Author Topic: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread  (Read 44166 times)

Offline CHEWIE

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Re: The Ultimate Group Project - a Star Wars WORLD!
« Reply #210 on: July 6, 2006, 03:56 PM »
Hey guys, today I went to a local hobby shop that I used to go to, and looked at some of the scenery materials.  I know we are looking for the cheapest way to go about things, but I think we will need to also look at getting the quality of this to a good standard or it will look like a joke.

I saw a landscape material by Woodland Scenics (http://www.woodlandscenics.com/) that measured 50" x 100" and was $24.95, called a ReadyGrass Vinyl Mat and is available in four colors: Spring Grass, Green Grass, Forest Grass and Summer Grass.  It is commonly used for model railroading, architectural models, collectible houses, military dioramas, arts and crafts, gaming and more. It is moldable and retains its shape to make hills and mounds. You can scrape off the turf to make a smooth surface for roads, sidewalks, parking lots and water areas.

Here's a pic of it from their website -



Now, 50" x 100" would be a decent size, especially if we use two of those.  Then we can also combine other elements - I am thinking some sort of stone tiles for the streets/pavement of the city area. 

To try and show a better idea of what I am thinking, here is a suggested template based on Glassman's idea, but without buildings/trees or mountains added in yet.  Just the base before any structures are added.  And the grass is more of a yellow like on Dantooine.



Thoughts?  To me the most important thing is making sure we have a nice base/ground to it that doesn't need to be assembled/made by several people.  The ReadyGrass Vinyl Mat/Stone Tiles should solve that.

 :)


Offline CommanderKorbra

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Re: The Ultimate Group Project - a Star Wars WORLD!
« Reply #211 on: July 6, 2006, 04:07 PM »
I, for one, think that's a superb idea. Like you say, if the base looks like crap then the whole thing will look sort of screwed. Like using just some green construction paper LOL.

So yea, that'd be really cool CHEWIE.  That's cool that you can scrape off some to make roads aswell.
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Offline BrentS

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Re: The Ultimate Group Project - a Star Wars WORLD!
« Reply #212 on: July 6, 2006, 05:24 PM »
Chewie, I think that is a great idea.  My only concern will be the way the scale looks.  Most train models are much different scale than 1:18.  Will the grass terrain look real enough against a 1:18 scale figure? 

Offline CHEWIE

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Re: The Ultimate Group Project - a Star Wars WORLD!
« Reply #213 on: July 6, 2006, 09:08 PM »
CommanderKorbra - Thanks.  I think this will work out pretty well.  Of course, I could be wrong.

Brent - I looked at it today, and to me it looked pretty good.  We can always add in that lichen-shrubbery stuff too.  I'll probably go ahead and buy a roll of this stuff for personal use and take some pics with figures on it and see what you guys think - but it will be a couple weeks before I am able to do that.

 :)

Offline Phrubruh

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #214 on: August 14, 2006, 12:07 PM »
Just to let everyone know, we have a sister child board dedicated to the UGP over at JD's affiliate YakFace. Feel free to post at either board. We will post news reports from both sets of threads in our weekly newsletter.

If you would like to receive our weekly newsletter, please pm either CloneCommander1 or Smartypants to be put on the list.
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Offline Smartypants1635

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #215 on: August 14, 2006, 07:52 PM »
We will also paste the actual Newsletters here, so that way if you somehow don't get it, you can always come here (or Yak) and read it on the page. Remember these threads (and the chats) are what CC1 and I will be drawing our info for the Newsletter from, so alert these threads of any new figures, Dio buildings, ideas, etc.

Adam

Offline Phrubruh

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #216 on: August 22, 2006, 04:11 PM »
When are you going to post the past news articles? When is the next one due?
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Offline Smartypants1635

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #217 on: August 22, 2006, 07:59 PM »
Here is numero Uno. As too the next one, I need to talk to CC.  The only piece of news that has happened at this point since the last one is Brents House and the Assignement Ryan handed out, But as soon as that is done which is this weekend, there will be plenty to report. :-\

On Friday, June 30th, Master_phruby put up a vote to decide the design for our world that we would use. This vote ran all weekend, and the poll was ended on June 3rd at 7:00 EST. The Winner was announced later that day, showing Glassman’s design to be victorious, "Judde Lulos".


Our leaders have also been picked over the last few weeks, as some of you know, and I thought it would be appropriate if they told us a bit about themselves. Let's start with our Group Leader, Paul Hruby.


