January 2019
During the 2018 Christmas break I finally spent some time with a glue gun, various pieces of junk, craft foam bricks and a bunch of Star Wars figures and took my Rebel Base display to the next level (for me anyway). Last September I did my first diorama that involved creating walls and more of a realistic environment by creating a docking bay for my Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon. The plan this time was to make a walled in rebel Command Centre and a pilot ready room.
I built three different “areas” for the figures to interact with in the Command Centre. A bank of computers to scan for Imperial activity; a large “video table” and a holo table, similar to the one seen in Rogue One at Yavin Base. I used Project Bricks for the walls, the same bricks as I used for the docking bay. They continue to be super easy to use as I had to cut alot of them to fit the shape of the window that I put into one of the walls. The floors are from Diorama Workshop and were printed on photo paper. I also incorporated battery operated LED light strings for some ambient lighting.
For the wall of computer terminals I glued four printer cartridge containers to a piece of foam board. I then cut holes into the board and stuffed a set of battery operated light strings through the holes and into the hollow cartridge containers. Next I printed out some vintage Kenner decals that I cut out and stuck to the “terminals.” Figures can either sit or stand in front of them. They light up quite a bit which adds some moody lighting to the command centre.
For the “video table” I repurposed an old iPod Touch. I created a video clip of a few different graphics from Star Wars like the view through macro binoculars and the digital plans for the Death Star that General Dodonna showed the rebel pilots in Star Wars: A New Hope. I loaded the video clip onto the iPod and glued the iPod to a sturdy cardboard box. Then I cut out of cardboard, a sort of table top that I glued printed out control panels (yep that’s a Kenner Power Droid sticker) and cut a hole the same size as the iPod’s screen. It really turned out cool! At some point I would like to get the table top 3D printed to make it sturdier and also run power to the iPod so it can be used anytime. At the moment I have to charge it before using it or taking pictures of it.
Next was the “radar table” or whatever the rebels call the piece of furniture that Mon Mothma likes to lean on in Rogue One. Again, using the awesome diorama resources from Diorama Workshop I printed out the top part of the table, glued it to foam board for stability and then glued that to a plastic candy dish. Super easy and it looks really good.
The front half of this “shelf’ is the Command Centre but you’ll notice a window I installed in the middle wall. This view leads to the Pilot Ready Room and the idea was to have a room similar to the one in A New Hope. I knew it would be kind of difficult to actually see into this room so some of the decisions I made were based on this. Instead of chairs, like in A New Hope, I used benches, in this case a few strips of wood painted brown. I added a few thumb tacks along one wall for helmets. The front of the room where General Dodonna informed the pilots about the Death Star plans was just a printed out picture of the plans, glued to foam board. I used a figure base from a Power of the Force 2 Cinema Scene set underneath the screen. It does the job for now but I need a better looking solution down the road.
UPDATE: In 2022 I rebuilt the front of the room to make it look better than before. I also decided on leaving the “screen” blank and when needed for photos I would photoshop an appropriate picture onto it. Also the screen is a square piece of packaging that really looks like the bezel and outline of a flat video screen. One thing I wanted to recreate were the tiles or panels on either side of the screen. I found a simple solution by using some office label stickers.
I think the final product turned out pretty good, although I learned a lot along the way so when I start another project I may revisit this one. My main concern is that the ready room is a little difficult to see behind the command centre but I set up the rooms in a way that would let me have more space on the shelf.
One thing I didn’t count on at this point was to expand the rebel base display into another shelf but I was pretty psyched after finishing the two rooms so I have (for now) a rough idea of my next project: a display based on the rebels hideout on Hoth: Echo Base.
Mike Tarkin.com 
