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 I've used packing crates for simple sci-fi themed dioramas since I was a kid , with a modicum of imagination and some strategic cutting and paint ops , the unique and interesting forms contained within them make convincing " futuristic " architecture . Being on a bit of a diorama kick of late I thought now would be a good time to create a modest little scene for my Darth Fatalus custom .  I think perhaps due to the impact the very first Star Wars movie had on me as a youth I will always have a soft spot for the architectural design of that film . The combination of archaic stucco or adobe buildings on Tattooine with futuristic trappings really gave the impression of civilizations that had been around quite some time . Even the more modern architecture had that kind of " injection molded " appearance and is a prime example of why I've always thought of packing crates when considering the design of science fiction architecture . As you may have read elsewhere in this site , I rarely ever throw any of my styrofoam packing materials away , simply due to its potential use as a diorama element . The creation of the base form for this particular piece was approximately a 20 minute job , which included my digging through my crate stash and selecting the proper pieces that would enable me to cobble together the appropriate scene . The vignette consists of 4 pieces : The base , and 2 wall sections , the doorway section consisting of two pieces cut in half and rejoined to make one wall segment . Toothpicks were used to pin the different pieces together , and Sobo Craft Glue used to cement the whole thing together . Setting The Scene  As far as the background of Darth Fatalus is concerned , I figured that she stems from the earliest days of the Sith Empire , a High Lady of one of the disparate clans on the adopted home planet of Korriban . With that backstory in mind , creating a vignette for her should have that same kind of " archaic futurism " I talked about earlier ; it would also give me the chance to use a novel little crafting paint I discovered back when i undertook my southwestern styled interior , DecoArts' Americana Stuccos a thick textural acrylic paint that is fantastic for easy to apply textures to models . By applying the paint over the styrofoam form , I will be able to give it that adobe appearance while maintaining the " futuristic " shapes contained within the packing crate , and from there it will be a simple matter of adding some textile detailings , some high tech doo dads and whatever else might strike my fancy during its progress .  Adding the textural paint is a fairly straightforward process , and may be applied with whatever tool you are comfortable with , be it sponge , towel , brush , palette knife etc . etc . For my southwestern interior I used a 3/4 inch flat bristle brush , and for this one I used a 1/4 inch flat bristle brush . Due to the softness of the styrofoam base , I decided I would add a tiled floor , so that Fatalus' heels wouldn't punch thru the surface as she stormed around her dio . I could simply have also applied rigid wrap , but the tiled floor makes the base a bit more interesting and cuts down on the amount of plaster wrap I'll have to use on the base since now I will only need to cover the bevels and the sides of the base . To create the tiled floor I covered a board with plastic wrap and began rolling out the sculpey . The plastic wrap helped make it easier to lift off the sculpey sheet during rolling so that I could adjust it to conform to the contours of the base . Once I had completed rolling it out , and had impressed the grooves into the sculpey , I then patted it down with the tanned side of a piece of leather to texturize it . The tiled floor sheet is about 1/8 inch thick . The diorama at this point is now ready for detailing and weathering .  Experimenting With A Tile Technique I spent most of today in consideration of how I wanted to approach the painting of the tiled floor . What I decided upon was a technique I thought would look really cool , but was not quite sure how to go about it . I wanted to make the tiles have a metallic, molten surface with a soft raised texture to them , a burnished appearance I reckon is an adequate description . I drizzeled blue acrylic paint over the surface of my test piece , in a random drippy pattern , and allowed it to dry a bit . I then took some gold metallic acrylic paint and repeated the process . After both layers had dryed sufficiently I then went back and used the flat end of a wooden dowel to burnish to blobs of paint flatter . Lastly I took some thinned out black acrylic and washed that over the surface , wiping away the excess from the raised surface . I was actually rather pleased with the end result , kind of a meteoric marble look . I think this will really make the tiled floor look quite interesting . I have posted a step by step tutorial on the creation of this faux finish tile texture at Geeb-O-Rama's " How To " , or follow this link!  Adding That " Lived In " Feel . . .
