netfrost
New Member
With Ottawa Comic Con coming up, I felt like adding more props to our 501st booth and one idea that came up was Dianoga. Looking around I found Skaught's build post and went with that as a basis.
Parts List
PVC Pipes and joints (Home Depot)
Upholstery Foam (Fabricland)
Clear Plastic Christmas Ornament (Michael's)
Liquid Latex (Malabar's)
Butcher's Twine (Grocery Store)
Masking Tape (Canadian Tire)
Assorted Acrylic Paints
Prosaide (Malabar's)
Toilet Paper (The bathroom)
Craft Foam (Michael's)
This was the initial Prototype, I couldn't find the proper eye pieces, so just used a Tupperware. and the foam was just attached using zip ties.
Now that I found the right part, I got the eye started. I first drew the pupil with a sharpie marker. You'll notice the little bit sticking out in the upper right side, this is actually accurate to the screen used one.
I then took various green paints and flicked them on the inside with a stiff brush.
I then painted the different greens and and reds by hand. Once this was done, I coated the inside with some clear coat. At this point I noticed some cracking on the paint.
Because of the cracking, I tapped it up to protect the outside and sprayed the inside with more red paint using my air brush.
Now that the eye it self was done, time to work on the body.
Since the Dianoga is actually huge, but we only want the eye stalk and some tentacles, I started on the stalk. I took some PVC and wrapped it in upholstery foam that I had lying around from my first Jawa build. Once on, I put some masking tape around it, knowing well enough that the liquid latex would just get absorbed by the foam.
Once secured, I started to go nuts with the tape, just adding more, causing creases and wrinkles in the skin and well filling out the body a bit more.
If you look at the pics of the movie used version, there's all these little tendrils sticking out of it's "face" Hmmm how to do these? I started cutting some butcher's twine and attaching it with more tape.
Now to start turning it into an alien and not just a taped up tube! I grabbed one of my many bottles of liquid latex and a cheap glue brush and started applying it to the surface. I believe in the end, there was about 8 coats applied. Now, liquid latex STINKS! So make sure you're doing it with a window opened. Or if winter ever left, outside!
Looking and feeling right, I now needed to make those tendrils thicker! Hmmm it's a trash monster... how about TP! Grabbed a few sheets and started coating the twine with latex, then wrapping it in toilet paper. This was probably the most frustrating part... as for those of you who don't know, latex sticks to itself. When working with it, you need to coat it with talcum powder to prevent this. So all these strings... were getting stuck. Once they dried, I'd coat them with more latex and more TP and more latex. This is actually the stage I'm at right now and still have tons of latex on my hands as I type this.
Once this is done, I'll start to paint it. To paint on latex properly, there's a special type of paint that is used for rubber appliances... but it's usually more expensive than needed. You can get the same effect by mixing acrylic paint with Prosaide (medical adhesive). So I'll make batches and airbrush it on.
Then I'll make the eyelid mechanism out of wires and craft foam, as the end goal is to have it animatronic and be able to blink and turn.
So stay tuned for updates
Parts List
PVC Pipes and joints (Home Depot)
Upholstery Foam (Fabricland)
Clear Plastic Christmas Ornament (Michael's)
Liquid Latex (Malabar's)
Butcher's Twine (Grocery Store)
Masking Tape (Canadian Tire)
Assorted Acrylic Paints
Prosaide (Malabar's)
Toilet Paper (The bathroom)
Craft Foam (Michael's)
This was the initial Prototype, I couldn't find the proper eye pieces, so just used a Tupperware. and the foam was just attached using zip ties.
Now that I found the right part, I got the eye started. I first drew the pupil with a sharpie marker. You'll notice the little bit sticking out in the upper right side, this is actually accurate to the screen used one.
I then took various green paints and flicked them on the inside with a stiff brush.
I then painted the different greens and and reds by hand. Once this was done, I coated the inside with some clear coat. At this point I noticed some cracking on the paint.
Because of the cracking, I tapped it up to protect the outside and sprayed the inside with more red paint using my air brush.
Now that the eye it self was done, time to work on the body.
Since the Dianoga is actually huge, but we only want the eye stalk and some tentacles, I started on the stalk. I took some PVC and wrapped it in upholstery foam that I had lying around from my first Jawa build. Once on, I put some masking tape around it, knowing well enough that the liquid latex would just get absorbed by the foam.
Once secured, I started to go nuts with the tape, just adding more, causing creases and wrinkles in the skin and well filling out the body a bit more.
If you look at the pics of the movie used version, there's all these little tendrils sticking out of it's "face" Hmmm how to do these? I started cutting some butcher's twine and attaching it with more tape.
Now to start turning it into an alien and not just a taped up tube! I grabbed one of my many bottles of liquid latex and a cheap glue brush and started applying it to the surface. I believe in the end, there was about 8 coats applied. Now, liquid latex STINKS! So make sure you're doing it with a window opened. Or if winter ever left, outside!
Looking and feeling right, I now needed to make those tendrils thicker! Hmmm it's a trash monster... how about TP! Grabbed a few sheets and started coating the twine with latex, then wrapping it in toilet paper. This was probably the most frustrating part... as for those of you who don't know, latex sticks to itself. When working with it, you need to coat it with talcum powder to prevent this. So all these strings... were getting stuck. Once they dried, I'd coat them with more latex and more TP and more latex. This is actually the stage I'm at right now and still have tons of latex on my hands as I type this.
Once this is done, I'll start to paint it. To paint on latex properly, there's a special type of paint that is used for rubber appliances... but it's usually more expensive than needed. You can get the same effect by mixing acrylic paint with Prosaide (medical adhesive). So I'll make batches and airbrush it on.
Then I'll make the eyelid mechanism out of wires and craft foam, as the end goal is to have it animatronic and be able to blink and turn.
So stay tuned for updates
