As seen at STAR WARS CELEBRATION V • ECHO BASE DIORAMA BUILDERS
Orlando, FL, USA from August 12 to 15 2010
thursday Celebration V DIORAMA BUILDERS DAY 1
Welcome to the OFFICIAL Star Wars Celebration V Hoth Echo Base Diorama Builders workshop site featuring my EXCLUSIVE CREW COVERAGE not seen anywhere else on the web.
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Thursday, August 12 2010
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Well this is it, the day the public has all been waiting for, the opening of the covention, Thursday DAY 1 of the Diorama Builders Workshop. We are ready, but since we change themes every convention, there is always a learning curve on the first day and Echo Base is no exception 🙂 So much was done and SOOOO Busy today that I did not have time to stop and take regular photos, so the images below are screen grabs from the video footage that is now or soon available on the YouTube channel and embedded in the Conventions Celebration V menu as well. So, sorry if not all the images are the best quality for today.
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If you attended and took photos, please email them to me DIORAMAWORKSHOP.COM@GMAIL.COM so I can add them to this gallery.
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- Day 1 of the convention - 11 am - Already a huge lineup to get inside. Now that this is the 4th Diorama Workshop, people who have come to build in the past 4 years, know what to expect and even been told by some fans, that they bought their tickets to come only AFTER they saw that we were coming back. Now THAT'S a compliment 🙂 More pressure on us though 😛
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- The day was SOOO Busy, that I didn't even have time to take any photos of the kids building. But BUILD THEY DID. SO SO MUCH was created today, it's amazing. So it's now 6:30 pm, and the workshop is CLOSED to the PUBLIC, but that doesn't mean WE get to leave and go enjoy all of the awesome events that happen at night during the convention. That is the double edge sword of coming here. It is VERY Flatering as a HUGE STAR WARS FAN, to be asked to come and organise a Diorama booth - a hobby I love so much, but on the other hand, that means we DON'T get to see the convention. We have to make sure every night that ALL is ready for the NEXT DAY of visitors. With that said, we have to take the builds from today and start placing them on the Diorama Display tables so that passers by tomorrow have a cool photo op and the builders get to see how their creation looks placed next to the other 100's that were created.
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- Jamie - who many may know as FOLLIS in the custom figure world (http://sillof.com) stares at me and says YOU SURE THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT ME TO CUT !!! there is NO going back 🙂 Jamie and I met at Celebration 2 where he hung out all weekend and helped me A LOT. I had ZERO crew that first year to help. So it was SUCH a welcome to have a person with HIGH diorama building skills next to me. Jamie has helped me ever since at EVERY show.
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- Here we go, no turning back 🙂 We had to chop off a corner in the build to fit the corner pieces onto the table. It's something I hadn't thought of back home doing the prototypes but made a lot of sense when seeing all the pieces next to each other.
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- Placing one of the 3 arch hallways in front of 3 fan U hallway creations.
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- Attach 2 walls side by side, turn on some of the mini LED light and you are starting to see FAN MAGIC 🙂
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- Now the pieces that fit in front of the arch hallways are the BIG flower pots as I call them 🙂 These will form the Snowspeeder and X-wing arches when 2 or more are combined together side by side.
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- When you place 2 Flower Pots next to each other, the ends form a huge arch that allows you to see the U shape hallways in the distance.
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- About 30 minutes later, we have an idea of where the actual distances of all the hallways fit together. Pretty close to the plans I had drawn out back in Montreal months ago.
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- Another peek through the flower pots, now we just need a ship to place in it's parking space 🙂
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- Placing a X-Wing, fits just right as I had planed it back at the Montreal loft so many weeks ago.
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- Now, I am discussing with Scott on the left, have the kids built enough of these flower pots to make a full row to show for the morning crowd.
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- One of the things we wanted to do to save on some costs of the snow powder, was to place actual styrofoam sheets on the ground. The white color and texture would look good in photos and the styrofoam floor would allow us to place toothpicks into the foot pegs of the figures and poke them into the floor so they would not tumble like dominoes during the 4 day exhibit.
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- Here you can see in the rear the L shape hallways that act as backdrops to the U shape hallways, now 2 rows deep, covered with the 3 archway wall panels and about a 2 foot gap before the flower pot is secured to the floor.
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- Pretending I am a fan taking photos through the flower pot arches on the opposite side of the east side, that would make this the west side 😛
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- A front view facing North. You can see how doing this at home would be difficult, you need a LOT of table space between each side of the walls, not to mention the east tunnels. Do you see the final diorama in your mind ? 🙂
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- Almost time to go, they have given the first warning that lights will go out and we need to evacuate the base 😛 Here is the view of the construction side of the workshop when no one is around. Chairs are put on the tables for the cleaners to sweep all the floors at night.
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- The 4 post card giveaways from Day 1. Sarlaac, Jedi COuncil, Preincess Leia's plans and Luke's blastshield training. We must have given away at least 1000 just today.
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- A quick glimpse as we exit of the entrance corner signs. Winning the Crew Black T-shirts, Hasbro Drawing for Sundays MEGA BMF AT-AT's, and more of our postcards to the right.
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- The guards haven't returned, so I had time to take a few quick photos of the cool stuff the fans built today - DAY 1 of the Diorama Workshop. Here is a cool display of Luke on his TaunTaun, just like in the movie.
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- A closer look at the wampa snow mound. Very clever.
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- On the LEFT Tables as you enter the workshop, are the signs showing the fans what their choices are on what they can build. It's what families really love about our booth, you can select an item to build in 1 hour, or one that will keep you busy 3 days.
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- A lot of Turrets were made by the kids today, some still to be painted tomorrow. That's another cool feature of the workshop, you can come in, leave, come back, leave, come back, there is no rules that you MUST finish your creation the minute you step into the workshop booth.
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- Look at ALL these COOL L style hallways. You know how long it would take to build if you were doing this ALONE 😛 It's very satisfying when you see that your protptypes you built and helped you find the construction reciepe actually WORK smoothly 🙂 People are building them and they all look alike, making a giant mega awesome hallway!!!
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- A few fans tackled the U style hallways, a little more complex since they have 2 walls and a roof. I am sure tomorrow we will have many many more of these.
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- A quick flick on the switch and the light turns on. Gotta LOVE the DOLLAR STORE 🙂
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- Just look what happens now when you look inside, the dollar store lights light up the hallways like a real movie set. I just LOVE IT, This makes me SMILE like I was 7 years old again 🙂 Wait till we see the figures in there !!!
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- And look what someone started today, Luke will be attached upside down in a Wampa cave. i LOVE IT !!!
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- More L style hallways, people have been busy, that must be 45-50 I've counted already.
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- Some more hallways parked on the corners waiting to be placed in the final display tomorrow.
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- Last but not least, MORE L style hallways and Turrets. Simple construction and basic materials found in ANY city, sure look great, The Echo Base is looking like it's gonna be a BIG HIT !!!
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- OK, The guard is behind me telling me to leave. It's 10:45 pm. Tomorrow wake up at 7, another day of construction awaits...
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- Leaving our booth and walking around the convention without the public is ultra COOL 🙂 Look at what we found on the way to the hotel, now THIS is Star Wars Celebration 🙂
