Topic: Materials for Dioramas: Finding crates, parts and miscellaneous stuff...

[Darth More]

So I won the auction and got 12 different Pigments from vallejo for 40,50€ shipped (3,37€ per shade).
That's just a Little cheaper than buying them seperately. I hope they arrive by Saturday...




Here is the current selection of vallejo's pigments:

[JDeck]

That's a good deal for all of those. I've never used them, but I've seen them at the hobby shop, pretty expensive there. Usually I use pastel chalks, but they aren't ideal really. You'll have to demonstrate.

I just noticed your Geonosis diorama it looks fantastic!

[Darth More]

Thank you JDeck! Indeed, they're quite pricey, but I can now confirm from my own experience that they're worth every penny! I've worked with four of them so far (102, 103, 110 & 115) and I'm blown away already! They're also hard to get in stores, but the reason for that is that there aren't any hobby stores left in my area...they all closed!


They look fantastic used as pigments AND washes!
So you might want to keep your eyes open for them on the bay...
















See the full results here:

http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=10155.msg216232#msg216232

[Tamer]

That rock work just turned out awesome. Hard to believe it is carved styrofoam and awesome paint work. You have to be pleased. Off to add this to the update.

[Darth More]

Thank you, Tamer! I really am. As said in the description, I think this technique does look more like Utapau than the actual stone I found in the pet shop (the largest in Europe by the way). So I think I'll just leave it like this. It's nothing special to most customizers to paint a piece of styrofoam, but to me it's a small mile stone! I'm very happy with it and already started working on the next one

[Tamer]

I could just imagine all the various stone colors you could go with for future dios, cutting it up just like this one.

[FialaFernbrugg]

wow
What a masterpiece. Your Utapau dio looks extremely realisic. The washes and the tuft of grass look fantastic.
I'm glad you found the pigment set on ebay. The variety of colours ist great.
Excellent work my friend.

[Darth More]

Thank you gebtlemen! Here are some more in progress pics:

[Darth More]

My recipe for 1/18 scale palm trees


As teased before I didn't want to throw away all the masking tape that I used on the Hello there! Display diorama...AND I finally wanted to make some Palm trees. So here were go:






And this is what you may need:




List of materials:

- Palm leafes (found on eBay, shipped from China) - 5 branches x 35 leaves each for 5,98€ (excellent price if you ask me! + FREE shipping)!
- florist's wire (30 meters for 60 cents)
- bamboo stick (2 meters for ~ $2)
- masking tape
- acrylic paint (sand, beige, brown - whatever you want)
- Pigments (sand, black, Brown, beige - sky's the limit) - I used vallejo's "burnt umber" Pigments (73110) and made it a wash
- big wood pick (thicker than toothpicks) 
- wood glue





I also found bamboo to be best for the trunks. I actually found the bamboo stick (2 m for $2) while I was looking for garden hoses. If you still want to make crooked Palm trees, hoses might still be the best choice. The nice Thing About bamboo is that it's hollow. So the wire and the Wood sticks (also bamboo in this case) fit in perfectly. A drop of wood glue and everything is fixed!


hoses





How-to



Trunk

1. Saw a bamboo stick in the length you want. Depending on the thickness you can make Palm trees of any scale! For 1/18 scale I went with 30-40 cm length (11 - 15 inches)
2. Drill a hole in each side (top & bottom) if not already there, so that it has the right diameter of your Wood stick at the bottom. Dril hole at the top as wide as you Need for the number of wires you want to place in there (e.g. 5 mm for 12 wires)
3. Take a pointed wood stick, try if it fits into the hole and fix it with strong (wood) glue
4. Cut a stripe of masking tape (e.g. 12 Inches / 30 cm). I cut this stripe itself in four Long Stripes that are about 5 mm wide each.
5. Wrap these thin Stripes around the bamboo stick (trunk). I wrapped them from Bottom to the top. Wrap in spirals to achieve the shown effect.
6.  Use acrylic paint (or even water colors) to paint the trunk in the color you want. I used sand color in two different shades. Brown would also be accurate for Scarif.
7. Use Pigments (e.g. 73110 Burnt Umber from vallejo) to make a wash. I used water as solvent. Use a sponge or brush to wash the entire trunk from Bottom to top. The Pigments will gather at the edges for a nice cintrast.
Let it dry and fix the Pigments with a clear varnish
8. (optional) Use real Palm tree bark (foliage/net) as shown above to wrap around the top of the trunk. Of course you can also use some coco nuts. It's all up to your imagination!






Branches


I used wire to fix the branches and to make them adjustable at the same time:





1. Cut away half the tube of each branch. You can also Keep it and fix the wire around it. If you do, skip step 2.
2. Okay, if you cut away the tube, use a thick needle to drill a hole through the thickest part of the branch as shown above. (Be careful to not sting yourself!)
3. Use Florist's wire to attatch to the branches (see picture above). Optional: Fix it with a drop of super glue . (Keep being careful to not sting yourself!)
4. Arange all branches (e.g. 12 pieces) in the trunk's top hole and fix them with strong (wood) glue.
Let everything dry and you're done!

You can of Course make several pal trees at the same time going through each step. Have fun , but be careful with the needle & wire.






You can view the complete diorama and how I made it after the jump:

http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=10155.msg216617#msg216617


Also,if you're interested, I find these tracks quite motivational. I always listen to music while working on model building projects:



STAR WARS - The Mandalorian Theme [Styzmask Remix]

Timecop1983 - On the Run

- Philipp

[Clonehead]

Excellent on the palm tutorial. Bamboo, fantastic!
  I also have never heard of the Vallejo pigment dusts either.
Curious about those. The tamyia stuff in the makeup case is supposed to be highly flammable and possibly cause cancer in California.

[Tamer]

Wow, what a great tutorial. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Off to the front pages.

[JDeck]

The palms look awesome, as does the rest of the dio. Great job!

[hemble]

Awesome tutorials on the palms mate and love it how you reused the tape now that is what customizing is all about.

Ron

[FialaFernbrugg]

That is a clever way of recycling.
The palm trees look phenomenal my friend.

[customjedi]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial.  Fantastic!