Jabba The Hutt Diorama (The Viewing Frame WIP)

All my respect to your magnificent accomplishments, you made some history here.

Totally forgot about that beautiful little blue elephant panel and the hallway to Han, looks fantastic. Luke's light spots have the right ratio of diffuse and sharp.

And just call this masterpiece 'Jabba in the Dais'. (Didn't I spam that here already?)
https://youtu.be/sTwEVq6VtgA

man this is glorious! Seriously the most exciting diorama I've seen so far, partly because this location n scenes are legend and you'll surely have a ton of fun recreating the movie sequences, but mostly because of your fantastic work, sharing it step by step was a great n beautiful journey! Humble bow lord darth dioramous!

That is seriously impressive. It's been fun watching it come together. If nothing else, you now have somewhere to store all of your Star Wars figures

skywalkersaga wrote:Holy crap, I'm in looove. It's looking so freaking awesome!

Thank you, sky. Glad you "looove" it.

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautiful and atmospheric. So cool with the extra characters in there, and, as you say, you'll be placing even more. I know I look forward to the updates. In the zoomed-in photos, Jabba doesn't look too dark, so I think this must be even better in person. Nice choice of arrangement and poses, too!

Thanks, Guv. I need to futz a few of them a bit more, I think. I kind of want Aurra Sing interacting with Mythos Boba Fett (when he finally arrives).

Ovy wrote:All my respect to your magnificent accomplishments, you made some history here.

Totally forgot about that beautiful little blue elephant panel and the hallway to Han, looks fantastic. Luke's light spots have the right ratio of diffuse and sharp.

And just call this masterpiece 'Jabba in the Dais'. (Didn't I spam that here already?)
https://youtu.be/sTwEVq6VtgA

Thanks, Ovy. Much appreciated. I had totally forgotten that Jabba spoof song. Great reminder. (I was always partial to Weird Al's Yoda spoof of the Kinks).

blackpool wrote:man this is glorious! Seriously the most exciting diorama I've seen so far, partly because this location n scenes are legend and you'll surely have a ton of fun recreating the movie sequences, but mostly because of your fantastic work, sharing it step by step was a great n beautiful journey! Humble bow lord darth dioramous!

Haha! Darth Dioramous! Good one. But I couldn't have done it without the help of everyone here (and over at the Freaks) for all the tips and insight. And, of course, you're amazing backdrop is icing on the cake that helped bring it altogether. You have my heartfelt thanks for that, my friend.

shazzdan wrote:That is seriously impressive. It's been fun watching it come together. If nothing else, you now have somewhere to store all of your Star Wars figures

Thanks, shazzdan. I'm glad it was enjoyable, and if my SW figures don't all end up there -- they might end up on top of the cabinet (if there's room).

Awesome awesome awesome! Are you going to do another diorama scene akin to this one in the future?

MerylAkiba wrote:Awesome awesome awesome! Are you going to do another diorama scene akin to this one in the future?

Thank you. And sadly — No; this was my first and last major diorama.

Stryker2011 wrote:Thank you. And sadly — No; this was my first and last major diorama.

Lucky it is a total masterpiece!

It's totally understandable not to want to tackle any others, I can only imagine how much this must have taken out of you! I can barely muster the enthusiasm and energy to work on my figures atm, let alone a dio like this. You should feel extremely proud of this accomplishment, and don't worry at all if you don't want to do any others like it -- it certainly stands well enough on its own! :')

GubernatorFan wrote:

Stryker2011 wrote:Thank you. And sadly — No; this was my first and last major diorama.

Lucky it is a total masterpiece!

skywalkersaga wrote:It's totally understandable not to want to tackle any others, I can only imagine how much this must have taken out of you! I can barely muster the enthusiasm and energy to work on my figures atm, let alone a dio like this. You should feel extremely proud of this accomplishment, and don't worry at all if you don't want to do any others like it -- it certainly stands well enough on its own! :')

Thanks again.

And S., it’s not that I wouldn’t like to do other dios (perhaps in another genre), it’s more I don’t have the space to handle another one. This thing is such a monstrosity, I only have so much space left for new figures. And I can certainly understand the lack of energy, but for me, I sometimes have to force myself to get working — and once I do that, I find I have difficulty stopping.

You are right -- getting started is always the hardest part. : ) 

And I can imagine a LotR dio would be great for all of those figures, but of course the space issue would be prohibitive.

That is superb, one of the best Star Wars dioramas I've seen. Well done!

Rogerbee wrote:
That is superb, one of the best Star Wars dioramas I've seen. Well done!

Thanks for the compliment, Roger. I am humbled by all the praise.

Always given when fully due.

Wow! This is combination of all kinds of wonderfulness!!
Congrats for the completion!

kyekye wrote:Wow! This is combination of all kinds of wonderfulness!!
Congrats for the completion!

Thank you kindly.

My god man, this is so damn stunning to see finished! Seriously, this came out so freakin epic and perfect. It's beautiful. You NAILED the whole look in the build, and the lighting might be even more atmospheric than the original scene. Those hard shadows and defined pools of light are so next level it's ridiculous. It is so hard to believe this is your 1st diorama like this, and it's will be a shame if it is your last, because what you have done here is incredible, and you have a real gift for it. I could spend days just posing figures and shooting photos in it. An enviable photo set, and an even better display setup. I hope you continue to just enjoy hell out of it for years to come.

