



Working at Weta Workshop





Only some of the thousands of 54mm figures - all of which had to be individually unwrapped after being sent to Wellington by painters from around the country.





Each figure was then checked, paint jobs touched up if necessary, dust sprayed onto the boots, and matt varnished.





Here are some of the many New Zealanders. It helped to initially sort the thousands of figures into poses, so that we could then break then into their separate units.





Sir Peter Jackson reviews the troops, accompanied by Rhys Jones (aka 'Armchair General', which is a nickname he is fully entitled to, being a retired Lieutenant General in real life!), and UK sculptors extraordinaire, Michael and Alan Perry.





The real terrain around Chunuk Bair was mapped by laser surveying, and the digital map was then used to guide the computer controlled lathe to shape large blocks of styrofoam to form the miniature terrain.





Herman van Kradenburg (Kapiti Wargames Club), Michael Perry (Perry Miniatures, UK) and Rhys Jones (aka 'Armchair General') stand atop the terrain at Weta Workshop, as other volunteers start applying the foliage. On the wall are reference photos of the real-life vegetation at Gallipoli.





Even though it looks like a picnic, applying the vegetation to the terrain was a huge job, and took about two weeks.





All of New Zealand's model shops must've been denuded of every bit of terrain material they had in stock!













Final touches at the old Dominion Museum

Next we see some photos taken after the diorama terrain was transported from Weta Workshop into its new home at the old Dominion Museum in Wellington.

Don't forget to click on the following pictures to see them at full size.



Rhys Jones (Armchair General) points out to volunteer painter Phil Sirvid how the terrain was transported to the museum in blocks sized to fit into the building's elevator. They were then reassembled, and the joins disguised. As this was a construction zone, this must be one of the only dioramas ever where hard hats were required!





Michael and Alan Perry commence the job of inserting the figures into the terrain. This picture shows only part of the whole diorama! Note the viewing platform, and the tracks for the glass walls that will enclose the diorama.





Inserting the figures was back-breaking work. The figures came with a long pin under one foot, which had to be pushed into the terrain. Care needed to be taken to not sit or stand on any figures or terrain pieces.





This photo is taken from the rear of the diorama, looking at the back of Chunuk Bair and Hill Q. This is just a small portion of the complete diorama.

Alan Perry inserting hundreds of New Zealanders and British into the two trench lines atop Chunuk Bair. High resolution scans of aerial photos taken in October 1915 reveal the remains of the New Zealand trenches, so these are positioned exactly as they were in August.













The finished diorama

These are the first public photos of the massive diorama of the Battle of Chunuk Bair, which officially opens on Monday morning atin Wellington, New Zealand.This 10-metre diorama with five thousand 54mm miniature figures commemorates the brave deeds of both New Zealanders and Turks, and the horrors they went through on that August day a century ago.The diorama is situated in the ANZ New Zealand Room, part ofat the old Dominion Museum in Wellington. Entry is free.We'll start with a few pictures taken during the construction of the diorama at Weta Workshop in the Wellington suburb of Miramar. At the time we weren't allowed to publish these photos because they showed too much of the diorama or too many figures, which Sir Peter Jackson wanted kept a surprise until after the opening.Apart from the first picture, I took most of these pictures a couple of weeks before the opening, when the protective glass walls weren't yet in place. But not quite all the figures had been placed yet, and the final lighting wasn't installed either - so the real-life diorama is even more amazing than in these photos.