Re-creating my ROTJ rebel meeting dio after Ida (WIP 6/3/23)

[Daigo_Bah]

I had a couple inches shy of hurricane Katrina-level flooding from this year’s hurricane Ida, but surprisingly, very little was negatively affected! The one thing that I couldn’t save was the ROTJ home one rebel meeting diorama. It was dirty, warped, and non-recoverable from being flooded. So, naturally, I’ve got to remake it! This is gonna take a while; here is today’s starting point:

 

[Oofa]

Is there some of it you can repurpose?

 

[Daigo_Bah]

I was able to take the three railings from the upper balcony to use again as they were unharmed, the small stairs can be reused, and perhaps most importantly, the hologram table is OK too (not pictured). The other parts I’m going to use to trace onto brand new foamcore, that way it should speed up the process of re-creation

 

[wedgeswingman]

(GASP!) Not the great one!

 

[yodashizzle]

The classic reborn. It's tough to have to rebuild this but perhaps it will give some opportunity to show us all how it's done. Again.

 

[Tulgah]

Dude, that sucks! But if anyone can fix it, you can!

 

[Utinniii]

Make it better. Stronger... Faster...

 

[Oofa]

Make it better. Stronger... Faster...

and harder

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Disassembling it, I found that the bleachers can be reused, though I need to replace the posterboard backing of each. The foamcore seems fine though! And thankfully I had a couple recent pictures of figure placement, so that I can quickly have a home for a bunch of them when I finish the first one:
(can you see the young Dooku pilot sitting down behind Wedge? )

 

[Tulgah]

Instead of my face, I want them displaying that picture at my funeral. Dear me, what an AWESOME shot!

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Like Oofa suggested, I was actually able to reuse the entire structure of the bleachers, And only had to cut shiny posterboard coverings for the outer “walls”! I also added a couple of new things: notice the “seat padding“ foamie and inside the backrest and leg area rectangular cutouts, I was able to add foamie to give it 3d structure. The left bleacher will be completed today, but for now, here is a picture of a close to complete and compared to the right one’s condition from flooding:

 

[Tulgah]

It already looks really good!

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Thanks! And here is the finished left bleachers, with new posterboard wrapped over the existing foam core or posterboard pieces that were discolored. All of the pilots are hot glued in place, ready for me to start the right bleachers!

 

[yodashizzle]

Looking good! Those KOTCS soldiers are really good base figures for the brown uniformed tech guys too! Are the stairs made of the stuff you used for your cantina floor (I think it's that stuff you can find in like Wal-Mart's fabric section used for crocheting???)?

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Good eye! Sure is, and I’m able to reuse them from the first time I made this diorama! I’m sure they still sell it, but these particular stair pieces are probably 12+ years old…?

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Just finished the right side bleachers! (Actually, I do need to put the black posterboard at the bottom behind the openings to enhance the shadow like I did on the left side, and I’m going to make a little decal to add to the 6 consoles on both halves). Probably will not get much done this week as it’s back to work, then hope to start on the base structure next week!

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Ok, I found a foamcore sheet at Michael’s that was the same 20x30” but over twice as thick for about $7, so I made it the new floor base! I spray painted it and then traced the 2nd floor layer pieces onto a new standard foamcore sheet, cut them, added strips of posterboard to cover the exposed foam, and hot glued it all together to get this:

I placed the two bleachers onto the new floor, and slid it in place where it was before, and put the holo table back in place as well (I need to re-print some faded stickers for it and add a few details too).

Moving quicker than I thought!

 

[Tulgah]

It’s just looking absolutely fantastic. And your Rebel crew is really filled out nicely!

 

[Lord Blackthorn]

its really coming along!

 

[yodashizzle]

Looking good, such a fantastic place for so many figures! I am envious that you scratch built the holo table too, I had found a decent one that Hasbro had made that came with a really cheesy game but isn't as accurate as I'd like.

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Spent a couple days over the past 2 weeks working on the back balcony, and this required a completely brand new foamcore cut and assembly. Here’s a pic of the underneath, with the supports and some black paper to enhance the shadows through the bleacher holes.



Here’s the front completed, with the old 3 railings added back in:



And the bleachers added back in, and the rest of the figures back in place on the balcony, in this high back view:



And finally, all of the figures added to the main floor (damn that’s a lot of figures!):



One more closer view of the balcony structure, where you can see the new three dimensional depth to the openings that I made with foamy pieces:


I’m so happy to have completed to this point, because all figures are now in place! Next, I’m going to add a new box platform to each side behind the stairs, and work on the details of the Holo table. The last thing will be the back walls. More to come!

 

[Tulgah]

So much progress! Great job!

 

[yodashizzle]

Damn. That IS a lot of figures!!! 56 by my count. Didn't realize there was a clear domed astro in there, and who's the brunette at the bottom right? Looks like a Mon Mothma based custom with brown hair? [Luke in the Lars Garage voice] "Who is she? She's BEAUTIFUL!"

 

[Daigo_Bah]

You got it! She is the prequel era Mon Mothma with sculpy hair that I made into another rebel dignitary. Yeah, those three droids are seen right at the beginning of the shot as the generals enter the room. The R5 is the one that Hasbro produced, even though it’s not exactly the one that goes right there. I have a custom one that I now have on the back balcony, but he’s so yellowed and the foreground one is supposed to be stark white, that I swapped them.
Edit: just to stress, this entire diorama was underwater (dirtyish brown lake water that surged more than 2 street blocks from the lakefront) for at least a couple of hours before it receded. Over the tops of the uppermost figures’ heads on that upper balcony! Here is a pic of my backyard in the morning after Ida’s landfall, after the water had receded more than a foot. If you look closely at my shed, you can see the waterline left behind, over the lawnmower (it miraculously survived) and about halfway up the bike’s tire on the shed porch!

