My custom displays- 06-13 Rancor Pit finished!!- page 9

[Kimchi Pasta]

Tres = the true Detolf king! Keep inspiring and creating masterpieces..

[treswright]

Thank you very much Kimchi

It's been a while since an update to this thread, but that's because I've been posting in a thread over in the "Custom Creations" forum. That forum is for modified Pops, and lately I've been cutting open Pops and putting LEDs inside them so I figured that was a more appropriate place to show that stuff. Here's a pic of the latest ones I've done (sitting on top of the cases):



And here is a link to the thread with more photos and info on those as well as some pics of custom Pops built by others that are in my collection:

viewtopic.php?f=63&t=69734

But that's not why I'm bumping this thread, I'm bumping it because I FINALLY got back on the Rancor Pit. I started it a while back, then it got pushed to the side while I messed with other projects, but I got tired of looking at that empty shelf under Jabba's throne room so here we go First this is a shot of the mockup:



Believe it or not it took quite a bit of work just to get to this point. I looked up photos online as well as watching the movie and taking my own photos of stills from the movie. The idea isn't to duplicate the pit exactly, but to try and convey the same feel of the pit in Pop form. They're not shown in this pic but I built a gate for the back opening as well as bars for the round windows. They are set aside so they don't get damaged during construction, they'll go on last.

This next shot shows the scene mocked up in place on the shelf it'll go on, I just wanted to confirm it all fits right before getting too far down the road:



This also shows the front fascia piece, hand cut out of 1/4" foam core. Not the first such piece I've cut, I did something similar for the scene with Luke and the Wampa. Let me tell you, it's an adventure cutting all those curvy shapes by hand, any mistake and the whole thing is trash. Anyway the scene will be lit with LEDs like my other stuff so it won't be dark like this.

Next up, if you've ever wondered what one of my dioramas looks like before the plaster cloth goes on, well here ya go:



It ain't rocket science But there is some artistry involved in getting the crumpled up paper shaped to look like rocks.

And lastly, here's what it looks like as of today:



You'll notice a lot of the plaster cloth "matrix" is showing through on the right but not the left. The right is what it looks like after the cloth is applied, it doesn't give 100% coverage so I have to go back and cover it all with an extra layer of plaster. I did it on the left side but it was getting late so the right side didn't get done yet. It's kind of like finger-painting, I mix plaster to a runny consistency and smear it on with my fingertips.

So that's where it is for now. I mentioned the gate and bars, after those are installed I will be building black boxes behind the openings with LED lighting (probably red) to make it look like there are rooms beyond. I will also light the cave with LEDs, I'm going to play around with the colors to try and give it a dark cave-like feel while still lighting it enough to see everything. I think it'll end up being a mix of red, blue and white LEDs.

More to come

[JohnnyPOP]

That is going to look so cool!!! An awesome set for some awesome pops. I can't wait to see the finished product, and seeing all the steps to get there is great!

[CaseyJones14]

Very cool! I wish had some sort of artistic ability so I could make something like that. Can't wait to see the final product!

[Strending625]

Another great looking display!

[RoboFist]

I am consistently impressed/jealous of your displays. This is the sort of thing I'd love to do once I have significantly more space

[squidward]

Yeah, these are totally awesome. Thank you for sharing them and I love seeing the step-by-step.
My creative talent is spreadsheets, but no one cares to see those getting built.

[KMFH11]

That Rancor pit is gonna be amazing!! Great work I love it!

[jaybros82]

Wow, fantastic! Is this going under your jabba set?

[POPtor WHO]

that Rancor Pit is going to be amazing! thanks for the peek behind the curtain, it was very cool to see how your creations come to life.

[treswright]

Thank you for all the great comments! Glad to hear you're enjoying the "under construction" pics, I'll take a few more as it progresses

My creative talent is spreadsheets, but no one cares to see those getting built.

Well I've messed with Excel enough to recognize that it takes some true talent to be a master of spreadsheets

Wow, fantastic! Is this going under your jabba set?

Thanks! Yes, in fact I took a picture when I mocked it up but the pic came out way too dark so I didn't post it. I built a new shelf under the Jabba Throne Room just for the pit. I was going to cut a hole in the floor of the Throne Room looking down into the pit, but once I mocked it up I realized it won't be possible to see down in it. I'm still going to add the floor grates to the Throne Room, I'm just not going to bother cutting a hole through the shelf.

