Dio parts links/ideas/suggestion thread

[Dropshipbob]

Slayer Designs has about the same track record as Broken Arrow. I've ordered twice from SDS, the first time took two months, the second took only one month, both orders had multiple pieces.
The first time he swore up and down it was in the mail, and he stuck to that. Eventually he sent me all the stuff a second time and it did arrive....with a ton of extras.

Hunter Artworks however was exceptional. Sent me my entire order in a matter of days. Top notch quality too.

Broken Arrow, I have yet to order anything from him/them, but after what I saw on the tank and the one year and counting wait time some people were dealing with, I don't think I'll order from him anytime soon.

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

the thing with SDS is that they literally are cast after the order is placed...so really, 1-2 months isnt that bad...order something that needs to be cast from BA and apparently you wait a year or more

 

[Meddatron]

Also remember with SDS that the last year should not be held against them. the owner who does the bulk of the casting was undergoing cancer treatment. it's amazing he even kept the store going during. Now that he is better and done, orders are going right on schedule according to his store site front page.

 

[lancelot]

so is SDS better now?

 

[Meddatron]

He is brother. Orders taking only 3-6 weeks

edit - They are even considering opening the vault items back up for sale.

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Yeah, Dave (from Slayer/SDS) being sick was actually shocking to me that they kept the store open, but his wife and others stepped in while he was down for the count. I did notice a drop in quality, which means that Dave really keeps things running top notch when he's running at full steam. The PO I got when he was mostly out of commission had a lot of "back end" work that I had to do myself (like removing webbing and doing more cleanup and filling than normal), but considering the circumstances, I'm happy that they even were still making stuff. If I were him, I would have shut operations down until I was better.

I have faith my stuff will come through, I was just hoping that it would arrive before I left town for 2 weeks. If it's not there when I get back, I'll hit him up again, but there's no point in me bothering until I'm back because I don't know one way or the other if it was delivered or not.

And yeah, Dave does a preorder, "made to order" system, so the actual ordering phase is usually 3-4 weeks, then the production takes another 3-4 weeks, then they ship. So 1.5-2 months is typical for the "slow" end, but things usually get going faster when they're not dealing with health concerns/treatment.

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Hunter and the dudes at Casting Cave are super fast. I got my stuff in less than 3-4 days from the day I ordered, if not faster, but their stuff is all pre-cast and waiting. A great place to get spare parts is through casting corner, too. I usually check their fodder every few weeks to see if there's anything awesome in there, and I usually find something useful for a good price.

 

[alcinde4]

Best Father's Day ever!! My wife is THE AWESOME. She bought me all this awesome stuff so I'd could start on my diorama(s). I've never done any of this before, So I'll be leaning on you guys heavily for suggestions and critiques.

And my kids got me these :

 

[Rick]

She is!! Wow look at that canvas just waiting to be covered with art.

Get an 18 x 24 sheet of foam core (Sky Blue) from Michaels for vertical surface in back ground. One sheet can usually be used and moved around for each shot from what the lens will see.

 

[Wild weasel]

To be honest, not much of that can be used to create a very nice scale looking dio. It can look nice, but won't look real with those materials. I would go out to a michaels crafts and buy a container of celluclay. Mix the celluclay with some water and white glue and put it on the base that you are using. kind of smack it lightly with the back of a spoon(that will give it a realistic teture). You can either mix some(alot) of brown pain(if you do this, use the ceap paints from michaels) in with the celluclay when it is being mixed, or you can wait(gove it about 2 days to dry) and brush it, which can give you a very nice depth if drybrushed. I add paint to the celluclay mix, due to the grass will be put on top of it and the drybrushing or washes will be very hard to see. Get 2 different colors of static grass(from woodland scenics, its way too expensive from other brands, and very cheap for a large shaker container from them), and sprinkle the gress on the wet celluclay if you added paint to it, or paint the dry celluclay and then take thin white glue(half water,hlaf gkue) and brush it on, then sprinkle the flocking(AKA static grass) on. Then blow on the grass(warning:can make a mess, so be careful o your surroundings) which will cause it to stand up and look like real grass. If you have an airbrush, lightly(very lightly) overspray the grass with a tan color, but that is optional.

Here is a good tutorial: http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2002/06/stuff_eng_tech_diorama_bases.htm

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

To be honest, not much of that can be used to create a very nice scale looking dio. It can look nice, but won't look real with those materials.

thats not entirely true...he could make some rocks and the trees could be used as bushes instead of trees...

 

[Wild weasel]

thats not entirely true...he could make some rocks and the trees could be used as bushes instead of trees...

That is true. I honestly enjoy making the rocks with that plaster he has there, and they turn out pretty cool too.

