Riedel Homestead - Thomas' Activities

Secret Ceremony (built 2004)

As I already told in the report of the "Yavin Ceremony", I wanted to build two dioramas for my two Ladies: The "Yavin Ceremony", my wife Claudia should get and the "Secret Ceremony", our daughter Leia should get. Then, Leia watched the proceeding building-process of the "Yavin Ceremony" and wanted now this diorama.
Claudia gave her okay with a big smile to that change, as she already knew that Leia want to have the "Secret Ceremony" as soon as it is ready. And that is not astonishing as Leias little heart beats much for "Anni and Amidala".
So, finally, Claudia got the "Yavin Ceremony" as I planned it.

First - like every time - I built the corpus. When building such little dioramas, it is not ingenious to use chipboards. Mostly not for the side- and back-walls. I took plywood, exactly said 6mm thick poplar. The corpus finally got the measures 397x200x280 mm³. The parts were spread with wood glue and with 9x9 mm² squared timber screwed. Next, I took the curved part of the balustrade of the Amidala-figure "Secret Ceremony", spread it with liquid segregate wax and screwed it on a wooden plate, so it was now nicely planar. Then, I built with 10x10mm² squared timbers a frame around the balustrade and poured latex milk in that basin.
Some days later, I separated the dried latex form from the original balustrade and made castings with a viscous car surfacer. I repeated it 8 times and finally had enough balustrades. I cleaned the parts, so that the contours were good visible and painted it sandstone-coloured. Next, I stuck on a 1mm thick stripe of a 1000x200mm² "miniposter" of the Lake of Como, which I printed before on a DIN A4 paper with a HP deskjet printer. As the motive was not wide enough, I used a trick: First, I stuck the motive in the centre of the stripe, then I changed two other motives mirror-inverted on the Computer, printed it also, and was now able to stick in left and right next to the central motive. So I had a quite joint less optical transition. Finally, I covered the background picture with protecting paper, so the picture was protected during the building process.
Then I mounted the balustrades. For that I drilled and screwed little screws into the balustrades (2 per balustrade) and cut the heads of the crews. Then, I drilled holes into the ground plate, filled them with glue and put the balustrade with the screws into. The transitions between the balustrades, I filled with surfacer, which I finally painted in the same colour like the balustrades. Next, I spread the meadow-part (between balustrade and the back- and sidewalls) with wood glue and flaked it with grass flakes. Then I built the trees.
Actually, I wanted to build several trees into the Diorama but I recognized during building three trees, that they got so big, that one tree is absolutely enough in the diorama. Well, the other trees, I will use in later dioramas. The trees I built this way:
I took a 12mm thick round wood, wrapped it with florist's wire and sculpted also the branches this way. Then I covered all with surfacer and stuck tiny branches from the "Heki" company on it, which is normally used in Model Railroad Dioramas. I spread them with wood glue and flaked it with artificial tiny leaves. Finally, I painted the trees and mounted the one tree into the diorama. At the front side of the diorama, I placed two vertical hedges of Thuja (built with Irish Moss). Finally Amidala is an ex-Queen and a senator, so she has enough money to keep her summer refuge Valkyra beautiful by the hands of gardeners. I built it like the trees with round-wood and florist's wire, spread it with wood glue and flaked it with Irish moss. Then I painted the terrace grey. Next, I bought long branches of tiny champagne-coloured artificial flowers, painted it red, and picked it from the branches. I drilled the flower pots and stuck the flowers into. Then I mounted the figures. C-3PO (from the Battledroid / C-3PO head-change double-pack), R2-D2 (nearly unimportant which one) and Amidala I used without any customizing. Anakin (with the artificial hand) got a different Jedi coat, because his coat was in too much fighting pose. In my "Frankenstein"- figure customizing box I still had the coat of Saesse Tinn. It fitted very well. Finally I needed a priest. For that, I took the Imperial Dignitary Janus Greejatus, cut some edges of the hood and shoulders away, painted him a white-grey full beard and the complete clothing. Then I drilled all figs into the shoes and screwed again little screws into, cut the screw-heads away, drilled the terrace, and stuck the figs with the screws into. Finally, I cut acryl glasses for front- and top-plates and screwed it.