  "My name is Paul Hruby. Age 36. I've been collecting star wars toys since the very beginning. My first two figures were vintage Luke and R2-D2 that my dad bought for me at a Thrifty drug store around Christmas time. These were the only two figures the store had left. Since then, my focus has mostly been figures and Kenner/Hasbro ships and play sets. I'm married and have two kids (boy and girl) and one on the way in December.


I've been customizing figures since 1998 when I painted my first vintage death star droid. After that, I really got in to astromechs and then into EU figures. Over the years, I've gone from simple painting all the way to casting. I've got over two hundred customs but its getting harder to keep pace.


I'm also a complete Disney theme park geek. The kids and I go at least twice a month for a few hours. Its fun to look for things that you've never noticed before and to learn the history of the park and how the magic really works. Disneyland is also a great place to relax when you don't care to go on every ride in the park.


For this group project, I would love to see everyone come together and build something really unique. We've never really attempted something of this scale before. It could really be the star of the show if we play our cards right and not get side tracked.  I've always felt that star wars customizing has been a small nitch of collecting. Hopefully we can inspire others to get into customizing and make some truly creative items. This project is also a great way to advance our skills and make lasting relationships with fellow customizing hobbyist."



  Let's move on to our Customs Leader, Darth Ennis.


  "My name is Scott Rivet, I was born on Sept 30th, and this year will be the 8th anniversary of my 25th birthday."   Ennis made me type it like that =(, confusing, I know


"My other hobbies besides SW customizing are Comic books (D.C. mostly) playing video games, mostly anything Resident Evil, or Final Fantasy or anything Survival horror or RPG related. I've got both the PS2 and a Game Cube.


I am a former Bass player with speed metal and Industrial thrash type of music being my poison of choice.


My favorite bands are NIN, Pearl Jam, Disturbed, Kiss and the Bloodhound Gang.


I started customizing SW figs sometime when I was about 9 or 10. My first custom was a badly repainted Boba Fett that I still have. I mostly customized G.I.Joes until about a year and a half ago when I discovered SW customizing on anotheR Site, and I've been hooked ever since.


I haven't really put much thought into what I want to accomplish with the UGP, other than to make the biggest and best diorama ever. One so cool that the Gods will notice. other than that I just want to customize."


Now onto the Man that designed our World. Glassman6


Greg Glasgow
age 37- March 12, 1969
Besides customs,(My Hobbies are) Art, music(hip hop and go-go(Washington DC thing))


What I hope to accomplish, for the project...
For the group, a decent vision that we can build off of. Hopefully some cool concepts too.
personally, Since I don't usually make vehicles and dios, I would love to show off my
talents in these areas. I just don't have the storage space, or I would do them all the time.


I used to build ships as a kid outta everything(cardboard, Styrofoam) cause we couldn't afford all of Kenners, I had to do with home made.
I built scale building models in architecture school ( my profession) so I know I can do a decent dio...
Just haven't done one yet...


I started customizing as a kid... 9years old? I would hack away at my figures with a utility knife, paint them with model paint  and white out, and seal them with my mom's clear nail polish.
I then got back into it when Hasbro wouldn't release any EU characters in 1998+.
So I started with the solo kids... Then after I got the First version to the official guide to characters... It was non stop since.


Now the Head of our diorama Section. Ryan



Name: Ryan Phipps


Age: 20


Hobbies besides customizing: I love playing hockey and football as well as watching them on TV. I also love playing paintball in the woods with my friends. I really like playing almost any sport for that matter. Besides Star Wars, I'm a real big Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Glacatica, and Firefly/Serenity fan. I collect Star Wars and Stargate figures, mostly loose but I have some carded and boxed stuff. Other than that when I'm not working or at school, at Colorado State University, I just hang around with my friends.


Customs background: I saw an article in ToyFare magazine probably about 10 years ago or so and it had a bunch of Star Wars customs in it, that was when I first got interested in customizing, but it wasn't until about 2003 that I finally found the online customizing community that I actually did anything about it. I studied up on the techniques by reading all the articles on FFURG and asking some of the more experienced customizers some questions. I invested in a dremmel, the best customizing investment I've ever made, and made my first ever custom, a Corran Horn in X-Wing gear. I've been hooked ever since. I've been working on a rather larger Stargate diorama for awhile now and have learned a lot about diorama building through trial and error. Diorama building has become one of my favorite aspects of customizing.


