Star Wars Themed Photo Backdrop / Set Piece build...

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jul 9, 2013

• #1

For our third annual outing at our local school gala, we've decided to build a backdrop so people can take some cooler photos with our costumed characters. I'll be building this along with Nick K, Blaxmyth and a couple other friends. SofaKing01 is going through his left-over box from his amazing Falcon Cockpit build to see if he can donate some greeblies. Nick K has already built a prototype maquette for us to work from:

We're going for a generic OTSW look, a cross between Death Star and Falcon (which probably produces something along the lines of the Death Star "Command Office").

I'll post updates as we go... this doesn't need to be finished until early February 2014, so we'll be taking our time.

Kind regards,
Magnoli

 

ob1al

Sr Member

• Jul 9, 2013

• #2

Cool project Indy, I look forward to watching the build.

 

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 19, 2014

• #3

Blaxmyth, Nick K and I have finally started the full-scale work on this. Our deadline is the 1st of March, so updates should be regular now. We decided to go with a Mos Eisley theme for a few reasons; it won't have to be as flawless as a Death Star backdrop, it'll look better with the natural outdoor lighting and it'll work better with a broader range of characters. We'll be basing it loosely on this shot from ANH:

We started with four sheets of ply and a bunch of 2x4s, cut and primed, using the best child labor we could afford:

Next weekend, we'll cut the door and start spackling the texture onto the walls...

 

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oota goota

Sr Member

• Jan 19, 2014

• #4

looking forward to watching the progress!

 

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 20, 2014

• #5

Skipping ahead a bit... I found a dirty old PVC pipe and couldn't resist making up some greeblies and adding some Tatooine distressing to it all:

 

Fuzzual

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 20, 2014

• #6

Awesome!!! I love these types of builds, looking good so far!

 

Amazing DJ

Well-Known Member

• Jan 20, 2014

• #7

You painted the concrete driveway too? :facepalm The maquette looks great! I'll be watching this progress.

 

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 20, 2014

• #8

Amazing DJ said:

You painted the concrete driveway too? :facepalm

Click to expand...

Yeah... that was NOT my doing... luckily, it's just acrylic.

 

SofaKing01

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 21, 2014

• #9

Very excited to see this! I'm going through my boxes this week. I owe both you and Fuzz some greeblies!

 

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 22, 2014

• #10

SofaKing01 said:

Very excited to see this!

Click to expand...

Your cockpit has certainly been an inspiration!

Kind regards,
Magnoli

 

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 27, 2014

• #11

Got some more work done...

We traced the door from a screen grab and projected it old-school onto our ply sheet:

Also found this great old button for a few bucks for the door panel:

Not sure if I want to repaint it or leave it as-is...

 

Blaxmyth

Sr Member

• Jan 27, 2014

• #12

Crikey! Thought I had more hair on top! :eek

 

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 27, 2014

• #13

Nick K just finished cutting out the front panel for the door, so I thought I'd set everything up to give you all an idea of what the finished door will look like:

 

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Blaxmyth

Sr Member

• Jan 27, 2014

• #14

Great work, guys! I've just had (another) great idea for sealing the surface - I know this old fella who's got quite a bit of polyester resin in his shed - about 15 litres last time I checked. Might do the trick?

 

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 28, 2014

• #15

I'm game to try anything... but if we mess up with the resin, it'd be a lot harder to scrape off than the plaster!

 

SofaKing01

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 28, 2014

• #16

That door looks great! I would leave the vintage piece as is and just unscrew the the little plaques.

 

Paul6700

Well-Known Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Jan 29, 2014

• #17

The door looks amazing, I look forward to seeing the whole set complete.

 

Blaxmyth

Sr Member

• Feb 4, 2014

• #18

Making progress with cutting out the bevelled styrofoam strips for around the inside of the door.

Bodged up this foam cutter with a 12V power supply, a garage sale saw table, a length of nichrome wire from an old clothes dryer, a spring to tension the wire - stretched between a shed rafter and a work table - plus a temporarily-glued cradle to hold the foam bits. Total cost - zero dollars.



Just about there - waiting on a bit more foam packing, but on track to meet Indy's deadline in 3 1/2 weeks. (He works us hard... )

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2014

Indy Magnoli

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Feb 7, 2014

• #19

Blaxmyth said:

...but on track to meet Indy's deadline in 3 1/2 weeks. (He works us hard... )

Click to expand...

And you thought they called me Indy because of the hat... it's the whip!

We did some more work on the door today: filling in the spaces with bondo and sanding...

 

Blaxmyth

Sr Member

• Feb 7, 2014

• #20

And from the second unit, we've been experimenting with mixing sand and polyester resin as a way of creating the stucco/adobe effect for the walls.

Tried sprinkling dry iron-sand onto a thin coating of resin and mixing sand with the resin and spreading it out like plaster. Both worked really well, but the resin with sand sprinkled over it was easier, quicker and covered more area for less resin. Much better than our first attempt with drywall plaster.

Think we've found our wall covering!