CSMacLaren
Sr Member
This is an old project I recently resurrected. Now, most of you who have followed my works in progress threads over at The Prop Den will know I'm more of an Original Trilogy guy. I actually can't stand the ROTS design. I don't think the propmakers improved it. The magnificent subtleties of the original screenused ANH, as sculpted by Brian Muir, were eradicated by the oversanded and forced symmetrical treatment to create the ROTS Vader.
So why am I sculpting this? First, I love sculpting. Second, I loved the technical challenge of this. Third, I couldn't afford an MR, and people are charging a pretty penny. Four, I didn't want to buy a recast. Five, recasters weren't stripping the paint but simply molding over a painted helmet, then shooting additional paint, resulting in greater loss of detail. But the biggest reason is my buddy T-VIRUS said, "We *could* buy one... but where would the fun be in that?"
Last famous words for a glutton for punishment.
I had been working on this on and off for several years now. Since my "Darth Ugly" charity sculpt to help a disabled single mom (Check The Junkyard section and do a search for "Darth Ugly ANH") is starting to take off, I thought the ol' Scratchbuilt ROTS mask would make a good Labor Day Weekend project that would hopefully work out to help the single mom.
Some of you had seen the original progress pics:
The most recent work now involve redoing a lot on the face. The white is the new work done to it, whereas the yellow was the original build - some taxidermy clay which I will never use again, because it's bone-hard. Great for, you know, bones. Bad for sanding because sanding takes FOR. EVER. Because the stuff is so darned hard.
This was my opportunity to put in some better symmetry. Because I'm not a computer, I don't think I'm going to get it perfectly symmetrical. But then again, I'm told that even the screenused ROTS wasn't as perfectly symmetrical.
I spent a lot of time on the eyes, working off pictures from Jez' site, StarWarsHelmets.com
There was a heck of a lot of work that had to be done - or redone. I've done total resculpts to imperfect masks. In this case, I'm resculpting my own work, which was an original sculpt to begin with. Odd, huh? A lot of sanding, undoing, redoing, etc. as the face needed a certain balance. Again, I'm working off pictures; I have no ROTS casting by my side. Originally, when it was still quite banana colored, I got it to match some measurements, but on the whole it was wrong. It looked right from one angle, but not right from another. So this time around, I decided to just go by feel. So far so good.
Based on how the right cheek has a certain shape, I believe the Lucasfilm propmakers scanned the right side in order to create the mirror-flipped left. Here you get a better sense of the extensive work done to capture the nuances of the ROTS face. Pardon the mess. I use black acrylics as a non-toxic "primer" to test my work. I generally end up sanding it off.
I decided to keep the neck short like OT masks. I haven't yet decided on whether to make it long like the MR, as the advantage of a shorter neck is that costumers might be able to turn their heads when in armor.
When I originally sculpted this, I had a picture of him looking up (the famous Rolling Stones cover). But when he looked down, he really sucked.
This time around, I tried to make him look natural at any angle.
This was a pain to do because I had to make sure the cheeks and mouth were even on either side of the center symmetry line. They might look great here, but if you change the nod angle, one cheek might stick out, then change the nod angle again, and one mouth corner would be really off. What the heck?!
I once read one RPFer here mentioned that he liked all the subtle sculpting imperfections because it showed the handworked nature of a prop. So on that note, I do want to keep it organic. It'll fool you from a distance. That and I've seen people who do magnificent sculpts get accused of recasting, so I'd be tickled to see if anyone down the road accuses me of recasting an MR!
Now the dome was going to be thrown away. It was an older project that started off as a Don Post Deluxe descended casting that I'd hack around with, only to utterly ruin the thing, as I didn't know what I was doing back then. I thought I'd give it a shot at sanding and adding material to see if I could make it look more ROTS like.
The ROTS dome, to me, looked a bit like the head of the Sphinx when I first saw it in theaters. Or a bit like a G.I. military helmet. When the surgical table got raised to an upright position and I saw this, I thought, ACK. What the heck?! The work on this dome was not trivial. I'll skip the progress photos and show the state of progress as it is right now.
