My Office Showroom Build (Display, Lighting, Mod Tips & Service)

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Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Just wait until the AT-AT and flying Snow-speeder are set up on the shelf. ;) I've updated the image in the previous post to show the properly secured backdrop.
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Now with light. Rear-most lights are daylight (cool) and the foreground lights are warmer, similar to incandescent color. I'll be hiding the rear strip so you can't see the individual LEDs - it was a last minute addition and wasn't initially planned to be there at all, but I needed more light.

 
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Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Awesome!!!! Truly amazing work. Can't wait to see it all finished. Keep the pics coming.
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Wow thats coming along great man!
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

I wonder what this is for...

EF749019-5167-42A0-A7C9-522C903C2023-4507-000008B402F6C7AD_zpsc6d3a0aa.jpg:original


Testing phase...

C7CC9ECF-E5CA-4FD1-8DC1-209C94C88426-4507-000008BD0BF61792_zps1c22d827.jpg:original


Everything has now been painted and I should be able to snap and attach some photos soon.

The Batman background looks amazing Piper! :clap How did you manage to get this texture and what did you use to cut out the Bat Logo? Is it easy to do? :dunno
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Logo transfer to foam board:

Print out an outline image on paper
Place image on foam board and affix with tape
Use pointed object like nail, needle or pin to poke holes along the outline of your image, into the foam
Remove the paper to reveal a dotted outline on the foam
Use a scalpel blade (x-acto, utility knife, etc.) to cut the shape following the outline - a thin blade on a jigsaw could also work



For my specific example I transferred the image onto the back side of the foam and also cut from the back side. This was so that the back would be a very tight and clean outline but the front could be chipped and ragged. Since the foam was over an inch thick, the side opposite your cut will never be as precise.

The texture was accomplished through carving and paint application. First I lightly drew some feature lines on the foam and then started on it with the blade removing large chunks. Then smaller chunks. Anything that was smooth I also scored lightly with the blade and then scraped to give it a rough texture. For paint I used black, blue, white and grey, plus some sponge application with various of the paints mixed with clear acrylic gloss medium. The base coat was solid black first of course. I also had to do a lot of touch-up with brush to get a bunch of little pink bits that were still showing through. If it's available to you, use blue foam instead.






Lighting up a logo.

What I didn't do:
I was originally planning to use plexiglass (acrylic) for this effect but decided to go a different route simply to avoid going out to buy a piece of plexi. Basically you put a piece of plexiglass behind your cut-out and edge-light it. The light will shine through wherever there is an angular disturbance in the face of the plexi. So that means you scuff it, cut it, etc. to create marks that will light up. In this particular case I was going to use two sheets of plexi, each lit with a different color and scratched up in different areas to try and create a fiery look.

What I did:
Create a bumpy texture with a little bit of papier-mâché pulp on a sheet of 1/8 hardboard.
I just shaped it with my hands, very low relief.
When it was nearly dry I made adjustments to the texture with my hands and a scraper.
Get yourself a large square of tinfoil and crumple it up, then stretch it back out again - it should be all creased up.
When the texture was completely dry I glued the piece of tin foil to it and shaped the tin foil so it would follow all the contours of the texture I'd created, pressing it into all the nooks and crannies.
When the glue dried I applied black acrylic paint to the foil with a brush and let that start to dry. Don't worry about being ruff and leaving exposed areas.
Before the paint dried I rubbed a cloth over top of the foil removing some of the paint and exposing the foil in many places.
The exposed foil will reflect the most light, so the balance of exposed to black is really going to affect what the final piece looks like lit.



The lighting is provided with LED ribbon light - RGB 5050 LEDs in my case. The ribbon segment is sandwiched between the original foam and this hardboard/foil background texture. The lights shine inward toward the center of the logo. The images below show the testing phase when I was using plain white (smaller) LEDs.



Back to your piece of foam - flip it around so you're working on the back with the clean logo outline
Make an outline in marker around the cut-out, at least 1/2" outside of it.
Score this new outline with a blade - you're making a channel to support the LED ribbon light.
Now start inserting the ribbon light into this channel you've cut, making sure not to insert it so deep that you cover the LEDs - just the edge of the strip needs to be inserted.
Remove the adhesive backing on the ribbon first and that will help hold it in place.
Optionally add glue around the ribbon when you're done to permanently affix it.
Now grab your textured foil background and lay it over the LED and onto the bad of the foam creating your sandwich.
I just used metalized duct tape tape to hold it down and block any possible light leakage.

Done.
 
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Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Logo transfer to foam board:

Print out an outline image on paper
Place image on foam board and affix with tape
Use pointed object like nail, needle or pin to poke holes along the outline of your image, into the foam
Remove the paper to reveal a dotted outline on the foam
Use a scalpel blade (x-acto, utility knife, etc.) to cut the shape following the outline - a thin blade on a jigsaw could also work

For my specific example I transferred the image onto the back side of the foam and also cut from the back side. This was so that the back would be a very tight and clean outline but the front could be chipped and ragged. Since the foam was over an inch thick, the side opposite your cut will never be as precise.

