What are the walls of our Cantina missing? Stripes. I’m afraid these have to be done by hand, my friend. Use a pencil and your trusty flexible curve, and work slowly. Then begin to carefully paint your stripes with some watered-down acrylic paint, in red and blue. If you screw up, you can paint over it, so don’t worry.
Without a doubt, this was the hardest and most tedious part
of this project. Many were the moments
that I doubted my own sanity.
My, those stripes look bright, even though we used paint
that had been watered-down. The way to
fix this? More dry-brushing. Use a brown
or tan that’s as close to the wall color as you can get, and begin to apply it
over the red and blue paint. What you
are doing is essentially “aging” the model, and making it look old and
faded. It’s the “used universe” that
Lucas wanted when he began fleshing out the first film.
That’s better! Now, let’s talk about
how to decorate the alcoves. Above, you
can see some beads, which I glued onto the wall with tongs, to simulate the red
and blue lights on the wall of some booths.
There are two kinds of light fixtures
in the Cantina alcoves. The first looks
like a lantern, and the second is blue and tubular. For the lantern, I used “found objects,” as
well as a handful of clear LEGO bricks that are cylinders. After super-gluing the parts together, and
painting them dull silver, some dry-brushing transformed them into weathered
old Cantina lights. For the more narrow,
blue ones, a similar method was used, with blue “Lite-Brite” pegs. For the molding that some Cantina booths have
(particularly visible above Han Solo with Greedo), you can buy doll house
molding at the same craft or hobby stores, cut it to fit, spray it dark brown,
and glue it in place.
Now, let’s talk about the final step
for completing the alcoves—tables that light up. Your tables certainly don’t have to light up,
but the extra work really pays off.
Here’s a good way to accomplish this:
I found a set of individual,
battery-powered “tea lights” at, once again, the same craft store. They were round, with a clip on the bottom,
and turning the base clockwise caused the bulb to light up. I took them apart, and sanded off the top of
the dome, until it was flat (you can see in the photo that the bulb is barely
exposed when the light is put back together).
Next, I drilled a small hole in the center of each Cantina table, and
glued on a small white cylindrical part that you can buy at any home repair
store (they are actually spacers for long bolts or screws). Finally, I glued the flattened part of the
tea light permanently to the inside of each table. All you have to do to make the table light
come on is give the tea light about a half-turn, and you have an illuminated
Cantina table. This also gives you the
ability to change the watch battery inside, should you ever need to. I was so happy; I took some test photos to
see what it looked like:
Let’s talk for a moment about the
Cantina Band. Like other people, the
conclusion I arrived at was that the back right corner was the appropriate spot
for them. Of course, you don’t have to
do this, but you do have to put them
somewhere.
Using a leftover piece of my thickest
Styrofoam (wall material) I made a platform.
I used a mix of 1995 mail-away and “Jabba 2-pack” Biths, to break up the
monotony. I had to convert one to
“sitting mode” by removing a wedge behind his knees, bending, filling in with
Sculpey, and then repainting. I also
painted the instruments, and used some of my leftover balsa pieces to make a
stuccoed step leading to the stage.
So, after all of this work, here is how things look:
Oh yeah, something’s missing. The drink dispenser and canopy. Besides the stripes, this is the other hardest part. The last thing I wanted, after months of
work, was to screw this part up; it would ruin the whole thing. I did a lot of planning, and a lot of
experimenting, and like the rest of this, I hope that my trials and errors are
helpful to you.
Here
is what you will need:
a Styrofoam block, a pile of coated wire coathangers, a pair of good
wire-cutters, two pairs of pliers, and several IG-88 heads.
Begin by cutting the Styrofoam block into the exact shape of
the inside of your drink dispenser
island. It should fit as tightly as
possible, without distorting your creation.
Also make sure that it doesn’t raise the height of the island when it is
standing. Cut several of the straight
parts (the lower part) of the coathangers off, and discard the rest. Now you have a pile of wire rods. The idea is to carefully bend them into a
representation of what the actual drink dispenser looks like. It’s easier to use two pairs of pliers to do
this, and after bending a couple, it will get easier. When you are satisfied with them, they are
going to go straight into the island,
which is why we installed the Styrofoam block.
