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/