My journey to the Dark Side is finally complete!

[kalkamel]

After one year three months of research, modifications, painting and fine-tuning, I've finally fallen to the Dark Side.

Here's a list of my costume parts:

Fiberglass recast of Rubies Supreme Vader helmet, modded to ESB
Scratch-built neck brace
Rubies shoulder armor, repainted and added screen accurate chain and hook
Rubies chest box, modded and repainted to ESB
Rubies shin guards, repainted
Rubies belt boxes, repainted and added braided mesh
Sitharmor aluminium belt buckle
Rubies codpiece
Pleather suit (based on Rubies pattern)
Polyester gabardine cape with satin lining (man this things heavy.) and pleather collar
Polyester gabardine inner robe
Leather boots
Pleather gloves

 

[phase pistol]

Most impressive. B)

Just curious tho, why cast the Rubies Supreme hellmet in fiberglass? :confused

- k

 

[kalkamel]

I got it in a trade. See this post to see the mods I made to the lid: http://www.rpf.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=111766

 

[tk2647]

Nice work, some closer pics of the neckbrace would be interesting...

 

[kalkamel]

<div class='quotetop'>(tk2647 @ Jul 10 2006, 02:32 PM) [snapback]1277754[/snapback]</div>

Nice work, some closer pics of the neckbrace would be interesting...
[/b]

See here: http://www.rpf.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=105160

 

[Darth Kahnt]

Nice pics...

 

[SHalamar]

Nice pics. You've done a lot to it, I see.

The only recomendations I would make is replace the codpeice, and the shoulder armor.

On you, the shoulder armor looks a touch small.

 

[sadious]

Looks Good. Great Job.

 

[darthgordon]

Great work :thumbsup
I really don't think the chest armor is too small. I think it's just pulling b/c of the weight of the cape. The shoulder bells may need something to keep them from falling in and folding under the armor. I used a rigid piece of plastic held on by velcro, but there are several other ways of doing it. As for the chest armor pulling back, there's also a few ways of helping that out. The easiest is to sew a piece of velcro to the suit in the front and gluing a piece to the chest armor. The reason for sewing it is b/c the weight and heat seem to cause the velcro to come right off if it's glued.
Have any close ups of the chest box?

 

[kalkamel]

Thanks for the input. A new fiberglass chest armor is definitely in my list of upgrades, but that's gotta wait until I get some more funds. For the time being the Rubies armor is acceptable, but as darthgordon suggested, I need to find a better way to make it fit better without being pulled back due to the weight of the cape. That explains why my pleather collar looks too low in the back pic. Guess I need to find some industrial strength velcro to do the job. Another thing I need to fix is the dome mounting. From the back, the neck brace is still very visible. Trouble is, I had added some padding onto the connector at the top of the faceplate to make the dome fit better, that way it wouldn't sit too low on the faceplate. Removing that would probably make the neck brace less visible due to the lower dome but may cause the brow of the dome to cover the top part of the lenses, which is not at all how it should be.

Here's a close up of my chest box:

I've since replaced the gold parts at the bottom of the rods with RAM heatsinks to make it look better. They were originally eraser bits covered with gold foil from a chocolate bar.

 

[clownluv15]

wow man that looks great,how much all together did you spend on this?

 

[frightzone_4_you]

IMPRESSIVE... :thumbsup :thumbsup

 

[kalkamel]

<div class='quotetop'>(clownluv15 @ Jul 11 2006, 04:08 PM) [snapback]1278468[/snapback]</div>

wow man that looks great,how much all together did you spend on this?
[/b]

:lol I'd rather not say... calculating all that would give me a serious migraine.

 

[Old Timer]

It looks great.

 

[arek]

Nice work Kal. You using any lifts for extra height?

 

[kalkamel]

Thanks. I added two inch heels to my boots but that didn't seem to do much to add to my height. I'm 5'10, plus the heels, I'm 6'. In costume I'm 6'3". But due to the helmet size, I still feel I look short. Now I'm contemplating adding those goth-type soles, may 3" ones... I just hope I don't look like Frankenvader after...

 

[chris1748]

For your height add 3" womens sandle soles to the inside of the boot.
Then you can not see any additional height from the boot bottom.
those goth boots are so ridiculous looking.

chris

 

[SithLord]

great job on your first Vader...congrats. :thumbsup

 

[Jumpin Jax]

<div class='quotetop'>(kalkamel @ Jul 11 2006, 01:20 AM) [snapback]1278472[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>(clownluv15 @ Jul 11 2006, 04:08 PM) [snapback]1278468[/snapback]

wow man that looks great,how much all together did you spend on this?
[/b]

:lol I'd rather not say... calculating all that would give me a serious migraine.
[/b][/quote]
Probably not compared to those that reject this suit so openly
Nice.
JJ

 

[kalkamel]

UPDATE: 08-23-2006

Since I took the pics in the first post, I made some further mods to the suit. Thanks to Darth Anibal's tip, I lowered the mounting system on the faceplate so the dome covers the back of my neck better. I also added velcro to the armor and body suit so that it'll stay in place and not get pulled back by the heavy cape. I bolted the shoulder bells to the armor so they don't slip under the armor anymore. Finally, I've added 3.5 inch soles to my boots to boost my height.

Here are some pics I took over the weekend:

All that work's paid off.. I've been accepted in the 501st as a Sith Lord. My ID is SL-2320 http://www.501st.com/members/displaymember...cfm?userID=6808