frame of the bloody squalor that the real battlefield would have been on that day.

The project has built up an incredible atmosphere amongst the 140 volunteer painters involved. It has brought together people from different clubs all around the country, as well as lots of non-club wargamers and painters.  It has brought together wargamers of every genre, most of whom had never painted WW1 or 54mm before.  It resulted in a camaraderie between the volunteer painters and the professional model-makers from Weta Workshop who did the terrain.  And through the loads of media interest the painting project has created, it has brought the hobby out into the public arena in a definitely "non-geeky" way. Overall, it has made us all feel proud that we have really done something special for Anzac Day.

Photos of the diorama are embargoed until after the opening, so I'll be putting photos up on the Mustering The Troops blog on 2 May (this Saturday): http://anzacdiorama.blogspot.co.nz/  

[Atheling]

Really looking forward to seeing this!

Darrell.