Jabba The Hutt Diorama (The Viewing Frame WIP)

Will do. Thanks for the link.

Shovelchop, I too would love to see more of your Jabba-related figures. Interesting suggestions for how to approach the arch decorative pattern, although I suspect they are often more advanced than most of us are ready to play with. The liquid mask idea sounds brilliant, but it not only needs to work as intended, it also would work best with a sort of stencil that would have cut out the parts that one shouldn't paint dark. And if you're going to have that stencil and cut out those cut outs, you could just use the cut outs to protect the underlying surface (supposing that you can attach them securely yet keep them removable).

Stryker, I'm very excited about your additional characters. Depending on what is available and how far you're willing to go, I have a couple of additional suggestions. You already have or are getting Jabba and Crumb, and Bib, slave Leia, Jedi Luke, Gamorrean Guard, Squidhead, ReeYees, and Amanaman, all of whom are iconic. There are two other alien types that were also very frequent in Jabba's palace -- there were multiples of each. These are now described as two subspecies of Niktos. Originally one subtype was called Klaatu (which has subsequently been reduced to the given name of one of the characters, the other being renamed Wooof; now the subtype is called Green Nikto; and in a remarkably infelicitous development even by Star Wars standards, the very similar-sounding "Klatooinian" has been applied to a species previously called Barada); the other Nikto (now called Red Nikto). You can see the former Klaatu (Green Nikto, Wooof) in the iconic photo below at far right, and a (Red) Nikto in the background on the left (above and between two Gamorrean guards' heads). If you were able to assemble these, you would have an even more fully representative set of Jabba's palace denizens; I do realize that the photo, however iconic, shows a scene that would be looking inward into your diorama, so you would not be likely to try to recreate that for display purposes. Just thinking out loud and excited for your project. Of course, where does one stop? The same photo also shows one of Greedo's "cousins," and also a "starfish" or "birdlizard" alien later called Ishi Tib.

Yep. Nikto, Weequay and Barada are the ones that I can remember that are available as head and hands from Shapeways. The cost for unpainted heads isn’t cheap, and the hands are generally separate purchases.

I didn't think they would be cheap. Anyway, it is definitely up to you and what you like and are willing to spend -- obviously. We don't see much of Weequay and Barada in the "audience chamber," so if you "had" to choose between them, Nikto would be a more desirable choice.

I like the Nikto and Weequay, and I’d like to get them at some point. The Barada, however, looks like a lame bulldog, so I don’t really have an interest in him.

Stryker2011 wrote:I like the Nikto and Weequay, and I’d like to get them at some point. The Barada, however, looks like a lame bulldog, so I don’t really have an interest in him.

I agree completely with you, although for completeness I would get them all -- but luckily for me, when it comes to Jabba's court I'm sticking to the "classic" scale of 3.75 inches. There were at least two different Baradas as skiff guards, but even more Weequays and several Niktos of both kinds.

Yeah, the smaller scale not only gives you more characters, but also infinitely cheaper. Whenever I see the small dios built for a them, and all the figures that have been made just in general, it’s kind of a bummer that the only route for 1/6 is really expensive customs.

Been working on drawing up some templates to use to put the arch design down. Decided to go with colored pencil to draw it on, then dry brush the negative spaces. Also decided to go with a combination of things: the center of the arch is using the Hasbro/McQuarrie design element, and the rest is using the roundest section of the Black Series arch design I could find. On the screen arch, they flipped each of the "circle" parts to add a different design touch, which is what I plan to do. The template will basically be flipped over and over as I draw it onto the arch. The center design will only be present in the one part. I plan to cut the negative spaces outside the lines that are currently present, that way I can dry brush over the pencil marks (hopefully hiding them) and make the edges of the design "blurry" to help give the illusion of fading. (To get the designs, I had to Photoshop smaller sections, blow them up to the appropriate height, print them out, trace the design onto separate pieces of paper, and then use carbon paper to lay it out onto tagboard.)


The template in progress, the upper right piece with the parallel lines is what I'm talking about as far as cutting outside the lines. The dark lines are the actual design, the lighter lines are where I would cut the template.




