Accurate ANH/ESB chestbox ..

[darthvaderv]

TO CLARIFY Update 9.10.07

I started this thread a long time ago and in the end 3 boxes feature in this thread..

On my journey to get accuracy I destroyed Gino's ESB box which was very unfortunate and did not use it period.

I then moved onto trying to modify another box and gave up on that as I was still not satisfied.

My final piece SEEN ON PAGE 4 is a scratch build made by myself..........

UPDATE: THIS IS NOW A WIP. see bottom of this page.

Okay, now this took alot of research. This is a modified Gino ESB chestbox.

The pics I have posted concerning the original are obviously not that clear I did use the same ones as reference but they were very clear HD photographs unlike these ones that don't show much detail also the colours are slightly off. IMO my chestbox is a close comparison to the photographs I used as reference.

Now as we know some minor alterations were made to the chestbox during filming. The little so called Gold lined guages at the bottom (bottom of rods) are actually not gold against majority belief for the hero version but other varients mildly appear if I'm not wrong in some scenes? You can even see this in the pics I have posted that they are not gold. The colour of mine again are very close to the reference I went by although if you look at both the pictures of mine they vary against light and actually are not bright silver as the last picture looks but the correct colour they should be. Even the pics shown here of the originals show them to be slightly incorrect next to proper close up HD images.

Now I feel I know this chestbox very well, while I will not claim mine is 100% accurate I feel it is very close and is amongst the better replicas but that's mainly credit to Gino, I just added some details and a little paint here and there.

The picture of mine is obviously surrounded by the 3 images of the original, I would say some glare is on my chestbox also, it looks slightly even better than what's shown, so justice is not completely done.

Please feel free to critique this prop, constructively I would add, that's if you can :lol . No, Only joking.

Sorry I will not post direct close ups due to copying.

Thanks for looking

 

[Darkside]

looks great.

a fine piece for a great vader

 

[darthvaderv]

Thanks for the PM's so far. Some great compliments and very much appreciated.

 

[Darth Kahnt]

This piece is a good representation of your dedication to ESB Vader. Well done Paul. :thumbsup

 

[darthvaderv]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darth Kahnt @ Mar 31 2007, 05:41 PM) [snapback]1452395[/snapback]</div>

This piece is a good representation of your dedication to ESB Vader. Well done Paul. :thumbsup
[/b]

Cheers Chris Much appreciated. I still won't complete my lifesize with upgrading bits and doing the set up until the end of the year, so It's still way off but I think with enough persistance I should get there.

 

[Boba Frett]

:thumbsup It's purdy

 

[The Manlet]

Your vader is among the best i have seen. with out a doubt but i already told you that befor lol

 

[darthvaderv]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(GundamZeppelin @ Mar 31 2007, 08:42 PM) [snapback]1452502[/snapback]</div>

Your vader is among the best i have seen. with out a doubt but i already told you that befor lol
[/b]

Yes but I never get bored of hearing it :lol Thank you once again.

 

[darthvaderv]

A Vader project never ends

I was pleased with my original attempt at putting in missing details but now I will modify this chestbox with getting all the accuracy possible. I have found many parts to alter, even the box itself needs modification. Seems I was hell bent in putting in details rather than measuring every millimeter in comparison with the screen used.

This is the best readily available ESB box to buy still and the minor things I changed make it better but I'm not satisfied just yet....

Will post back in a month or two when I finish :unsure

 

[darthvaderv]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

UPDATE:

I was very happy to receive some great PM's etc..Complimenting this chestbox.

However... Since a month ago when I posted this I wanted to go for 100% (or as close as possible)accuracy. For the past few weeks I have been working on this version, in line with Gino's work but modifying the components.

BEFORE. (Enhanced this is not standard). Looks very nice

but not quite movie accurate.

IN PROGRESS. Taken 3 weeks ago.

Inner BOX was all cut out. The back dimensions however were kept though as they all accurately matched the screen used reference I had down to every measurement

IN PROGRESS. Taken 2 weeks ago.
It is completely inaccurate at this stage. The box is wrong and some of the componets need to be altered, either in length or size.

A VERY LONG WAY TO GO STILL, Taken 1 week ago. ALL INACCURATE and looks bad (Box and most things) AT THIS STAGE. All componets are just placed rougly and not cemented in place

Now so far give or take I have studied this chestbox to the point my eyes want to bleed, hours and hours of research and diagrams have been compared etc... I thought it was pretty brave to more or less destroy a very nice $550+ chestbox

in order for it to look more accurate but hey...

This project will take a further 6 weeks approx to complete

. Maybe 2 weeks alone for the box to be finished. As I have most of the accurate meaurements now I am happy as that's the main thing for the foundation for it all to look correct. I am confident it will really start taking shape and hope it will be very close in comparison to the original when it's complete.
The light red reflectors are inaccurate they need to be a different shape and size.

the red and blue switches are too big, they need to be cut down in size.

