My homemade ESB Darth Vader Costume (Finished on page 4)- 501st approved

[darthvader073]

Hello everybody,
After months of planning, I decided to start with my own build.
In 2009, when I was 14, I made my first Darth Vader costume, it wasn't that special but for the 14 year old kid it was awesome. Here it is...



Six years have passed by and I decided to give it another shot. My main goal is to make it ready for The Force Awakens premiere in December.
I will do everything myself, including the helmet (mostly because my budget and also as a challenge). It won't be 100% screen accurate ( the third one will be probably :lol ), but I'll do my best. It will be some kind of the Original trilogy hybrid.

Two days ago I started with the mask. I'm working with water-based clay. When it dries I'll apply bondo, sand it, and then make a silicone mold.













P.S. You guys here are awesome, I've learnt sooo much from you, and also got my inspiration for this project. So I would much appreciate your thoughts

 

[CSMacLaren]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Very nice to see a full clay sculpt! Keep up the good work!

 

[Halliwax]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

at 14yrs old you were very talented! with age comes experience, im very impressed with your clay sculpt. thats something i couldnt do, i look forward to your build, please keep us updated! i look forward to it

 

[Sym-Cha]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

That's a great start ... I'll be following your progress ... some more research pictures for you to gaze over and use : http://starwarshelmets.com/Original-Darth-Vader-Helmets.htm



Chaim

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

14 year old costume looks pretty impressive. New costume looking good so far.

 

[darthvader073]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Thank you guys
You'll be updated with everything, not to worry.

Mac, your work was in fact the biggest inspiration for this... there's actually a folder with your name in my reference images folder haha

Right now I'm dealing with some clay cracking , to be worst, I'm leaving my apartment for the weekend. I feel like I'm leaving a small baby on its own, fearing what will I find when I come back.
I made some kind of a water vapor chamber to keep it in a humid environment 'till I return.

Can't wait to take a next step

 

[Tumbler]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

For 14 that costume is fantastic. I think at 14 the best I could muster myself was a cardboard box strapped to my back and a vacuum hose to pose as a ghostbuster. Really looking forward to seeing your sculpt finish out. Looks great so far.

 

[enrico]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Very nice work: congrats for your skills and keep us updated!

enrico

 

[jimmiroquai]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

That is some great sculpting! Do you still need bondo with water-based clay? Can't you just use water to smoothen it out?

 

[darthvader073]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Thank you for all the support!
As I promised, more updates, though not much. I'm still dealing with clay. Yesterday I've added "cheek tubes" (I don't know how they are called haha), smoothen out some areas and connected the mask to the base (for easier molding). I also erased chin triangle, will cut it out more precisely after casting.
As for the bondo, I'll use a wood filler. It has given me some great results before, and great thing about it is that it dries much faster than clay. So I'll make some more adjustments with clay, and after it dries, here comes the filler.

 

[DarkMagician]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Jealous. JEALOUS!!

 

[Sym-Cha]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

It looks great however could you try to make an upright picture of the mask and from 6 feet or more away and then zoom in if you must to get it full frame? That's the way to shoot Vader so experts can chime in with their suggestions ... from these pictures it seems as if the main upper and back of the mask is not high enough and to short but I'll have to see a correct picture taken to be absolutely certain.

Chaim

 

[P3laton3]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Do you have any references for measures? Keep in mind that the faceplate and the dome in the original ones were quite bulky.
If I were you I would double check around for these before go ahead.
I could give you some as I'll be back home tonight

 

[darthvader073]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

I'll take the photo when I got home.

P3laton3: If you can provide me with some additional measures, I would much appreciate that. I still have time and possibility to fix some things on it.

 

[P3laton3]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

I will :thumbsup

 

[darthvader073]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

I will :thumbsup

Thanks

Now for the photos, here they are. One taken from close to 6 feet, and others from various angles. I have a feeling that the base of the head should be wider. Please comment and feel free to give any suggestions.

As for the measures, have in mind I'm 183 cm tall, so maybe the mask shouldn't be 100% original size (but you are here to give me the advice ).















And please tell me it's fixable, whatever is wrong....

 

[Sym-Cha]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Looks quite good actually Now if you take another picture of Vader's original mask from the same position and make an 50% overlay over yours in Photoshop you can see how much you'll need to alter

Chaim

 

[darthvader073]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Updates:

Small improvements have been made. I've reshaped eyes, upper parts of the cheeks and shortened neck







As for the thin white line on the left side of the forehead, that's just reflection

 

[darthvader073]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

Now I really have a feeling that the face base should be wider, and photo matching shows that. But then, one part of me says the mask will be too big then.
Any help on this? Please?

 

[Sym-Cha]

Re: Entirely homemade Darth Vader Costume (Mask in progress)

When I first got a Darth Ugly in my hands ... I thought ... wow look at the size of that thing :wacko . . . however with some additional inner padding it fits rather snug ... so yeah it's supposed to be quite large ... as well as impressive when trooping ... and at 1.83m you may need additional soles on your boots as seen here :



Darth 'Ugly' Vader ESB :



With left-over foam from a camera case :



Chaim