Vader ESB / ROTJ Chest Box Lights

[royal vader]

Hi all.

I'm building my own Vader ESB chest box and I need a little help.

Does anyone know where I can get the blue and red rectangular lights that are on the chest box?

Thanks in advance.

David

 

[spidermale]

The debate rages on as to whether or not those are actually lights and not just rectangles of dyed perspex. It seems like they are lit up in one scene of ESB but most of the time the "light" that you see is probably just the stage lights reflecting off of them. The GT chestbox has them lit up. Im pretty sure they are the same material that went into making imperial officer rank badges. Ive heard of people using the colored Tic Tac boxes for the plastic.

 

[GINO]

There should not be any debate.
They did not light up in any OT film.
Just like you said, it is the illusion of being lit caused by reflection of lighting.

 

[borgknight]

Lighted squares bad.

No use lighted squares.

Make baby Anakin cry.

 

[darthgordon]

They were not lit up. However a lot of people light them up b/c they like the way look. The decision is yours. I believe Portumac makes a full light board w/ the coin slot lights and red and blue light... though I'm not sure if you're looking for the lights or the lenses.

 

[Lan-Ed-Tul]

you can try ebay for the perspex. should be able to find red and blue fairly easily. or you might just contact porty and buy a aet of perspex lenses from him. i know he has them, i had to repplace the red perspex
in my coin slots. i cracked one installing it, and i bought another set of them from him.

 

[Darth Kahnt]

Accuracy = no lights
If you like it, go for it. You're the one who has to wear it.

 

[Huzz]

I'd suggest lighting the box when you build it. You can always switch off the lights any time you want to wear the suit that way.

But it'd be a bit of a tear up to install them after the fact.

Huzz

 

[royal vader]

Thanks guys for all your responses. It really helps a lot.

I know you guys have been at this a lot longer than me, but I have a few thoughts and comments on what I'm planning to do.

I'm an engineer by profession, so the chest box would have "functions" that would have to do something in "real life" even if we didn't see it actually "functioning" in the few minutes that we actually see Vader on screen (hypothetically).

On the ESB box, there are no less than 9 switches / sliders and 5 lights. My goal is to have these switches actually work and do something.

So, above and below the blue lens, there are 2 little ( i guess ) slide switches. I intend to have one control the blue lens / light and the other control the red lens / light. ( so I can be cannon if I want).

Also, between the "rocker" switches there are 3 more of these slider switches. I'll use one to turn on the led driver board. I have bought the chest box lighting board & led's from Jim at Hyperdyne Labs. The other 2 I don't know yet. As for the rockers, I am planning on molding the rocker switch and attaching it to a standard rocker switch cover so these will be movable as well. As you all probably know, the rocker switch shape on the prop is very unusual and I have not had any luck finding a stock switch of the right size.

I am designing everything in CAD (Pro/E) and have a source for making the parts using SLA. I am also building my belt boxes the same way. The hardest part is getting the exact dimensions for these parts. I am having to resort to measuring off of high res screen caps and some of the ref material that all of you have on your web sites.

As I get a little farther along, I'll post some pics of my progress ( I have to be done by C4.. )

Cheers,

David

 

[Darth Kahnt]

That sounds like an interesting project David. I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

 

[royal vader]

Working on it. I'll post pics soon