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

[bubbavader]

Love the idea.

I can't help myself.  Its a Stick in Box!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwCbbMgp3Lw

[Darth More]

@ hemble:  Thank you! Yes, the presentation on all the plants took quite some time. All the pictures, texts and links...but it was woth it! Thanks for posting your sources, too! I am looking forward to contribute to the new topic Tamer was talking about.

And about the latest dio: Ron, it honors me to hear that from you! I had a lot of fun working on it!
I look up to you and your incredible skills! Your dioramas and landscapes look beyond authentic!


@ bubbavader: Thank you bubbavader! Haha, I did know this one before! A friend of mine from high school showed me the video. It's hilarious! 

[Darth More]

Next up for my series of picture frame dios is a tribute to the Ewok Assault Catapult from the Vintage Collection!
I've always been amazed by the design of the packaging and especially by the dioramas Hasbro used to present their products. Three of them were the packaging of the Endor AT-AT, AT-ST and the Ewok Assault Catapult that inspired me for this project.

The TVC Ewok Assault Catapult was released in 2013 and exclusive to Kmart:


I do not own this image! All rights reserved to dorksidedotcom and those in charge of their website.
Source: http://www.dorksidetoys.com/Star-Wars-Vintage-Collection-Kmart-Exclusive-Ewok-p/hassw75550.htm



It took me about 20 minutes to get here:


I already put some plants on the model clay to see how much space I approximately have on this display.
Next I have to paint the ground and apply sand, wood and leaves...



One detail that is new to this project is a piece of styrofoam which should become a rock...I'll paint it with acriylic paints. Let's see how this turns out and how much it will actually look like a rock later...stay tuned!

[hemble]

This is coming along great.

Ron

[Tamer]

Looking great. I wish I had picked up this set. Off to share.

[Darth More]

@hemble: Thank you Ron!
 
@Tamer: It's not too late, Shawn! You can still buy it for a decent price:
There're some "Buy it Now" offers for $24.99!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xstar+wars+vintage+ewok+catapult.TRS0&_nkw=star+wars+vintage+ewok+catapult&_sacat=0

Or check out your sponsors to see if they still have it in stock. 

So I finally had time to make some major progress on the Catapult Display...I taped the frame's edges to avoid that I accidentally paint the wood as well.
The inner area is painted with brown acrylic paint. 



I applied a thick layer of paint so that the shredded flakes (as pictured below) could sink into the paint and were fixed. Using spray-paint was an interesting experience here. My suggestion: Don't use it. Fix all materials for the forest ground with paint or wood glue.




Toothpicks helped me to fix the "fern", that used to be palm tress before. 





To fix all plants I used some of these instruments and drilled holes into the modelling-clay:





Then, I cut each plant according to the depth of its hole and fixed it with wood glue.




And here is the result:





About the rock: I used these acrylic paints for painting the rock:


I also mixed them on a glass-top (which was an unused part of the picture frame).

I started with the deepest parts of the rock by applying the darkest shade of grey. I then dry-brush the less deep areas until I briefly brush over the highest edges with the lightest tone.





I also re-painted the fern in two different shaed of green because the plants were too glossy before.



I used a slightly darker green for the "smaller fern". Names amd numbers of the colours I used come later this year...




Display with TVC Assault Catapult Set:

















More pictures...
















Conclusion: I know this recreation of Endor is NOT perfect! You might miss some trees, the ground is too dull and the overall area looks too clean, maybe more like a garden.
If you think about it like that, I agree with you! This was my second attempt on an Endor display.
I wanted to make it look like the background of Hasbro's TVC packaging as mentioned above.
Ron (hemble) gave me some precious advice and I will add some more components to the ground including rocks to make it look more like the Redwoods and less like the Queen's garden...stay tuned for more fun to come...

[Tamer]

Now that just looks awesome and is such a multi-use display. Off to share.

[hemble]

Love it, you did a great job.

Ron

[FialaFernbrugg]

Another awesome Mini Dio my friend.
The vegetation and the rock look very realistic.
Great job.

[mr.Jedi1977]

Wow Very cool ! great work !