		Secret Ceremony (built 2004) As I already told in the report of the "Yavin Ceremony", I wanted to build two dioramas for my two Ladies: The "Yavin Ceremony", my wife Claudia should get and the "Secret Ceremony", our daughter Leia should get. Then, Leia watched the proceeding building-process of the "Yavin Ceremony" and wanted now this diorama. Claudia gave her okay with a big smile to that change, as she already knew that Leia want to have the "Secret Ceremony" as soon as it is ready. And that is not astonishing as Leias little heart beats much for "Anni and Amidala". So, finally, Claudia got the "Yavin Ceremony" as I planned it. First - like every time - I built the corpus. When building such little dioramas, it is not ingenious to use chipboards. Mostly not for the side- and back-walls. I took plywood, exactly said 6mm thick poplar. The corpus finally got the measures 397x200x280 mm³. The parts were spread with wood glue and with 9x9 mm² squared timber screwed. Next, I took the curved part of the balustrade of the Amidala-figure "Secret Ceremony", spread it with liquid segregate wax and screwed it on a wooden plate, so it was now nicely planar. Then, I built with 10x10mm² squared timbers a frame around the balustrade and poured latex milk in that basin. Some days later, I separated the dried latex form from the original balustrade and made castings with a viscous car surfacer. I repeated it 8 times and finally had enough balustrades. I cleaned the parts, so that the contours were good visible and painted it sandstone-coloured. Next, I stuck on a 1mm thick stripe of a 1000x200mm² "miniposter" of the Lake of Como, which I printed before on a DIN A4 paper with a HP deskjet printer. As the motive was not wide enough, I used a trick: First, I stuck the motive in the centre of the stripe, then I changed two other motives mirror-inverted on the Computer, printed it also, and was now able to stick in left and right next to the central motive. So I had a quite joint less optical transition. Finally, I covered the background picture with protecting paper, so the picture was protected during the building process. Then I mounted the balustrades. For that I drilled and screwed little screws into the balustrades (2 per balustrade) and cut the heads of the crews. Then, I drilled holes into the ground plate, filled them with glue and put the balustrade with the screws into. The transitions between the balustrades, I filled with surfacer, which I finally painted in the same colour like the balustrades. Next, I spread the meadow-part (between balustrade and the back- and sidewalls) with wood glue and flaked it with grass flakes. Then I built the trees. Actually, I wanted to build several trees into the Diorama but I recognized during building three trees, that they got so big, that one tree is absolutely enough in the diorama. Well, the other trees, I will use in later dioramas. The trees I built this way: I took a 12mm thick round wood, wrapped it with florist's wire and sculpted also the branches this way. Then I covered all with surfacer and stuck tiny branches from the "Heki" company on it, which is normally used in Model Railroad Dioramas. I spread them with wood glue and flaked it with artificial tiny leaves. Finally, I painted the trees and mounted the one tree into the diorama. At the front side of the diorama, I placed two vertical hedges of Thuja (built with Irish Moss). Finally Amidala is an ex-Queen and a senator, so she has enough money to keep her summer refuge Valkyra beautiful by the hands of gardeners. I built it like the trees with round-wood and florist's wire, spread it with wood glue and flaked it with Irish moss. Then I painted the terrace grey. Next, I bought long branches of tiny champagne-coloured artificial flowers, painted it red, and picked it from the branches. I drilled the flower pots and stuck the flowers into. Then I mounted the figures. C-3PO (from the Battledroid / C-3PO head-change double-pack), R2-D2 (nearly unimportant which one) and Amidala I used without any customizing. Anakin (with the artificial hand) got a different Jedi coat, because his coat was in too much fighting pose. In my "Frankenstein"- figure customizing box I still had the coat of Saesse Tinn. It fitted very well. Finally I needed a priest. For that, I took the Imperial Dignitary Janus Greejatus, cut some edges of the hood and shoulders away, painted him a white-grey full beard and the complete clothing. Then I drilled all figs into the shoes and screwed again little screws into, cut the screw-heads away, drilled the terrace, and stuck the figs with the screws into. Finally, I cut acryl glasses for front- and top-plates and screwed it. © Thomas Riedel 2004