Jabba's Palace diorama for 3.75" figures

[ajp4mgs]

I built this about 6 or 7 years ago, but have never posted pics of it anywhere. Lately, I've been considering doing just the throne room part in 1/6 scale, so I've been revisiting this old diorama recently (to remind myself of the logistics that would be involved). Anyway, since it's been on my mind, I thought I'd finally take some photos and post them here. I'll spread them out over the first 2 or 3 posts.

I decided to build this in sections so that I can fit each one into cabinet shelves, instead of just having one huge piece that takes up a ton of space. To be honest, I've only assembled all of the sections a few times. I never got around to making the entrance area or the throne room floor (with the grating to view the Rancor pit). But, I'm starting to get the itch to finish those elements too.

Here is the throne room, with front section (throne and bbq area) and back section (archways with the alcoves). Since my favorite aspect of this build is the light-up features that I integrated into it, I want to start with some shots under low lighting to show the full effect. Because I have a cheap camera, the low lighting produces photo quality that isn't very good; but I'll add some shots later under better lighting to show details more clearly.









These next couple have a little better lighting.

 

[ajp4mgs]

These next photos in this post show my favorite part: the Carbonite/trophy room. Also a couple shots of the band area in front of it.

 

[ajp4mgs]

And finally, some shots with better lighting. Looking at these should make it obvious why I prefer the diorama when the lights in the room are lower/dimmer. Brighter room lighting washes out the effects of the light-up features too much. Jabba's Palace only looks right in darker conditions broken up by very specific lighting from pinpoint directions.

But these show more detail.

 

[Chakaman]

That's pretty damn cool. You have some serious talent. Nice job!

 

[Raiders March]

awesome, have a photo of the whole thing?

 

[ajp4mgs]

That's pretty damn cool. You have some serious talent. Nice job!

I appreciate that. Thank you. Glad you like the diorama.

awesome, have a photo of the whole thing?

Thanks! I never took a photo when all the sections were put together, but I'll try to do that tomorrow (or at least within the next couple of days) and post some pics.

 

[D.R.37]

Nice detail in the sculpting and staging of the dio but it’s the great lighting that truly makes this an awesome set up

 

[dls712]

Looks really good! Nice job with all of the detailing. Would love to see your take on a 1/6 scale version of it.

 

[Stryker2011]

Fantastic work here. So many nice details for this scale.

 

[Big Mo]

Very Impressive and love your dedication to the project, great work.

 

[xipotec]

Damn man.....just DAYUM


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[ebor]

So awesome....just WOW!

 

[ajp4mgs]

I can't thank you all enough for the kind words. It means a helluva lot to me to have SW fans here give this dio their nod of approval. Most people I know couldn't care less about this stuff, and probably think I'm crazy for having wasted so much time and effort on it.

I was a six-year-old kid getting to see his first Star Wars film in a theater back in 1983, and everything about Jabba's Palace had me completely mesmerized. It was better than being at any amusement park, and all I wanted to do was watch it over and over again (which is exactly what I did when I got ROTJ on VHS). Somehow, I never really lost that fascination and sense of wonder for the palace. So for years, I wanted to have a small (albeit incomplete) version of my favorite movie set of all time (no other set comes close) that I can enjoy whenever I want.

Now time for more photos. I got an opportunity this morning to assemble the different sections and take some pics. I never got around to finishing the floor, but I still have a sculpted floor grate that I was going to mold and cast 16 copies of to insert into some sand-covered foamboard for the flooring. I put that one grate down for these photos just to demonstrate what the idea was. Here's how the pieces look when combined. Please forgive the poor photo quality again, but I have to dim the room lights to near total darkness for the light-up features in the dio to have the effect I designed them for.







And pulling the sections out of their cabinet allowed me to get a shot of the bbq pit area at an angle I couldn't have gotten otherwise.

 

[Stryker2011]

Really cool shots. Looking vex that back angle shot through the BBQ pit. Excellent work. If only Sideshow had done more palace creatures...

 

[Chakaman]

Beautiful!!

 

[D.R.37]

Daaaamn!

 

[ajp4mgs]

Really cool shots. Looking vex that back angle shot through the BBQ pit. Excellent work. If only Sideshow had done more palace creatures...

Thanks! That bbq area was something I had high hopes for, but I didn't execute it the way I wanted. The barbecue itself was something that I was very eager to make, but at this small scale I just couldn't detail it the way I had hoped. I've learned a lot since, and gotten much wiser/better about how to do this stuff in the years that have passed, so I really want to tackle the barbecue again. But my next one will be at the 1/6 scale to put behind the old Sideshow Jabba & throne. I have some ideas for it that are very ambitious, and I'm really looking forward to seeing if I can actually get it right. In the meantime, here's a better shot of the 3.75" scale one.

Beautiful!!

Daaaamn!

Thanks guys! Very much appreciated.

 

[TaliBane]

Thanks! That bbq area was something I had high hopes for, but I didn't execute it the way I wanted. The barbecue itself was something that I was very eager to make, but at this small scale I just couldn't detail it the way I had hoped. I've learned a lot since, and gotten much wiser/better about how to do this stuff in the years that have passed, so I really want to tackle the barbecue again. But my next one will be at the 1/6 scale to put behind the old Sideshow Jabba & throne. I have some ideas for it that are very ambitious, and I'm really looking forward to seeing if I can actually get it right. In the meantime, here's a better shot of the 3.75" scale one.

View attachment 443970





Thanks guys! Very much appreciated.

Amazing work on this dio.

It might be worth getting someone like AceRimmer to 3D sculpt the BBQ/spit and then get 3D prints of it. It would be expensive (probably $250-300) but it would save you a massive amount of time and effort.

 

[Stryker2011]

Really nice. Looking forward to seeing what you do in 1/6 scale; that should be epic.

 

[ajp4mgs]

Amazing work on this dio.

It might be worth getting someone like AceRimmer to 3D sculpt the BBQ/spit and then get 3D prints of it. It would be expensive (probably $250-300) but it would save you a massive amount of time and effort.

Thanks for the thumbs-up on the dio; I appreciate it.

As for the 1/6 bbq, I know that 3D modeling & printing would produce better results than anything I can do, but I'd prefer to make it myself anyway. To be perfectly honest, a lot of the enjoyment for me is in trying to build/replicate certain things by hand. Since that's how the original set pieces and props that I'm such a fan of were made in the first place, it's kinda fun to go through my own miniature version of that process.

I expect that making the bbq will be quite enjoyable actually. It's not too massive of a piece that it'd take tons of material, yet it's detailed and intricate enough to be a major challenge. And I'd like to redeem myself for this 3.75" bbq attempt from years back that never got close to what I had hoped to achieve. I'm expecting the larger scale to allow for far better accuracy. Plus, I want the 1/6 version to be able to actually burn a real fire (no joke).

Really nice. Looking forward to seeing what you do in 1/6 scale; that should be epic.

Thanks again. I'm in the process of Leia (slave outfit) and Nikto (Vizam) custom figures. As soon as those two are done, I'll get cracking on the bbq. If all goes well, I'll post pics of what will be an expanding throne room project at the 1/6 scale. As I mentioned above, there's so much more room for detailing at 1/6 than for 3.75" pieces. I just hope the end result will live up to what I have in mind.