Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (Cabinet build in progress))

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Thanks. Yeah, I tend to agree. A buddy of mine suggested I cut another spotlight hole (with a parallel grate) on the left of Frozen Han (our right) to create a closer to screen accurate lighting situation. Sounds like a good idea, but I don’t know. I kind of like the symmetry that I have now, but it could possibly be more accurate.

 

[dls712]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

To me, Jabba's place always looks the best with minimal light. Heavy shadows sell it.

Also digging your wiring jumble... looks like the back of every diorama I have at my place!

 

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

To me, Jabba's place always looks the best with minimal light. Heavy shadows sell it.

Also digging your wiring jumble... looks like the back of every diorama I have at my place!

Yeah, I concur. And yeah the cluster-$&#@ that is the wiring is always fun trying to sort out.

 

[Sixth Scale Man]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Looking great. Throwing in my two cents, I agree that the lighting should be pretty subdued, especially in Han’s “nook”.


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[The_Darkness_Predator]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Wow. That looks awesome. Great to read all the nostalgic and nice comments too.

 

[Artoo]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

This is totally amazing! I think it really depends on what you think, don't worry about us. My only comment would be the light source in the movie. Are the lights coming from the outside sun shining through openings or from lights in the ceiling? If it were from the sun, they should be bright, but if it's from actual lights in the ceiling I would say dimmer is better, think dingy Opium den.

 

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Thanks, guys. Yeah, the lighting is a bit of a dilemma. If you go by the scenes where Leia first sneaks in, the lighting is pretty low. If you go by the daytime scenes, some of the lighting is kind of stark in some areas. I’m actually going for the daylight scenes, as all of the characters are going to be “awake”. In the original version of the movie, very little is actually seen of the ceiling, so it’s hard to say if it’s overhead lights or skylights. I’m going on the assumption that they may have been skylights.

 

[Sixth Scale Man]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Wow. That looks awesome. Great to read all the nostalgic and nice comments too.

Yeah, this is definitely one of the most positive threads. Love it.[emoji106]


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[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Yeah, this is definitely one of the most positive threads. Love it.[emoji106]


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Just wait till I start trying to paint it.

 

[Sixth Scale Man]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

I reckon if you apply the same patience you’ve shown with the construction, the painting’s gonna look great.


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[agonistes86]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

View attachment 457829

Wow! A true work of art that keeps amazing me with every new update you post.

And you've successfully planted the seed in my head to try my hand at my first 1:6 mini diorama, a Mos Eisley doorway to display Sandtroopers with. No idea if I'll ever get around to making it, but I already made a 3D paper mockup.

 

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Wow! A true work of art that keeps amazing me with every new update you post.

And you've successfully planted the seed in my head to try my hand at my first 1:6 mini diorama, a Mos Eisley doorway to display Sandtroopers with. No idea if I'll ever get around to making it, but I already made a 3D paper mockup.

Thank you for the compliment. And a simple mock-up is always the best way to start — it gives scale and perspective of what you have ahead — and what alterations might have to be made based on available space and additions you might want to make.

 

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Spent the last several days painting this behemoth. I started with a practice piece to experiment with "weathering" and that was a dismal failure. Unfortunately, like an *****, I also tried to experiment on some of the actual pieces, and those too were unsuccessful. So, unfortunately, some of these pieces have far more paint on them then I would have liked (all of which is done with a 1" wide brush). I knew my lack of paint skills would come back to bite me, and I'm starting to regret even starting this damn project.

The following shots were all taken with the garage door open and light coming in. When the door is closed and there is substantially less illumination a lot of the details tend to disappear. Not sure how they are going to look once everything is encased and the lights are very restricted. I had to mix the wall color five different times as I kept running out of paint, and of course, trying to get the same exact color time after time was virtually impossible, so many of the pieces don't even look like they belong in the same environment. I was also trying to match the color, as much as possible to the Sideshow Carbonite walls -- another seemingly impossible task for me. I have a sinking feeling that this entire thing is going to be an expensive waste of time and money...

 

[dls712]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Fear Not Stryker! You got this!

There is a lot of streaking and shading on the walls @ Jabba's place. Looks like your initial shot at weathering is pretty good. Once you put this all together it probably won't look as disjointed as you think it does now.

Beyond that, once you have it all together, you might want to mix up a few different (paint + water) washes of the basic wall paint color you are going for. A light one, a dark one, and a medium one. Keep each one in a plastic tupperware-type container so you can keep them for a while if you need to.

