CSO GenCon 2019 Diorama - Behind the scenes

[00Dawg]

I told myself (and a few others) that I'd give everyone a peek behind the curtain on the making of this year's diorama, so....here we go!

First off, the discussion for this year's diorama started during GenCon 2018, namely as CGL wanted to work hand in hand on getting something ready that would match other efforts at GenCon.  Obviously things turned in their strategic plans between then and now, but we still ended up with a cool subject: a battle between the Republic and Clan Wolf on the Titan Yards.

I immediately had this mental image for the board:


You can be the judge on how that vision turned out.

After being sele...err, volunteering to do this year's board, I confirmed I wouldn't be present at GenCon.  That meant shipping the board.  Shipping is expensive.  I researched ways to get that cost to acceptable levels.  Immediately I saw that the recent shipping policy known as dimensional weight would've bit us in the rear had we been forced to ship the 2018 diorama.  I ran some numbers, and ended up deciding that our 2019 version had to be 6 inches or less in one dimension.  Obviously that had to be height. 

I generally work on 2'x2' foam boards, so that meant a board that was low in height, potentially with pieces that could be disassembled.  That's where I started.

[00Dawg]

I mentioned the subject matter earlier.  Looking back, we got that info on March 19th.  I immediately got to work looking for pieces I could use, and refining the concept.
We discussed things like having starscape as part of the board with 'Mechs jetting through space, big portions of scaffolding, etc.  I also dug through online resources as best I could, but I kept running into three major limitations:
1.  The 6-inch height limit due to shipping.
2.  This thing has to have metal minis on it.  Lots of 'em.
3.  Cost.

You can find tutorials about building homemade space terrain.  You can't find tutorials about building homemade space terrain in your evenings and weekends over a 4-month timer period that will safely holds tens of heavy metal miniatures, and doing it on a budget

I did some research on what the Lucasfilm guys did when building the original Death Star.  Yes, they did originally start with model ships and whatnot, but eventually they realized that was taking too long.  They ended up getting someone to cast pieces for them.  One of the molds was actually up for sale during this time.
A quote from one of my updates to the team:
"I was hoping I'd turn up a bunch of broken plastic models from our local gaming group, but so far it's not happening. 
Currently eyeing a few eBay options, including old broken Star Wars toys and various flotsam."

I remember specifically looking for Y-Wing pieces at the time, thinking those would be great to salvage the back ends from for some sort of docking collar or scaffolding.  Unfortunately, all the guys my age lost those pieces when we were kids...

[worktroll]

Locked on target! Great so far, 00Dawg.

W.

[00Dawg]

During this time, the other CSO artists were making all sorts of suggestions.  One was plaster molds.  Unfortunately, the molds were both pricey, and not something that's in my wheelhouse of skills.  I also looked at 3D-printed sections, which were even pricier. 

About this time, I realized that the Millenium Falcon might be an option: lots of details, readily available, and could be altered to meet my size restrictions.  I purchased an incomplete 2004 version on April 1st, and picked up a model of the Tirpitz and one of the USS Arizona as well. 

Interrupting things came the arrival of All-Star baseball, which I coached for the first time (came in 2nd).  I wasn't often able to again devote evenings to things again until June 11th.

During this time, I've had my eye out for other household items to use, and settled on DeWalt drill cases as an option.  I also grabbed a second Falcon, having arrived at the realization that I could tie some together.

I disassembled and then took a hacksaw to both sides of a DeWalt case, removing the hinges, the handle, and any internal pieces that prevented it from laying flat.
I also disassembled both Falcons, and then took a hacksaw to both bottoms, removing the cockpit outcropping and the noses.  When laid flat with the landing gear folded in, the Falcon bottom plus the foam board came in at about 5" tall, leaving me room to add details to the top of the landing gear.

One of the Falcons had working sound/light effects still, so I removed the front lights from the nose and rerouted one of the weapons lights to a more central location.

I also gathered the paints I needed.  The base color is Delta Ceramcoat Drizzle Grey, and spray paint is a Krylon Fusion that matched (name escapes me). 
Reminder, kids:  spray paint eats foam, and so does Zap-A-Gap!  The Falcons and drill cases were glued down using Gorilla Glue Clear.  I covered the rest of the uncovered area with the Delta paint, and used Zap-A-Gap to connect everything else.

