Topic: Darth More's Dioramas: Felucia - Display Diorama (Test)

[FialaFernbrugg]

Excellent display stand for BB-8.
I'm glad that my wood display stands are still in use.

[Darth More]

Thank you very much, Christoph! Your display stands are great and inspire me a lot!
The next one will be a diorama display for TVC Aayla Secura on Felucia...I'll try to make it look like Sideshow's Premium Format figure...

[JDeck]

  I really like the Ewok display. Very well done. The figure stand/mini dios look very nice as well.

[hemble]

Damn that is a lot of ewoks but I love it and the small bases look great.

Ron

[Tamer]

Impressive. Off to share this in all the right places.

[Darth More]

@JDeck: Thank you JDeck! It's hard to believe that I didn't own a single Ewok just 7 years ago...I am glad Hasbro released so many new versions of them in 2006-2013!

I might renew the surface of BB's display. This time around I would use a different glue.

@hemble: Thanks Ron, your feedback is always welcome! So I assume you are not the biggest fan of these furry furballs?

@Tamer: Thank you, Shawn!



Sorry guys for my long asence. I couldn't connect my computer to the internet for a couple weeks. But now I am online again with some new stuff to be added to the forum!

[Tamer]

Sounds good to me!

[Darth More]

Shelf Diorama: Streets of Mos Eisley - A New Hope


Here I show you my first shelf diorama! This is the first realization of many ideas. My rack has 6 shelves - each for one Epsiode! So obviously I begin with the fourth floor!

1. First, I measure the length and depth of the floor. I use a 4mm / 0.16" chipboard and saw out a suitable plate with a jigsaw. Of course a circualar saw works even better, but I haven't got one...

The plate's measures are: 56,2x33,3 cm / 22.126"x13.110"



I had many ideas for this project! But this time I didn't draw a sketch. Instead I experimented with styrofoam parts I found in my bin.





For this diorama I had a main priority: Variety! I wanted as many different shapes as possible. And this is how it turned out:











Doors:


Remember the door profiles of my Mos Eisley Diorama from 2009/2010?

If not, check it out by follwoing this link: http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=3139.0



Back then I made the doors out of balsa wood and plywood. That was much work and quite expensive. In order to save time and money I simply used cardboard this time.
Since the door profiles will be glued later and don't have a function, this solution works fine for me.

The door profiles are drawn on graph paper and cut out so that you have a stencil for multiple doors.
Translate the profile on cardboard (1mm) with a fine pencil, cut them out with a scalpel using a ruler as support. The cardboard profile has to be glued onto a second piece of cardboard. The thickness of the cardboard is up to you!




The doors are then painted with the following tools and colors:




For the garage gate I also used cardboard and glued a piece of corrugated cardboard on it:




The back of the walls have to be adapted to the cardboards dimensions:



And this is how they look painted:









Nothing is glued, yet, except for the doors themselves! And there is a reason for it:

I've been looking for a suitable profile for the door frames for 8 years by now.
In the movies almost every door (in Mos Eisley) has a profile on the wall's depth:


I do not own this image!
Source: http://illuminatedcelluloid.blogspot.de/

So since I haven't found an accurate profile, yet, I decided to make one myself:

I used graph paper and glued these tiny cardboard stripes on it. Tweezers helped me a lot to apply them! The measures of this paper prototype are: 10x2 cm / 3.94"x0.79".





I am glad I can finally give you some insight into the "mold and cast" technique!

This is actually the easiest way to make a mold. Parts that only have one positive and have a flat bottom side can be glued on an even surface. A glass plate (obviously taken from a picture frame ) is very suitable for this purpose.
Make sure to use a craft glue that can be removed once it's dry...I used LEGO bricks to mark the mold's dimensions. The bricks are also glued on the glass plate, but only along the inner edges.



I then used silicone which is mixed in a ratio of 1:1 (weight or volume units). Just pour the silicone over the mold until all parts are covered well. Make sure to make such a mold at least 0,5cm / 0.2" higher than the highest edge of the part to be duplicated.
In the picture you can see the mold from below. Of course the silicone had vulcanized by then.



After you have removed the original parts, that were needed just to hold the space, you can pour resin or a similar material into the mold and let it harden. Unfortunately my paper prototype didn't survive the production process, but I expected that to happen. The mold is good and the cast is exactly what I was hoping for.



To make the paper profile took me over 2 hours...I definitely do not want to do that a dozen times, over and over again...



The resin profiles are thin and can therefore be bent well! I cut the edges and painted them white using Revell's SM 301 white, mat








 

[Tamer]

Looks good to me. Looks even better on the front pages.

[JDeck]

Very cool! The doors are looking great!

[hemble]

This is coming along great, keep the WIP pics coming and look forward to seeing the final build.

Ron

[Darth More]

@ Tamer: I agree, Shawn. Thanks!

@ JDeck: Thanks, JD! I might go back to the doors and add a shade to the inner edges...

@ hemble: Thank you, Ron! I keep them comin' and try my best to finish this project as soon as possible!

This building consists of two walls. The second wall gives this building a certain depth. These buildings in Mos Eisley, built out of sandstone, are exposed a constant decay and have to be fixed persistently. Sandstorms and extreme heat cause inevitable damage. This wall should look like a second wall was built in front of the previous one because it wouldn't have been economic to restore the first one. 



These stakes connect the new wall with the old one.



I mostly used spare parts of styrofoam for these walls. It makes these "scenery dioramas" even cheaper.




Did you know that George Lucas and his team worked the same way on the shooting of The Phantom Menace?


Left: In the Sahara desert the city of Mos Espa is established. The sceneries consist of wood frames, wire netting and foam insulation.
You can buy this book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Star-Wars-Episode-Phantom/dp/0345431111/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1502126573&sr=8-10&keywords=star+wars+making+of

In the book "STAR WARS - TheMaking of Episode I - The Phantom Menace" there is this article (see picture above). I got the book in German so I'll translate an excerpt of the text here:

In accordance with the istructions of the producers the sceneries of Mos Espa were only built as high as the actors' sizes or a little higher in order to keep costs as low as possible.
"Not a single scenery had a roof", says Rick McCallum. "We knew exactly what we needed and when George decided that he wanted the scenery to be higher, we just added a Bluescreen so that ILM could add that part digitally later on. We had a kilometer of Bluescreen with us so that we could access to it whenever we wanted. We always had portable Blue- and Miniscreens at the sets which could be installed within minutes."


The wood stakes are then painted with Revell's No. 84 - Leather Brown. I might use a lighter brown to highlight the edges later on.




Rendering

One improvement of this project I am most proud of is the rendering! If you remember my big Mos Eisley model from 2009 you know that the walls of my older buildings were 1. too light-coloured and 2. too "creamy". I always wanted to recreate sandstone...and the one component I never used is: Sand! This solution is as obvious as it is trivial...
Here I'd like to thank Ron (hemble) for his valuable and decisive hint to use (instant) filler!



So for the rendering I used:

1. Acrylic Paint (beige) (~ $7/l)
2. Instant Filler (~$4/kg)
3. Sand! (~$1/kg)

Just mix all three components in a ratio you like until you get the result you are looking for.

And here is what I got:

[hemble]

Awesome work on the doors and walls mate.

Ron

[Tamer]

Very nice. Off to share.

[FialaFernbrugg]

The idea to build a diorama inside of a shelf is brilliant and your execution of such a project is amazing.
It is incredible how much work you have put into this project especially the doors and door frames.
Thank you very much for the detailed building instructions.

Excellent work my friend.