[treswright]

Have a couple more pics, I have a rubber mold I use to make rock shapes out of plaster:



You don't have to cover the whole surface with these, but if you attach a few to the "protrusions" then after it's painted and a black wash added it adds some extra texture and makes the surface look more realistic. I attach them with a plaster slurry and then fill some more slurry in around the edges to blend them in.

Here's the dio as of this morning with the rest of the skim coat done and the rocks added, and a little floor texture added too. At this point it's ready for paint.

[mikechickenhead]

Amazing stuff!

[Megacam]

very cool!

[JohnnyPOP]

This is coming along nicely! I can't wait to see more.

[edmomo]

so THAT's where all the coupons Alex sends out gets stuffed into! the diorama looks fantastic!

[Zae05]

Wow! Very cool stuff. I wish I was just as creative. Maybe one day I will attempt something like this.

[treswright]

Thank you Mike, Mega, Jonathan, Ed and Jose!!

so THAT's where all the coupons Alex sends out gets stuffed into!

Hahahaha!

Wow! Very cool stuff. I wish I was just as creative. Maybe one day I will attempt something like this.

By all means give it a try, you might surprise yourself! It's a lot of fun too!


Well I did get the paint work done over the weekend, but it wasn't without its trials and tribulations! I started out using the "leopard spot" technique which consists of daubing a few colors onto raw plaster and then washing the whole thing afterwards with a very watered down black. Well I got way too much brown on it in the daubing and when I put Rancor in to check he was lost in it because he was the same color as the background. So I primed the whole thing and started over. Problem is I quickly learned the daubing only works on raw plaster because it soaks into it. Once I primed the plaster I could no longer use that technique. It took me quite a while but I finally came up with a technique that worked over primer and that gave it the look I was after in the first place, more of a grey coloring. I went over it with varying shades of grey, then used a slightly thinned black to darken the recesses in the rock formations, then wiped it while still wet to remove the black from the high spots. Then after it was dry I went back and drybrushed white over the formations to give them more of a weathered look. Lastly I dyed talus (the small rocks) to match and glued it to the walking surface and around the base of the walls. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out:





Here's a closeup of the wall paint:



Next up is wiring the lighting. I did some light testing last night and figured out exactly where I want the LEDs and what colors to use where, so now I just need to install it all

[Fawny]

That is awesome! You are so creative! Do you do creative stuff like this for a living or is this a hobby?

[JohnnyPOP]

Holy crap! That looks so good! Look at all the detail in it. Reading about it and seeing it are two different things. Great job, Tres!

[alex_dewitt]

SIMPLY AMAZING!

[Gray]

Awesome job man!

[CaseyJones14]

Soooo you want to make the TMNT lair for me next?

Looks amazing!

[treswright]

Thanks for all the great comments, I really appreciate it!!

That is awesome! You are so creative! Do you do creative stuff like this for a living or is this a hobby?

I'm an architect, but there's not a lot of crossover from what I do at work to my hobbies even though it probably seems like there would be Back in the old days when I was starting out in architecture we used to build a lot of models, but these days it's all computer 3d walk-throughs and such, so it's getting to be a lost art in the profession. We also drew everything by hand back then and you just never see that anymore either.

Soooo you want to make the TMNT lair for me next?

That would be a cool project, kind of like this but with a lot of gooey drippy glow-in-the-dark stuff!

[sushiguru]

looks great!!! keep up the great work!!

[treswright]

Thank you Jay and Chris!

It was rainy yesterday so I had time on my hands and got the Rancor pit finished up Things don't always turn out like I pictured them but I am beyond happy with how this one turned out! I really love it! I wish you could all see it in person as pictures tend to flatten it out and you don't get the full "cave" effect but this will have to do.

Also I found a really cool little gizmo on Amazon that plugs inline past the transformer that feeds all these scenes (WD, Jabba and the pit) and it allows me to control the lighting level. The scenes were a little too bright at night when there's not much ambient lighting, but now I can control the lighting with a remote, so that's cool Anyway, here are some pics!

[Ramswinckel]

Wow your displays are amazing! Good job!

[michellepop]

Thank you Jay and Chris!

It was rainy yesterday so I had time on my hands and got the Rancor pit finished up Things don't always turn out like I pictured them but I am beyond happy with how this one turned out! I really love it! I wish you could all see it in person as pictures tend to flatten it out and you don't get the full "cave" effect but this will have to do.

