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Starship Diorama


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I want to build a diorama with 2 battling starships. What I want to create is a weapons hit on an EM shield around one of the ships. My thought is to use clear plastic heated and molded to shape. Then use a clear smoke paint to create streaks, then paint with a clear red or purple (which I have to mix to make). Has anyone done this before? Any ideas?

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Here's a thought: inflate a big balloon, and spread 5 minute epoxy or some kind of clear resin on the surface of the balloon. Ideally something that could harden as it drips. Let the resin dry, with ideally one drip which can dry solid, and the rest of the resin coating the 3-dimensional round surface of the balloon. Once the resin is dry, break off the round end of the "drip," leaving a sharp point. Deflate the balloon, and remove it from the hardened resin.

What you should have now is a clear, hardened "shell" of the resin, which conforms to a 3-dimensional spherical surface. The "drip" would form a pointed 'contrail' from the incoming ordnance. I hope you can understand what I'm getting at. This should look like an energy weapon hit around a spherical energy shield.

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Balloon, use saran wrap layers. Every few layers, paint some additional details on, this way you get some depth. Feather the edges of the layers so it is denser in the center, and you will get a softer edge.

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Plastic wraps would probably have wrinkles, which would ruin the effect.

I would try a gloss acrylic paint medium, in multiple thin layers, over some kind of form (be sure to lubricate the form with petroleum jelly or something else first). This would be better than epoxy because it is clear and flows better. You can tint the medium with a tiny bit of paint.

I've also been thinking about doing something like this, but I'd need a 1/1000 scale Defiant first before I actually try.

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More important than the spherical/oblong spherical shape, I think, is the coloring. Not sure you want smoke--this is energy on energy, which sci-fi physics tells us should result in day-glo pinks, oranges and yellows. I don't think clear paints would cut it, but fluorescent paints might, especially if you could hit it with a black light.

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Plastic wraps would probably have wrinkles, which would ruin the effect.

I would try a gloss acrylic paint medium, in multiple thin layers, over some kind of form (be sure to lubricate the form with petroleum jelly or something else first). This would be better than epoxy because it is clear and flows better. You can tint the medium with a tiny bit of paint.

I've also been thinking about doing something like this, but I'd need a 1/1000 scale Defiant first before I actually try.

There are a lot of ideas and I will try more than one to see what works best. Just to let you know, I am creating a B5 Whitestar vs. USS Defiant diorama. I am using a the Warp version of the Whitestar and I recently found out that Alliance has a almost 8" long Defiant that matches the scale of the Whitestar perfectly. The Whitestar is much smaller than what is generally presented, check out http://www.babtech-onthe.net/alliance/whitestar.html , but is still larger than the Defiant. I believe the scale of both is right around 1/850, close enough anyway. The Alliance model (as with all of their products) is fantastic! I got it from Federation Models.

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<geek mode on>

But...the Whitestar uses Vorlon and Minbarri technology...the Defiant is doomed.

<geek mode off>

Maybe....even though I really like both ships, the Whitestar isn't quite as tough as you might think (many of them were damaged or destroyed by a lesser foe than the Defiant). My opinion is that if the Whitestar could withstand the initial barrage from the Defiant (giving time for the Vorlon armor to adapt), that it would end in a draw. That being said, the Whitestar still has an issue with kinetic energy weapons and a photon torpedo hitting it at near light speed would definitely do serious damage. That's why I am building this diorama, because this is such a huge debate!

Sorry for going off the "geek" end...

Edited by greg8365
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More important than the spherical/oblong spherical shape, I think, is the coloring. Not sure you want smoke--this is energy on energy, which sci-fi physics tells us should result in day-glo pinks, oranges and yellows. I don't think clear paints would cut it, but fluorescent paints might, especially if you could hit it with a black light.

That is a great idea. I believe the Whitestar's main weapon has a greenish/purple color to it (it's amazing you can watch a show for years and not remember that!). By the way, I was going to use the smoke color to create a streak affect within the shield impact (I seem to remember a couple of TNG episodes where they showed shield impacts, Yesterday's Enterprise being one of them).

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  • 3 weeks later...
Not if you pull it tightly over the balloon, but maybe some strategic wrinkling can add depth and texture to the effect.

OK,

I'm gonna let my geek out for just a few moments here. Use a bowling ball. Cover it with a water soluable mould release agent. (Think Pam, the stuff for keeping stuff from sticking to the pan). Pour five minute epoxy over the shape slowly so it will begin to set as it forms around the round shape. Pour towards one side to create a "finger" of clear epoxy to attach to whatever you feel you need to attach it to. I conducted experiments with this technique a looonnnnggg time ago and it worked pretty good. The epoxy dries clear so you can use any color you want to. I would, (and this is just a suggestion), make the hit appear in the center of the spherical form, and have the paint fade away from the center of the hit.

Ok, the geek is now being tucked away again. Back to the Shuttle/747 Project

Paul

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Another option might be to take a clear acrylic dome, trim it to shape and paint the edges.

I built this display model years ago:

Domes.jpg

For your model you could trim the edges to an irregular shape and artisticly apply paint to get the effect you want.

Just keep in mind that these domes are typically blown and tend to be thin towards the middle and thicker at the lower edges. This will vary depending on the size and thickness of the acrylic used to make the dome. I'd suggest asking the supplier approx. how thick/thin they might be.

An internet search for "acrylic domes" gives lots of sources.

:cheers:

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Where do you get massive spheres like that? And why'd you build an OV-1?
The shop I got the domes from went out of business years ago but as I mentioned above a search reveals lots of sources.

Here's the first that comes up: http://www.globalplastics.ca/domes.htm

They offer domes up to 69" diameter!

This display was something I built about 20 years ago for one of the defense firms.

Not pictured was the final outer dome which was 48" diameter.

It was meant as a graphic overview of the concept of High-Level Operational Concept Graphic (OV-1) (though when I built this it didn't have that name.).

It was a really fun and challenging project, the fun part being the vehicles:

Dome_parts.jpg

The challenging part was lining up all those tiny clear acrylic rods and drilling corresponding holes through each of the domes without screwing up!

:cheers:

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