Jabba The Hutt Diorama (The Viewing Frame WIP)

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.

Sanded grout sounds like a very good idea. But -- and I haven't checked -- are you sure the floor needs to be sandy or merely dusty?

It wasn’t like desert floor sandy, but it was sandy — you could see the indents where the “wheels” of the throne left marks from moving forward and back.

Ok, good. I was sure you had checked it out. You've done an amazing amount of research for this, and it shows.

Thanks. My set design may not be perfect, but I’m still trying to add a certain amount of realism where I can. The research was a lot of work, but also kind of fun. It forces you to look at finer details you don’t always pay attention to, but you know are there — if you know what I mean. As a bonus, through all the thousands of pictures I scanned through, there’s always a ton of Carrie in her gold bikini — so it’s not all tedium.

Started adding the "sand" to the floor. I masked off all the areas where I don't need the sand to go -- it only needs to cover the areas that might be visible around the set pieces. I added "track" marks using Shovelchop's suggestion of drawing glue lines -- hope it works out. I tried the spray bottle technique after mixing a 50/50 ratio of water to glue -- but either I have a crappy spray bottle, or it's still too thick, as I couldn't get anything to come out -- so I had to paint the glue on the surface of the contact paper. Now I need to figure out a different technique to get the surface glue to stay on. Any ideas?

Well, I found a better spray bottle and spritzed over the top of the sand, and added a bit more grout where needed. I’ll find out tomorrow if it worked to adhere the “sand”.

Looking forward to seeing it. But be warned, that if they don't get disassembled first, my Anakin and Amidala might want to come to the beach in your Jabba display sand and they get around... now that they've already wondered into the neck modification tutorial...

A beach party. Interesting idea — maybe that’s why Leia was wearing a bikini, she was getting ready to do some sunbathing while drinking fruity cocktails.

There is actually a photo out there of Fisher and her double sunbathing in-between takes.

I remember reading an interview with Fisher how George had to keep on her about not tanning -- since prior to her appearance in the revealing outfit she was supposed to be in the black of space, fully clothed -- nowhere to get a tan. But she kept sneaking off to do it anyway.

That's the one! If you were "parked" with a ship near a planet near a star, and you happened to be near the windows, wouldn't you tan?

Yeah, I think most people would take advantage of a lot of downtime like that.

Careful with that powder as it can clot together and become like plaster rather than sand but it's all trial an error to get the look you want, its not like either option is expensive to experiment with, I get my sand from the street as I'm only a UK block away from the beach lol.

shovelchop81 wrote:Careful with that powder as it can clot together and become like plaster rather than sand but it's all trial an error to get the look you want, its not like either option is expensive to experiment with, I get my sand from the street as I'm only a UK block away from the beach lol.

That’s okay. I’d like it to still look like sand, but hard like plaster would be good. I don’t want loose sand all over the place (I’m sure the wife would agree with that).

Is it scary I can relate?