My Customized Bandai Darth Vader

[Moxized]

Wanted to First say hello as this is my first post, but I am a long time lurker. I love scale models and making them personal or unique, I love the Star Wars movies and been excited building Bandai's collection.

The Darth Vader looked well but I just didn't care much for the plastic robes and cape. Another annoyance was the blade to his lightsaber, it is dull dark and fat, and too short.

First thing I did was go through my craft supplies, I found 2mm styrene fits perfect into the hilt of his saber. I cut a length and placed it into my press mounted dremel set at it's lowest speed to then use fine grades of sand paper to bring the tip to a point. After this it was coated over with a Tamiya clear red. After curing it was cut to size and placed into his lightsaber's hilt. So much better!

Now those toyish plastic capes. I searched online and found templates for costume making and how to make vader's robe's and cape. I scaled these down to his size and purchased a soft lightweight fabric from the local craft store. Measuring out I cut out the templates to the fabric, then began to fold and iron out the lines, adding the creases to the fabric for his chest using the iron and strips of iron on mending adhesive.

Whats great about this model kit is how each part of the outfit actually pops off. I was able to place the robes on positioning them and then snapping his shoulder guards back on along with his belt pinching the fabric under them.

His Cape I added a fine enameled wire I twisted with my drill, and put it into the outer edge of his cape under a fold with more iron on mending cloth. this also makes up for the chain around his neck, bonus!

After he was assembled back together I steamed the outfit to let it sag and form better along with using the wires to hold the cape in position.

I'm super pleased with the results! It looks so much more alive without that plastic toy look.

I'll try and clean him up for getting better pictures soon, for now it is late and just using my cellphone.


For an added show off of something I'm working on, I've also been working on the Kylo Ren figure. My only real gripe is again the blade to the lightsaber, too dull dark and fat.

This time I found 1mm styrene fit the hilt, that is good with what I needed to do. This time I used hot glue lightly smearing along the length of styrene, giving it that caotic flamed blade. after the glue dried, I again brushed with a Tamiya clear red. Now I just need to get to the rest of the painting to the hilt.

Here is the progress!



Thanks so much for looking! As I get more free time I'll show better pictures or answer any questions about the modifications.

 

[FrightMaker]

Nice work! These Bandai kits are the best!

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Moxized]

Thank you! They really are awesome! The ships are one thing for the detail, but the figures themselves and level of detail and posing ability is awesome in it's own. I've collected almost all of their star wars line and even finished their Millennium Falcon and did the whole LED/fiber Optic game to it, but enough of those have been posted, I'll wait for a 1/72 Falcon to showcase haha.

I also have been collecting on Bandai's SH Figuart's line. I recently picked up both versions of Luke. A bonus with the ROTJ Luke is he comes with an unmasked version of Vader's head, A slight drilling underneath and trimming the neck-guard, his head snaps perfectly on to the Bandai Vader model kit.

 

[SithSim]

Looks great! And thanks for the tip about the unmasked SH Figuarts Vader head fitting the model kit!

 

[Shaunpug]

Nice! I'm currently working on a Vader as well. I'd love a bit more info on where you got the template for the cape and skirt? I was in the process of this same mod and saw your posting. Would it be possible for you to share the template?
The wire mod is very cool...do you have any more pictures you could post of that? Forgive me for my ignorance, but what is an enameled wire?

 

[Moxized]

Sorry to be slow on replies, my job makes it hard to find time to check in on this. Enameled wire is a magnet wire, copper or aluminum coated over in a thin insulation, used for wrapping coils or used in wiring small SMD LEDs and why I have it, I use it for most of my wiring for light kits in models. As for the templates I do not want to be rude and post other's work, so I'll PM you those. I'll try and get time on my days off to repeat my work and take some photos of what I did since I do not want to take apart the ones I finished haha.

 

[jcroscigno]

Thank you! They really are awesome! The ships are one thing for the detail, but the figures themselves and level of detail and posing ability is awesome in it's own. I've collected almost all of their star wars line and even finished their Millennium Falcon and did the whole LED/fiber Optic game to it, but enough of those have been posted, I'll wait for a 1/72 Falcon to showcase haha.

I also have been collecting on Bandai's SH Figuart's line. I recently picked up both versions of Luke. A bonus with the ROTJ Luke is he comes with an unmasked version of Vader's head, A slight drilling underneath and trimming the neck-guard, his head snaps perfectly on to the Bandai Vader model kit.

After I got my Figuarts Luke I swapped the unmasked head onto my Black Series Vader for a similar pose - the scale is great and is a nice secondary display for my 1:12 shelf.