Also I found a really cool little gizmo on Amazon that plugs inline past the transformer that feeds all these scenes (WD, Jabba and the pit) and it allows me to control the lighting level. The scenes were a little too bright at night when there's not much ambient lighting, but now I can control the lighting with a remote, so that's cool Anyway, here are some pics!

Looks fantastic!!! Great work

[alex_dewitt]

I LOVE your Jabba's Palace diorama!

[txcarr85]

Damn Tres nice work. Being local Im going to have to stop by one of these days and check these out.

[odnar]

Loved looking back through this thread and seeing the process and the finished results. Wow. The Jabba diorama is also awesome.

[jaybros82]

Wow, just wow. Amazing as always tres

[The Head]

Meh, I don't like it. I can't believe you take your Pops! out of their boxes...and for THIS no less.

In all seriousness, this is freakin' awesome, just like all of your other displays. Kudos to you for the creativity and time commitment. Wish I had half of either!

[JohnnyPOP]

Oh my god! That looks so great! Amazing work as always, Tres!! I love how it looks on it's own and altogether, too! There's a lot of exclamation points in this post . But worth it! How did you get Oola to stand on her own and not topple over?

[treswright]

Thank you all for the awesome comments, I'm so glad you like it

Damn Tres nice work. Being local Im going to have to stop by one of these days and check these out.

By all means! Just give me a little notice in case I need to straighten up a little first

Loved looking back through this thread and seeing the process and the finished results. Wow. The Jabba diorama is also awesome.

Thank you, and I apologize so many of the photos are gone/ broken now! When Funko deleted the gallery all the photos disappeared. I now host the newer photos on my own web space so that won't happen again. Some day I'm hoping I'll have time to go back through the thread and repost the lost photos.

Meh, I don't like it. I can't believe you take your Pops! out of their boxes...and for THIS no less.

Hahaha I love it!

Oh my god! That looks so great! Amazing work as always, Tres!! I love how it looks on it's own and altogether, too! There's a lot of exclamation points in this post . But worth it! How did you get Oola to stand on her own and not topple over?

Thank you! I put a little bit of blue sticky tack under each of her heels but every once in a while she tips over and I have to stand her back up. Eventually I'll install a couple of pins in the base to hold her up, but I'm waiting to see what comes out in the Smuggler's Bounty box, since the theme is Jabba's Palace I'm hoping there might be something to go in the display, like Lando in disguise?? I don't want to install her permanently yet since I may need to do some rearranging

[JohnnyPOP]

Thank you! I put a little bit of blue sticky tack under each of her heels but every once in a while she tips over and I have to stand her back up. Eventually I'll install a couple of pins in the base to hold her up, but I'm waiting to see what comes out in the Smuggler's Bounty box, since the theme is Jabba's Palace I'm hoping there might be something to go in the display, like Lando in disguise?? I don't want to install her permanently yet since I may need to do some rearranging

Hopefully that's what it is! Also, I'll have to try that sticky tack sometime. Right now all of my SW Pops are on their stands because she can't remain upright without hers and it would look weird if she was the only one.

[odnar]

Okay guess who had to have the Jabba 3-pack after looking at these awesome displays? (already have the rancor set) Impulse buying on EBay...is that a thing? Thanks Tres...hehehe

[treswright]

Also, I'll have to try that sticky tack sometime. Right now all of my SW Pops are on their stands because she can't remain upright without hers and it would look weird if she was the only one.

She is definitely afflicted with "big heavy head small feet" syndrome I think even if I install the pins I'll still have to put a little blue tack under her heels, she's just really unbalanced.

Okay guess who had to have the Jabba 3-pack after looking at these awesome displays? (already have the rancor set) Impulse buying on EBay...is that a thing? Thanks Tres...hehehe

Thanks for letting me know, I will contact Funko for my commission check Kidding! I'm sure you won't regret it, even in the box it's a really great-looking set!

[odnar]

I'm sure it's "in the mail"

[JohnnyPOP]

She is definitely afflicted with "big heavy head small feet" syndrome I think even if I install the pins I'll still have to put a little blue tack under her heels, she's just really unbalanced.

She is! I think it's made worse because she's a bobblehead, but what can you do? She's still such a great sculpt.