Dippie had been waiting since May for a fine spell to get the work done, manager and wife Erin Dippie said.
"The machine's too expensive so we've always been watching the MetService so it was either too windy or was supposed to be raining, but then hasn't," she said.
In the meantime he had been working on other projects such as the six murals of the famous Kiwi men the houses at Tauranga Boys' College were named after.
How long it took to complete the mural still depended on weather, but Mrs Dippie said it was expected to take about two weeks.
But the Tauranga-based artist, whose works are scattered throughout the city, would be closing Dippie's Gallery in Ashworth Ln off Totara St come May and moving to Auckland after a three-month stint in America.
"We're just going to do some travel and then we're going to relocate to Auckland," Mrs Dippie said. "We need to go somewhere bigger. We've kind of outgrown it here. It's too small.
"All the jobs come through Auckland so we've got to be where the work is."
Before the big move north the couple would spend three months in America, mainly in Los Angeles and New York, where Dippie had several jobs lined up, she said.
It would be Dippie's fifth trip to New York, where he was quite well known, but Mrs Dippie would not reveal what projects he would be working on while he was there.
"You've got to see what pictures fit the walls," she said.
Next month Dippie would also be heading to Christchurch where he was scheduled to do some painting.