Dio Set Help!
 

It's my turn this time!

I want to do a big courtyard scene. I need it to be big enough to house more than 40 figures. (well 40+ NeoVipers plus the characters actually doing the speaking.) I was thinking it'd be an outdoor courtyard with 'concrete' walls, much akin to the troops standing at attention like in Marvel #1.

Diorama Idea #57
 

I read your post, then I grabbed a piece of paper and my ball-point bic pen... and voila! This is my present to you. Use it, or print it out and blow your nose on it, either way it was 3 minutes of fun for me!

I call it "Neoviper's Last Orders Parade"... But then again, that's up to you ;-)

You are great at walls and such, so I thought of the various features with your strengths in mind...

If you did something like this - I would name you king cobra. I always start out with a crude drawing like this, naming the various features that I am about to create... and when I draw it out, I absolutely don't think about "how" I'm gonna do it... I just draw it and then do it. That's part of the fun!



Jive any ideas?

Cheers! ~ Paul.

man you crack me up 5th, always a pleasure lol

Sonn, forget it, I'll take this, haha!! :p

Fifth, that's an awesome set-up. I like the windows w/bars...I could see those being cells, where captured Joes have no choice but see and hear CC rally the troops...it'd be so demoralizing! Perfect!

G, you best make something like this! I can picture your kick-ass Neo-Viper army, in parade formation, being called to action, to battle!

Very cool!

Yeah, that's what I was thinking - have the joes looking out at the neo strike-force thru the bars. Space the bars just far enough apart to squeeze an arm through, and have a figure trying to escape.

I totally agree... Sonneilon could make this easy - and show us up in the how-to forum. I'd love to see how he would tackle the stone and the slope-walls.

I aim to please - and I'm a fan of your work. If you could show us how to customize vehicles I would be eternally greatful... and maybe buy you a case of Molson Canadian and ship it to you so you can drink real beer ;-)

Cheers! ~ Paul.

The great thing is that it looks totally doable and not even that difficult (says me, not currently making it, ha!). But I'm picturing in my mind how I'd go about doing it and would love to tackle this one. What an awesome and intimidating set it would make. Perfect for a dio, or for displaying bad-ass Cobra armies.

Stone walls are easy, use cardboard covered in DAS modeling clay. I used it as the base for my homemade stargate (which I still have to finish!)

It looks to me like it would make a fantastic Cobra Arena of Sport as seen in numerous episodes of the cartoon!

Flint and I are working on an 'Arena of Sport'.....which will be able to double as an auditorium.......

Awesome, I can't wait to see it! I tried my hardest to think of a way to work an Arena of Sport into my Joe/TF crossover, but the story didn't require anyone to be captured, so I was never able to do it...

5C, just how tall do you suppose this thing should be? You say that the slants would be 12-15" so I'm guessing at least 2.5' tall? Thanks for the input, I think I'll build something very close to this, if I can.

Good question! It could be daunting couldn't it?

Let's start at the floor... I would say the sloped stone walls should be 1-2" taller than the figures minimum... That way it looks "trapping" from the perspective of a soldier on the parade floor...

Then make a stone ledge which protrudes outwards a little.... maybe an inch high... then the wood slats... I'd say go 3" taller than a figure, such that you can lookup and see the ceiling from the parade floor. (note: back to the stone ledge... you could make it come outwards 1" and throw some razor wire spool across it... to keep the folks in... but that's more of a battle-arena feel ;-)

I'm not sure how to finish off the dio into the sky... you need something. If you go with a partial sloped roof, it might look too samarai-feudal-japanish... I'll think about that.

Put it all in perspective - I would have the bottom stone wall part smaller in height than the top 2nd floor wood slats part... I don't think you'd need to exceed 2 feet in height - 2 feet is quite tall from 1:18 perspective. But that's just my opinion - you may want to go giganto-tall and that would be cool too.

Can't wait to see you start this. I'm totally pumped.

Cheers! ~ Paul.

I did do one set where the walls were probably close to 3 feet. That was a lot of fun. I had to use those lovely Nalgene water bottles to help keep the walls standing up straight! Believe me, I'm alreadying thinking about how to accomplish this task. And yet, it'll only be for a few scenes!

Sonn,
While I also like the design that Fifthconspiracy created, I'd suggest not making the balcony an enclosed window. Make it an open balcony, maybe covered with a fabric awning ala Roman Arenas. CC always likes to hear his own voice and bond with the troops. By hiding behind glass he gives the impression that he fears or distrusts his soldiers. He'd be out there among them making them feel he's one of them.

Just my two cents.

Good point! A fabric Awning would look cool, in the right colors, with two large Cobra flags draped down on each side of the Commander as he makes his speech!

Cheers! ~ Paul.

Just to pick on ya 5th Conspiracy, I found it's better to build the sets bigger than planned cuz it allows ya to move the camera easier. I've built sets too small and you end up being able to see over the top of the walls. That wasn't so good. That's when I learned I needed to manipulate the fotos more, like a tunnel or a remotely thin corridor.

I did start building this. Finally got some $$$, bought 3 sheets of 1/8" foamboard and... Let's see, I cut the 1st 2 walls, the courtyard walls. Measured 'em against a 25A Beach Head, should look ok. They are 24"x10". Hmmmmmm, I wonder if I should do a step-by-step on this bad boy... course, if it goes all wrong, well... LOL!