Then... start applying them to the walls. Lighter wall? Apply the dark wash. Darker wall? apply the lighter wash. Let it all dry. Check it out, keep up the process going until you like what you end up with - balanced-walls-wise.

Then while the whole dio is still together, do a final wash coat of a very thinned out dark brown to bring out all of the details in the walls. Do this final wash in vertical streaks. Keep a dish of plain water at the ready at all times to dip your brush in if you need to lighten up any walls that you have just added wash to. Hit the wall with the water-only brush to soften the look. If you really want to get adventurous, you could do this "final" accent treatment with a few different browns... dark, rusty, lighter.

 

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

That’s some interesting techniques, dis. I’ll keep them in mind. I was thinking I’d have to reassemble everything to see how it looks to get a better view of the wall colors. So thanks for the encouragement and tips.

 

[Son Of Dengar]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

I’ve been out of town for a week or so but I keep peeking in to see what is going on with this! It’s just phenomenal. Where have you been lifting most of the source material from? I have a few bad oks that show diagrams but this seem so perfect.

 

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

I’ve been out of town for a week or so but I keep peeking in to see what is going on with this! It’s just phenomenal. Where have you been lifting most of the source material from? I have a few bad oks that show diagrams but this seem so perfect.

All over the net, and dis712 sent me some pics — many I hadn’t seen (or remember seeing). For the main arch area, including the steps to either side, I reference a couple cast photos, and a copy of the original floor plans, to make measurements from. I compared the photo and measurements to the Sideshow piece and calculated everything based on that width and height. I had to shrink the width of the steps to an extent, which then forced me to adjust the curvature of the main arch — it couldn’t begin it’s curve as soon as the film version did, so it’s not as round, to accommodate any figures I put on the steps. I’d be more than happy any and all of the reference pics if anyone wants them.

 

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Okay, here's a question for anyone who may have some ideas. I need to make the arch design -- particularly over the main arch, and I was thinking about making a mask/template that I can put over the already painted arches. However, this is the problem: the "negative" spaces on the design, are the parts that are darker than the actual wall color. Any ideas how I can make a mask that would accommodate that?

(Here's pics of what I'm talking about):

The actual set:



The Hasbro arch design:



A detail of the Hasbro design:




As you can see, the parts of the design that stay the same color as the current wall color don't touch each other -- so all the new paint has to be in the surrounding areas, but I want it to look faded, and worn, not fully detailed like it is in the Hasbro design, or I'd just draw the design right on the arch and start painting over and in-between the pencil marks. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dls712]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Funny you should mention the arch design today. I actually just picked up a brown colored pencil and some brown chalk this afternoon for the very same thing on my Jabba arch. Thinking with the combo of the two, and possibly some light painting, I can sketch it out decently and then once happy with it, spray a dullcote over the top of it. Biggest thing to keep in mind is that the edges of the "shapes" are soft, not a hard lines. That is the current plan anyway.

One other thing I had thought of at one point but (currently) have rejected... cutting out all of the "shapes" on card stock, and applying to the arch with double-stick tape. Then, take a sponge with a very light layer of thinned dark brown paint on it and dab over the cutouts. then when the paint is dry, peel off the card stock stencils. Assume if this were the method there would still be a decent amount of touch-up after peeling of the shapes to tie it all together.

 

[Stryker2011]

Re: Stryker2011's: JABBA THRONE ROOM CUSTOM DIORAMA (WIP)

Funny you should mention the arch design today. I actually just picked up a brown colored pencil and some brown chalk this afternoon for the very same thing on my Jabba arch. Thinking with the combo of the two, and possibly some light painting, I can sketch it out decently and then once happy with it, spray a dullcote over the top of it. Biggest thing to keep in mind is that the edges of the "shapes" are soft, not a hard lines. That is the current plan anyway.

One other thing I had thought of at one point but (currently) have rejected... cutting out all of the "shapes" on card stock, and applying to the arch with double-stick tape. Then, take a sponge with a very light layer of thinned dark brown paint on it and dab over the cutouts. then when the paint is dry, peel off the card stock stencils. Assume if this were the method there would still be a decent amount of touch-up after peeling of the shapes to tie it all together.

Interesting. I was actually thinking of that last option, as well. But the number of shapes to cut out would take about a month!