Guided Tour of the Archives

[ACPin]

After almost two years of building dioramas, I figured it’s time to reminisce about what has been stored in the archives. For those who’ve been around that long, you’ve probably seen most of these works and for those who haven’t, you’ll get a first look of what has been. I’ll try to give some background info on each work that’s featured and feel free to post comments/questions along the way.

The Jedi Training was one of my first works. I’ve started out with this simple but dramatic scene or so I thought. Fixing up the background with the tree limbs and marsh type ground was the easy part. Getting Yoda to stand still on Luke’s feet during the one arm handstand proved to be difficult. Countless hours spent on figuring out how to make this work and get the pics even for just a few seconds proved fruitless. Frustration sets in and I actually had to leave it for a couple of days before I got back and tried another way of accomplishing this task. Wanna give it a shot at how I did it?

[Darth Sidious]

That is fantastic! It looks just like Dagobah! I have a ton of trees and roots around my house, I just dont know if I could make them look Dagobah-ish. Anyway, that is very good.

[Rogue II]

Originally posted by ACPin
Wanna give it a shot at how I did it?

Guess #1:
Did you screw Luke's head and arm to the base of the Diorama, then cover the screw with moss making, it nearly impossible to see? You probably had to attach Yoda to Lukes leg somehow as well.

Guess #2:
You glued Luke and Yoda together, then suspended both of them using fishing wire, giving the illusion of the handstand.

Guess #3:
I think this may be the least likely, but did you just used a photo editor?

[Darth Sidious]

Oh no, I misread....I'm sorry...Well, it looks like Rogue II basically had the same ideas I did...I think maybe you used stickytack stuff to attach yoda?

[gibbspaulus]

He used the force.... feel, don't think.

[ACPin]

Originally posted by Rogue II
Guess #2:
You glued Luke and Yoda together, then suspended both of them using fishing wire, giving the illusion of the handstand.

Quite close to what I've done. If you look closely at Luke's right foot, you'll notice a glint of the fishing line and the bottom of his foot shows a bit of the handy tack that I used to keep Yoda in place. There's only one fishing line that I used attached to the tree limb which is not seen in the picture and the other end to Luke's right foot. Once I've done this, the two figures were still spinning in place and I couldn't get them to stay put at first. I used a little handy tack on Luke's left hand and stuck it to the ground which completed the scene.

[Rogue II]

It is an amazing diorama. I am inspired to do a Dagobah scene. I was in Petsmart the other day and they had some fishtank/reptile tree stump for $12 that was similar in size to the Vintage Dagobah playset.

[ACPin]

Originally posted by Rogue II
It is an amazing diorama. I am inspired to do a Dagobah scene. I was in Petsmart the other day and they had some fishtank/reptile tree stump for $12 that was similar in size to the Vintage Dagobah playset.

Was it something like this? That's the store where I got the tree stumps that I used for the Jedi Master's Wisdom diorama. In this work, I've expanded on the surrounding area of Yoda's hut. I modified the stump by filling in the gaps between the limbs with plaster and then finishing it with acrylic earth tone paint. The outside is of dark brown shade while the inside of the hut is of light tan.

[Rogue II]

Originally posted by ACPin

Was it something like this? That's the store where I got the tree stumps that I used for the Jedi Master's Wisdom diorama. In this work, I've expanded on the surrounding area of Yoda's hut. I modified the stump by filling in the gaps between the limbs with plaster and then finishing it with acrylic earth tone paint. The outside is of dark brown shade while the inside of the hut is of light tan.

It looks like the same one, if I recall correctly. I haven't bought it yet. I have seen it in 2 different Petsmarts in the aquarium aisle.

As I stated in the post, it had an uncanny resemblence to the vintage playset. When I do buy it, I may base my work off of yours.

I haven't had much of a chance to do many customs or dioramas lately, my daughter just turned 1 and has taken interest in my Star Wars figures.

[ACPin]

Originally posted by Rogue II
It looks like the same one, if I recall correctly. I haven't bought it yet. I have seen it in 2 different Petsmarts in the aquarium aisle.

As I stated in the post, it had an uncanny resemblence to the vintage playset. When I do buy it, I may base my work off of yours.

Almost forgot, you'll need to use a wire frame on the gaps before applying the plaster. Otherwise the weight of the plaster will cause it to breakdown. Found it the hard way!