ANH Death Star chasm part 1 (WIP and done!)

[Daigo_Bah]

Oh dear- the diorama scenes I have avoided for so many years... finally acknowledged having a pair (LOL) and decided to start the long process! I guess the scale and detail of the Death Star chasm intimidates me, but I knew I had to replace the old, inadequate stand-in I've had for years pictured here:



What I decided to do was lower my wall shelf so that I could accomodate a much taller and wider diorama. I bought a few sheets of foamcore and proceeded to make the base structure. I am going to have this almost quarter view of the shaft, with a center column placed just to the right so that higher up I can place the bridge that supports the tractor beam controls, and above that, the chasm swing with Luke and Leia. So the full diorama will be 2 foamcore sheets tall, on their sides and curved as you can see in this bottom one. The scene here is going to be the elevator station (so that I can display Chewie and the heroes as Stormtroopers, the DS droid, and a couple Imperials). I have a pic showing the back, in which I utilized the old Niub technique of cutting stripes so that the front of the board curves. The floor is the only piece painted so far, with gloss black like in the scene.







I knew I wanted to use foamie pieces instead of decals (though the "lights" will be decals), so I cut several dozen pieces so far by using a couple posterboard templates I made. These will be painted and attached to the walls of the chasm.





This will likely be a few months in the making, so I hope to have periodic updates!

[chewybacca]

I love where you are going with this! epic scales and surely bound to be an epic diorama coming from you! I was going to try the death star as my next dio, but I was looking into using a gloss MacTac like I've seen others use, but this paint job looks just as good!...looking forward to seeing this monster continue to grow

[Tyranusspotting]

"Look at the size of that thing!"

[BobbyHYWD]

Incredible work. I love the huge scale of it. Nuib Nuib would be proud of your mention, I think.

[Scarrviper]

Awesome start, this thing is going to be amazing!

[trandoshanhunter]

Wow, this is amazing! Can't wait to see the final product.

[Daigo_Bah]

Thanks guys! I have a small update today, wherein I determined the width of the eventual wall lights decals and cut strips of blank decals to place there so that I could spraypaint the rest of it (I learned a while back that decals don't stick to spraypainted surfaces, so I have to cover the foamcore surface when I paint the rest). All of the exposed foamcore got a spray of gloss smoke grey, and the panels will get the same color as I begin to place piece by piece per section.

[IncomT65]

This can only lead to more awesomeness....

[Trooper31]

This can only lead to more awesomeness....

You took the words right out of my mouth......great work so far.

[Daigo_Bah]

Thank you! I already added the decals of the larger light panels (but I misjudged the width a little bit, so I have to spraypaint carefully to cover the still-exposed white foamcore on the right side of the decals), and have yet to make the decals of the lights around the doorway and on the long strip of foamcore at the midpoint of the dio. Lots to do still!