leaving in about 5 hours... Hope to see everyone there!!!

wow.. some of this stuff looks real cool.. so.. anyone bringing fodder to mess around with stuff while at the table?

whatabout double sided scotch tape, my boss uses that crap all the time, it's annoying when you reach for the tape and it's... DOUBLE SIDED!!!

I think you can get it at walmart... and it's clear and sticky as heck...

I guess in a way, I was a bit discouraged after I spent hours on my Imperial Tower and got like 2 comments on it, didn't even get a comment from the tema leader.. but he found the time to post a long 3+ paragraph about his technique with spray on spackle...

I wasn't looking for praise or "high-fives" but more on things that could have improved what I did, one peroson mentioned an extension with a turrent or something, but that was basically it...

This was one of my very first "diorama" structures, I was new to the field, and when I didn't really get any "critiques" I guess it really didn't inspire me to want to finish my next project... heck.. I cleaned my cookies cause of a virus.. and I didn't even feel the need to re-log in(mostly cause the lack of activity)...

I'm all for this project.. heck, I probably put over $100 in supplies into it already, something I maybe shouldn't have... Now granted, that's not the only reason, I've also revamped my office/customizing area getting ready to be a caster for GTG and I'm a stay at home dad, my wife works a good 60+ hours a week, so I'm the main man(literally) around the house.. and I also work part time, now going on 4 nights a weeks...
So all that factored in.. and at the end of the night, do I wanna sit down and relax, or work on something, I'm not too familiar with, post it and watched it get looked over in a matter of days... I dunno.. that couch looks pretty good right about now. 

I think Ryan's mention of the 1.5" tall foamcore was meant so that if we wanted, we could make a "negative" surface area, like a small dip in the ground, or a stream of some sorts... I personally am not gonna use foam core either, I have some foam that's roughly 1.5" and plan on using that as my base... that way I can carve into if needed and build it up too.

Anyway... I'm liking the look of yours so far P, maybe take a couple "chunks" out of your base so it's not too level and looks more realistic for innards of the canyon...

I like the construction foam.. if I'm correct, that's how they made geonosis arena(well, I'm sure Lucas didn't raid any construction sites), they basically had these huge blocks of foam, and carved their arena out of it.

Diagobah, I'm liking your cave so far, it looks totally different from the first pic, to the mached and covered one, good job on that... as for painting.. the best thing I could suggest it to find your base coat you want to use.. then seperate into different parts.. one for the base, then another part where you'll lighten it with for highlights.. and a third part where you darken it and water it down...
Lay your base coat... then take the watered down "darker" color.. and lay it on letting it get into the cracks, and after a min or so, wipe away the excess... then finally, go over some raised areas with the "lighter" color dry brushing, try to start out as light as you can.. you dont want too drastic of a change in color..

I'd also recommend going to a hobby store and getting some lichen or other mossy looking material.. and put it in some corners.. maybe even getting some watered down grey/brown/green mixed colors and paint them in some of the areas where water would sit.. where you'd have some mold growing/staining the cave...

Hope that helps... I should have some WIPS up of my section this week, I'm going with a hill and a path that leads to a cliff, nothing too big.. it's gonna be roughly 12" x 12" might get a little bigger with the cliff on one side.

I dont really know how it was done, but back hmmm.. like 5 years ago, I was part of The Chicago Force, and one of our members got in touch with Steve Sansweet-at the SW site, it says he's "He is currently Director of Content Management and in charge of fan relations in Lucasfilm's Marketing Department."

We were supposed to have dinner with him and kinda of a meet and greet.. but that fell through.. I did have a nice chat with him outside the hotel and got a picure with him...
http://www.lucasfilm.com/inside/faq/
Maybe sending a letter here to Steve might get through, but I'd still try and talk to those people Jesse mentioned, Im sure even when Gencon releases the info, they'll beable to point you in the right direction.

WEll, here are my pics of My Imperial Tower.  I basically build this with scraps of foam core I had laying around... The only thing I went out and bought for this was the paint.  I've never build anything like this before, most mini buildings I've built, were adobe types, so I didn't have to worry about crisp edges, or anything like that... When it came to doing this.. I tried it the way Ryan mentioned, covering the "foam" edges with posterboard, but it just didn't look right.. so I had an idea, what if I was to tape over the edges, and when I 'd paint over them, I'll make them look like steel, or some metallic edges... kinda like in Ryan's concept drawing...

So that's what I went with.. and while everything was still in W.I.P. stages.. it looked pretty neat... of course, after I painted the first coat, I saw the problem.. almost every little imperfection showed in the edges.. where it once looked like nice crisp corners, lol.. it turned into semi rounded in some places.. and actual corners in others.. so next one, will take a different approach for corners for sure.
Anyway.. without boring you any longer, here's the pics..



I cobbled this radar tocether from some old modelkits.. it actually rotates which I thought was pretty cool...

My son(2.75 years old) tried helping me paint this roof, lol.. we was so into "Daddy's clone trooper house" and while I was painting the dish.. he thought he'd help the paint dry and blow on it.. and some black got on the roof so I had to add the little drippies, lol.. I plan on adding vents of some sort, so I'm not too worried about it... the Radar dish was from the Clone Pilot, chopped the base off, then added some model parts to the dish part so it looked a little more complicated... the dish swivels and rotates



This is the main reason I fell behind... I just wasn't feeling the "tower" before as imperial.. an dI saw my bunker.. and thought.. hmmm. so I made this entrance.. and well, spent a little too much time on it, lol..

I do plan on going in and adding vents on one side(like the concept) and windows on another... I'm not making the balcony.. maybe on another tower.


And of course.. a mini dio..




I made the cool little eye scanner and entrance lever thing.. but I couldn't get a good pic of it.. it's the thing the Scout is using...

This last pic is to give you a good idea of the scale...



I actually measured out how big it's be if it was around 2 stories and had all these measurements and crap, lol.. I honestly didn't think that much went into making buildings like this.. man.. it was a lot of work.. but I guess the more you make, the easier it'll be..
Well, let me know what you guys think, I'm kinda not really happy with the way it turned out, mainly, the corners, so, I think my next building will be a smaller, shed, type of building, so I can practice on corners...
-Joe