Don’t do this quite yet, however.
This is another place where reference photos will help
you. The good news is, if you get a few
landmarks right, you can just keep adding until it looks great. There are several “pipes” that go straight up
into the ceiling, some that go back into the island, and some that branch
outward, holding the IG-88 heads (two at the front of the island). Also, there are two vats in the center of the
island that I included. You can buy a
small set of paint mixing “jars” with lids at the craft store that work
perfectly for this (ignore the fact that I painted the inside of them; it was one
of my many experiments).
Keep adding pieces, removing pieces,
and just playing around with it until you start to make progress. Have some pieces go over and through others,
and bend a couple of short pieces to go into the vats. Figure out where your side pieces will be
that hold the IG-88 heads (and other things).
Once you plot the main parts, you can fill in the rest.
Now, this photo is terrible, but it’s the only one to show
this, so we have to use it. You will
note that the “pipes” in the actual Cantina are differently colored. Some are copper, and some are silver. When you determine which will be which, you
can tag them with bits of masking tape.
Also, take several photos with your phone, from several angles. You will have to dismantle the entire thing
to paint it, after all. When this is
done, you can carefully remove the pieces, add any attachments, spray-paint
each one, and replace them.
Not all of the IG-88 heads are the same color, so make note
of that as well. The other items were
made from mechanical pencil parts, and then sprayed.
Congratulations; you have completed one of the hardest things you have ever done!
We are nearing the home stretch. There is one more major part that has to be
done, and after the drink dispenser, it will be a walk in the park.
The canopy is arch-shaped, and is equivalent to the size of
the inside space of the bar. You
probably already have a template from way back then, and if so, you can use it
again.
Once again, a strip of foamcore board is scored, bent, and
hot-glued to a base (which becomes the ceiling of the canopy). Spackle, paint, and dry-brush this, just as
you did the other parts of your Cantina.
Also, as you can see in the film, the inside of the canopy that is
visible has ridges, so return to your corrugated cardboard sheets, paint a
strip off-white, and glue it inside. The
bad news is…MORE STRIPES, but there is good news this time: this section will allow you to use striping
tape (also in the drafting section), which is shown above. Lay it on carefully, and you can paint
directly in between it; no lines!
With adhesive Velcro, I attached another of the tea lights
we looked at, so there would be a light source inside of the canopy. It doesn’t show, and is still removable.
Also, to solve the problem of how the canopy would stay on,
but also still be removable, I attached a metal bookend (the kind that is sold
in pairs in office supply stores) to the roof of the canopy, and cut off the
excess, leaving an L-shaped bracket that attaches over the back wall of my
diorama, but can be easily removed.
If you haven’t done it by this point, finish “boxing in” the
top, front, and outside of your left and right alcove segments. If you do it right, they will be level and
equal in height with the canopy. This is
important, because a clear dust cover can be made from the very thin plexiglass
that comes in a cheap poster frame, and while it will get dusty, all of your
hard work will not!
And now, some photos of the finished diorama…
This looks good, but now, let’s see the dramatic difference
of viewing it in the dark, with the interior and table lights on!
After a couple of years of enjoying it, I dismantled my
diorama and re-did a handful of things that were bothering me. First, there were scraps of colored paper in
the vats in the drink dispenser, which I had always meant to address, but never
got around to it. I replaced these with
clear liquid glue, tinted with acrylic paint, red and blue, like in the film. I also gave the Cantina floor a good dry-brushing
with gray and tan, to dirty it up. I
repaired some customized action figures that needed it, and also used “glue
dots” to anchor each figure down. This
is the final tip I can give you: these are tiny, archive-safe, acid-free clear
dots that come in various sizes, and they are a life-saver for projects like
this!
If you do choose to go down the road of diorama-making, two
things: first, good luck to you, and
second, don’t give up. Keep trying to
find different ways to attack a problem, and eventually you will solve it.
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