Chunuk Bair

Off the back of my Daft Punk helmet build during my studies, I was invited by my tutor for a contract with Wētā Workshop, building a diorama for Sir Peter Jackson’s ‘The Great War’ Exhibition. This was a fantastic museum display to commemorate 100 years of World War I. It encompassed a mass of model-making, exhibition displays, themed attractions, and more; all of which Wētā is famously skilled for.

We had the mammoth task of helping to build a 42 x 38 ft dioarama of Chunuk Bair. With a base built from the engineering department, we shaped, textured and decorated the entire model in-house at the Workshop, before being spliced and bought across the home of the exhibition. From landscaping and cutting turret mounds, to figurines from the ever-impressive Perry Brothers (of Games Workshop fame) and 140 local Warhammer ‘Wargamers’ paiting and placing over 5000 figurines, this project was by no stretch, huge.

We flocked, painted, and decorated the expansive model, overseen by Sirs Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor themselves. I took on a leadership within the team and we helped to deliver the project to the highest-quality.

Check out some reporting:

Stuff.nz — Ten-metre Chunuk Bair diorama unveiled at Peter Jackson's WWI exhibition https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/last-post-first-light/68243154/tenmetre-chunuk-bair-diorama-unveiled-at-peter-jacksons-wwi-exhibition

Mustering the Troops — The Great War Exhibition Miniature Painting Project https://anzacdiorama.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2025-12-31T19:56:00%2B13:00&max-results=15&reverse-paginate=true

Wellington Great War Exhibition — Chaosbunker https://www.chaosbunker.de/en/2017/08/27/wellington-great-war-exhibition-part-2/