An idea I’ve been toying with for some time is to build a shadowbox where it is built to look like you are looking out of a starship porthole, and “outside” you see one or more starships with a background of stars, etc.
Would do it with small scale Star Trek models so the whole shadowbox wouldn’t have to be big.
Wondering if the project is feasible? How might one make a background of stars, planet(s) etc?
Just looking for ideas and suggestions,
TY,
DJ
making the stars is the easy part , depending on how detailed you want them , do you want planet detail or points of light ? what scale of models would be in the shadowbox and how big , as in inches or feet are we talking about , its actually a great idea and one that I think you could do also you could use fiberoptics and make the stars actually light up if you wanted too , you said it would probably be a big shadowbox so you could easily hide a light source somewhere on it ?? just an idea [:D]
I have a magazine called ‘AIRspace Model’ from (!) January, 1969 and in it is an article on how to build a shadow box using the large 18-inch Enterprise AND Klingon Cruiser. No doubt it was a monster of a diorama with the guy installing the battle scene in two 30-roll Kleenex paper towel boxes and a two black light electrical setup. The article is quite in depth on how to put the shadow box together with lots of big pictures on the build and the final results. The shadow box was even the featured article and photo on the cover of the magazine.
Sewer Rat, I was thinking of a small to medium sized shadowbox. I’d love to have a planet in the background, maybe nebula. Would be using models from the AMT Space Ship Set. Thanks for the reply.
Roosterfish, does this magazine exist anymore? Can you get back issues?
Thanks,
DJ
I’m sure the magazine is long out…you wouldn’t get any back issues. I don’t think the magazine is still in business anymore as I’ve never heard of it other than this issue. But if anyone wants a copy of the article they can email me and I can send PDF files of the cover and pages. It really is a nice article and while the shadow box is primitive it can give people ideas on how to make and update one. The guy who wrote the article, Robert Schleicher, used black lights to light up the interior but now I can see using easy to apply UV led lights for the same type of effect.
What do you guys think of this idea?:
What if you had some kind of translucent picture that was lit up from behind? the translucent picture being astronomical. Would it be possible to get a large, film-like picture of a planet with starry background, and maybe nebula?
DJ
Now I’ve got it! What if you could get an astronomical picture on x-ray film, and have an x-ray lighting system behind it?
And am thinking of using thick glass or plexiglass for the porthole window, thick to help hide imperfections in the shadowbox. My intuition tells me it would look more realistic with a thick pane.
DJ
That particular magazine only published about 5 issues before folding. I have all of them in the files. That dio WAS huge, but the shadow box technique described was interesting. Another issue used the same technique with a Battle of Britain forced perspective diorama. Interesting stuff.
I’ve made some tentative decisions regarding the shadowbox:
First of all, it will be forced perspective. Meaning you have a limited viewing area, and you can only view it from one angle. So instead of having a medium-sized “porthole” to look through, it will only be a slot with thick glass and perhaps a lip on the inside to further narrow the viewing angle.
Second, it will be a medium sized shadowbox, using a Star Trek Federation Heavy Cruiser (from the old Space Ship Set), and a Klingon Battle Cruiser (also from Space Ship Set). It will be a ship duel that takes place in an asteroid field. I decided to have asteroids because they are big enough to hide the supporting arms that suspend them, and they can hold the supporting arms that suspend the ships. There will be a relatively nearby star that you can’t see, but it will be represented by a bright light in the shadowbox that illuminates the starships. The back of the shadowbox will be black with fiber optics to make stars. The back of the shadowbox will be shielded from the nearby star’s light by a board, so that the spotlight can only shine at a certain angle, thus illuminating the asteroids and starships, and not the back panel. In other words, the spotlight which represents the rays of the nearby star will have a forced perspective as well so the backboard is not illuminated by it.
With the forced perspective viewing slot you won’t be able to see the sides of the shadowbox which would look unrealistic.
The starships will be mounted by rods fairly close to the asteroids, and at such an angle that the starships hide the rods. The asteroids will be somewhat large relative to the starships. The asteroids will be mounted by rods coming from the backboard, at such an angle and location that they cannot be seen while viewing through the slot.
I’m thinking I’ll have to make the asteroids with wood and milliput. Lava rocks are just too small.
Will use brass rod for the supporting rods.
Starships will not have internal lighting, but thinking about using flourescent paint for some applications.
Was thinking about using something like x-ray film of a starry background if that would be possible. I’ll look into it, but will probably have to use the fiber optics.
My only concern is that the spotlight might shine on the backboard and make it look just like that, a backboard with fiberoptics. Hopefully making a slot to narrow its beam will take care of that problem.
This is what is in my mind right now. Suggestions and criticism welcome.
Thanks for the help so far[8D]
DJ
I think we’d all like to see the end product. Keep us updated.
Sounds like a very cool project … please keep us posted … [:P][wow]