the poi dog paradise and Mt Kilahaole volcano unveiled!

the poi dog paradise and Mt Kilahaole volcano unveiled!

After months of slavish and fanatical devotion, flop sweat buckets full of creativity, Lopaka and Palapala would like to

introduce you ( and say E Komo Mai ) Welcome to the Poi Dog Paradise! If you check our earlier posts you can see where it

began in its first incarnation as the Zombie Hut Tiki lounge. This is where we are now. We especially had fun doing our

diorama which is outside the west facing windows. THe space is probably about 50 ft wide, and 6 ft deep, though we have yet

to fill it up all the way. Mt KilaHaole alone takes up about 4 ft tall x 5 ft wide more or less. All the tapa-like stuff

that you'll see on the beams and walls were created by PalaPala using camping foam mats with the patterns burned in with a

wood burning tool. (Still a little high from the fumes). We're especially proud of our indonesian midnight dog mask above

the mantle. We wired that up with LED lights in the eyes and nostrils and used one of the motors from a outdoor christams

reindeer display to make the jaw open and close.

The opening party - Sweetpea, Palapala, Kahlua in the paradise.

The opening party - Happy folk getting their tiki on

The opening party - Happy folk getting their tiki on part 2

Lopaka in his element

Hallway back to the real world

Hallway away from the real world

Indonesian midnight dog mask - "bite ya mode "

Indonesian midnight dog mask - "afta snak"

Southwest corner

Poi Dog Sophie guarding the south end.

South East COrner

UComeLiedown area - Palapala's favorite spot

Towards the bar

Appeasing the referigerator gods

Poi Dog Esme - WhyUNoThrowToy?

Poi Dog Esme is comeStayGo Now?

What'll you have?

Palapala - " I have dirtnapple, but dog no make"

Spring break Barbie's revenge

Virgin sacrifice - really? Heh!

Mt. KilaHaole doing its job

Mt. Kilahaole is a structure of mostly expanding insulating foam,
also know as great stuff from a can - painted with flat black exterior paint, and then touched up on the high points with

one shade lighter of grey. There's an orange Home Depot bucket embedded in it, and a couple pipes for wires and air and a

drainage tube for when it gets freezing outside or cleanout. Inside the bucket is a pond light, and a 3 head electronic

fogger. There's a rope light on the outside underneath red glass pieces siliconed in place for lava flow. All controlable

via X10. A small computer fan is used to push some of the fog out the top.More red glass and sand was placed on top of the

rope light to form a lava river and cute little lava lake where the top half of GI Joe met his sorry end, as

witnessed by scary tiki dude.

GI Joe snakesnack - snake from Archie McPhee's

Barbie trophy heads and huts

When dinnah ready?

PalaPala's ceramic Tiki heads. bright orange inside with room for a light

Lava River

Gi Joe, devil duckies and Tiki dude witness

Shot from north looking south

Door to outside - big smokin' room

close up of printing on door

Make me somthing Tripical. You know,a mai-tai,with 3 shots of rum!
Is it just me, or do whales look like they're built upside down?

[ Edited by: palapala 2009-03-22 16:50 ]

[ Edited by: palapala 2009-03-22 17:17 ]

[ Edited by: palapala 2009-03-22 17:21 ]

Wow that looks fab!

Great use of Barbies too :wink:

You guys did an amazing job.

Palapala,

Fantastic job and fun looking opening event. Congrats on the awesome work. Very inspiring.

DC

Wonderful! So many great details; the tapa stamping, the turquoise background color, the creative use of pillows, swell looking party, the glass lava river turned out great. The whole diorama made me laugh out loud! Very cool!

Here's a similar volcano I made a few years back. 8 feet tall with room inside for two people to operate the lights, fog machines and giant smoke ring (vortex) generator.

Mahaloz 2 u all fo da props!
A lot of what we did in "the Poi Dog"
is from great input that we got from you pro's from TC,(Talkin'about you mad dog...)
just wanna let you all know that you have an invite for a drink and "talk story" when you're in my woodneck,Just outside Seattle. any more ideas for expanding the Diorama?
We also might do some sort of indoor water feature, but nothing too splashy.Might attract the flooded basement demons!

I'm not sure I can believe my eyes - the SCALE, - the DETAIL, - the AUDACITY, and of course: THE FUN.

Helluva hangout.

Wow, what a great job. The each area flows right into the next. I really like the tapa stamping. If you don't mind giving away secrets, what did you crave the stamps out of, & did you use standard interior paint? The umbrella ceiling light covers are a nice touch.
Mike

Really nice, the attention to deal is amazing! As a former Mattel employee, we did a few tiki dioramas ourselves, this one is well done! great indoor space, it looks great!

Amy

Mahaloz 2 u all fo da attagirlz!
The tapa blocks were made out of a camping mat, as suggested by Howland, in earlier posts.
I used a really cheap ($10) roll of green foam mat, about the size to put under your sleeping bag.I think it was only about 1/2 inch thick. I cut it to the size I wanted with a utility knife, and then drew the pattern on with a sharpie..(I had to keep changing out the sharpie because for some reason,it wouldn't flow well onto the mat.)
Then I used a type of all purpose wood burning tool, to burn in my patterns.
I glued the finished piece onto the same sized piece of plywood, with a bit of molding screwed into it for a handle.
another method I tried that was a bit easier, was to use some of the multi layered packing foam panels that are used to cushion electronics, but it was hard to find, if you don't have it just laying around. this stuff doesn't need handles.

The paint I used was just your average interior latex, though you might want something a bit thinner. I had to keep making sure that it didn't fill up the patterns and obscure the design.
It was a really fun group activity! We even had the neighbors 10 year old daughter, and her friend rolling the paint onto the blocks for us!
When you work, don't forget your Mai-tai, and some lounge music!
A little game came out of this, too!
I made sure that one each of our dog and bird prints were printed upside down.
Now if anyone can find them, they get another drink.
(they would get one anyway, but everyone likes a puzzle!)

Great job you guys!!! What a wonderful home get-away :)

Some random ideas for your diorama:

Build a motorized turntable (BBQ grill motor would work well) into the ground and stand 'island native' dolls in a circle on it to create a miniature version of the headhunters dancing on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland.

Get one of those self-contained garden waterfalls (the plastic kind you can find at Fred Meyers or other store) and customize/paint it to match the volcano you created. Add lots of miniature jungle foliage and sunbathing and swimming Barbies and you have a jungle oasis with Island beauties.

Lagoon (using a pond liner) with Gilligan dolls and huts (and make some island headhunter dolls) http://cgi.ebay.com/Gilligans-Island-Limited-Editon-Collectors-Doll-Set_W0QQitemZ180343220163QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item180343220163&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Lagoon with outriggers beached on the edge and huts all around.

Use your stereo (with lots of wall rattling subwoofer) in conjunction with your erupting volcano and some dimmable red lighting to create a fun effect at parties (have it erupt every hour or something). The Barbie doll sacrifice appeases the angry mountain :)

Build painted plywood 'flats' to look like a volcanic island mountain range and jungle (possibly apply more of that foam to the plywood to texture the mountains) as a backdrop running the length of the windows . Install white or frosted panes of plexiglass (the kind you get from Home Depot)running behind the mountains and extending all the way up to the overhang to enclose the diorama. During the day, it creates a day-lit sky above a fantasy island background. At night, with blue yard lights shining from behind, it creates a cool evening sky behind silhouetted jungle/mountains. dim down the blue lights and dim up some red lights for an angry red sky volcano effect when the volcano erupts (as above).

Have fun!!!

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2009-04-07 13:54 ]

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2009-04-07 13:56 ]

OOOH Mr.3 P!
U have Re-surfaced!
We miss u longtime!
Thanx for the Ideas. I'm yet again overwhelmed by your twisted disney infected brain.. Wanna come help-drink-make-mini-happytime?
how's your project going?

Hi Pala!
How's your diorama coming along? :)

I have'nt been adding to it lately. I've been spending all my time working on my mug line, getting the glazes right is a real challange...
I have to say, as wonderful as most of your suggestions are(other than subsonics, and a light show),they are just too....ummmm ..happy.
I'm kinda going for ominous and Haole unfriendly.I think my next thing will be giant bug attack (from Archee Mcphee's), or maybe that fine old standby, "King Kong". do you have any more suggestions of a more EVIL nature?

Hmmmmmm...evil diorama. Let me do some thinking on that :)

Ok, let's see....something Eeeeeeeevil.
Well, I think the dancing warriors on a turntable can certainly be made to look ominous. Especially if you have them dancing around a flicker bulb fire for a nice creepy lighting effect (plus sound effects of a warrior chant).

You could also make eerily lit miniature temples (with glowing eyed tikis)--possibly lit by miniature flickering torches and an overhead blue (night sky) light

Maybe sculpt a tiki/dog god with glowing eyes, etc. as part of a temple (to go with your theme).
Possibly have it at the top of some kind of a winding stone staircase with a bloody sacrificial stone altar. Maybe even build it onto another miniature mountain. Add some echo-y scary dog bark sound effects.

You know. Evil stuff like that. :)

AAAOOOOUUUUUIIII!
verrry scarry!
I was thinking about doing a tiki dog...
I kinda like a sacrificial altar for him, too.(maybe for a poor unfortunate kitty).

Palapala, I made up a soundtrack a few years back that had jungle sounds and drums on one stereo track and occasional random volcano rumbles on the other stereo track. I ran the rumble soundtrack to an amplified sub woofer AND to a light organ devise that flickered the lights inside the volcano. I think I still have that CD laying around, PM me with an address if you want a copy.

PS, I like Mr PPP's bathing beauty lagoon, you can keep the "Haole unfriendly" look by using darker skinned Barbies (I'm sure they make them). Instead of an unmoving plastic Godzilla, how about making the whole diorama an enclosure for a Savanah Monitor lizard! :lol:

I'm gonna sit right here, I'm gonna watch the sun
Disappear into the ocean, it's been years since I smelled this salty sea.

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2009-05-05 06:59 ]

Thanx, Mike! I might take you up on that soundtrack...
You know, our woodneck in these parts plays host to some salad plate sized spiders...I wonder what would attract them to that area?(EEEE! HelpmehelpMEEEEEEE!!!)