 

[Mandingo Rex]

It won't look real-real, but it can still look decent. The give-away will be the toy men with plastic joints anyways, so I think as long as it's got a comic- or cartoon- quality to it and feels like a complete enclosed scene, that it'll work... I used those very materials (plus a photo backdrop, foam core, and some other modular "fake foliage" items found at Michaels for this:

Michael's has a lot of stuff that can be repurposed for dio scenes. For example, they may not look 100% real, but they have some fake grass blocks that can be cut into strips and rearranged for $3-4 for a square. Spend $8 and you have an entire background of tall grass that you can put between the foreground and the backdrop to help blend it and feel like tall jungle grasses. Also, you can find other uses for some of the leafy plant bundles to turn into ferns, etc.

Really, take whatever you can find and turn it into something else. You'll find that over time that your eye gets better and better at detecting cheap materials that can be transformed into dio scene materials.

 

[alcinde4]

Thanks a lot for the input thus far from everyone. I view it all as constructive criticism. As far as the scale is concerned, yeah, I already conceded that the trees would have to work as bushes. And I've already watched a couple tutorials from woodland scenics about doing water features and such.

I'm open to any and all suggestions guys. This is about a 1-2 month project for me. But I'd really like to do an urban diorama first. I can't tell my wife that, as she really went above and beyond by getting me all of this in the first place. I wouldn't trade her for anything.

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

she seems super cool for getting you that stuff...cooler still that she even had any idea what to get...she thought out of the box about what really interests you and supports it...lucky you

now i'm off to turn your quote against you

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

found this stuff at Michaels Crafts...supposedly used for sculpting of all sorts, but i'm gonna use it for fence...just need to add the poles the ends and top and presto!, instant 1:18th fence...

now if i could only come up with something to use for a modern type lamp post/street light

 

[K-Tiger]

I'd suggest Dept. 54 spotlights. They won't work as street lamps, but could probably work as parking lot pole lights.

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

what are those?...where would one get them?

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Is Airborne humping the fence?

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

everyone has there fetishes...X likes fatties, MW likes asian boys, fogg like feet/toes, etc etc...

nahh, i was trying to make it look as if he was climing it...climbing OVER it...not climbing like MB climbs you

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

straps for guns and stuff

http://threads.rebelscum.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB7&Number=3950666

 

[Meddatron]

Thought maybe I would post a link to a few sheets for printing I have amassed and saved to my PC for all to possibly use. A bunch of different logos, maps, signs, police tape and posters. I found all online and i save everything. lol. I attached an example. The rest can be found here at my photobucket sticker sheet page. I will add more if people want. i have tons, that link isnt even a quarter of them.
http://s1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa359/meddatron/Logo Sticker sheets/

 

[MAJOR BLOOD]

Those are great Medd! Thanks for sharing them.

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

wow!...nice collection Medd...thanks for not being stingy

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

so K-T pointed us all in the direction of the black barrel (pictured center)...well today i found the yellow one at the video store...its a little bigger, but has it's use too...that little green "leak" is actually a removable ring...i still gotta remove the stickers from the can, but i wanted to show you guys what it looks like first

 

[Wild weasel]

does it taste good too?

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

its okay....not at all as sour as they let on...

 

[klausbrazil]

Different to the US and Germany there are almost no accessories for dioramas being sold in Brazil. Thus, I am used to do everything by myself. The following examples do not have the quality of items made by toy manufacturers but perhaps they can render some ideas on how to do things without spending too much. The drilling machine is made of a used lighter and parts of a ball-pen, the oil tank is made mainly of the cardboard of a roll of toilet paper, used pens served for the gas bottles, steering wheels of toys found their place on the turning machine made of wooden pieces and so on. If you want to make accessories for a diorama, sometimes it just takes to look around a little bit in your household.

http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/Klausmerkel/Machines and Equipment Scale 1_18/

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

wow Klaus, you've got some pretty impressive pieces there...i really like the engine hoist...having used one often, i must say, you did a great job creating it...

 

[Big Jim]

Saw a tech deck mini set that was a couple of newspaper vending machines, think Ill pick that up come payday

 

[Wild weasel]

wow, sounds very useful for what I'll need, any pics or links of one?

 

[Big Jim]

When I pick it up Ill take some shots, if you wanna try and look it up it goes for like 10.99 at TRU

 

[Wild weasel]

Sweet, I got tru just a few miles from me...

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

i got a couple 4x4 sheets of black plastic cardboard from work today...

any ideas what i should do with it?

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Wait, is it plastic, or cardboard?

 

[K-Tiger]

i got a couple 4x4 sheets of black plastic cardboard from work today...

any ideas what i should do with it?

At the very least a photo backdrop.

 

[Meddatron]

i got a couple 4x4 sheets of black plastic cardboard from work today...

any ideas what i should do with it?

You could use one or two to make a black top street like Keenan did with the plexiglass

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

its plastic...and you know how you can kinda see the tiny waves/ripples/bumps on the surface of paper cardboard?...well you can see it on the plastic stuff too...

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Ah I gotcha. Would make a decent roof for mediterranean or California-styled roofing, no?

 

[Wild weasel]

its plastic...and you know how you can kinda see the tiny waves/ripples/bumps on the surface of paper cardboard?...well you can see it on the plastic stuff too...

Ya mean like what the garage sale and similar signs are made of?