G1 Ark Diorama/Playset
Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 10:04 amThe Ark is complete! After 6 months of building, it is finished. I use the term finished somewhat loosely, since I feel that I will be adding little things onto it for years to come. Especially things like a med-bay table which I wasn't able to finish in time, as well as working on a way to bring together the background boards more seamlessly. This project was huge learning experience as I had never tackled anything even remotely close to this scale before. The total cost for this project is right at about $350.
Everybody gets older and grows up, but that doesn't mean you can't let the ten year old inside you come out to play every once in a while. And the ten year old me from 1986 is on cloud nine right now.
I want to give a few shout outs to those who inspired me along the way:
My family (Couldn't have done it with out you guys! )
Mandingo Rex - For making these amazing Ark panels years ago for all of us to enjoy.
Dogcades - For giving me the ideas for lighting up the Teletraan-1.
Jason Jensen - If you haven't checked out his youtube page "Jason Jensen Trains", I can't recommend it enough, he does some unbelievable paint and model work on trains and sci-fi layouts, a learned a ton from watching his videos and applying his painting techniques.
Thank you to everyone else who gave feedback and ideas for me as I was in the process of building it!
I have 2 videos uploaded that can be found here and here:
https://youtu.be/XPUiBeWSI70
https://youtube.com/shorts/aENrJk3sG2E?feature=share
So without further ado, here it is. It is a behemoth, 8 feet long x 4 feet high x 4 feet deep. 3 display platforms that come together to form 1 giant diorama/playset. Moving parts include the Teletraan-1 viewscreen, computer module on the side piece, sliding blast door, a rotating turret under the outside tunnel entrance and a removable sky spy. LED lighting includes the Ark interior ceiling, and the tunnel and entrance walls with a traditional outlet plug.
Where's Trypticon when you need him???
Sky spy! As much as I wanted to make a tunnel in the ceiling for it to fly out of, it just wasn't feasible.
The Dinobot cave:
Well done Grapple, well done.
Everybody gets older and grows up, but that doesn't mean you can't let the ten year old inside you come out to play every once in a while. And the ten year old me from 1986 is on cloud nine right now.
I want to give a few shout outs to those who inspired me along the way:My family (Couldn't have done it with out you guys! )
Mandingo Rex - For making these amazing Ark panels years ago for all of us to enjoy.
Dogcades - For giving me the ideas for lighting up the Teletraan-1.
Jason Jensen - If you haven't checked out his youtube page "Jason Jensen Trains", I can't recommend it enough, he does some unbelievable paint and model work on trains and sci-fi layouts, a learned a ton from watching his videos and applying his painting techniques.
Thank you to everyone else who gave feedback and ideas for me as I was in the process of building it!
I have 2 videos uploaded that can be found here and here:
https://youtu.be/XPUiBeWSI70
https://youtube.com/shorts/aENrJk3sG2E?feature=share
So without further ado, here it is. It is a behemoth, 8 feet long x 4 feet high x 4 feet deep. 3 display platforms that come together to form 1 giant diorama/playset. Moving parts include the Teletraan-1 viewscreen, computer module on the side piece, sliding blast door, a rotating turret under the outside tunnel entrance and a removable sky spy. LED lighting includes the Ark interior ceiling, and the tunnel and entrance walls with a traditional outlet plug.
Where's Trypticon when you need him???
Sky spy! As much as I wanted to make a tunnel in the ceiling for it to fly out of, it just wasn't feasible.
The Dinobot cave:
Well done Grapple, well done.
