"Sir Peter Jackson needs Kiwi war-gamers" Topic

The 100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign is fast approaching. Sir Peter has commissioned the Perry's to make thousands of 54mm ANZACs and Turks for a huge diorama of Chunuk Bair and the New Zealand Wargaming community has been asked to volunteer time to paint the miniatures for this diorama. Rush to volunteer.

For more details

link

Not wishing to put a dampener on it, but wouldn't it be nicer if he offered to PAY them to paint the figures?

Good luck with your quest!

Jim

It depends on what incentives, monetary or otherwise, PJ offers. Of course, there are probably those who would do this for nothing more than some 'free stuff,' publicity, acknowledgment/credit, and having the honor of meeting and getting a "thank you" from The Man himself.

Brings to mind Bilbo….. the burglar!

A bit cheeky, I think.

He really should offer to pay folks to do such. Of course, he could paint the miniatures himself…

Some don't get it, its an honour.
1 he commissioned 54 mm (54 mm folks)
2 he's asking his fellow compatriots to get involved
3 the ANZAC holy grail the centenary of Gallipoli.

Come on I'd give my eye teeth to just do one figure.
I'm sure Sir P will will this to the memory of all those tat served so bravely too.
Cheers and great luck to a good cause

Yes, it's an honour, there is no doubting that, and it's a great thing to be involved with. Again, there's absolutely no doubt in that.

BUT Sir PJ has quite a sum of money behind him and I don't see anything being said even about the paints being paid for. The painting guides are all using Games Workshop paints (very expensive!), so anyone that doesn't have them has to buy a new set of paints, plus give up their time to the project. It's very costly from a volunteer point of view. My company uses volunteers all the time and we bend over backwards to provide them with SOMETHING for their valuable time, like buying lunch, providing transport, anything!

At the end of the day, people will volunteer for it and good luck to them!

"Not wishing to put a dampener on it, but wouldn't it be nicer if he offered to PAY them to paint the figures?"

Abwehr-
It would be nice if you sponsored the costs incurred by the volunteers.

This is the man who had the NZ government make it a criminal offense for his movie workers to discuss how much (or little) they were being paid. New Zealand gamers had better hope they are not just rounded up and put to work in a South Island gulag, then charged for the experience.

Zoneofcontrol, I'd love to sponsor the costs of the volunteers, but unlike Sir Peter, I'm not a millionaire and very unlikely to be one, as I can't even afford to pay £170.00 GBP for my own painting project…

From what I've read this isn't Peter Jackson's own diorama, this is going to be at a museum.

PJ has already probably put forward tens of thousands of dollars in getting the sculpts done. And you're cribbing about getting the paint paid for to paint a figure or two?

Wow.

54mm? Must be nice to be able to afford minis that size…

Sadly, I do not have enough time to give minis that size the paint jobs they deserve. (Not to mention I'm in the US, not NZ)

I have never painted 54mm figures either. Fortunately I have pretty much all the paint colours required (from various manufacturers) so the budget can easily afford the few extra pots I don't have.

This diorama is going into the National Great War Exhibition. Thousands will see it. It is not going into PJ's spare room.

Wow, he's got money cos he's worked hard and we are jealous and we should have what he has so he should give us all of it even though it's a memorial that PJ is paying for and is simply asking for volunteers from the nation whose memorial it is to help complete. Let jealousy and complaining rule the day!

Imagine if one of those soldiers, all those years ago, had said "hang on lads, the officer in charge of us gets paid more than us, so we should let him do all the fighting for us"

That's the trouble with a crab pot.

Good luck, chaps! That's a lot of figures to paint in 3 months.

He'll get it done since it's for a good cause and he's doing it for charity. Whiners on TMP thinking this should be a paid painting service need not apply.

Having just returned from NZ (a truly great place) last Saturday I would love to take part, but alas, I'm on the wrong side of the pond.

Sorry, but where does it say it is for charity? And how is it for charity, I mean, how would money be raised from this activity? I read the link but perhaps I missed it.

I'll paint some of the Turks.

@Texas Jack

From Rhys Jones' open letter to NZ Wargamers
"New Zealand Great War Exhibition', which will open on Anzac Day this year and run through to Armistice Day 2018. It will be housed in the former Dominion Museum building in Wellington, behind the Carillon and the new Memorial Park. With both Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor doing the exhibits, and the historian Christopher Pugsley doing the historical curating, we know that this is going to best a best-of-world-class exhibition."

This is a display that will part of a larger exhibition that will run over the next four years. It is not for charity but a commemorative effort. Gallipoli has a very strong meaning for New Zealanders and Australians. Rightly or wrongly it gave both nations a sense of themselves as something other than displaced Englishmen.

Thanks Brian for the clarification.

It's not for charity, but out of charity since he's paying the Perry twins for the 54mm figures in a commission when he didn't have to do anything. And people are whining about contributing time to paint a few figures and do their part.

Some years ago I was with a group of fellow wargamers at the pub here in Wellington when we got to see a lot of the WWI greens that the Perry's were doing for PJ's private stash. Always thought there was more too it than just toys for PJs private collection. Never thought I would have the opportunity to paint some of them. I for one am looking forward to the challenge of painting 54mm minis for the first time, and then to seeing the completed diorama on display.

Now that I understand it is a project founded on national pride I think it is great. But I still think y´all are being pretty nasty to Abwehr. He is a nice guy, posts some great stuff, and then makes one comment you don´t agree with and you jump all over him.

Regardless, good luck on the project and I am looking forward to seeing your work!

Thank you to everybody who volunteers for this

@Texas – to be fair I have not jumped on anyone. I am just hoping that NZ wargamers jump on this band wagon and pitch in

Love to be involved, but I'm not sure my painting capacity would be up to it.

I do have a nephew who might be interested though, I will see if I can drag him into it.

Cool – the more the merrier. Send him to Dressing the Lines blog.
link

It's a big ask, regardless of who it is for, and that is intended in no way as a detrement to the cause or the heroism it commemorates. In giving gamers a month to organise and collect their own paints and then paint quite a quantity of 54mm figs, no mean stint in itself, smacks of leaving everything to the last minute, and exploiting a source of "manpower"to cover up the gaps. The Perries have had these figyres highlighted on their website for over a year now, and personally it strikes me as a bit rich expecting gamers to pull it out the bag at the last minute. Had there been more time and as has been noted, vouchers available to collect the paints from GW, and maybe even a few extra pots as a thankyou for helping out, I think it would come across better.

Nothing against PJ personally and have total admiration for his love and respect of the period and promoting it's memory, but it could have been handled better.

I got the email as well, but I really have to get my new games room painted so don't have much time to paint my own figures right now.

Not sure that I want to get into the rights or wrongs of how this is being done, but then I am a displaced Englishmen. :P

I think it's a pretty decent effort by Mr. Jackson. I wonder if he'd let a mere Yank like me paint up some Turks…

Love to be involved but I don't have the budget for my own paints never mind buying the paints for this.

Robert

What Mserafin said. I'd do it just so I could bug some Kiwi's into talkin him into a remake of The Blue Max!

BTW that Poster is wrong!!! we are being asked to paint the Turks not the Kiwi's. lol.

As an Australian who has moved to New Zealand:
After his part in destroying the Film Union here, he can paint them himself.

I'm with Abwehrschlacht. He knows how business works. So much "volunteer" work is for "Honour".

@Brian- I´m sorry, I should have made myself more clear. You are behaving here like a gentleman, sorry if you thought I was talking about you!

Imagine if one of those soldiers, all those years ago, had said "hang on lads, the officer in charge of us gets paid more than us, so we should let him do all the fighting for us"

This completely misses the point of volunteers. In this scenario, both men are getting paid for their jobs.

Many in here are also missing the point about how volunteers can reasonably be used in any job. My archaeology company uses lots of volunteers, all they have to do is turn up for the work, they don't need to bring any equipment with them as we provide it all (some volunteers bring their trowels anyway, but it's never compulsory).

In this situation, I think that the provision of the figures AND paints would be sufficient, rather than getting people to, not only, pay with their time, but also their tools. In the overall cost of the project this would be a drop in the ocean, TBH, and also allows more people to be involved i.e. the ones that can't afford to buy the paints needed. Do you think the Perrys volunteered to make the 4,000 figures?

I am not jealous of PJ's money, far from it, well done that man for making a living. I liked Lord of the Rings, but not as much as Bad Taste (one of my favourite films of all times) and I am desperate for him to make a WW1 air film. I think this is a brilliant project and brilliant of him to initiate it! So, I have no beef with the guy, neither do I have a beef with the project, per say, I can just see some flaws in the use of volunteers.

I have a few other issues with it being a museum and the use of volunteers in the heritage sector, but that is political, if you want to know more about that then PM me…

I wish everyone involved with the job good luck, having seen some of the figures I think it will be an amazing diorama and am actually looking forward to seeing pictures of it when it's finished and it will certainly be something to be proud of.

Now, I'm sure these comments will have picked me up a few more stifles…

I'm on the wrong side of the ditch otherwise i would do this in a heartbeat!

I'm one of the painters and I'm more than happy to "volunteer" a few hours of my time and the $15 USD bucks of paint I need to do my part.

Only on TMP could this turn into some drama fest about tall poppy syndrome.

If only I were in New Zealand! Monsieur Jackson would have me at, "come paint some Great War figures so we can make a big-ass diorama…"

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Agree, Leland. Kiwis have all the fun :-). I'd even paint Turks.

Would have been better if this project had started six months or so earlier. Also why 54mm? I would have done it in 28mm. It is hard to believe, but taken as a whole, a 28mm diorama might look better.

Those cliffs will have to be enormous at that scale. There is a world of difference between painting 54mm and 28mm. If you have never painted 54mm or larger you will have to practice first.

I am surprise that varying scales are not being used. For close ups 54mm but in order to represents the depth. You need 42mm, 28mm and even 15mm. Anyone who has seen the film "Gettysburg in Miniature" well know what I mean.

The other issue is painting styles. I can pick out different painting styles in 15mm. In 54mm it will be really noticeable.

It would be nice if everyone got a special edition copy of LOTR and Hobbit series. Maybe that will be a surprise gift.

This is a great idea it is just that more planning and thought was put in it.

I know a guy who is an ACW reenactor. His unit was offered a chance to be in the movie "Gettysburg." They turned the opportunity down because they weren't going to be paid (They were in the area with all their gear at the same time they were filming it.)Every time I see him I tell him, I would have done it for free and paid to travel to the film set. He won't admit it but I think he wishes he had said yes to the offer. Every chance he gets he criticizes the movie. Just hearing the music played in the background while we are gaming, sets him off.

What a fantastic way of promoting our hobby.

Needless to say, you don't HAVE to be involved. But by painting a couple of figures you could be part of this? Just great.

I guess some here missed a pretty key part of the original posting on Dressing the Lines:

I am seeking your help to find about 100 good painters who are willing to paint about 40 figures each over the next two months.

Yes, FORTY 54mm in about two months. For free, no expenses paid. That FORTY is, pretty much, why I'm in the "tell PJ to go himself" on this one.

And people are whining about contributing time to paint a few figures and do their part.

I'm just whining about not having enough TIME to paint them.

But hell, they're 54mm, it's not like you can spray one color, block in the others, dip/wash, and done like you can with 15s or 28s.

Well, I'd guess 100 NZ painters would be pretty near the ENITRE NZ historical miniatures gaming community! Members stats here only show 284 NZ members and I'm sure there are duplicates there (I figure a good 20% of the 'members' here are duplicates) and you know a bunch of those are not historical gamers though maybe.

And I'd disagree about 28 mm versus 54 mm. Sure, easier and faster to paint, but not so easy to see and identify in a museum exhibit, especially for the general public which is going to be the main audience.

Hope it works out in the end. I understand the patriotic element but I'd land on the side of thinking there could have been some more incentive, if only a free ticket to the exhibit for the family of each painter. At least some token above and beyond being an anonymous painter (though that begs the question whether or not the painters might actually get some public recognition via a plaque adjacent to the display).

Still pretty cool.

To answer the "Why 54mm?" question.
I suspect They're using the miniatures the Perry Twins made specially for PJ after they'd worked on LotR models.
They were for his own private use and never intended for commercial release. The Twins used to have some of the greens in the case at the end of their workbench when I was at GW.