The texture was accomplished through carving and paint application. First I lightly drew some feature lines on the foam and then started on it with the blade removing large chunks. Then smaller chunks. Anything that was smooth I also scored lightly with the blade and then scraped to give it a rough texture. For paint I used black, blue, white and grey, plus some sponge application with various of the paints mixed with clear acrylic gloss medium. The base coat was solid black first of course. I also had to do a lot of touch-up with brush to get a bunch of little pink bits that were still showing through. If it's available to you, use blue foam instead.

Thank you Piper for your reply and for sharing your knowledge and tips with me. You have explained brilliantly the procedures involved and will help me out alot as i would like to replicate something similiar with my upcoming 1/6 89 Batmobile. I can only hope mine comes out half as good as yours. The lighting effect which comes out of the cut out logo looks fantastic and i can only applaude you for such a great design. I will keep a check on this thread to see how it all comes together :hi5:

One last thing Piper, where you have cut out the logo, where have you placed the lights? Is there another backing of polysterene behind the cut out logo?
 
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Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

I'm editing the previous post for the lighting part now. ;)
 
.......

Done.

Lol that last word seems so out of place cause it wasn't quick and easy DONE at all :D
Great job!

I might have I steal the idea of printing backgrounds for my cases. Just have to figure out what I want and how to do it and find a printer to do it


:borg "Resistance is Futile"
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Thanks again Piper, you've been a great help...although i will probably be PM'ing you if i get stuck on things :lol
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Just finished cleaning up the edges on the vinyl Hoth background and installing the rest of the lights for the other shelves. I also put the glass doors back on after a bit of cleaning. For the top two shelves I wanted much less light than the Hoth scene, so I cut up a bunch of 3 LED (2") segments and spaced them apart with wire - lots of soldering. This allows for less than half the LEDs that would normally exist for the strip length used. It turns out I could have used even less and spaced the LED segments further apart. There will be cover strips placed in front of each light strip to hide the edges of the LEDs which are visible in recent photos including the one below.

The image is poorly exposed, mostly because the camera on an iPhone really sucks at metering and in anything but full outdoor sunshine.

 
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Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Awesome batman build, was thinking something similar myself, a batcave with all 1:25 scale ERTL & Moebius kits, maybe throw in a T-Rex and giant penny (or maybe not). Really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.:clap
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

If I can get the Photobucket iOS app to stop crashing on startup, I'll have a few more early build photos of the cave background and symbol lighting. I'll add them to the previous instruction post.

Below are some images of the shelf construction/assembly stage. I had some left over glass panels from the Ikea Klingsbo cabinets I modified, so I built some C-shaped hard-board frames to hold the panels and create the completed shelves.



The MDF around the space helps to support the shelf, but it was primarily place there to attach the Hoth vinyl background and keep it away from the wall (to help hide the shelving brackets a bit). You can see in each photo the inside curve I placed in the corners - the allows a nice radius on the background instead of a sharp corner, which makes the Hoth illusion a lot more convincing.




 
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Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Here you can see the multi-level display I've constructed for the Vintage shelf - I'm not sure how much of the original vintage line I'll be able to fit yet, but I'm going to pack as many as I can shoulder-to-shoulder. It's going to be a slow process accumulating figures though, since I don't have a big vintage collection at the moment, and many of the figures I have are being used in the Hoth diorama below.



Here's a closer look at the original 12 figures on an original mail-away stand - I'm still missing Leia.



And finally current progress test-stocking the Hoth diorama. This is turning out to be a pretty tight fit. ;) I still want to include another 3 mini-rigs, snowspeeder (suspended from above) and up to another dozen figures.

 
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Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Just to tide you over, here are a few wall-mounted design elements I've worked on in the past few weeks for the Bat cave.



The thing on the left and the one on the right will be lit from within by LED. The one in the middle will actually carry power wires to the rest of the dio.
 
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Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Just to tide you over, here are a few wall-mounted design elements I've worked on in the past few weeks for the Bat cave. The picture might display with incorrect rotation - waiting for Photobucket to update its cache to fix that.



The thing on the left and the one on the right will be lit from within by LED. The one in the middle will actually carry power wires to the rest of the dio.

Lovely touches on the panels Piper, i like that :clap My Batcave (for my 1/6 1989 Batmobile) will have the 1989 logo embedded in the cave - although for the batcave i am not going for any movie accurate designs as i dont do that, i like to build and create dioramas from whats inside my head and what i think looks right, movie accuracy isnt important for me as i tend to side with what i think makes the main attraction (in my case the 89 Batmobile) stand out more as a display. The panels youve created are your own designs or taken from the movie Piper?
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Totally imagined panels based on parts I happened to look at when rummaging through a "junk parts" box I keep around. I can tell you what many of the parts are, but there are a number whicih I have absolutely no idea. ;)

None of this cave is movie accurate, it's all just sort of imagined as a natural setting for what will be displayed in it.
 
Re: My office "showroom" build-out.

Totally imagined panels based on parts I happened to look at when rummaging through a "junk parts" box I keep around. I can tell you what many of the parts are, but there are a number whicih I have absolutely no idea. ;)

None of this cave is movie accurate, it's all just sort of imagined as a natural setting for what will be displayed in it.

and it looks brilliant too Piper. Always a big fan of those who are looking to go that extra mile to improve a display rather than just displaying things on a shelf or in a cabinet.
 
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