The greebles need minor modification.

The rocker switches need to be marginally adjusted.

The silver lined guages need to be filled in on the right one and shaped as I had done to the larger original ones. These are new versions and need to be slightly bigger and the lines need to be filed down differently.
The original ones were too big.

The box is looking very different since these pics were taken. And it's coming on well. It has much more depth and is beginning to look good.

The lettering although accurate in terms of text on my old version were too big and not quite to the original.

I have a few ideas to get the exact lettering but does anybody have any ideas for this???? I know people do transfers which my old set were from CDStudios on ebay they are good but they are inaccurate as I said. I thought of blowing up a pic and printing the text out and using that. My photoshop skills are ok but how do I get an original pic and clean it up so it's useable? The ones I done so far in rough are by changing the contrast etc.. but it still does not print clear enough. I have used other pics from illistrations but I think I need an original picture of the text. I have some pretty clear ones but Any help will be appreciated but if not I'll figure it out.

Old transfers, accurate text but not accurately sized etc...

Needs to be more like this. I need the exact picture all sharpen and cleaned up, so it looks ready to use. May need to play around more in Photoshop, but just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Just playing around. Forget the black and white colour and the wonky cutting I've done. On a decent printer this should come out quite well, cutting around the text and possibly glueing this on the box. On the original I think it's a sticker/transfer. You can see the black squared outline surrounding the white text. I really don't think it's painted on because of that outline.

I think something like this may look good but I'm not 100% until I print it out and try it. To be honest this will be the last thing to do but I will try this in rough first.

Can any one get a clearer copy of the text with it fractionally straighter as I know on the screen used they are wonky but this reference pic I have is at a slight angle. Thanks.

EDIT* Just did a print out, looks pretty good, only thing is the paper is coming out black and the box is gloss black in colour any ideas? Photopaper may be too shiney as it will draw attention, will give it a go this week perhaps.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

There are some clear shots of the letters here: http://www.darthblade.com/chestbox.htm

 

[darthvaderv]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

There are some clear shots of the letters here: http://www.darthblade.com/chestbox.htm

Thanks Carsten, I have that. The text is the same as the one's my old transfers have. Very close but not 100% next to the screen used. If you look very closely and compare them there are some very slight differences. Thanks anyway :thumbsup

 

[royal vader]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

Very nice work!!
I am also building a ESB chestbox that I am modeling in Pro/e and having made using SLA. I intend to have it done in time for C4.
Your color research on the little "gold" greeblies is great.
What color would you call it? The pictures look like silver with a gold glazing (silver showing through). Any chance of you PM'g me what the color is?

Thanks in advance

 

[darthvaderv]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

This is a screen used ESB Chestbox. I have a much clearer HD version which is slightly darker so It's not as silver as this perhaps a shade darker or so. I mixed flat aluminium hand paint with flat black and gave it a darkish silver tone, just one coat over the original gold colour. So some gold almost comes through. They look silver to any one but if you put something that is a bright silver next to it you can see it's darker. Make sense???

 

[royal vader]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

This is a screen used ESB Chestbox. I have a much clearer HD version which is slightly darker so It's not as silver as this perhaps a shade darker or so. I mixed flat aluminium hand paint with flat black and gave it a darkish silver tone, just one coat over the original gold colour. So some gold almost comes through. They look silver to any one but if you put something that is a bright silver next to it you can see it's darker. Make sense???

Yup, sure does.
Thanks for the color info. Now lets see if mine will look half as good as yours!

 

[lonepigeon]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

Are the blue and red buttons the exact same as ANH but cast as part of the box and painted (versus real parts)?

 

[darthvaderv]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

Yep they are cast as part of the box along with the other bottom 4 switches.

 

[darthvaderv]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

Okay just a small update.

As I said I used a different box for my template and NOT Gino's.

I cut it into 4 pieces to make it to the correct dimensions and used fibreglass and filler to fill in the gaps.

Ok this is with 2 coats of primer and one coat of MATT black to highlight areas, I know the chestbox should be Gloss black but this is rough only.

All compoenents are not set or even no where near complete, they are just laid on top of the box and inaccurate, just a quick example.

This chestbox is UNFINISHED, much to do still. All the edges need to be sharper and done properly and some of the sides are un even. It will take approx 2 weeks just to do the blank box. Perhaps another 4 months to finish in all :cry.

This was just a rough guide only.

My final version will hopefully look very nice and perhaps one of the most accurate around

(fingers crossed).

Excuse the pen holding it up.

 

[vader71]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

Wow. I am impressed!
Excellent work so far.

David

 

[darthvaderv]

Re: Accurate ESB chestbox

Another quick comparison shot, although not lined up properly etc...