I have become caught up in the no doubt frantic activity to get 4000 54mm Anzac and Turk troops assembled and painting in time for their inclusion in a large diorama as part of the commemoration of Anzac Day here in New Zealand, in April, about 50 days away...
More can be found here; Mustering the Troops
I received my first installment of 10 models; Turkish troops, on Thursday night and have so far, just managed to get them all trimmed and glued together...
They still need some greenstuff puty work for a little gap filling...
But other than that I am ready to start priming and painting them...
I feel a little oddly placed doing this in someways...
As a wargaming period, WWI has never been of any interest to me. Nor have I ever painting figures in such a large scale - the last things that came close to this were probably 1/32nd scale plastic toy soldiers as a kid...
And being a relatively recent (10 years ago) British Migrant here in NZ, I don't really have any direct connection to the ANZACs either...
...but I do have enormous respect for their brave efforts, all those years ago, and can equally respect the Turks for steadfastly defending their homelands, against an invading force...
But oddly enough, I think my main motiovator here, is my own desire to do this as a kind of indirect thank you, to Peter Jackson, and the Perry's, who have commisioned and produced these figures respectively... for their prior efforts, in bringing Tolkien's world of Lord of the Rings to life...
If it hadn't been for Peter's movie trilogy, and the Perry's sculpting of the range of GW figures, ... I'd probably still be living in the UK! Nor would I have been able to enjoy playing LOTR SBG for all these years now... So thank you Peter, and the Perry's!
A little voice has just chimed in, reading this over my shoulder, that I have also been given lots of encouragement from wifeypoos to get involved and do my bit... I even got away with not doing the washing up last night, to get on with the work! Long may it continue!
So, I'll wind up here, as the glue has probably dried enough for me to get back to work on the figures!
Stay tuned for more progress...
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ReplyDeleteAwesome! The troops haven't arrived here yet but they're on the way. I went and bought some spray cans today for undercoating. I look forward to seeing your progress. As for your motivations, I cannot agree with you more!
DeleteThis is a great project. When I saw this request for painters go out I was a little disappointed it was for NZ only.
ReplyDeleteStill waiting on my first lot of troops too. Good start there Scott!
ReplyDeleteGood luck Scott. A number of those ANZACs were ex-pat Brits so volunteering is in keeping with history.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of it that way Nate, good point! :)
DeleteThis will be something to show the grand kids old bean. One day you'll be very proud to have gotten involved with this. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant project and well worth dropping everything to support. I must say that I am really looking forward to seeing what you can do in 54mm!
ReplyDeleteI nearly went down the Turkish WW1 route about seven years ago when I visited Kemal Ataturk's mausoleum in Ankara where they have a large scale diorama of the fighting in Canakkale, as they call the Dardanelles campaign.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UqsRf118B2I/Rz9vvpH7KZI/AAAAAAAABCA/9iycmCxDbdI/s1600-h/CanakkalePanoramasi.jpg
Thanks for the link :)
DeleteI think they are looking for a unified look with so many differing painters involved, so there is a prescribed painting approach to follow... and no eyes, just let the shade wash do the work... my only hassle is not having the specified colours on hand... as the recommendation is GW stuff and I mostly use Foundry and I havent found a direct compatability chart for them yet...
I never have been able to do washes as it doesn't work as a technique with enamels.
DeleteWow - 4K figures in 54mm - that will be a sight to behold. Looking forward to updates on the massive project.
ReplyDeleteIf I was on your side of the ditch I'd be all over this, great work.
ReplyDeleteSounds great shall look forward to seeing what you do with them.
ReplyDeleteAwesome project to be involved in. It's going to look beyond amazing when completed. Would love to paint some but I now live at the top of Australialand. Cheers
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