The first public photos have been released of the room-sized diorama of the Battle of Chunuk Bair at The Great War Exhibition in Wellington, populated with five thousand 54mm figures.
The diorama is the brainchild of world-famous movie director and WW1 buff, Sir Peter Jackson. He enlisted the former chief of New Zealand’s defence forces, Lt General (rtd) Rhys Jones, himself a keen wargamer, to lead this official WW100 commemoration project.
Alan and Michael Perry, two of the foremost miniature figure sculptors in the world, were engaged to produce the figures; and leading movie special effects company Weta Workshop to make the massive terrain.
The 5000 miniatures were painted by 140 enthusiastic Kiwi wargamers organised in teams of volunteers right across the country.
So pop on over to the official Mustering The Troops blog for loads of photos of this amazing diorama. Here are some sample pics from the blog:
DRESSING THE LINES 
Many thanks for helping organise the project Roly. Great to see the pics now.
Vince
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My part in the organisation was minor. All credit should go to Rhys, who worked tirelessly to coordinate this project that many said ‘couldn’t be done’.
Absolutely stupendously good Arteis.
A real tribute to the ANZACS- I have no other superlatives to describe this!
Darrell.
The pics don’t do it full justice. You’ll really have to swing a trip over here some time!
I got to see this amazing model and tribute in April 2016 whilst visiting Wellington. My wife’s grand Father was KIA there on the 10th August 1915, whilst serving with the 5th Wiltshire Regiment. It has taken two generations and lots of investigations to find this out. We hope soon to visit Chunuk Bair and pay our respects to those who were there at the battle.
It looks absolutely fantastic! I managed to get there on Sunday, but they were still 24 hours away from the official opening, so I didn’t get to see it in person. I’ll be back – to see this diorama and also have a more leisurely look through the WWI exhibition.
Yes, I think this exhibition has to be taken at a leisurely pace. The guided tours are good for those who don’t know too much about the War, but if you have got the basic grounding, then doing it yourself in your own time is much more productive. I spent at least two hours in the diorama the other day, even though I knew all about it already!