Studio-Scale Hoth Ion Cannon AND Mountain Diorama

[OTnROTSfan]

Winter side-project: Studio-Scale [Hoth] Ion Cannon... AND mountain diorama, for my personal collection (and possibly Wonderfest?). Got most of the mountain section roughed-out and to fit on a 3'x2' base. Most of the nooks and crannies are there. Next: onto paint, weathering, and snow. Also need to fabricate the custom plexi-wrap and rear sky. Built-in a wiring channel and keeping the ball loose, in case I ever get ambitious enough in my old-age to animate a ball-section. More soon, after some R&R. Fun to do a diorama, again... been a while.

 

[joberg]

Fantastic dio

 

[nikter]

Great build! What did you use to make snow base?

 

[OTnROTSfan]

Great build! What did you use to make snow base?

I used Pink Foam + Foam Putty + Spray Foam (window/door) + Plaster over Shaper-Sheet (from model railroading) + apoxie sculpt for all of the detail and transition areas. The whole thing sits on acrylic sheet 3' x 2'. It will be painted/weathered and then a snow-mix over it.

 

[Scott Graham]

I love it! I want to try the same with mine. What kit did the small turret come from? The old MPC Hoth scene?

 

[OTnROTSfan]

I love it! I want to try the same with mine. What kit did the small turret come from? The old MPC Hoth scene?

Thanks! JPG/Jimi had some of those... got them a while ago. That's the 1/72 turret they put out... perhaps just slightly oversized, but in the zone. Worse case, I'll extrapolate exact size down the road and print one, at some point. They also had a 1/144 set of Hoth goodies, but those were too way too small from basic extrapolation that I did.

 

[OTnROTSfan]

One month to WF22! There's still hope! Pardon the bright lighting... April was for coming up with a seamless background (in a cold, damp garage), and ensuring it all fits in my SUV. May still add the one-piece automotive stripping. Will start weathering and test the "snow goop" mix, then gone for a week, then do all weathering and snow, and finally build a simply rack to haul it in... in theory. Hopefully then get back at the cut-away ISD this summer, after this is done...

 

[scotthothpatrol]

One month to WF22! There's still hope! Pardon the bright lighting... April was for coming up with a seamless background (in a cold, damp garage), and ensuring it all fits in my SUV. May still add the one-piece automotive stripping. Will start weathering and test the "snow goop" mix, then gone for a week, then do all weathering and snow, and finally build a simply rack to haul it in... in theory. Hopefully then get back at the cut-away ISD this summer, after this is done...

Hay, There's my TaunTaun . Nice to see it again Kevin. About the Cannon I love the cloudy back drop. Where did that come from I can see a use for that? Also if it is not too late AK interactive has a line of snow products That I have found works great. including micro balloons. Scott

 

[OTnROTSfan]

Hay, There's my TaunTaun . Nice to see it again Kevin. About the Cannon I love the cloudy back drop. Where did that come from I can see a use for that? Also if it is not too late AK interactive has a line of snow products That I have found works great. including micro balloons. Scott

Hey Scott! Indeed that is your taun... keeps me company next to me by my desk every day... ;-) I made the backdrop by cutting and bending (with a simple heat gun) a large piece of .220 acrylic from h depot (since having this done elsewhere plus shipping was quoted insane right now). Then just simply painted it on a table in my garage with off-the-shelf spray cans... (in an unseasonably cold, damp garage, might I add, lol).

I had my own custom mix I did about 10 years ago for my Davidson taun (yes, I have both... hehe)... was experimenting with another model railroading one that I have been wanting to try... need to figure out this week what I am going to go with. Had recently looked at AK, too. Some of the smoother snow parts I may leave as is, as they came out pretty nicely as-is... we'll see soon.

 

[joberg]

Great idea for that diorama; when blown up; it really looks like the original model

 

[bwayne64]

That's beautiful, me likey !

 

[OTnROTSfan]

Finally mostly wrapped up my Studio Scale Hoth Ion Cannon diorama! Was about 90% done when shown at Wonderfest (things were so hectic that I forgot to post progress). I got it safely there and back using a secondary travel background and foldable gurney that I had whipped out the week before the show. Was a blast! The ball is still loose, with a wiring channel, in case I ever do a v2 that fires the cannon.

Now [finally] back to the cutaway ISD, and a few "just ship" projects after a year of building this crazy beast of a diorama...

 

[Bjorn]

That whole scene looks really good. Outstanding!

 

[scotthothpatrol]

Finally mostly wrapped up my Studio Scale Hoth Ion Cannon diorama! Was about 90% done when shown at Wonderfest (things were so hectic that I forgot to post progress). I got it safely there and back using a secondary travel background and foldable gurney that I had whipped out the week before the show. Was a blast! The ball is still loose, with a wiring channel, in case I ever do a v2 that fires the cannon.

Now [finally] back to the cutaway ISD, and a few "just ship" projects after a year of building this crazy beast of a diorama...

That looks really great Kevin. Especially pic #1 looks like a screen grab from the film. The snow turned out great. The only thing I would do is add some snow on the cannon would tie the cannon with the terrain better.

 

[OTnROTSfan]

Thanks guys. Scott - yeah been going back and forth on putting snow on the ball, or not. I may do some subtle snow highlights once I move it to its final display spot. Can't see much, if any, in the film shot, but in theory there probably would be at least some in the exposed areas that wouldn't just fly off from firing the cannon...