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 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."

Waikato packs up

Monday was the deadline for the Waikato painters. As coordinator for the region, Darcy Perry reports on his Hits To Kill blog that he was particularly happy to receive all the miniatures back on time.

"However, one volunteer returned his miniatures unpainted," added Darcy. "Fortunately I had purchased three cans of Dark Earth and Dark Yellow, so it was back to cleaning, assembling, spraying and painting."

Above:  But wait - there's more ...

Above: The last few completed. 

"Spending an afternoon at the table with Bobby last week had certainly honed my army painting skills. The best advice he gave me was whatever you do on one, you do on all of them. So choose your level of detail wisely! After a late night and early morning with the brush, the last box of Turks went south today."

Now Darcy says he can finally relax and countdown the days until the opening of The Great War Exhibition.

"It has been an honour to be part of this project and the WW100 programme," he says. "My thanks go out to the other volunteers around the country that have inspired me with their painting and stories."

Darcy is still tuning in to this blog as the diorama project continues. His friend Rob in Wellington will be helping with terrain during the installation.

"Thank you once again to the Waikato regiment of painters." says Darcy. "Over 300 troops and that makes up 8% of the total of 4000 miniatures. A commendable effort."

Here is Waikato's honour roll:

TAMAHERE OFFICERS CLUB 

• Darcy Perry 
• Lewis Morgan 
• Dave Hunter 

HAMILTON IMMORTALS 

• Philip Porter 
• Daniel Conlon 
• Nick Jebson
• Julia Jeanplong 
• Geoff Holt 

TRONHAMMER

• Timothy Lind

CAMBRIDGE WARGAMING CLUB 

• Bobby Grindrod

...and Darcy's daughters, Jade, Ella and Rylee who all put paint to brush to help Dad meet the deadline.

Painstaking job worth it

From Cambridge, here is an article about Bob Grindod's experience in this project.

Three Fernleafs face the charging Turks

Looking slightly outnumbered, Timothy Lind's three lonely Fernleafs await the charging masses of Turks.  

These pictures are from Timothy's Tronhammer blog (from you know where, by the blog name!) in which he explains his thoughts on being part of this project. 

Timothy plans to head down to Wellington to see The Great War Exhibition when it opens, and help celebrate and remember this important moment in New Zealand's history.

Another 'final' blog post for this project

Joining the list of painter doing their 'final' posts on their blogs, Darcy Perry has written a wonderful posting about his experience of this project on his Hits To Kill blog.

In particular, I enjoyed his story about taking the figures into a school class for the children to be able to hold in their hands what will become glassed-in history.

Darcy also spoke about painting Maori soldiers.

And, of course, there are loads of lovely pics of his figures and the Waikato painting crew.

Vicky's Auckland Mounted Rifles and others

Vicky Bleaken has sent in these pics of her contribution. There are 25 figures here, but she has 40 in total. Most are finished and others need some final detailing.

The standing men at the back with the brown leather bandoliers (instead of the webbing that most other New Zealand figures are wearing) are the Auckland Mounted Rifles, which is appropriate as that is where Vicky hails from..

Vicky commented, "What an honour it has been to be selected to paint our history and experience ‘those’ moments when empathy was so strong I had to stop painting."

Jono's last ten

"That one, second left in the front," says Jono. "He's number 53...my last one. That's why he didn't have time to shave!"

"Had a mate take a look at these. He's ex-army, old school, been around a while, knows a bit. Gave them a nod, then told me that back then they used put Brasso on the brass bits on the webbing then burnt it black...so it didn't shine. I guess mine are all non-smokers, so didn't have access to flame!"

"And for the record, all the painting has been done from this desk. Now, time to clear the MySky planner and get the surfboard back in the water. Bye from Tauranga!" 

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!

Valleyboy's Turks and New Zealanders

The other day Valleyboy from Tauranga took a few more photos of his completed figures, adding a few recently finished Turks.

To date he has managed 18 Turkish infantry, and is now put the finishing touches to 9 Anzacs.  More info on his blog here.

The Turks have the high-ground, as they did at Chunuk Bair.

And some New Zealanders from Tauranga

Here are some pics from Jon Stewart in Tauranga.

Bringing colour to historic battlefield

Reported on Stuff today:

You may have heard of the trooping the colour ceremony, but it is the colouring of the troops that concerns Darcy Perry.

Best known in entertainment circles as a blues musician, Perry is also a keen wargamer and one of a group of Hamiltonians who are part of a nationwide effort to help film-maker Sir Peter Jackson create a intricately detailed diorama recreation of the Battle of Chunuk Bair ...

Read the entire article ...

The Bunker Monkeys' second painting day

In Auckland over the weekend, the Bunker Monkeys had another painting day.  Great results, with the figures just needing highlights to finish.

Though are there some zombie Turks in there?!

Tauranga man with four eyes paints some Turks

Before someone has me on about the title, this was what Valleyboy himself called his posting on the Regional Forums!

"Thankfully after packing up for a house move, moving and then unpacking I've managed to get some Turks finished," he says.

Here are Valleyboy's first twelve figures - he's tried to get a bit of variety into the uniforms.

Turks keep rolling in

This must be the weekend for Turks.  They just keep on coming in waves.

 This latest batch comes from Bruce, who is a member of the Tauranga contingent.