Unless you are striving to reproduce a pristine tech environment , you'll need to start " dirtying up " your diorama , and there are really several reasons why this will enhance the overall look of your scene . Primarily , due to the scale , weathering your scene will help to accentuate the shadowing and play of light upon the surface , it's kind of a method to get the most of ambient light and reflectivity that gets lost due to the fact that it's so small . Secondly , unlike a room that has just been freshly painted and never lived in , with occupation and the passage of time , dirt accumulates and wear occurs on common surfaces . The level of distress you add to your diorama is determined by your subject : a wealthy and sophisticated interior would have far less weathering than a bombed out building . For this particular diorama , I am interested in making it look lived in , but not dilapidated , so most of my weathering is concentrated in corners and in accentuating the shapes of the architectural elements . The texture of the walls will aid in this since I will be able to do washes and drybrushing to emphasize the shadowing and the highlights on the surfaces and basically just bump up the details a few notches . This shot shows the very beginnings of the weathering , and is rather subtle , it's best to start light and work your way darker than the reverse . It's important to take your time and maintain consistant moments to step back and view the progress to be able to see where you should stop and what sections may need a bit more work . You should also view the work with the featured figure within the scene for the simple fact that in the finished piece , the presence of that figure will have a profound effect on the overall appearance . A bit of weathering that looks fine without the figure might end up being overshadowed by the addition of the new element and therefore might need to be enhanced a bit to compensate . Creating a diorama is very much like creating a 3 dimensional illustration , and the same areas of focus you would concern yourself in the composition and execution of a painting are equally important when composing a 3D scenic . Is the contrast between the subject and background strong enough , are the colors working together to make a scene that is pleasing to the eye , all are things to consider during production . A brief note about color : I favor complimentary color schemes , colors which are opposite one another on a color wheel , simply put warm against cool . Therefore , since the overall color of the walls for this piece are a cool blue I have used a warm sepia and sienna brown to initiate my shading , you certainly could use a cold dark gray or a black to achieve the same effects , but the addition of a complimentary color helps to accentuate the dimensionality of the set piece .  After working in washes around the nooks and crannies , and some broad wash aps with tissue paper blotting I was fairly satisfied with the initial weathering layer . I next did some further accenting by scraping pastel powder over key areas , in sepia and royal blue . I used a small round brush to softly " paint " in the pastel powder , drawing in some veining and some linear swatches of color and then blew off the remaining pigment . To blend in the pastel application even more I then took a large stiff bristled camel hair dusting brush and scrubbed over the surface where the pastel dust was applied . At this point I have established the shadow layer and the medium point layer and it is now time to move on to the highlight layer and this will be done using a light color wash as well as drybrushing . A note concerning the tonal layer values : Since this interior is a lived in , yet fairly well maintained structure , the tonal values of the weathering need to be far more subtle than were I striving for an ancient or a dilapidated interior . I'm am trying to accentuate the key lighting dynamics of the piece : Core shadows ( the dark ) , midrange color ( the overall color of the piece ) and the core highlights ( the brightest areas of lighting ) . The darkest areas don't need to be too strong since the addition of the highlights are going to really contrast against them and increase their intensity .  