Modular Cloud City Playset

[Scott]

Is that design on the floor movie "accurate"?  I've never looked at the cell floor before so I'm just curious

Bobb, you seriously rule. 

[Muftak]

It's close, but looking at it the other day (two weeks after putting it on there) I realized there's one more "ring" to the octagons so that the center is actually red.

In the movie it's more centered on the floor, but here I had to stretch some of the octagonal walls to fit the hallway outside so the center had to shift a bit.

Still, yeah, it's pretty accurate.

[Scott]

I found a Cloud City Diorama that may be better than the one you are doing Bobb, sorry

http://www.starwars.com/kids/activity/crafts/f20050125/index.html

[Muftak]

No doubt, that is one impressive diorama. Mine only includes nine rooms from the place, but that one has everything!!

[JediMAC]

It's fun enough just gazing at your spectacular dioramas Bobb, but if you're gonna start interspersing the "Deanpaul-esque" figure comedy along the way now too...  Man, I don't think I can take that!

Awesome work as always.  The added humor is just icing on the cake now!  Keep it up!   

- M

P.S.  Nice to finally have a face to go with the name too...   

P.S.S.  I still think your work beats the stuff Scott just pointed out.  But just barely, so you better turn it up a notch!

[Muftak]

Muftak playing with his toys in the Cloud City Playset:



Okay, so my avatar is a lie...

[Jesse James]

[rebelscum] Very Nice!!!! [/rebelscum]

hehe 

Anyway, looking great Muftak...  I'm surprised you took the time out to do the Takkies in the midst of such a project. 

The cell's looking great and I think you picked colors that fit the bill all around.  Cloud City had such a distinct array of colors that maybe made it a little bland to look at in the films but you have to work to capture it in playset form...

I think you should consider extending it to be a larger playset though.  Not that what you've done isn't great, but just thinking you could even do more to wow us.

Will you include tupper wear bins for 3PO parts in the prison?    And do I detect a slide-out bed/bench too in the prison as well?

My only other suggestion, since Hasbro's CCP is so nice, is a small landing platform for the Cloud Car...  A vinty one would look nice.  If you really wanted to go ape**** with it you could make one for the Falcon instead...    Eh, just a thought.

[CHEWIE]

Chewie may look upset, but that's only because I don't have this playset myself.  Outstanding job!



 

[Muftak]

Thanks guys.

Jesse, you had better believe there's gonna be a bunk/bench for Han to recover on...good eyes spotting the slot!

As far as a landing pad, I'm leaving the option open...which is one of the fun things about designing the playset this way. I could definitely stick one on the front of the first floor with no problem...right now the snag is I have no vehicles for it whatsoever to make it a priority (No Slave I, no Falcon.) If they put out a Cloud Car, I might be sorely tempted to build the thing. As my plans stand now, I won't have anywhere to display the whole playset all put together--it's gonna be long and huge once the Luke and Vader duel gantry is attached.

Threepio crates are coming...I'm saving that work for the Junk Room. I've got a few neat ideas for some fun "playable" junk in there as well. 

Chewie, thanks for the thumbs-up. Now we're gonna lock the door and turn on an annoying siren...just to piss you off.

[CorranHorn]

Muftak playing with his toys in the Cloud City Playset:



Okay, so my avatar is a lie...

hahah i don't know why, but i can't stop laughing at this pic 

muftak, the progress is coming along nicely, can't wait to see more.

happy customizing!

[Jesse James]

Looks like he's throwing his infant around.

[Muftak]

I've been working on some fun junk droid parts for the junk/smelting room:



My favorite playset of all time was the Droid Factory from the vintage days, and I've been sitting on some spare old yellowed pieces for quite a while. This week I dusted 'em off (literally) and went to town. I also tossed in some other spare junk, most notably the burned-out IG wreck.





I painted them in two coats. The undercoat is a graphite grey, and on top of that I dry-brushed some metallic steel details. I think they look pretty nicely weathered.

Most important to me was keeping the fun of the Droid Factory alive with weirdo interchangable droid parts:



(and let me tell ya, I got a raised eyebrow when I told my fiance' that I was going to go post pictures of my junk on the internet.)

[JediMAC]

Far better than Watto's junk yard!  That's some nice junk you've got there Bobb.  Probably a bit too much for the Bespin junk room, so what are you gonna do with the rest?  Nice Battle Droid "thing" there too...   

But did you have to put that horrid roll up Destroyer Droid from the R2 carry case in there?  Yuck.  Hate that thing!   

[Jesse James]

I've, at times of my customizing career when I'm at 0 activity with anything, I will break apart a droid and add this or that for a "junk" piece to act as set dressing in a diorama.

May I suggest finding the most broke-ass looking 3PO or DSD from the vintage line, and working from there Muftak.  I like drilling a hole at the socket and using some Devcon Plastic Welder to glue REAL wiring into limbs, torsos, or heads.  Paint them up...  Even can retain the cool "metallic paintjob" if you take translucent paint and so long as you clean the figure's "plating" off down to the chrome base...  Paint it and you have a variety of colors for droids in the shiney paint schemes rather than gold, or silver...  Not that there aren't any flat colored protocol droids and things either of course.

[Muftak]

A good suggestion there, JJ, thanks. Once I got it all painted up, I took a step back and thought "whoa, a lot of grey in there..." so I may have to add some more colorful pieces of junk like you said. Most important to me was the ability to be able to "play" with the stuff, but I may need some more "ripped up" droid parts too...

...And Matt, I think it should be just the right amount for the junkpiles I'll need, plus the junk on the conveyor, and the shelves Chewie pokes through. The "destroyer wheel" will probably end up on the botom of one of the piles, don't worry.  My original idea for the Droid Factory parts was to completely refurbish the old Kenner set, with a new "gritty" deco and lots of fun parts, but aside from gathering a set-and-some-spares of various DF pieces and a good clean base, I haven't. Maybe someday I'll get back to that idea and steal all these back home...or maybe as part of a "modular Sandcrawler interior" playset I've been thinking about...

The droid I threw together does sort of resemble a battle droid (It's the head, obviously) who lost his clothes and has to resort to wearing a barrel, now that I look at it. Oh my!