Showing posts with label Chunuck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chunuck. Show all posts

26 March 2015

The Colour of war: Chunuk Bair progress

Chunuk Bair: Colour of the  ANZACs, and Peter Jackson's Comments

Evening by evening the ANZACs develop on my Painting Table. When Sam dropped them off my wife said:" Now we won't see him for a while".

Probably a true observation based on observation of me over 3 decades.


 I have the bit between my teeth now, and progress is happening. Having researched the uniform's colour variations a bit I have gone with the shirt base colour from Reaper's MSP series: Rainy Grey.

 I have also used GWs white, dwarf flesh, rotting flesh, bleached bone and commando khaki (or whatever name they have now dreamed up for them - the name of the colours have changed 3 or 4 times in the time that I have used their colours) Vallejo for the rest. For some reason I have not touched my Tamiya paints on this project.

At one stage the ANZACs looked rather like WW2 LRDG soldiers with shorts, khaki/sand drab uniforms, and neck protectors fashioned on the back of their caps. (No Arab headgear though, but they resembled the guy on the right with the 1937 pattern webbing a little)





Note the lemon squeezer in this photo.

At peril to go and explore the NZers in the LRDG's history at this point, but I will resist... Well, sort of:  Apparently the NZ contingent in the LRDG gave their Chev trucks Maori names. There is a pic of "Paki" having been destroyed by the Germans. 

But I will stop myself here. Hard... Very hard to do so. 
I just love picking up a little historic trail, and then exploring it. 

Having blocked in the shirt colours they are finally starting to look like ANZACs. So next step will be weapons, then washes on shirts, trousers, etc. "Make 'em grubby", as Peter Jackson wants (see below)

 

Peter Jackson has sent us all the following message:
(from the Mustering the Troops website)

" I want to thank all the wargamers who have volunteered to help with this massive diorama project. You’ve answered your country’s call for sure!  Your work and skill is very much appreciated by all involved in the WW1 exhibition we’re putting together.

Chunuk Bair is a battle more and more New Zealanders are becoming aware of, but few really understand what it was, and fewer still can visualise it. In a museum, there are very few ways to depict the scale of the battle, with over 1000 New Zealand and British troops under attack by thousands of Turks, across a 400 yard long crest - but we thought a miniature was the perfect way.

The diorama itself will be huge - over 10m long - with the terrain accurately re-created from a digital scan of Chunuk Bair itself. High resolution scans of aerial photos taken in October 1915, reveal the remains of the New Zealand trenches, so those will be positioned exactly as they were in August. Thanks to your efforts, we’ll be able to create an accurate and lasting impression of the struggle Kiwi soldiers found themselves in, mid-morning on August 8th, 1915."

" I’ve been looking at your work as it’s been posted on this blog, and it’s terrific! My only suggestion would be to vary the colours of the New Zealand shirts a little more. There are no photographs of the Wellington Battalion on Chunuk Bair, but we know the attack orders from General Godley specified “shirt-sleeves only”.




"In Gallipoli by August, most sense of military correctness had been thrown out the window. Far from stepping off the parade ground, by August the Anzacs were known as “The Scarecrow Army”. Soldiers were receiving parcels from home, and new shirts from Mum were often included.  So despite the painting guide instructions, I would encourage future New Zealand figure painters to give yourselves permission to mix it up a bit. Grubby white shirts, olive green, dark blue, light grey - all would be fine, and it will give the diorama an accurate look.

Thanks for supporting this project!

Cheers
Peter Jackson "

23 March 2015

Chunuk Bair: My Turks go over the Top and the ANZACs arrive

WW100: My Turks go off to war, and the first ANZAC troops line up on my workbench

Sam rings me today: "Are you ready for some more Gallipoli models? 
A few guys have pulled out, and we have a deadline looming"


 "How many have you done ?"
" Ten."

"How many more can you do ?"
" Another Ten."

 Silence,
 "...or twenty."

More silence

" Maybe thirty... "




Bewildered Turks fleeing a spectre of an ANZAC soldier


"I'll bring them to you tonight..."

 So a few quick snaps before these Turks that have been languishing on my workbench go off to Gallipoli and the tender ministrations of Mustapha Khamal.

"How many has Scott done?"
"Fifty ! "

"Fifty ? "

Ok, some ANZACs this time. 

Sam realises I am pushed for time, with a friends wedding and stag do to organise (best man at my ripe old age) , family birthdays and on call commitments. 

So: Wounded and kneeling ANZACs, and sundry lost or discarded equipment now on my workbench. 



Quick flash removal job. Yay! Slice my finger with a scalpel blade. 
...That's when you get for being lazy. Get out the dremel. 
... Buzzz...flash begone!

Mix Araldite (Yeugh!) 
Heads on, leave overnight to cure.
Arrange in sorry looking pile of wounded and kneeling soldiers.
Paint case happens to have bright red splatters of ink from a previous job on it, 

Or was it my blood? 
Or was it theirs?


Lead soldiers tumbling off balsa blocks...


I think back to this afternoon:  

Saw an 88 year old lady in my surgery. Have known her for 15 years. Used to be a keen painter, but she no longer has the energy. Buys the paint and the canvas, but just can't get started. 

We always end up talking art or painting. Told her about the WW100 project, showed her a few bits from blogs on my desktop PC. 

She gets all choked up. "Such waste, such waste. Thousands of them... Such waste..."

So raw is the wounds of Gallipoli still in the psyche of New Zealanders. 
This event has defined our lives, her life, 



Such waste. Such waste.