When approaching the process of drybrushing it is important to keep in mind that you are not seeking to go over every inch of surface , you really just want to accentuate areas to help bring out the shapes and contours . Three different light colors were used to highlight the diorama , a pale blue which served as a bridging color , a pale yellow and a cream white that served to makeup the core highlighting . The strongest applications of the drybrushing were on the edges and highest corners and the flat plane surfaces near the bottom of the model . Very little drybrushing was done at the top of the model and only moderate drybrushing on the vertical planes of the walls , just enough to pull out those sections at the center portions of the wall . The idea here is to play up the shading and reflectivity that occurs in a normally lit room , that will be further enhanced under specific lighting conditions , you are really just dramatizing the effect that lighting has on your model . The diorama is now ready for the addition of final details .   With the painting of the diorama's base completed , the hard part must commence ; namely creating the details that will complete the illusion of a science fiction environment . You could approach this so many ways , I'm taking the old kitbash route , which is namely rummaging thru my parts bin to find bits and pieces of what have you in order to find appropriate knick knacks that will allow me to create the tech details that seem most suited for this particular scene . I have begun with the two most necessary , a control panel and what I have been jokingly referring to as a Jedi Air Conditioner . The Control Panel  Just what this control panel does is beyond me , it really doesn't matter , but I figure it controls the lights at least and maybe a security shield . It was made from a piece of black plastic that came from something that I don't know , other than I found it and thought it might be useful someday ; which it has indeed proven to be . The button panel is the front from a radio set , the black knob thingy is the cut off top of a flashlight , the bottom red " light " is a red cabochon , the green glass inset panel is part of the cover from a disposable razor and the black screwhead corner details are decals .  The Jedi AC Unit
This is probably not really an air conditioner , more than likely it's some kind of access panel to the room's environmental controls . . . oh , it IS an air conditioner !! This is simply the tray from a printer ink cartridge . The gasket that surrounds it is a piece of rubber tubing . I cut a center line thru the length of the tube so that I could slip it over the lip of the tray and then hot glued it into place . I probably should have used Super Glue , but didn't have any on hand . The hot glue did the trick though . This was really just created to cover the extruded piece of styrofoam behind it . It has not yet been glued on since i still need to add some surface detailing to it in order to cover up the number 18 and the recycling symbol . I am also working on a droid access port that will attach beneath this unit .      | Darth Fatalus Diorama2 | Darth Fatalus Diorama3 | DarthFatalus Diorama4 | Diorama Final | | Warrior Maiden | Femforce Customs | Jungle Woman | CopperheadPenny | CoolioGirls | WarriorMaidengallery2 | Race Bannon | sci-figal | biminirhodes | Catwoman | sorceress | Femforce Customs2 | A Mod Look | Jennifer Wetworks | OnnaBugei_sha | Gila Garnet | whisper | headsculpts | costume | Wigging It | Darth Fatalus | Swashbuckler | Finn O'malley | Darth Fatalus Diorama | streetfighter | MoonGirlRedux | dakota_montana | ZombieKillerBikerLesbos | Hair | Thaay Katar | halfbreed | princessofmars | HestervanWeiren | Autumn Bliss | BioSaber Ruby | | CoolGirlCustoms | WildRoses | CoolGirl Collection | CoolGirl Collection2 | CoolGirl Collection3 | TheToysmith | CoolGirl Collection4 | CoolGirl Collection 5 | CoolGirl Collection 6 | CoolGirl Collection 7 | CoolGirl Collection8 | Kill All Robots CyberHuntress | CoolGirl Collection 9 | CoolGirl Collection 10 | Bad Amy | Buckaroo Betty | SimpleDetails | CoolGirl Collection 11 | coolgirlHQ | Cool Girl Comics | Cool Girl collection 12 | KisaragiKustom | AlternativeCutey | coolgirl_collection9 | DX-Style Yuni | DX Style Sanchez | Triad Toys | Cool Girl _Akiko Fuji | CG Gallery | Samurai Figures | Cool Girl Collection13 | Cool Links | Triad_2 | Playscale ResourceCenter | Sword and Sorcery | | ReelArts Blue Bulleteer | Shocker Toys | Cool Girls | KiniKomix | KiniKomix2 | Custom Action Figures | eBay Auctions | AppleseedTribute | Macross Valkyrie | Planet of the Apes | Horse Sense | WeaversUpholsteryToo | ToyBiz_Iron Man | Dirty Pair | On Display | The OTHER Gorby | | Return Home | Updates | The Archive | Gorby Site Map | Geeb-O-Rama's Model Workshop | Geeb's Toy Box | Geeb-O-Rama Goodies | Movie Madness | World Of The Bizarre | Cool Beans | |
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