Black Series Darth Vader Helmet Mod Thread!
- Thread starter Jennigirl
- Start date
bwize
Sr Member
I really think that your original helmet height really captures his ANH look perfectly. Just my 2 cents.
StephenMG
Active Member
Great job Guffe ! You've done much the same mods as me and I'm sure you're as pleased with them as I was - the whole helmet looks so much better now.
I too experimented with sitting the dome a little higher with spacers. The BS dome is a not quite tall enough so I considered cheating and adding a little extra height that way rather than performing major surgery on the top of it. Like bwize though I decided I'd prefer to keep the ANH look with the low brow - it was Vader looking his meanest in my view. Maybe 6mm is too much though? Perhaps I'll try again with, say, 3mm and see how that looks.
I too experimented with sitting the dome a little higher with spacers. The BS dome is a not quite tall enough so I considered cheating and adding a little extra height that way rather than performing major surgery on the top of it. Like bwize though I decided I'd prefer to keep the ANH look with the low brow - it was Vader looking his meanest in my view. Maybe 6mm is too much though? Perhaps I'll try again with, say, 3mm and see how that looks.
NICELY DONE!!!
Jed1master
New Member
I stumbled on this thread to mod a BS Helmet and you all have given me some great ideas. I hope this thread is still be used because the last one i from 11/5/2019. Please keep up the great work
SPYHUNTER705
Active Member
got done with this
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SPYHUNTER705
Active Member
hi i was wondering what thumb nut did you used
StephenMG
Active Member
These - M2 M2.5 M3 M4 M5 M6 M8 STAINLESS STEEL HIGH KNURLED THUMB NUTS HAND GRIP KNOBS | eBay, M3 size.
The knurled bit is a bit narrow really but I'm pleased with the way they look.
SPYHUNTER705
Active Member
so i decided to do a bit more work on the helmet by trying to add a neck i'm used my 3d printer and made a neck from a file i bought it kinda fits but i need to put some work into it i'll post a pic when i made some progress
SPYHUNTER705
Active Member
well 3D print didn't work neck is to square but the idea is still open just wish someone would make a model for the neck
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Greetings, all!
I am new here to this wonderful forum, and have gotten back into the collector's game, having stopped back in the mid-late 2000s with my Master Replicas lightsaber hilt collection, and now getting interested in replica helmets.
I recently picked up EFX's Fett PCR helmet, which is an amazing way to start back into this sport!
I'm still always on the lookout for a DPDeluxe Vader, as I have a soft spot in my heart for it.
And of course I am eyeing some of the recent licensed Vaders out there , not sure which one I want to dive into getting, cause it will be only one of them. lol
But when I saw the Hasbro Vader, immediately I saw it's potential, and was SO thankful to have found this thread!
You guys are giving great points, and I have already gotten the recommended paints, and begun to disassemble mine, but I am starting with replacing the eyes or at least enhancing the existing eyes to red.
Found some thin sheet of red transparent styrene in an automotive tail light repair kit and it looks like I'll be able to cut to shape to make it work, but am not quite sure how to shape it to match the curvature of the existing eyes.
Any ideas?
I don't want to buy every little thing I need , premade, but if I can't get the styrene to work, does anyone recommend a place to get the red eyes pre made?
And here's my Vader, intact before I disassembled. : )
I am new here to this wonderful forum, and have gotten back into the collector's game, having stopped back in the mid-late 2000s with my Master Replicas lightsaber hilt collection, and now getting interested in replica helmets.
I recently picked up EFX's Fett PCR helmet, which is an amazing way to start back into this sport!
I'm still always on the lookout for a DPDeluxe Vader, as I have a soft spot in my heart for it.
And of course I am eyeing some of the recent licensed Vaders out there , not sure which one I want to dive into getting, cause it will be only one of them. lol
But when I saw the Hasbro Vader, immediately I saw it's potential, and was SO thankful to have found this thread!
You guys are giving great points, and I have already gotten the recommended paints, and begun to disassemble mine, but I am starting with replacing the eyes or at least enhancing the existing eyes to red.
Found some thin sheet of red transparent styrene in an automotive tail light repair kit and it looks like I'll be able to cut to shape to make it work, but am not quite sure how to shape it to match the curvature of the existing eyes.
Any ideas?
I don't want to buy every little thing I need , premade, but if I can't get the styrene to work, does anyone recommend a place to get the red eyes pre made?
And here's my Vader, intact before I disassembled. : )
Attachments
SPYHUNTER705
Active Member
i'm not sure on how to heat up styrene i think you can heat it up with a heat gun or maybe some hot water dip it in and bend the shape in
Ok, so I've gotten pretty far in the modding and paint job.
Still a few steps to go in detailing, but here's some updates thus far, kind of in order.
First, removed all inside face pieces, and sprayed the nose with Testors metallic silver.
Started basic taping off of the vents. ( and that is the bottom of my EFX Fett in the background of the 2nd picture) : )
Removed all innards of the jaw piece, and sprayed the whole thing Rustoleum Gun Metal
Then tried to use a transparent red spray for tail light repair on the outside of the lenses, but they just got too dark and kind of mucky.
Tried to maybe gloss them over to at least make them look better , but they got all boogered up. so it had to be taking a Dremmel to the lenses and cutting them out, and replacing them with 3M clear red repair styrene.
Worked great, but they have adhesive on one side, so I stuck to pieces together, which reinforced them, and made them easier to handle, cut the shape out to match the lense openings, and just lightly pinched them while holding a hair dryer to them to give them and outward bend.