Funny aside, I've been meaning to pick up some of that sand paint since you posted it, and it's the PERFECT texture on the floors. A few weeks ago I was at my folks helping them move, and ended up with a bucket of the stuff that they were going to throw out. So that ended up a great score.

ReverendSpooky wrote:My god man, this is so damn stunning to see finished!  Seriously, this came out so freakin epic and perfect.  It's beautiful.  You NAILED the whole look in the build, and the lighting might be even more atmospheric than the original scene.  Those hard shadows and defined pools of light are so next level it's ridiculous.  It is so hard to believe this is your 1st diorama like this, and it's will be a shame if it is your last, because what you have done here is incredible, and you have a real gift for it.  I could spend days just posing figures and shooting photos in it.  An enviable photo set, and an even better display setup.  I hope you continue to just enjoy hell out of it for years to come.

Funny aside, I've been meaning to pick up some of that sand paint since you posted it, and it's the PERFECT texture on the floors.  A few weeks ago I was at my folks helping them move, and ended up with a bucket of the stuff that they were going to throw out.  So that ended up a great score.

Thank you very much, my friend. A compliment from the Master of Dioramas is most appreciated. That’s a cool score on the sand paint, but I have to tell you that that isn’t what I ended up using. I used sanded grout (suggested by shazzdan), it comes in a carton and is a very fine powder. I sprayed the surface of the floor in small areas with watered down Elmer’s Glue and using a tea sifter to sprinkle the grout down, then sprayed some more glue over the top to make sure it held. I used contact paper over the floor and intentionally laid it down unevenly (with folds and creases) to create an uneven surface.

Stryker2011 wrote:

ReverendSpooky wrote:My god man, this is so damn stunning to see finished!  Seriously, this came out so freakin epic and perfect.  It's beautiful.  You NAILED the whole look in the build, and the lighting might be even more atmospheric than the original scene.  Those hard shadows and defined pools of light are so next level it's ridiculous.  It is so hard to believe this is your 1st diorama like this, and it's will be a shame if it is your last, because what you have done here is incredible, and you have a real gift for it.  I could spend days just posing figures and shooting photos in it.  An enviable photo set, and an even better display setup.  I hope you continue to just enjoy hell out of it for years to come.

Funny aside, I've been meaning to pick up some of that sand paint since you posted it, and it's the PERFECT texture on the floors.  A few weeks ago I was at my folks helping them move, and ended up with a bucket of the stuff that they were going to throw out.  So that ended up a great score.

Thank you very much, my friend. A compliment from the Master of Dioramas is most appreciated. That’s a cool score on the sand paint, but I have to tell you that that isn’t what I ended up using. I used sanded grout (suggested by shazzdan), it comes in a carton and is a very fine powder. I sprayed the surface of the floor in small areas with watered down Elmer’s Glue and using a tea sifter to sprinkle the grout down, then sprayed some more glue over the top to make sure it held. I used contact paper over the floor and intentionally laid it down unevenly (with folds and creases) to create an uneven surface.

Oh damn, I must have missed that! Did you not like the sand paint in the end? My parents had a bathroom wall painted with it, and I thought I could see it's potential. Was thinking it'd be good for building some outdoor environments, or maybe some partially covered concrete. Your technique came out gorgeous, although hearing that, I'm hoping the paint ends up an easier route. I do have a less specific texture I'm looking for, so maybe I'll play with it first, and then decide what it's good for.

And I think I'm still a long way from boasting any diorama mastery, but if I had the title, you might have just taken it. This is really a glorious beast.

I never actually tried the paint. I’m sure whatever you do will look great, however. Once shazzdan suggested the grout, I bought some to test. I played around with it a bit, as well, before putting it to the board. I also put down tape borders on all the areas where I didn’t want it to go (very messy stuff — it gets everywhere) with paper cutouts to cover all the bare spots.

Here’s a preview of Amanaman who just joined the Jabba display today. I didn’t have time to take my own photos yet, but these were taken by the sculptor/painter of this cool piece, Cagoda, over at the Freaks. He had just finished working out how to do the finger joints (by using wrist pegs), so he wanted to show that off.








I’ll post my photos tomorrow.

Looking very promising, and inspired idea for the finger articulation.

Nicely done! When I hear the name Amanaman, I sing "Do do de do do do."

Amanaman...

Now that's a man - a man!
(Do de dedede...)

Clever with those giant jointed fingers. I don't know if I remember this creature, there is always so much going on at Jabba's.

Here he/she/it? is in place:

Very nice! Looks right at home.

Thanks, Roger. It’s a really neat figure. Glad it works.

Cool! Of all the star wars aliens amanaman was probably the one that freaked and still freaks me out the most.

Glad to see he's made it home! And I have to say, these look just like stills from the movie -- of they would, if it were not for the film being grainier -- and maybe smokier. I'm trying to say they look even better, but just as real and crowded as the real thing. Just don't go installing a smoke machine -- that would be a hazard.

Thanks, fellas. And no worries, Guv — no smoke machines.