[WIP] Movie accurate cantina at full minifigure scale

[TheBear]

Hi there, I would love to see what you are doing. Feel free to post here or start another thread, it's up to you. It would be great if we could share ideas and information as I am sure you must have found the same as me that finding accurate information on certain things is difficult.

It sounds like you are doing something huge if you are basing it off that Complete Locations diagram, I am finding it hard enough just to do the bar and the alcoves around it.

Regarding the height of the bar, it is very difficult to get right as the minifigures are so out of proportion. I actually have a hood which I haven't photographed yet that sits quite a lot lower than the top bars. If you look at this rare production shot of the left hand side of the bar you can see that the dispensers hang off bars which are well above the hood and quite a bit higher than the top of the arch at the back, so I don't think I am too far off.

[BJM]

Really good job. I've been mocing my own to scale Cantina since December and have just seen your June update above. We've both reached a similar conclusion regarding the size of the booths. I'm integrating mine with lights (lifelites) so I have a cavity wall in between the booths making the inside of mine 10 x12 studs. I've also used two 3 x12 tan arches - one at the front and one at the back. I haven't used the inverted slope for the front though - I've just got it under the rear arch. I've also found the bar the hardest bit to get right. At one point mine did look a lot like yours, but thought it looked too high - I can't see how else to lower it other than cutting the bar (6L pearl gold) down to 4L.

For source material I'm using the films, the excellent website at http://cantinacustom...od.com/id20.htm & the book STAR WARS: Complete Locations below. One of my biggest frustrations is the difference in the lighting types and positions between the original set in North Africa and the second shoot in LA - having to compromise with one or the other.

Have spent the last couple of months building Chalmun's office and dome above - it took a while to source all of the tan slopes from Bricklink.

I need to take some decent pictures - not sure whether to post them here or create my own page. What do you think?

I would really love to see this thread grow, please do add your photos here - and i'd love others to include good subs on missing characters, such as the Wuher thread using Zoro henchman. The reality for me, is that I would love to have spent the same price as the Ewok Village on the Cantina, so I will take to bricklink.

Does anyone have something good in place for Ponda Baba I wonder???

Sorry - got mixed up when quoting. What I wanted to say is...

I would really love to see this thread grow, please do add your photos here - and i'd love others to include good subs on missing characters, such as the Wuher thread using Zoro henchman. The reality for me, is that I would love to have spent the same price as the Ewok Village on the Cantina, so I will take to bricklink.

Does anyone have something good in place for Ponda Baba I wonder???

[Jdurg]

Fantastic! Please post updates in this thread so we can all see how you are progressing. I'm new to Lego Star Wars, and unfortunately have arrived at a time when the focus is purely on ships and vehicles and none of the physical sets in the OT which is where I'm most interested, so following a build like this would be a nice change.

[benisnow]

There's a guy on ebay, Rusko who's selling his own custom produced Cantina mini-figures. He used to have Ponda Baba and Dr Evazan, but seems to have sold out at the moment. He's got a few others though and came up with the Biths before lego released the latest Cantina set:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/*rusko*/m.html?item=321417009548&hash=item4ad5f2598c&pt=UK_Construction_Toys_Kits&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

I would post pics in here, but can't see how to do it, so check out link above. I'm going to try and start producing my own mini-fig customizations - Once I get going I'll post some pics here. Will post pics of the Cantina (work in progress) first though.

[TheBear]

I am considering using Kenner heads for Ponda Baba and Nabrun Leids like this guy as I think they can look ok. The only problem is that they are a bit too big compared to Lego heads like Greedo and the trandoshans, but it probably doesn't matter too much with aliens. I would definitely want better printing on the torsos though, and that is going to be difficult.

Edited June 16, 2014 by TheBear

[Borex]

You can try to make a Kitik Keek'Kak like i drew in this Cuusoo project. The head is from Toy Story (Twitch) but it's green, i'm not sure if they have those pieces for his arms in green too? The underpart is just a slopebrick like they use for skirts.

[TheBear]

I like the way you have done that. Unfortunately neither of those parts for the arm seem to be available in green but there must be other parts that can be substituted.

[benisnow]

I've finally got around to taking some pictures and uploading them to a Flickr account. You can see them here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125945399@N02/sets/72157645504433496/

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - I've got a decent camera, but can't manage to take good pictures indoors. Once I've finished, i'll ask a friend with a bit more skill than myself to take better shots.

I'd also like to post some pictures here, but I can't work out how to do it. I've tried using the URL link in the photo post, but it won't accept it. Any ideas?

Would love to hear all of your comments anyway...

