Many of you will by now have already seen the Media releases and photos of the Maquette unveiled, at Apsley House.
For those eagle eyed, accuracy seeking members, with throbbing fingertips from typing in observations of errors and mismatching of weapons and uniforms, fear not. We are quite aware that the uniforms and specific era weapons are not correct. The Maquette is simply the first stage in the long process of making the memorial. It is the initial design concept of the size, shape and dimensions, in miniature, of the finished article.
The next phase will see Andrew and his team come up to the Regimental museum, where we will have some people correctly dressed with the right uniform and weapons for the four different era’s, under the auspices of John Spencer, our museum curator and the museum archives staff. Once correctly dressed and armed with the actual period weapons, from the armoury, they will each pose in the stance, as per the Maquette design. A set of photos of each of them, along with more closely detailed ones of the uniforms and weapons will be taken for Andrew to use when making the full-size figures.
Additionally, for those of you asking about the ease with which the memorial could be damaged, rest assured. The life-size figures, which will stand around 16′ high, as they progress upwards, will be sitting on top of a tall stone plinth. There will be addition items, depicting the history and other aspects of the regiment, on the walls of the plinth.
You can see more detailed information regarding the making of the memorial here:- http://memorial.dwr.org.uk/first-figure-and-the-start-of-its-construction/ and this short video by David Ainley:– http://memorial.dwr.org.uk/filming-with-david-ainley/
For those of you wanting more information of the various events being staged, to help raise funds for the memorial, please see this part of the Memorial fund section:- http://memorial.dwr.org.uk/#events
Richard