[Darth More]

@ Tamer: Thank you very much Shawn! Yes, it was my intention to make it a multi-use display. That's the main reason why I haven't added trees to it. But in my next Endor project, there WILL be trees! Stay tuned

@ hemble: Ron, thank you so much for your feedback, which means a lot to me! Your projects have inspired me a lot and I appreciate all your tips! I will add some more components to the ground to this dio before I call it finished...

@ FialaFernbrug: Thank you, Christoph! I added to my last post and wrote a "conclusion" including the things we pointed out while talking about this display. I continued working on my next series of displays today and made some nice progress! You'll see pics of them, soon!

@ mr.Jedi1977: Thank you very much! I appreciate your positive feedback since I look up to you and your tutorials on YouTube! Keep them coming!




So as mentioned above I still have to work on the details of tis display. Last week I painted the plants with Revell's #2 - Clear Varnish (mat). The plants were just too glossy. Now, I think they look more realistic. For this occasion I also displayed some figures to recreate a battle scene:














One soldier (TSC - #46 Endor Rebel Soldier) was hit and fell. Orrimaarko ("Prunce Face" - TVC #114)
comes to his aid...

[Darth More]

EWOKS!!!

Some hate 'em, some love 'em...last week I had time to put all of them on display. With these pictures I want to thank Hasbro for all these great Ewoks we could buy over the last decade!
Until 2008 I did not own a single Ewok - not even a POTF one!! I started collecting in 2005. And with a retail price of $15 at a local Comic Shop Chief Chirpa was too expensive for me in 2006...the Ewok 2-Packs were already extremely rare when they were released in 2007 and 2008...last year I finally got them on eBay...in contrast to little Chief Chirpa I shelled out 32 bucks for TLC - #4 Leektar & Nippet...and $22 for TLC #18 Paploo & Nho Apakk.
Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think these are all Ewoks of the modern lines from 2006-2013.
Do you find all of them and can tell me how many there are? One hint: The MH Ewok (5-)Pack is displayed twice in this picture as well as TVC #27 Wicket with their alternative accessory parts...


















To be able to display so many figures on this diorama is the main reason why I did not put any tree-trunks on it, yet...

 

[Tamer]

Very  nice. Off to share.

[mr.Jedi1977]

Very cool display !

[Darth More]

@ Tamer: Thanks for sharing, Tamer! One Ewok is still missing: I just found the Ewok Glider of the TLC "Battle for Endor" Battle Pack in my glass cabinet...I will use that glider in one of my upcoming projects, then

@ mr.jedi1977: Thanks again! It's still the same, but more are coming! Utapau for example and I got many, many more on my mind...


Some time ago a couple more ideas came to my mind. Last week I finally found some time to work on both:

1. Mini Diorama Display Stands

2. Shelf Dioramas


1. Mini Diorama Display Stands:

I decided to rename my "Mini Dioramas" because they are actually not as mini as these here:

FialaFernbrugg sent some of his impressive wood display stands to me and last week I painted the first one of them to give BB-8 some sand from Jakku to roll on...


Christoph made these stands with a scroll saw and used cotton swabs as peg stakes:



First, I removed one cotton swab because BB-8 has got only one peg. I then painted the base with Revell's #301 - White mat.



Screed was used to structure the display.



I formed the screed to make it look like BB's trace in the sand...



Sand was added right after applying the screed. Before I used the screed, I tried to fix the sand with wood glue. The wood glue worked out to fix it, but the sand looked too wet. The screed has dont its job, but I recommend to you to rather use styrofoam glue.
The base was further painted with Citadel's "Fiery Orange".





And that's the finished Mini Diorama Display Stand:






BB-8 next to two of FialaFernbrugg's customs:



Christoph gave these two customs to me:


Left: Clone Assassin (based on a TLC ARC Trooper) with a resin BARC Trooper Helmet from Clint,
Right: TAC Sandtrooper with custom E-11 blaster rifle

The Clone Assassin is my favorite Clone Trooper in my collection! Christoph put so many details into this figure and the colors look 100% accurate!
Thank you so much! The display stand alone is a masterpiece!
And it's amazing what you can do with such thin wire! The E-11 blaster was made even before Hasbro released the foldable E-11 Blaster!

Watch all his videos of his amazing custom projects on FialaFernbrugg's YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/FialaFernbrugg

And don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already done so!

At the same time I'm working on my first shelf diorama...

- Philipp