Well played my man, that one got by me, at first glance I thought it was. We'll revise that to a 4/5 for accuracy.
I managed to cut all the foam for the cave pieces this week, as well as apply compound filler. I also painted where the two bases meet for a seamless look. I also measured and cut a plastic rubber tote lid into 1" strips to use on the door to the inside of the Ark. I will have to paint the 1" frame and then glue it on both sides to the door the next nice weather day we have that I'm off work, hopefully either this coming saturday or monday. I'm planning on painting the fossil/rock walls for the cave at the same time as well.
I did manage to get a little painting done with some decent weather today, the fossil/rock walls are mostly painted and drying I just have some little touch-ups on the bones themselves. I also painted the frame of the door, added some dry-brush weathering and then added a flat, dull clear coat. I'm going to glue that in place and let it dry until monday. Hopefully monday I can start putting the cave together!
Big update! Finally got a few things accomplished the last few days. I drilled a hole in the bottom corner of the mountain to fit the cord for the LED lights from the tunnel, and ran the cord up into the ceiling of the Dinobot cave. Once that was done, I spray painted some larger stalactites: I then glued them to the ceiling of the Dinobot cave. Once that dried, I put the pieces of the cave interior into place and put the ceiling part in last. The roughly finished cave: I still have to put a few small pieces in as filler in 2 spots close to the ceiling, as well as spray paint the cave floor with the same ground texture paint as the outside. I also may paint the exposed bones with a slightly white dry brush, since they are a little more yellow than I wanted. I think a little white may help them pop a bit more on the rock background. Grapple and Wheeljack decided to inspect the cave for dimension and scale: I still have to paint the exterior of the cave and side of the mountain yet. Maybe next weekend. Once I had the cave put together, I turned my attention to the background. I made another run to the hardware store and picked up a 4'X8' sheet of 1/8" thick rigid backing board for $8 that they cut into 3 pieces. This is what I'm going to use as the background for the diorama. I also picked up some Rustoleum Satin Oasis Blue spray paint for the background: Then I gave one of the boards two coats of paint. My plan is to "Bob Ross" the backgrounds by using a mix of spray paints and paint brushing to create as close to a G1 cartoon animation style background as possible. Once the backgrounds are done being painted, I plan on using magnets on the back of the background boards to keep them upright and in place to a frame. That way this will be easier to move in pieces from one room to another if needed.
Man, I've always wanted to make a playset/diorama piece like this, but it's a little more fulfilling watching somebody else do it and make it even better that I could. Sincerely, this is one of my favorite creative projects of all time and one of the main reasons I visit the radicons forum. Excellent work as always!
Thank you so much! Thank you! Oh there will be trees for sure. Probably a few 3 dimensional ones as well by the time this is done.
Keep up the good work! Those cave details with the toon inspired wfc bots look like a screenshot of the g1 cartoon in 3d
Finished brushing the dinosaur fossils white this morning: I feel like the white makes them pop against the rocks a bit more. Now I just have to give a little more brown touch-ups to the rocks around them. Once I finished that, I gave the backgrounds a second blue coat, and then added some clouds and some dark brown on the bottom of the first background board: For kicks I brought it into the house and set it up behind the Ark. It's trending towards how I want it to look, next week I'll hopefully have a chance to really add some depth and detail to the mountains on the backgrounds.
Definitely the right decision to whiten the fossils. I mean, check the episode and it's as if they wanted you to be able to see them. Almost like young kids needed it shoving in their faces (fully intact skeletons, of different species, all in one place, and only one of each). They just missed out the neon signs... But it's the same here. They need to pop to have the impact. You're not making a realistic archaeological dig diorama, you're replicating the cartoon. And it looks bloody brilliant!
Thanks for the high praise! I've got some cool stuff in store for the inside Ark portion, I can't wait to get to it but I don't want to rush through the outside.
I wasn’t sure what to make of this project when you started back in Feb especially with the totes stacked on top of each other. But slowly, piece by piece, your vision and talent materialized. The intricate planning of each section, attention to small details and how the big picture starts to materialize in front of our eyes is like watching Michelangelo put together the “Sistine Chapel”. Thanks for sharing this with the group. This project brings back a lot of great childhood memories of my best friend and I trying to build our own out of Dixie cups, mud and dirt in his backyard.
Thank you very much. I'm fortunate to be able to have the time and funds to make this project now. I've always enjoyed seeing all the creativity here and on other forums and it's cool to be able to share mine.
Bro, you are killing this thing!!! It's good thing we are such good amigos, cause I have one small request... Make me one for my birthday!!!! (I can dream..)
I don't think the wife will have the patience to have me spend months building another one You'll just have to settle for coming over and hanging out.
If not to late you should add one more small tub up top to make the volcano/mountain top slightly taller