Massive Gallipoli Diorama
May 18, 2015 5:51 AM   Subscribe

Pictures of a massive Gallipoli diorama at The Great War Exhibition. These are photos of the diorama of the Battle of Chunuk Bair which opened on May 4 at The Great War Exhibition in Wellington, New Zealand. The brainchild of movie director Peter Jackson, the diorama contains 5,000 54mm (about 2 1/4" inches tall) figures. The figures were sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry and painted by volunteers from New Zealand wargaming clubs. This picture gives an idea of the massive scale of the diorama. Detail shots here and here.
posted by marxchivist (9 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is Mel Gibson the one wearing the red and white striped hat?

I kid, I kid.

This is simply stupendous! These types of things always make me wish I were a different person, so that I could make these types of things.
posted by OmieWise at 6:14 AM on May 18, 2015


It isn't just the figures. In reality, the ground the battle occupied was much larger too.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:22 AM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]


That is what I call "artistry in service to mankind".
posted by cleroy at 8:30 AM on May 18, 2015


Does anyone know, is there a well regarded Turkish history of this battle?
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:38 AM on May 18, 2015


54 mm is 2 1/8 inches tall. You almost had me there.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:59 AM on May 18, 2015


I'm pretty sure I've linked this every single time Gallipoli is brought up on Metafilter but it's just so damn good, and relatively unknown: Our Graves In Gallipoli, by EM Forster.
posted by kmz at 10:52 AM on May 18, 2015 [2 favorites]


Not to be confused with Richard Taylors Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War showing down the road at the national museum Te Papa. Instead of a massive battlefield, they made massive people.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 5:11 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


I know about this event because I'm following along with the great war on the great war's youtube channel which gives 100-years-late weekly updates on the war
posted by rebent at 5:41 PM on May 18, 2015


OHenryPacey, the Turkish histories are, for some reason, mostly written in Turkish, but for an English-language history with a Turkish viewpoint you could try Gallipoli: The Turkish Story by Kevin Fewster, Vecihi Hürmüz Basarin & Hatice Hürmüz Basarin (2003). Also, since Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) himself commanded the Turkish counter-attacks you could look up his books or books about him. There are a bunch of titles listed here, some of which are Turkish (but they are also in Turkish).

Most English-language histories of the Gallipoli campaign were written by British or Australian authors and they skimp the NZ angle. The go-to book for the New Zealand viewpoint is Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story by Christopher Pugsley (1984).
posted by Autumn Leaf at 11:02 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


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