 

[yodashizzle]

Man, that's crazy!!! Hurricanes suck. It would appear that that day was not the day to relax in your hammock. I know firsthand how difficult rebuilding is, glad to know that the damage wasn't too bad.

 

[Daigo_Bah]

The original diorama always had the stair steps leading to nothing, just open space, so this time, I thought I would add a little platform to each side. Here is the pair after spray painting and assembly:

This is artistic license, because I’m not certain that it looks like this, but better than nothing! Here they are in place making a destination for the steps to reach!

 

[yodashizzle]

I find that taking a little creative liberty on dios is almost unavoidable. There's a logic, a practical necessity that frequently arises. As I build, I'll find myself asking questions like, "How do characters get to that second tier? Shouldn't there be a door over here? What could be on the backside of that wall?" Scenes create questions, you've got answers! Nice work, and cool closeup of some of those customs!

 

[Tulgah]

Some people have the intelligence and patience (two pretty important qualities) to design something like that, but I just don’t. I wish I could make intrinsically-logical decisions when putting dios together, but ultimately my own weird subjectivity obscures it. As such, most of my stuff just ends up looking off.

But at least I can tell when something looks good, and these truly do!

 

[Daigo_Bah]

By the way, I repainted the R3 droid by taping up the dome and spray painting with a gloss white. I then added the silver and orange accent marks. On screen, it’s difficult to tell if it is red or orange, or somewhere in between, so I went with orange. The Hasbro produced orange R3 has too many orange accent marks to be accurate to this one, not to mention has those ugly holes in the lower sides of the body. This older version I’m using unfortunately does not have the cables on the foot, but perhaps I can add them later!

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Bit of a pause there for work, but started to make adjustments to the HOLO table, including flipping that center ring over and spray painting it black in anticipation of putting new decals down onto it, as well as peeling off the foamy pieces to make a better inner rim. Then… Not happy with the proportional inaccuracies and the difficulty of getting a foamy piece to cut carefully in a circle, I wandered over to hole in the ground productions, and ended up buying one of theirs lol! I used to be pretty adamant about making everything myself, once I had moved on from NIUB‘s decals way back in the day, but honestly at this point, if there’s a better option than what I can make, I’m gonna take it! This includes buying the recent Hasbro Tantive IV corridor to replace the one that I had made. So, the next update should have the kit that I receive from them in the pics! For now, here is the status so far:

 

[yodashizzle]

Looking great, looks like you're really getting close to being done & this is even better than the first take! I love how the guy on the top row (just above the Orrimaarko in the last shot) in brown commando garb is kinda leaning on the railing, very cool pose there!

 

[Tulgah]

It’s the greatest single dio pic I’ve ever seen. It’s the greatest. My gosh, it’s just spectacular.

 

[Daigo_Bah]

The HOLO table arrived from hole in the ground productions, and it’s even more amazing than I thought it would be! Just a perfect mold, a bit smaller than mine as seen here, but so much more film accurate!

Here it is after spray painting, and placed in the diorama. The gloss paint is more shiny than I’d like, but perhaps after I add the decals, it will reduce the light reflections a little bit.

by the way, I also ordered the tuba add-on for Max Rebo’s organ, and a four piece set of “reward” payment containers for the Yavin hangar that Han was loading up. More to come soon!

 

[Tulgah]

After seeing all this, I just have to get one for myself. I see you have about 55 figs in there, which will be hard to match! And so many are cool customs. I’ve got my game face on now…

 

[yodashizzle]

The holotable is definitely looking good, I know you'd rather scratch build (so would I) but I've been really impressed with the stuff over at Hole-in the Ground, there's a TON of stuff over there I want. Doors, chairs, boxes, now they've got an entire Star Destroyer bridge. But mostly I need the Lars Speeder (really want a couple, one yellow for the street and one navy blue for the garage). Dammit. I cannot scratch build that thing. You did this bad a** origami job for your blue speeder. I'm on huge Led Zeppelin revival of late, and I'm not sure which rocks more, "In My Time Of Dying" from a remastered Physical Graffiti or your blue Lars landspeeder.
I see you also ditched Lando's softgoods cape. I don't know why Hasbro gave him that blue snuggy for the VC release. They do so good with things like the barge, the Razor Crest.....then blow it on the figure accessory equivalent of a layup with that cape. Good choice on replacing that thing.

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Thanks guys, yeah, I had to hold back from ordering even more! I’ve never bought from him before, but the heft and quality of it was incredible! I thought it would be lightweight, less detailed pieces than it turned out to be, but each piece is pretty dang solid! I think I’m going to go buy a matte gray spray paint today to cover up the high gloss one that I used. It’s just too shiny, and makes it look more 3-D printed than the actual thing appears to be in person

Edit: as mentioned, I went and bought a satin gray primer plus paint, and repainted it to a much better sheen than the high-gloss one in the previous pics. I’m going to try to get the decals (also provided by hole in the ground!) Tomorrow at the latest.

 

[Daigo_Bah]

I absolutely love this thing! The decals are perfect, and fit in the grooves just right after you carefully cut them out. All I have to do is add the thin silver stripes and the table is done!

 

[yodashizzle]

Whoa daddy! That thing does look great!

 

[Daigo_Bah]

Not much movement on this one, but here is a pic with the table officially added in!

 

[Tulgah]

Stupendous! This is a truly remarkable setup! And by the way, who’s this guy?