Using an insta-cure styrene glue from a local hobby shop, the lenses sat into the visor opening perfectly.
Got the ROTJ style two tone paint job done on the mask using Rustoleum Gun Metal, leaving the black plastic of the helmet intact where the black needed to be. Gloss coat over the whole thing really brought out the black , and stopped it from looking like plastic.
And going to detail the head piece and greeblies on the mask later.
Replaced the lower jar grill with the metal grill mesh from an STP air filter, and black screen mesh behind it.
Left the speaker right in the middle of the bottom of the grill, and you can barely see it at all now, but still hear it clearly.
Was going to try to remove the tusks and order the aluminum ones, but I found this paper thin metal chrome foil for using on model cars, and it metallicized the tusks perfectly.
Sure, they're not ROTJ tusks, but at least they're ESB style.
Used this same foil on parts of the mask head piece as well.
Completed two tone on the jaw, and modded the interior wiring a bit in placement and coloring, and added a strip of black felt to the back of the neck piece instead of the plastic.
I used that same foil in the lower silver portions of the jaw interior, to make it more metal, but also cover up the screw holes to look more complete.
On the mouth grill, used the same mesh from the air filter, painted in black, and
glued a piece of black screen mesh behind it to fit.
Cut it down to properly fit in the mouth grill, and glued in the base of the original plastic mouth grill to cap the bottom so they stayed in place.
Cutting out the uprights from the original grill insert was surprisingly hard.
Popped the lenses in the mask just to see how it is looking.
Pretty nice!
The dome got about 5 coats of gloss black, and about 4 coats of clear gloss.
Filled in and smoothed out the mold point on the top of the dome best I could.
It's barely visible now, and only then even if you know it's there.
Was going to smooth out the widows' peak. but decided it wasn't a deal breaker, especially since I'm going to eventually display this in an exploded view , and have a special surprise to the display I'm concocting. : )
And finally, in progress on detailing the portions of the mask interior.
Sorry about the tons of pictures, but I hope you all enjoy it!
Thanks for all your motivations and information that helped me get this far!
Still a few steps to go in detailing, but here's some updates thus far, kind of in order.
First, removed all inside face pieces, and sprayed the nose with Testors metallic silver.
Started basic taping off of the vents. ( and that is the bottom of my EFX Fett in the background of the 2nd picture) : )
Removed all innards of the jaw piece, and sprayed the whole thing Rustoleum Gun Metal
Then tried to use a transparent red spray for tail light repair on the outside of the lenses, but they just got too dark and kind of mucky.
Tried to maybe gloss them over to at least make them look better , but they got all boogered up. so it had to be taking a Dremmel to the lenses and cutting them out, and replacing them with 3M clear red repair styrene.
Worked great, but they have adhesive on one side, so I stuck to pieces together, which reinforced them, and made them easier to handle, cut the shape out to match the lense openings, and just lightly pinched them while holding a hair dryer to them to give them and outward bend.
Using an insta-cure styrene glue from a local hobby shop, the lenses sat into the visor opening perfectly.
Got the ROTJ style two tone paint job done on the mask using Rustoleum Gun Metal, leaving the black plastic of the helmet intact where the black needed to be. Gloss coat over the whole thing really brought out the black , and stopped it from looking like plastic.
And going to detail the head piece and greeblies on the mask later.
Replaced the lower jar grill with the metal grill mesh from an STP air filter, and black screen mesh behind it.
Left the speaker right in the middle of the bottom of the grill, and you can barely see it at all now, but still hear it clearly.
Was going to try to remove the tusks and order the aluminum ones, but I found this paper thin metal chrome foil for using on model cars, and it metallicized the tusks perfectly.
Sure, they're not ROTJ tusks, but at least they're ESB style.
Used this same foil on parts of the mask head piece as well.
Completed two tone on the jaw, and modded the interior wiring a bit in placement and coloring, and added a strip of black felt to the back of the neck piece instead of the plastic.
I used that same foil in the lower silver portions of the jaw interior, to make it more metal, but also cover up the screw holes to look more complete.
On the mouth grill, used the same mesh from the air filter, painted in black, and
glued a piece of black screen mesh behind it to fit.
Cut it down to properly fit in the mouth grill, and glued in the base of the original plastic mouth grill to cap the bottom so they stayed in place.
Cutting out the uprights from the original grill insert was surprisingly hard.
Popped the lenses in the mask just to see how it is looking.
Pretty nice!
The dome got about 5 coats of gloss black, and about 4 coats of clear gloss.
Filled in and smoothed out the mold point on the top of the dome best I could.
It's barely visible now, and only then even if you know it's there.
Was going to smooth out the widows' peak. but decided it wasn't a deal breaker, especially since I'm going to eventually display this in an exploded view , and have a special surprise to the display I'm concocting. : )
And finally, in progress on detailing the portions of the mask interior.
Sorry about the tons of pictures, but I hope you all enjoy it!
Thanks for all your motivations and information that helped me get this far!
Got the inside panels detailed and painted, and the lens assembly installed. The inside is done.
A few little details on the outside, and some wire details on the lower jaw piece, and this guy is done and ready for an interesting stand. : )
More pics probably tomorrow.
A few little details on the outside, and some wire details on the lower jaw piece, and this guy is done and ready for an interesting stand. : )
More pics probably tomorrow.
SPYHUNTER705
Active Member
imp
impressive
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