Modeling a "night" scene???????

Yeah, I've come across some info in the past and had another FSMer give me a lot of info on it and there was an atricle in the magazine I came across. I think it just comes down to me needing to get out the supplies and just go for it.

Thanks for the write up offer, should definitly help to motivate me I'll start searching around here in the meantime.

So, I called the wife last night and as it turns out I have Shep's Dio book at the house. (The one Hans has been referencing.) I've also been doing a lot more reading about it online. I'm starting to come around to the idea, but the only thing that really keeps me hesitant is the idea of shutting the model in.

I really do think that this dio would be fantastic using only the FO and LED's for lighting. However, a big part of modeling (at least for me) is not only to see the dio for what it's supposed to represent, but also the oppurtunity to turn the model 360* and see all the details and how the modeler pulled it off. I just think that by shutting the dio into a box would be limiting that part of the viewing experience.

I'm not trying to down the idea of the shadow box ... does the above make sense or am I just being ignorant as I've never built a "box"?

You're thinking that a shadow box is a conventional diorama... It's not... It's really a 3-D painting or photograph... Just as you can't flip over a picture of a guy and see his back, the shadow box is the same way..

  You don't want folks to know how you did it... Kinda like bein' a magician...  If you know how it's done, it loses it's mystery and fun...

'Course, there's nothing stopping you from building it conventionally...  It'll be a bit harder to achieve the effects you've pictured in your mind, IMHO,  but not impossible...   Give it a shot in the open.. You got nothin' to lose, pard...

 

3D painting- yep. And as far as the issue with three figures, multiple poses and painting etc. it will save you a lot of time. There's a picture in that book of ...very bad with historical figures but I'm going to call him a French looking officer, and Shep has a picture of the backside of him, and it's all putty work and a you can see the plastic base kit, pretty cool stuff, so if you do it up in that sense, it might be better when it comes to the idea of the viewer wanting to know how it was built up and all that- displaying a little photo book or a shot of two of the back side of the dio.

I think ultimatly it's up to you how you want to go about it. You could always concider some way to rig it so that the roof is removable? Side walls can peel away?

I think with all the lighting effects and the need for the viewer to really think they're looking through some NVGs lends itself perfectly to a shadow box. I think the fact that you're going to be using the aid of some prebuilt kits might help you remove yourself a little bit from the figure build so you wont feel as bad about hiding them in a box? But yeah I agree with Hans about the mystery of the shadow box, I saw the pictures of the "ghosts" in the dio book and after some reading on how it was put together I was like... I could do this?!! Which... was cool for me to know as I was reading the book for that reason... but I think if you wanted a non modeler to look at it, if they were kept guessing about your FO lights and the way the brass was hanging in the air, it'd might be better if you kept them guessing. And then the little "build book" could document that process if they really did want to know how you did it.

You both make very good points on this ...

I think that my course of action is going to be to build the dio "conventionally" (as Hans put it) and if it doesn't fall into place the way I've got it in my head, it shouldn't take long to re-*REPORT ME!!* and build a box set-up for it. Besides, even when doing a shadow box, you've got to figure out how the figures are going to be set up first anyway.

The BIGGEST plus side that I see in putting it together in a box, is that I wouldn't have to drill out and hide all the wiring and FO inside the figures. I would just be able to run them along the backside IOT hide it from the viewer.

As stated before, one of my biggest things is just being able to "look" around the model/ dio to see all the angles. But yes, as Hans said, building it up conventionally, it will be a challenge for me to get the viewer to look FIRST through the "NVG" film ... and THEN, if they want to look around it they can ... but it's all about that first view.

Still on the road, there's not much that I can do besides type, read, and think about it. Once I get back to the house on Monday, I'm planning on starting up some mock-ups as the paint on my current figure is drying. Hopefully, with a couple of days off, I'll be able to make a little headway and post some pics of my findings. Maybe then I'll have a little more insight on the direction I should go.

Thanks again guys for all your help and "debate" on the matter. PLS keep your thoughts coming ... constructive critizism is the only thing that makes us better.

Makes sense to me, I think it's a good call to go ahead and build it up and make the decision from there. You can always go from a normal dio to a shadow box, I'm sure it'd be harder to go from a shadown box and make it a normal dio- especially if you had all the FO stuck on the backsides of the figures

modelchasm wrote:

The above mage from aj is the exact idea that I have in my head right now. Use a sheet of black styrene with a large hole cut out, with the green film behind it. That's what the viewer sees when they walk up to the model. Thoughts ...

I think that's a good start, and consider painting the figures in grayscale, only really bright or well lit objects appear almost white in the Night Vision commonly seen on CNN, and the only blacks are absolute dark, which actually appears grainy as well. When viewed through the green film, it would appear "normal for NVG.  MOst NVG cameras have no color sensors, only monochrome, so it's not the same as if a red object under a green film would appear black, in NVG it appears green.

If you were to use the green film, then you could use white thread for the PAQ-4 beams, as well.

I had the chance to test some of the ideas that I had come up with over the weekend. For the PEQ-4 beams, I'm going to use green LEDs for the light source, run FO up through the figure and out the weapon to the PEQ-4. Then, I'm going to use a thin piece of clear acrylic rod for the beam. The follow the rod out from the FO just fine. Plus, the rod will shoot out and stay straight ... as a laser beam would.

I'm hoping that I can get my current project finish up this week and I can get started on this one hopfully starting next week.