It's a very rough cut - there's still a lot of work to do. A lot of refinement work is needed. But I feel the essence of ROTS is there. Tubes and teeth bars will be next, once I tame the sides of the face and get them to where they can actually take tubes and keep them in the right shape.
So why am I sculpting this? First, I love sculpting. Second, I loved the technical challenge of this. Third, I couldn't afford an MR, and people are charging a pretty penny. Four, I didn't want to buy a recast. Five, recasters weren't stripping the paint but simply molding over a painted helmet, then shooting additional paint, resulting in greater loss of detail. But the biggest reason is my buddy T-VIRUS said, "We *could* buy one... but where would the fun be in that?"
Last famous words for a glutton for punishment.
I had been working on this on and off for several years now. Since my "Darth Ugly" charity sculpt to help a disabled single mom (Check The Junkyard section and do a search for "Darth Ugly ANH") is starting to take off, I thought the ol' Scratchbuilt ROTS mask would make a good Labor Day Weekend project that would hopefully work out to help the single mom.
Some of you had seen the original progress pics:
The most recent work now involve redoing a lot on the face. The white is the new work done to it, whereas the yellow was the original build - some taxidermy clay which I will never use again, because it's bone-hard. Great for, you know, bones. Bad for sanding because sanding takes FOR. EVER. Because the stuff is so darned hard.
This was my opportunity to put in some better symmetry. Because I'm not a computer, I don't think I'm going to get it perfectly symmetrical. But then again, I'm told that even the screenused ROTS wasn't as perfectly symmetrical.
I spent a lot of time on the eyes, working off pictures from Jez' site, StarWarsHelmets.com
There was a heck of a lot of work that had to be done - or redone. I've done total resculpts to imperfect masks. In this case, I'm resculpting my own work, which was an original sculpt to begin with. Odd, huh? A lot of sanding, undoing, redoing, etc. as the face needed a certain balance. Again, I'm working off pictures; I have no ROTS casting by my side. Originally, when it was still quite banana colored, I got it to match some measurements, but on the whole it was wrong. It looked right from one angle, but not right from another. So this time around, I decided to just go by feel. So far so good.
Based on how the right cheek has a certain shape, I believe the Lucasfilm propmakers scanned the right side in order to create the mirror-flipped left. Here you get a better sense of the extensive work done to capture the nuances of the ROTS face. Pardon the mess. I use black acrylics as a non-toxic "primer" to test my work. I generally end up sanding it off.
I decided to keep the neck short like OT masks. I haven't yet decided on whether to make it long like the MR, as the advantage of a shorter neck is that costumers might be able to turn their heads when in armor.
When I originally sculpted this, I had a picture of him looking up (the famous Rolling Stones cover). But when he looked down, he really sucked.
This time around, I tried to make him look natural at any angle.
This was a pain to do because I had to make sure the cheeks and mouth were even on either side of the center symmetry line. They might look great here, but if you change the nod angle, one cheek might stick out, then change the nod angle again, and one mouth corner would be really off. What the heck?!
I once read one RPFer here mentioned that he liked all the subtle sculpting imperfections because it showed the handworked nature of a prop. So on that note, I do want to keep it organic. It'll fool you from a distance. That and I've seen people who do magnificent sculpts get accused of recasting, so I'd be tickled to see if anyone down the road accuses me of recasting an MR!
Now the dome was going to be thrown away. It was an older project that started off as a Don Post Deluxe descended casting that I'd hack around with, only to utterly ruin the thing, as I didn't know what I was doing back then. I thought I'd give it a shot at sanding and adding material to see if I could make it look more ROTS like.
The ROTS dome, to me, looked a bit like the head of the Sphinx when I first saw it in theaters. Or a bit like a G.I. military helmet. When the surgical table got raised to an upright position and I saw this, I thought, ACK. What the heck?! The work on this dome was not trivial. I'll skip the progress photos and show the state of progress as it is right now.
It's a very rough cut - there's still a lot of work to do. A lot of refinement work is needed. But I feel the essence of ROTS is there. Tubes and teeth bars will be next, once I tame the sides of the face and get them to where they can actually take tubes and keep them in the right shape.