The Ultimate Group Project - Diorama Construction/Design

[Phrubruh]

How about Niub. 

[elmeaux]

Oo'j Papolis

Etamitlu?

[CHEWIE]

Any thoughts on the layout of the wall guys?  Are you ok with it?

 

[PenDragon]

Any thoughts on the layout of the wall guys?

Looks good in the sketch, Justin

[Ryan]

Any thoughts on the layout of the wall guys?  Are you ok with it?

 

To be honest, sort of the thickness and the height, I don't think it is going in the right direction so far. 

I think that the gate may be a bit too large. 26 inches is quite large considering that wall is only 34 inches wide. But I think at the moment that is the least of our concerns. 

Which brings me to my next point... 72 inches won't even be enough wall to cordon off one side of the city. It will only go up in a straight line. Considering the blueprint that I drew this won't work. It won't cover the triangle section that I've made to add more terrain. Not to mention it makes for more city buildings to build, which is the my big concern right now. And more importantly none of the terrain I've made so far will even work with a straight wall. The edges of both pieces are all 1/4" too tall. I was fading the height so it is tall outside the city but as it reaches the wall it is the right height. The wall won't even be able to stand correctly as it is now. Not to mention the path to the gate would be way off, as would a lot of the little hills I've placed. I would almost have to start over on the terrain, something I don't have time or money to do. Considering I've already spent at least $200 on terrain materials already.

The wall needs to look the way I originally drew it up. I hate to sound like a dick, I'm not trying to, it's just that we have a lot riding on the wall and it really needs to be done correctly. Including the back wall (red on this new BP) which is  6' 10". That wall is crucial so we cant leave it off, but I do realize that it won't be cheap so we can compromise there easily. The back wall can be made out of 1/2" thick foamcore instead of 4" thick wood. Just cut the foam core to be the same height as the rest of the wall, cover the foam center with posterboard, and paint it like you did the rest of the wall. We can attach it to the backdrop so it really serves more as a piece of the backdrop than the rest of the wall. It will just help it pop a bit. This will look better than the background itself could, because it adds a bit of depth. Go ahead and make that in as many pieces as you'd like as long as 6' 10" is the total length.

And as for the rest of the wall, it still ends up being only 100 inches total. I drew up a diagram of the exact sizes various pieces need to be. Now if you want you can go ahead and break each of those pieces, A, B, and C, into smaller segments. But they need to be able to be arranged in that order. If you do break them up be sure to label them somehow so we know how they go together when they are being assembled. Those three 45˚ angle cuts are critical. All those measurements are rounded to the nearest 100th of an inch, do your best to get them close to that. I did leave off the gate on there as well. Go with whatever you feel is a good size. I do feel 26" is too large, and I wouldn't have it much bigger than 16" if I were making it. My reasoning behind that is that it takes up a huge portion of the bordering terrain there and makes it hard to really put anything there ahead of time. I'll let you decide on the gate size there, just don't go too big with it.

You should be able to incorporate the sections you are already working on into this if you break up the 3 main pieces, so hopefully this doesn't add too much more work.

Here is the wall diagram with all the measurements you need. The height is still the same as you had it, as is the thickness. Let me know if any of that was confusing, or if you have any questions.

[CHEWIE]

I have to admit I'm pretty concerned now regarding the wall.  I had not planned on there being a back wall section.  I thought that the "back wall" section was being taken up by a backdrop.  I am wondering if a backdrop is 100% necessary now?  Also I thought that a 72 inch wall would eat up one side (6 feet) as the dimensions to my knowledge were 6 feet x 9 feet.

I do not know when the latest dimensions of this were drawn up -



I'm concerned that if the wall is jagged like in the diagram, how will the tiles be laid out then, how would they follow that pattern?  Somewhere I saw a picture in one of these threads that was a recent one that showed the approximate thickness of each section - I can't find the pic now, it was what I was going off of.  I understood it to be that the actual wall was being converted into just one long strip. 

My problem is that I can't just cut apart what I've done already into sections.  I don't have the necessary tools to do so, and don't have the money to buy a nice saw, and if the walls have to be a perfect 45 degree angle on the cuts, I can't get that done right in time with what I have.  I'm not a carpenter and did not foresee the wall to need such precision - I had thought that the wall could be modular all along, and that if it needed to be rearranged some it could be done on site. 