The finished drawing of the template:




The line running up and down indicates where the template would have to be flipped to start the opposite side of the arch, each circle will be a mirror of the one preceding it:

that looks really good and with dry brushing will work out just fine.

Looks very promising, can't wait to see it applied. Fingers crossed.

Well, I have the design drawn on the main arch, I started out trying to use a brown colored pencil, but honestly, my old eyes can barely see the marks, so I had to switch to a regular pencil. If it turns out the edges are sharper than I would have liked, oh well.

In the first pic the colored pencil marks are on the left, regular pencil on the right:

These are looking quite good, and I think they will serve you well as guides for the paint application.

Well, here it is. I did, indeed, have to make it a bit darker than I wanted since the pencil marks were pretty obvious. Hopefully under subdued lighting they won't be as noticeable as they are up close.

Looks quite good actually -- in fact arguably a tad too neat, like the Hasbro decor. But I think it will be fine under the more subdued lighting. If you wanted to weather/fade it, you could always give your "facade" a bit more of the lighter color coat (it doesn't even need to match the current one completely) with some very dry brushing or perhaps very wet light thin application followed by a quick gentle wipe. This could fade and roughen up the design and get you closer to the screen look. But it is your diorama and whatever you prefer.

GubernatorFan wrote:Looks quite good actually -- in fact arguably a tad too neat, like the Hasbro decor. But I think it will be fine under the more subdued lighting. If you wanted to weather/fade it, you could always give your "facade" a bit more of the lighter color coat (it doesn't even need to match the current one completely) with some very dry brushing or perhaps very wet light thin application followed by a quick gentle wipe. This could fade and roughen up the design and get you closer to the screen look. But it is your diorama and whatever you prefer.

I was just about to post the exact same suggestion, lol.

Yep, that’s a good suggestion. I’ll try that and see what happens.

Great job getting the pattern on there! If you want to weather/blend it in a bit you could delicately and faintly drybrush over the pattern with the same colour as the background, just an idea. Actually dry sponging it would work better.

Thanks for the tip, Alex. I'll have to experiment a little.

Stryker2011 wrote:Thanks for the tip, Alex. I'll have to experiment a little.

That's how I learn, always experimenting, stops it getting boring too!

Well, I tried a couple different techniques on a practice piece, and found I like the results of the dry brush -- going back to the original color. Paint's still wet at this point. What do you guys/gals think?

I like it -- it's more subtle now.

Love it!

Thanks. I’m much happier with it myself.

I started working on the floor just a bit ago. I want to get the “sand” down, the grate painted up, and put the thing back together to see how the light affects everything before I start messing with anything else — like possible “weathering”. Once blackpool gets the BBQ pit area finished up, I’m hoping to get it printed up and back so I can figure out how big the light box behind the diorama needs to be to distribute the light properly — that could affect the light quite a bit as well. I plan to use dimmable strip lights behind the photo print, so hopefully, I can find the right balance with the image, the diorama, and the rest of the lights.

Looks a lot better now, like it's been on the wall for centuries, great job!

Man that looks awesome!!! Th etexture is just perfect, this is gonna be epic once finished!

Thanks, fellas. Appreciate it.

I put the contact paper down on half the floor. Soon I can start “sanding”.

Stryker2011 wrote:Thanks, fellas. Appreciate it.

I put the contact paper down on half the floor. Soon I can start “sanding”.

I'm assuming you're using real sand on adhesive paper? To get variations, ripples, banks and dimples etc.. I use PVA glue mixed with sand or you can 'draw' with the glue then sprinkle the sand on top until it completely covers the glue then shake the excess off when it's dry. I've done this a lot for dio bases in the past.

I still have to use glue over the top of the contact paper — it’s only sticky on the underside — but I wanted to lay something down with imperfections to get kind of that disturbed sand floor look. The idea of running glue sounds promising, I’ll have to try that, too. I’m not using real sand, but sanded grout (suggested by shazzdan); it’s a really fine powder — like baby powder — so it should be more appropriate for 1/6 scale sand.