[TheBear]

That's looking really good so far! The lights are going to look fantastic, I thought about doing something like that but decided it would be too hard :) Your project is a lot more ambitious than mine, I really hope you are able to keep going with it.

I could make some comments on the accuracy but since it is all WIP a lot of it is probably to be done anyway. I think my newer alcove design is more accurate but it does involve making the alcoves slightly wider. Some (but not all) of the alcoves have a fully curved ceiling, but doing that with lighting might be too much hassle.

I have quite a lot of info that you might find useful, I will try to post some of it up here when I can.

[rollermonkey]

I've finally got around to taking some pictures and uploading them to a Flickr account. You can see them here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125945399@N02/sets/72157645504433496/

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - I've got a decent camera, but can't manage to take good pictures indoors. Once I've finished, i'll ask a friend with a bit more skill than myself to take better shots.

I'd also like to post some pictures here, but I can't work out how to do it. I've tried using the URL link in the photo post, but it won't accept it. Any ideas?

Would love to hear all of your comments anyway...

I think you need 5 posts before you can link pictures.

[Yzalirk]

It looks good by far but needs to be finished!

[Valezri]

I've been working on a cantina on and off for quite a few years now, seeing this topic makes me want to work on it again. I don't have any pics right now, hopefully I'll be able to get some, then I'll post them, maybe people will get some ideas from my version. I plan on having mine light up, it actually has some led lights in it now, but they aren't hooked up to wires yet. I also plan on making every character in the cantina, I've sculpted quite a few so far, but it will probably take years before I do them all. I had already made the bith and ithorian sculpts years ago. I've also sculpted Ponda Baba, Mufftak, Mosep's species, Bom Vimdin, and probably others. I've also made some characters using custom decals.

[BJM]

Great job Benisnow, and great set of pics. Really interesting to see TheBear and your WIP, really is fascinating, thanks. Please do keep us all updated.

I have just got my second cantina, I am planning a much smaller MOC, but cannot wait to get loads of different figs in for a lock in...

[TheBear]

Hi Valezri, I would love to see what you have done, post it up some time! I can see mine taking years too, certainly with the figures it is a long term project.

Edited July 9, 2014 by TheBear

[Red Lantern Jamie]

Just WOW.

It looks so good.

If only this was a official set for the public.. although the price would be insane

[Valezri]

Here is a pic of what I've gotten done so far.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Valezri

[BalrogJ]

I am considering using Kenner heads for Ponda Baba and Nabrun Leids like this guy as I think they can look ok. The only problem is that they are a bit too big compared to Lego heads like Greedo and the trandoshans, but it probably doesn't matter too much with aliens. I would definitely want better printing on the torsos though, and that is going to be difficult.

That's what I did for my Ponda Baba and I think it looks cool. It's a smidge oversized compared to a "normal" LEGO head, but it's not any bigger than an Iron Man helmet or Kylo Ren's helmet, so I think it's a cool alternative to getting a more expensive custom molded figure..

[x105Black]

This is coming along really nicely!

Great work, I love the attention to detail.

[Gouniaf]

Patrick ? Is that you ?

I love your work. I'm also working on a true scale Cantina and I'm far to get it done.

This is really interesting to see the evolution of your project from the beginning.

[TheBear]

Hi Valezri, that's looking really great. I can see you have put a lot of time into making things accurate, including putting the right things in each alcove. I would love to see some closer images of all your custom aliens.

The only thing I would say is that it looks slightly too small to be true to scale, the cantina turns out to be a lot bigger than you expect and I have scaled mine up several times to get things to match the movie stills. If you take a look at my last post I go into some detail about how I came to the alcove size that I have now. The key thing is that in Han's alcove at least the window and table are off centre which allows you to have a larger booth without having the table in the middle and chairs against each wall.

[Valezri]

Hi Valezri, that's looking really great. I can see you have put a lot of time into making things accurate, including putting the right things in each alcove. I would love to see some closer images of all your custom aliens.

The only thing I would say is that it looks slightly too small to be true to scale, the cantina turns out to be a lot bigger than you expect and I have scaled mine up several times to get things to match the movie stills. If you take a look at my last post I go into some detail about how I came to the alcove size that I have now. The key thing is that in Han's alcove at least the window and table are off centre which allows you to have a larger booth without having the table in the middle and chairs against each wall.

I think I probably started this around 5 years ago, and I also have already scaled it up several times, and have thought about doing it again. You have alot of good ideas, and your pics have been helpful. :)

Here are pics of some of the figures from the Cantina. I forgot to include Ponda Baba when taking these, but I have an older pic of his head sculp used for a contest I entered.