I am either going to have to start the whole wall from scratch or see if someone can take this over.  The insulation foam will not work for such a wall, it's just too fragile/no way that sharp angles can be made with it (and I have my doubts with foamcore as well).  It looks like I've got a pretty big problem here because I have got to prioritize a baby coming first - I have worked on the wall now for at least 12 hours of time, and thought that I was close to having it nearly ready but now it looks like this is not the case... I have to get started on the baby room this weekend and I am getting carpet installed/finishing my basement next week, and am getting nervous as hell that I'm not going to have the wall to the standard that is wanted. 

As for the thickness, what if the wall was only two inches thick, would that be ok? 

- OR -

Could we modify it to look like this -



If I can modify it to be like the second diagram without all the angles, I can still get this done on time.  If the angles need to be 45 degrees, I can tell you that I'm not going to be able to get it done correctly with what I have... If someone has a suggestion or an idea on what to do, please post your thoughts.  I think that wood is the best way to go with this, even though shipping what adds up to about a 14 foot wall is going to be tough.

Thank you!

[CHEWIE]

UPDATE - Ryan, Kevin and I just had a discussion through AIM - working through how to get this done.

EDIT - looks like Ryan just posted the same thing.   

 

[Ryan]

CHEWIE, Famine, and I are discussing this online at the moment, I'll post my thoughts later. ANd Phruby keep an eye on your PMs.

In the mean time Patreek check your PMs, I sent you one in regards to your cliffs...

[patreektherodian]

Master Phruby please read my pm.

[CHEWIE]

Although I understand the way I was doing the wall isn't to specifications, I figured I would give a glimpse at what I was doing.







It was 100% constructed from wood. I had only actually made about 4 feet of the wall to this point.

 

[CHEWIE]

Ryan - I got to looking at the pieces some more that I've already made.  I think that what you are proposing is definitely doable for me now that I think about it some more.  - but I have a proposal that we didn't discuss via chat tonight... what if I construct the entire wall - everything except for painting/detailing it?  I ship the pieces to Phruby and either paints it (if he has time) or this is done on site - making this wall more of a group thing?  Then since it's in separate sections, perhaps people could take pieces home with them as a souvenir or use as a backdrop for their dioramas at home.

If we can do that, I feel a lot better given my time restraints.

So - here's what I think I would be committing to -

1) the wall (construction only, I am proposing)

2) finishing the tower

3) the gun tower (waiting to hear back from Owen right now his site is down)

4) sending a lot of figures and a small vehicle or two

5) sending a couple things that COELI has graciously letting us use, including an awesome binary loadlifter (seen here in a photonovel I made) -



 

[CHEWIE]

Geeze, I just thought of something else.

Is this diagram -



Piece A - is the left side where it's 33.94 inches including the whole left length, OR just where it meets with Piece B?  I'm thinking this should be the whole length of the left side of Piece A - am I correct?  But in that case, the left side of the wall would need to be more than 33.94 inches as it would need to be longer than the right side.  Oh God, my head is hurting.   

Also I will point out that IF someone reliable does want to take on the wall, I am more than happy to hand it to someone who is confident in their craftmanship on this.   

 

[Ryan]

****. Forget those measurements for now. I was reading for my sociolgoy test tomorrow while I did that, and I rushed them. The math/labeling on there is wrong, at least for Piece A, Maybe B too. I'll redo them tomorrow or later tonight if I get distracted again. That left side of Piece A should be 37.94", 33.94" of it before it intersects Piece B. The city side there should be shorter.

I'll try and get a piece by piece breakdown done tomorrow too.

Good catch Justin.

[Phrubruh]

I will help out in any way you guys need. If you need me to finish some painting just let me know what you need. Just get the pieces here in enough time for me to do this.  (ie Not night before)

Remember guys we have 58 days left. I sense the stresses of the due days are getting on some people. Please keep the project in prospective and keep pushing thru. Things do not have be perfect especially in a group setting but they do need to be finished. The goal is something to show at C4. We have alot of work to do.

[CHEWIE]

No worries Ryan.  I am going to concentrate on the back wall section right now (the red wall), and am discussing with Phruby a plan for the "jagged" portions of the wall.

It looks like I need to create 36 more inches of the back wall - right?

Right now I have the following complete for the back wall -

Section 1 - 22 inches
Section 2 - 24 inches
Total - 46 inches

46 inches + 36 inches = 82 inches

Sound right?

Also, I agree with Phruby - we need to keep pushing through, don't get mad at each other, just remember if you committed to something please do your best on this.  If you have something ready, please ship it ASAP to who it needs to go to (either to Phruby or to Ryan).

If anyone sees a problem with doing something they committed to, NOW IS THE TIME to bring it up.