A visit by Julian Seddon…(2011)
I had not heard of this Museum until I arrived in the South Island of New Zealand just recently. I was slurping the wine in that area (and very good it is too) when the couple I was with said that Sir Peter Jackson’s company Wingnut Films had assisted in the construction of the dioramas on site.
You can find it just outside Blenheim on the South Island.
The good thing is that it is very small. This allows one to concentrate on the exhibits of which there are about twenty, with many other small details on show such as engines and short films. It is actually an exhibition of full size versions of the kits Wingnuts produce!!
Walk in and you are immediately struck by the stage lighting. Unfortunately I only had my iPhone with me so the quality of the photos is not that great. Some of the interesting exhibits just didn’t lend themselves to photography as they were too dark in any case.
I took some pictures of some of the more striking and photogenic ones.
The workshop scenes were truly amazing as the quality of the waxwork figure (if that is what it was) was eerily lifelike.
The scene above is a WW1 workshop and it is big. The airframe being worked on is apparently an original that was found propping up a barn!
The photo is a diorama of a true story. Apparently a Kiwi pilot named Keith “Grid” Caldwell had had a midair collision that so disabled his SE5 that he had to stand on the wing and fly it from outside the cockpit in order to bring it safely to earth, he jumped off just before it crashed in front of some allied trenches and was rescued unhurt!
Photo 4 is the “Nieuport in a tree diorama “too big to photograph in one, but a must see if you visit the museum!
The exhibit is surrounded by Richthofen artefacts. Impressive to say the least.
Go there if you have a chance and, as an added bonus, the shop in the foyer is the only place on earth where you can buy Wingnut Wings models off the shelf. I succumbed and bought a Sopwith Pup which survived the flight back in my suitcase surrounded by socks!!
Check out this unique museum here now at: www.omaka.org.nz
Julian S.