What you would like to accomplish with this UGP??: I'd really like to create an awesome diorama, something that will rival NiubNiub's Mos Eisley in grandeur. I'd love to create something that people will remember and will go home from the convention and tell their friends about it. AS this is a group project, I'd also love to see this bring the customizing community even closer together and have everybody make some new friends. And I know this sounds cliché but most of all I just want to have fun.


Thanks to all the people who have decided to join in, So far we have over 20 people in on this. Get ready to Rock CIV, and the Customizing world. Have a great 4th of July everyone.

Offline Smartypants1635

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #218 on: August 22, 2006, 08:00 PM »
Numero 2

Hey everyone, sorry this one came so late in the evening, My family all went to see POTC2.

Anyway, This week has been pretty eventful. In the customs area Com.Miseria, and Daigo_bah have made some great customs, that may possibly feature in the diorama. They can be viewed in this page. http://www.jedidefender.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=12840.0

In the designs area, Darth Phoenix has come up with a bit of a modified version of Glassman's Design, as well as designing a mansion, whether it is an official design yet is to be determined.

Paul, our leader, has also gotten in touch with Gencon, the people running the convention. Applications for booths will be around in September, and we can start our fundraiser for the cost.

We have one more staff member to get to know.

Everyone knows Chewie, who is now vice president of anything customs for this project.

My name is Justin Cook. Age 29, and happily married to the love of my life, Pamela.  No children yet.  Known on the forums as CHEWIE.  My first real memory is seeing The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and afterwards my parents buying me an R5D4 - I thought it was R2D2.

As a kid I was into Star Wars and then my interest went to GI JOE and Transformers, and eventually - girls.  Once I was in college, Kenner/Hasbro began putting out new figures and I bought the first wave.  Once wave two was out, I realized I was in trouble as I became obsessed with Star Wars.

Now in 2006 I have a collection that has gotten out of hand, but I still can't get enough.  I am also into customizing and work on a photonovel series about a fan-fiction character, Rykrof Enloe.  To date I have customized nearly 1000 figures.  My first customs would have been in the early 1980s, where I used colored toothpicks for Vader and Obi Wan's lightsabers because they looked more realistic I thought.  My interest in Star Wars hasn't wavered at all since 1995 and seems to be getting stronger.

For this group project, I am hoping we can have many of our fellow customizers we chat with come together and build something really unique, and get some new people involved as well.  I feel my role in this is somewhat of a consultant, and to help each "project manager" come up with their plan, and to help everyone realize what is realistic and what isn't in this project.  To help keep focus on how to go about this project, not to jump ahead of ourselves, and to be supportive.

I will personally donate many custom figures to this, and will try to create some foamcore buildings.  I will also donate some money, as much as I can without causing a rift in my bills.  Most likely I will not be in attendance of this great event sadly but will do what I can to help, and also promote at www.yakface.com were I am a staff member of the website.

Looking forward to working with everyone, this will be a fun experience that none of us should ever forget!

Justin


Well, that’s about all that has happened this week, remember, we have an official UGP chat every Thursday night at 9EST. in the JD chat room. I also won't be here from the evening of the 12th to the 22 or 23, so Darth Nirvana will be sending out the newsletter next week.

Offline Phrubruh

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #219 on: September 13, 2006, 10:12 AM »
I'm looking at setting up a new set of parelle threads over at FFURG. I've updated them on our progress.
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Offline patreektherodian

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #220 on: September 15, 2006, 08:47 PM »
What is the main industry of our planet. Unless this has not been established I'm thinking refinery/garbarge/recycling.

Offline Daigo-Bah

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #221 on: September 15, 2006, 10:46 PM »
I thought it was mining?  For some reason I thought the Empire was mining the nearby mountains for raw gems or something.
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Offline Darth_Ennis

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #222 on: September 16, 2006, 07:51 AM »
I beleive it's mentioned in the history thread.

Offline Phrubruh

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #223 on: October 26, 2006, 09:46 AM »
Well tickets go on sale finally for C4 on Oct 30th but there is absolutely no information for exhibitors anywhere on any gencon of LFL site. Still trying to get a hold of someone.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2006, 09:47 AM by Master_Phruby »
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: UGP - a Star Wars WORLD! - news thread
« Reply #224 on: October 26, 2006, 11:45 AM »
I just got a lead! :D


Hello!  The exhibitor information is just being finalized and should be on the website by next week.  I can also mail you a packet if you send me your address.  Thanks!  There may be fan booths but those will be handled by Mary Franklin. 

I'vd asked for the exhibitor information and emailing Mary Franklin about fan booths. Keep your fingers crossed.
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