As seen and used by fans at STAR WARS CELEBRATION III • IMPERIAL WORKFORCE DIORAMA BUILDERS
Indianapolis, IN, USA from April 21 to 24 2005
tutorials making of DEATH STAR BASIC HALLWAY
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- All Death Stars must start with a Floor Base. The depth must ALWAYS be 30cm, however you can make it any width you want, as long as it is a multiple of 6cm (the dimension of ONE wall unit) For this tutorial we are going with 42cm (7 wall units)
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- First step, roll out the Mac Tac or DC FIX. It is available at most home depot type stores in the kitchen counter or paint sections.
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- The cool thing about Mac Tac is that it has a sticky side already. NO GLUE needed 🙂 just peel one corner of the backing.
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- Carefully and SLOWLY apply to the foamcore surface to one side and work your way to the opposite end. TADA !!! instant shiny floor 🙂 Now flip the base upside down and trim off the excess Mac Tac edges with your X-Acto Knife. Watch out for the fingers !!!
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- Download and Print my Decals then cut them out and decide what order you want them on your wall. You don't have to do exactly as I did, that's the fun of the Death Star 🙂
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- Now the back wall is cut on BLACK Foamcore to make a cleaner seem between decals. The width of this wall is 7 Decals wide or 42cm.
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- Leave a gap on the left (Follow the Red Arrow) if you plan on attaching a side wall. One foamcore thickness. Start with your first Wall panel and make sure it is applied straight.
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- Now repeat with all the other Wall Panels until you have your completed Rear Wall.
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- Flip the foamcore upside down and trim off any excess Decals to give a flush look to the front of the Diorama.
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- So here you can see what a finished Basic Wall will look like. This is a Difficulty 1 Scene that is perfect for the kids, beginners or just those who don't have more then 1 hour or so to spend at the Workshop.
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- I designed the Death Star with a "Grid System" just like Legos 🙂 You can ADD Xtra builds to enhance the Basic Hallway like these ROUND WALLS. The small replaces 1 Decal pannel and the Big replaces 2 Decal pannels. Use your imagination to place as many and anywhere YOU want in your Death Star display.
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- Time for your ceiling... If you watch Star Wars, you will see the Death Star ceilings have black and white strips so I cut some foamcore the depth of the Diorama floor and half of one Unit.
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- Using the Hot Glue gun, I start with aligning the first piece to the edge of the floor.
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- Then, you grab another strip for spacing, and Glue the other down (You glue the GREEN Hot Glue pieces. Make sure to NOT glue your spacer (RED X's) or you will be in BIG Poo Poo- LOL.
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- Continue on until you have the entire surface covered and looking like this.
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- If you have added extra designs like Round Walls, Wall Arches or Blast Doors, you will have to trace the pattern and remove the excess black bars so the ceiling lies flat on those supports.
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- Here you can better see how I designed the TOP of the DECALS to be the exact HEIGHT of the Foamcore thickness so that when you place your ceiling...
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- ... it is FLUSH with that top line. Here you can also see that if you create a 2nd level, Place MacTac on the flat side of your ceiling to create a floor on one side and ceiling on the other.
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- This is just the beginning of your Death Star adventure 🙂 Have fun adding new rooms like Red Control Room, Docking Bay, Trash Compactor. Build more Hallways to connect them all together.
Neil
September 5, 2018 @ 3:32 pm
Hi there! Thanks very much for sharing your knowledge. I am definitely going to try this out! I have a question though (Death Star Basic Hallway). In step 007, if you don’t have decals but have a printout, is there a good way of attaching the paper to the foamcore?
Thanks!
Neil
Frank Diorio
September 5, 2018 @ 6:10 pm
Hey Neil, you welcome, I always thought if I spend hours making decals for my own display, kind of silly to just let them sit in my hard drive when others like yourself can have fun building with them as well 🙂 To answer your question… You can use GlueSticks like UHU, the ones that look like fat lipstick tube. Cover the foamcore AND the back of your print, this way it will allow you to slide the print a little and allow you to align it just perfect. Have fun building ! Send me your pics when you are done 🙂 Frank
Mark blewitt
February 14, 2020 @ 7:17 am
Hi where do I download your decals from . Thanks
Frank Diorio
May 22, 2020 @ 12:57 am
Mark, there are 2 ways to do so, the easiest is to go to the SPEED INDEX page that lists EVERYTHING available for each currently online diorama guide (https://dioramaworkshop.com/speed-index/) the other more graphical way is to go select the TUTORIALS top menu, then the movie you want to build from in the pull down menu – from there, click the DECALS category link to view ONLY which decals are available. Hope that helps 🙂 Frank.
Tyrone Gonzalez
April 9, 2020 @ 5:43 pm
Where can I find the decals ??
Frank Diorio
May 22, 2020 @ 12:55 am
Hey Tyrone – there are 2 ways to do so, the easiest is to go to the SPEED INDEX page that lists EVERYTHING available for each currently online diorama guide (https://dioramaworkshop.com/speed-index/) the other more graphical way is to go select the TUTORIALS top menu, then the movie you want to build from in the pull down menu – from there, click the DECALS category link to view ONLY which decals are available. Hope that helps 🙂 Frank.