Here's a brief look at the construction process for this piece:
Original reference screenshot (sprite layer disabled for clarity).
This is the sheet of game assets I put together and printed out. I fudged things a little bit by sticking a faded-out SNES Gradius III stage 3 stone background in there, because, it is a rather plain-looking stage. I made the front/back of the Moai heads by editing the side view sprites, and likewise the top/bottom view of the Proteus 911 (which, for some reason, is what the Vic Viper is called in this game).
This is a shot of all the components that I made on the first day of work, the base, two of the Moai heads and the Proteus 911 starship. The Moai are a bit too blocky for my tastes, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time designing, and assembling, more complex geometry for them, so, it'll have to do.
Here's a closer look at the tiny Proteus 911 (a.k.a., Vic Viper). Rather than a flat 2-Dimensional sprite, as I did with the previous Christopher Belmont and Mega Man figures in their respective dioramas, I decided to make the starship 3-Dimensional (actually, it's more of a 2.5D affair, but close enough).
Here's a test shot on the background. The faded SNES rock graphics didn't print out well at all, so that was a wasted effort on my part (maybe I should have made them a bit darker, but I didn't want that design element too noticeable, as they technically don't belong there in the first place). I kind of like the idea of the ship flying out of the diorama, towards the viewer, but, for the sake of accuracy, I went with the expected side view in the final version.
Here's the finished product:
Materials:
Cardboard, game graphics printed out on white paper, white lined notebook paper, white glue, newsprint, tissue paper, permanent marker, a brown paper grocery bag, and a wire twist tie (mount for floating elements only).
Dimensions:
9.1 cm (3.6") x 8.2 cm (3.2") [widest point x highest point]
Time:
Two days: June 10 and 12, 2014.
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