The MP Vader

[yakcam]

Hey everyone, it’s been a while since I posted on the grand ol’ RPF. Looks like she’s going as strong as ever with new faces and some old ones still around.

Some of you know me from back in the day as a bit of a Vader fan and I was lucky to have had the chance to spend some time with one of the coolest Vader’s in private hands, the “MP” (Movie Poster) Vader.

It was called that due to the helmet matching the ESB one sheet promo poster as well as being used on many Vader posters available on the market at the time. This is the guy I’m talking about...

Anyway, as it turned out, Lucas Film had done about 4 promotional Vader’s and this one was sent to Australia and was discovered a few years ago. You can read about him on Jez’s website, Star Wars Helmets... Thanks again for letting link your site Jez!

Darth Vader

He was sent to Aus in the late 70’s between Star Wars and Empire. He did a lot of promo work and was then retired to a hot shed in Melbourne for a few decades. He surfaced again in 2008 after a long slumber, maybe he should’ve been called Rumple StiltVader. During his time touring, he’s been dropped, banged etc, so he’s really showing the hard life he had. One of the things that happened was a repaint. Well, that seemed to go OK, until they hit him with what looked like varnish as a clear coat. They sprayed on varnish you say? No, no, no, they brushed it on with a paintbrush, drips and all...

Heathans!

As we know, varnish can be quite yellow, so with the bluish tinge of the gunmetal, he turned quite green and still is to this day. You can see the green in the top pic.

Luckily when I had him in my possession, I was able to make moulds of him and I was able to roughly colour match the gunmetal hue that was under his helmet latch on the top of his face. So I thought I would try and do him justice by painting him the way he should’ve been in the first place.

OK, that doesn't look good, lets try that outside... Partly cloudy and 40c (104f)

Right, it turns out that I suck at photographing Vader. How about B&W?

Nope

Being an ANH Vader fan, I had to try one of him too...

Still my fave. Nothing different in the castings, just different positioning and paintjob. The ANH is brushed on Gunmetal and raw gelcoat to help with the vintage look. The Shiny Vader is on a WIP stand that I'm still trying to perfect.

Thanks for looking everyone and letting me indulge.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Still such an awesome piece. And lovely photos.

 

[dirtydave]

Always loved this Vader since Jez put it on his site.

Dave

 

[yakcam]

Thanks for the kind words guys. It's cool to have handled an authentic, although not screen used, Lucas Film Vader.

The shiny one's sitting on a prototype stand that one of the cast owners asked me to come up with for them to display theirs nicely in their office.

Basically it's a hardware build using pvc pipe and fittings. The base is some heavy duty galvenized chain I had embedded in resin with a pvc connector pipe in an old Tupperware container for the mould. I think it came out pretty well.

I made it to be able to add an extension to display the chestbox too. Grainy photo alert...

or if on the edge of a shelf.

When I get a chance over the next couple of days, I'll do a list of parts and measurements.

Cheers,
Kraig

 

[lethyry]

great job, very cool to see one of these painted up I saw your thread on the den with all those raw pieces and the great details they had. I'm usually more of the beat up looking ANH but that spray job looks great! did you go with the same latching system the original had on it?

 

[yakcam]

Thank you very much

I'm with you though, I'm an ANH fan and I kind of look at the shiny suits as more of a ceremonial style. Although I must say, I think that raw casts look awesome too, there's a certain menacing purity about them.

I just used foam on the inside of the helmet, both on top and some on the sides to fit snugly against the side of the face. Rare earth magnets inside the helmet and inside the face make it really stable. It could easily be trooped in.

Please excuse my horrible glue gun technique on the lenses and grill. The magnets are epoxy glued to the area with gaffer tape over the top.

Cheers!

 

[yakcam]

Hey folks, I said that I’d give a more detailed description of the stand I made, so here goes. I know it’s a bit agricultural and you can probably buy stands now, so this is for those that may like to make their own. There will be trial and error as I used foam in the build too, it’s 10mm thick adhesive backed firm foam, it’s the same stuff I used in the helmet and face.

What you’ll need...

1x connector for 20mm PVC pipe for the base to slip the pipe into.

The base is the inside of a 170mmx170mm Tupperware container. I hot glued the connector to the centre of the base and taped over the end with tape. I made up enough resin to cover the bottom enough that when cured the chain wouldn’t show through. I laid some old galvanised chain in and poured the resin in until I had a 50mm high base. Then I stuck some thin leather squares in each corner for feet to protect the furniture.

3x T pieces.

2x 5way pieces.

1x 90mm stormwater cap for the top.

20mm PVC pipe (external diameter is 26.8mm).

Lengths are...

2x 30mm for the base to butt up against the front facing vertical T and top vertical T to vertical 5way.

1x 190mm For the base to butt up against the front facing vertical T if adding the chest box.

1x 45mm to attach the horizontal T to support the armour to the front facing vertical T which supports the neck (see foam).

1x 145mm to attach to the top vertical rear facing T to the vertical 5way.

2x 180mm the shoulders attached to the vertical 5way.

1x 240mm From the top of the vertical 5way to the top, which his a horizontal 5way hot glued into the 90mm stormwater cap 2 layers of foam on top.

Also note that there’s 2 layers of foam in the face to fit the wearer.

I hope that made sense.

Cheers!

 

[yakcam]

Thanks for all the likes, I hope the stand measurements help out.