Star Wars movie set den build

Tonight I am working on some wall panels. They are black Sintra panels which I got at a discount from a sign shop, leftover from a graphics job which never got installed. After cutting, here, I'm primering one side. I love this latex Kilz primer. It sticks to anything and dries fast and flat.
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The first six panels are drying. The wife took exception to me laying these up against her mirror. Whaaaat? The paint wipes right off glass! Whaaaat? It does!
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One panel is up on the right. The one on the left has dots of construction adhesive on the backside, ready to slap up on the wall.
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Both panels SLAPPED!
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I have a set of red greeblies. These are not lights, but "bubble" photo frames. To make these, ya paint the inside of the bubble red. Then apply construction adhesive to the back. SLAP it on the wall. Simple.
 
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Been cutting up some more of the Sintra. This stuff is so easy to work with. Below are some pieces I cut that will go on the lower walls. First they must be primered with Kilz primer and then painted that lovely shade of gray...
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And then they are stuck on the wall with construction adhesive. It literally only takes only 20 seconds to install these...
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I added some detail pieces such as "vents" and horizontal doodads as seen in the movie. While everything is gray, these details add some dimension.
 
Tonight I'm making a few "spear" wall panels. First, I examined a screen capture, then made some guesses as to the dimensions in inches. And I compared that to the wall space I had available and scaled it....
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And then drew out 4 "spears" with a silver Sharpie. These will be cut with a jigsaw...
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Next, these will be cut, sanded, primered, painted, and hung.
 
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Wow, these spear shapes take a lot of work. First, the basic shape gets cut out and sanded a bit. I made a paper template for marking the 3 little rectangles. I wanted the spacing of each to be just right...
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Then some holes have to be drilled so the jigsaw blade will fit into the 3 little holes to square them out...
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I added a horizontal trim strip, primed, painted, and hung one up...
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Next time, I add some detail. It needs two rectangles added to the middle.
 
Hi ADJ,

I've been looking at the Sintra materiel you're using. How easy is it to work with and what did you use to cut the materiel?
 
SofaKing01 said:
Hi ADJ,

I've been looking at the Sintra materiel you're using. How easy is it to work with and what did you use to cut the materiel?
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I like Sintra much better than the hardboard I was using. Cutting hardboard makes my eyeballs itch! ...even with goggles on!

Hardboard is not a consistent thickness. This stuff is.

This stuff is better because the cutting process just makes plastic shavings that fall to the floor and not dust that swirls around the entire room. I cut it with a regular jigsaw with a fine tooth blade. Run it half speed so it doesn't melt the plastic. Then sand the cut edges with a power sander or bigfat file. It cuts corners and pointed contours without splitting like wood does. Running the saw down this stuff is smooooth, like eggs sliding out of a Teflon skillet. The saw glides. If you flex a sheet of this stuff, it doesn't crack and break like hardboard does. I like how the cut edges aren't fuzzy and bloated. And a painted edge is just as good as a painted top. The edges do not swell when painted as there is not a fibrous surface to suck the paint in and swell.

I can drill round holes in this and it does not require any cleanup of the hole. If dented, you can use DAP CrackShot spackling paste to fill it. After first applying it, it seems like there's no way it will stick. But after it dries to the plastic, it's not coming off so easily. I have not tried to nail it yet, so don't know what happens. I have not tried to countersink a screw into it, so don't know about that. I'm sure it would not mushroom as bad as wood though. I have also used construction adhesive to fill it.

I like to sand it lightly before primering it with Kilz. The stuff dries so fast and is ready for topcoat in an hour. Or you can paint it directly with an acrylic paint I'm told.

I would not recommend Sintra for a permanent indoor installation. If it ever catches on fire, everybody's lungs will turn to gelatinous goo.

I got 1/4" thickness 4ft x 6ft sheets for the same cost as hardboard, but mine was recycled from a sign shop for $13 a sheet. You probably won't find it that cheap.

Good luck in your search!
 
Hey there!
I was wondering if we could get some overall progress shots... what with these new wall panels and that sweet desk, I'm sure the whole room is something to behold.
Thanks for sharing!
 
Argh. I got to the end of the thread without realizing it. Need more input. Great build! I wanted to ask, about the LED strips: Do all of them come with a power supply of some kind? I see some of them say "power" and some don't at the end... The descriptions in engrish aren't that helpful. I'm not terribly familiar with LED lighting systems so I might not be reading the abbreviations correctly. I just want a five meter strip of whatever you started with that I can plug into the wall as an experiment.
 
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ColonelColt said:
Argh. I got to the end of the thread without realizing it. Need more input. Great build! I wanted to ask, about the LED strips: Do all of them come with a power supply of some kind? I see some of them say "power" and some don't at the end... The descriptions in engrish aren't that helpful. I'm not terribly familiar with LED lighting systems so I might not be reading the abbreviations correctly. I just want a five meter strip of whatever you started with that I can plug into the wall as an experiment.
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See the ebay descriptions. Most have a photo or two and the ones as "kit" will have a reference to power supply or AC adaptor. The power supplies for the basic kits are a little white box with a black AC adaptor. In fact, any of them that come with "remote" have the little AC adaptor, and IR sensor included.
 
cavx said:
So is Sintra like PVC with the chlorine risk?
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Yes. The most common risk is breathing the cutting dust which does not appear to be particularly harmful. Just wear a particle mask and use ventilation as in most wood or plastic-cutting jobs.

The MSDS safety sheet for Sintra is here: http://www.harborsales.net/Portals/0/docs/Sintra MSDS.pdf
You can download that as a PDF and judge for yourself. Any plastic is nasty if burned. Sintra when burned or melted will emit hydrogen chloride gas. Not good for lungs, can do permanent damage. If you burn it, the foul "burning rubber-like" smell is an easy giveaway that it's not something you want to breathe in.
 
It has been a week since I got to do any significant work on this project. But this weekend my wife was out of town for 2 days, so I got 13 pieces of wall decorations cut. Below are three units which have been sanded and ready for primer.
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Aww, heck, I don't need to watch the basketball game on TV. I'll just glue some panels together instead. I have primered everything.
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See the one that's a big "frame"? That's going to be a porthole window, looking out at the Death Star. It measures 4 feet X 4 feet. Yes, I have a Death Star vinyl graphic which is 2 feet in diameter ready to go. The whole thing will have an outer frame built, along with a background "sky". I found out that Sintra can be bent with heat. So, yep, the Death Star will be dimensional. It will be curved OUT towards the viewer, resembling a real 3D object. I can't tell you exactly how I'm going to bend part of a 4 ft sheet of Sintra, but that's the fun of it - figuring out how to meet each construction challenge. I have plenty of material to test with. I'm thinking about putting a Sintra sheet over a 2 ft wide pot of boiling water and seeing if it will heat up and bow down toward the boiling water. I'm pretty sure it will. I'm just looking for a slight circular bow, knowing that there will be a vinyl graphic laid over it, I know I want a very slight and circular bow. We'll see how that turns out.

Hey, did the webmaster break the smilies on this site? The one in my signature stopped working, and the ones to the right of the message composition window look all different.
 

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