[00Dawg]

Now, at this point I've got half a drill case and half a Falcon each on two 2'x2' boards, but I hadn't actually glued them.
This was the picture I showed CSO to discuss what I was doing:


 I still need something eye-catching to use for docks/and or a ship.  I was looking everywhere for inspiration.  I scoured the internet for generic spaceships that could pass as BattleTech ones and come anywhere close to the scale I needed.
This was docked warship from Gabriel was one of the inspirations, in case you need a visual:


It's now late June.  I'm taking apart battleship components, cutting plasticard, and throwing in pieces from all over the place to make greebles, particularly on the drill cases, but I need that thing to tie it all together.  In rides the one and only God & Davion, who suggests the Aurora dropship, which I had totally overlooked.

[00Dawg]

So, the Aurora dropship is now front and center for some eye candy, but I still have a lot of open space with no details.  I was looking everywhere for greebles that would look good and slapping on everything I could find.  I considered buying a Star Wars Droid Factory, pieces from a Rebel Transport, and various playsets just to get more details.
Here's an in-progress photo of the drill cases on June 29th as I was adding greebles:



If I'd had a limitless budget, I might've gone with a series of Battlestar Galactica models.  The pieces in the kits were flat, with lots of small details, but expensive. 

I wasn't trying to stick with just Star Wars stuff, but in the end a couple of Star Wars models from Bandai provided the most bang for the buck as far as greebles: a Snowspeeder (two different sizes in one kit) and an AT-ST. 

I also picked up an incomplete Darth Vader's Star Destroyer play set.  Its sides and roof provided the most details for the dropship board.
Other toys victimized for our viewing pleasure:
A generic Fire Truck
A generic Crane Truck
A Cobra Fang
A G.I.Joe Vamp

[00Dawg]

As we came down the stretch, I was still running out of stuff to greeble with, and had too much area to cover.  That's when Dave Fanjoy suggested the Hexagon sets. 
I bought a large set of those, and they were perfect for our purposes.  Had I known them earlier in the budget, I would've gotten 3 sets and had no open board showing.

Of possible interest, the box I received was originally made in Russia over 10 years ago.  I brought the name brand due to the need for fast shipping, but you can buy matching ones from Russia on eBay.  My first reaction when I saw them was "knock-offs", but since the originals appear to be dropping in availability here in the states, they may not be.

Here's the three boards together, before I started shading and adding details.  This was the angle the board was intended to be viewed from:

[00Dawg]

Okay, so now we're into adding paint and stickers.  Psycho and B1b had suggested adding some color to the grey to add depth.  I used a blue and a brown in turn, adding small amounts of them to Delta's Drizzle Grey.  These went on in wide swaths across the whole of the board.

I want to say the brown was VGC Leather Brown and the blue was from one of the Reaper Triads.  I also added highlights using VGC Wolf Grey, VGC Ghost Grey, and VGC Tan and VGC Bone White.  Some bare metal was added using VGC Silver.
I carved in some damage on a few places, and using VMC Black for laser scoring. 

I really wanted to add warning stripes, but the template I ordered didn't arrive in time.  I did make use of the stickers from the various model kits to add some color, and a few decals.

One of the most time-consuming parts was adding the T, I, and partial T for Titan and making it look right.  That was one of the high pigment Reaper reds with VGC Orange Fire used for highlights (blended), outlined with a fine-tipped marker pen.

Easter Eggs:
A "Wolverines!" scrawl in Red Dawn-style font.
A Cobra sticker on the side of one of the cases, suitably aged.
A Word of Blake decal on the side of a Falcon, suitably aged and partially removed.
An old-school Comstar logo on the back of one of the cases, left generally intact.
A new-shool Comstar logo with an "anti" circle painted over it, on the side of one of the large plastic greebles.

Another interesting side note: besides the working Falcon sound effects, there's a sound effect generator from the crane truck back behind the one Falcon cockpit.  Press the red light, and you get various engine/construction noises. 

Upon delivery to GenCon, several parts were found to have not made the trip well.  These contributed to a few places that didn't look as nicely done, but were generally fixed by Day 2. Most of the rust effects were added on site.

Overall, I liked how things came out.  If I had it to do over again, I'd have ordered more Hexagon sets, at least one more model kit to help fill in a few more gaps, and gotten the warning stripes template earlier so I could add those.  I'd probably also have added more battle damage.

Pics in the field: