Power Up

Jimmy Corrao from CrossCity Christian Church in Fresno, CA brings us this VBS design based on a Nintendo Switch.

From Jimmy: This stage design was for our children’s ministry for Summer Jam (VBS). They use the Orange curriculum and the theme this year was “Power Up.” Since the curriculum was based on video games, and we have a LED wall (14.5′ H x 25′ W) on our stage, we thought it would be perfect to combine the two and make a giant Nintendo Switch (with an actual Switch connected to it, of course).

So, I grabbed a Switch from one of our production assistants and a ruler and began measuring every button, curve, length and width that I could. Then to match the height of our LED wall, I multiplied all the dimensions of the Switch by 3.68254 to give us the right scale.

Once all the dimensions were scaled up, I opened Google Sketchup and created a full 3d model of the Switch and how it would look on our stage (already had a 3d model of that built). Building the model in Sketchup allows me to see how much lumber, plywood, foam, etc that we’ll need for the project. It saves so much time on trips to the hardware store when you know exactly what you need for the project.

We built the frame of the Switch using 2×4’s, 1/2 MDF on the face, and 5mm plywood for the sides to bend easily. We tried to match paint to the Switch Pantone colors, which was very difficult. The red got pretty close, but the blue was a struggle. We then mounted it to truss on a 4′ baseplate and anchored it to our LED wall anchor truss.

For the rest of the scenery, we had the Mario/Yoshi, Piranha Plant, bricks and land all printed on Coroplast then we mounted it to 4×8 sheets of 7/16″ OSB and built a few jacks to stand it all up. We flew some of the bricks and question blocks with 1/8″ aircraft cable and Griplocks. Those bricks and question blocks were mounted to 7/16″ OSB as well.

The whole thing cost around $1100-$1200. The Coroplast was the most expensive part (about $670). If you don’t have an LED wall on stage, I think this is something that could still be built around a projection screen. I hope it gives you some inspiration!