A Vanguard Of Vaders!!/Finished and Filmed! 3 videos pg2. /Battle Damaged Darth Vader Custom Build From The Kenobi TV Series WIP

That’s correct, Alex. I think that SS overdid the height of Vader. He may have towered over Leia, but he wasn’t a foot and half taller than Han, or other taller folks.

Stryker2011 wrote:That’s correct, Alex. I think that SS overdid the height of Vader. He may have towered over Leia, but he wasn’t a foot and half taller than Han, or other taller folks.

Well when I put all my Vaders together for a comparison pic at the end of this build, I'll see if I need/want to make any height adjustments.

On with the build...

I decided to take advantage of the built in battery holder on this body, of course all the electrics had been gutted for this release due to major QC issues with the previous version i.e. they didn't work. So I had to create new contacts and leads, switches etc...
Once I had all the wiring done and hot glued everything into place (the best way of isolating and securing any electrical hard units or weak connections) after some mild Dremeling, covering the wires in black shrinkwrap (took a bloody hour and a half to get the last stupid piece over the connection!! ) I needed to work out where to place the red LED. I've given up on the blue changing to red idea (symbolising light side turning to dark side used very briefly on his face as he talks) as it's far too complicated and expensive for such a subtle gimmick. The red LED is sort of directional, as in it doesn't flood the area with coloured light but focusses it forward in one direction making it more controllable but also harder to cover a curved surface since it 'bounces' off the first surface it strikes (like a bullet hitting a giant steel ball). This means it required 'guidance' in this case by reflecting the light back and forth across the face (like the ancient Egyptian 'sun mirrors' used to direct sunlight into caves/tombs etc..). I used a foil lid from a coffee creamer tub as I like the pattern it has that gives it a more structural and purposeful look as part of the helmet's construction than silver paint or regular tin foil could ever do. Seems to work well too! I'm thinking about lighting up his belt boxes too since I have then cast in clear resin just for this purpose, never tried it before...I think..























REPAIRED WITH ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME HEADPHONE PIECE I BROKE APPART TO TEST ITS SPEAKER IRONICALLY! LOL.





BEFORE REFLECTIVE FOIL AND JUST EXPERIMENTING A BIT















NECK MODS AND ADAPTORS NEEDED AND CREATED FOR THE NEW BODY

















AFTER FOIL ATTACHED

That is very cool. Neat effect.

Very ambitious, and very ingenuous. I think it worked out very well.

Stryker2011 wrote:That is very cool. Neat effect.

GubernatorFan wrote:Very ambitious, and very ingenuous. I think it worked out very well.

Thank you both very much! It was interesting finding a solution that worked they way I wanted it to.

Today was more of a 'spaghetti fest' splicing 8 wires together and all the soldering involved while trying not to short-circuit anything . Turns out it was all for naught as the battery pack I am using for the red LED in the helmet isn't powerful enough to manage 4 LED's so I had to strip it all off and start again with a seperate power pack. These LED's are for the belt boxes and a blinking red one for the damaged chest box, I know HT aren't doing that and it's probably not accurate but I think the dead box with just an 'X' across it on the HT version looks really boring so I'm adding the blinking red light to seep between cracks on the box; I'll be adding a dent too as it was pummeled pretty badly with Obi-Wan's lightsabre pommel.

 







AND NOT ENOUGH JUICE TO GO AROUND, SO OFF THE WIRES CAME.. LED IN HELMET STILL WORKS FINE.



KNOCKED THIS BATTERY HOLDER TOGETHER FROM A CHEAP TOY LASER SIGHT.







A VIDEO OF THE LIGHTS WORKING AND FLASHING.



HT'S RATHER BORING LOOKING BROKEN CHEST BOX DAMAGE

I like your damage idea far more than hot toys, specially since you are adding lights too.

Cool idea. That will indeed look better than the bland HT version.

Theboo-bomb wrote:I like your damage idea far more than hot toys, specially since you are adding lights too.

Stryker2011 wrote:Cool idea. That will indeed look better than the bland HT version.

Cheers guys!

Not sure what's going on with his proportions, I think I was building him with the SSC body in mind then got the HT one that seems too small now, the feet definitely do which is bloody annoying, not cheap. He seems to have a bit of a giraffe neck going on too now, not sure what's happening there, might have to cut down his gorget a bit to lower the head..odd. Anyway done more electrics as switches broke, stuff needed rerouting etc.. swapped out bodysuit for one in better condition I found in storage, working on his busted up chestbox and his belt with groin armour now made from leather like material. Had to cut up a gauntlet to give him a better hand gesture for fighting Kenobi, then added some spare material to recreate the ANH gauntlet look.















TOO SMALL









ODD...



THIS



REPLACED THIS



IT'LL DO FOR NOW, AT LEAST IT'S BLACK AND I CAN ACTUALLY FIND IT TO USE!LOL





CHESTBOX UNDER BITS











THE DENT FROM KENOBI'S POMMEL STRIKES

I have no doubt that you will surmount these annoyances and make it work beautifully in the end.

GubernatorFan wrote:I have no doubt that you will surmount these annoyances and make it work beautifully in the end.

Cheers for the supporting words GTF! I'll sort the giraffe neck out and go from there.. still annoyed about those boots though. Anyone want to trade them for some SSC ones?

Trimmed down the helmet's bottom section and thinned it out so it now sits further down the neck, also modded the neck area and fitting of the joint position; combined these adjustments have really improved that odd giraffe look and I think once he has his cape he'll look fine proportion wise. Tidied up the wiring and solder joints under the back of the suit, made the damaged chestbox's display and put it together as well as the belt, buckle and crotch armour. Added some fresh Vader suit material to the chest area too as it was pretty knackered in that spot. Nearly there!





























BOXES NOT PAINTED OR ATTACHED YET

Despite all the setbacks this is coming along nicely. Love the damaged chest box that now lights up. Very cool work. I’m going to guess that the HT Vader is probably closer to accurate height than the SS — though it seems HT tends to make each generation of their figures taller all the time…

Stryker2011 wrote:Despite all the setbacks this is coming along nicely. Love the damaged chest box that now lights up. Very cool work. I’m going to guess that the HT Vader is probably closer to accurate height than the SS — though it seems HT tends to make each generation of their figures taller all the time…

Cheers Stryker! Well David Prowse was 6'6" barefoot to the top of his head, add the Vader costume i.e. boots and helmet giving him roughly 6" so call Vader 7' (also cinematography like LOTR) which makes him 14" in 1/6 as far as I'm concerned, my version here is 13.5".

I, for one, am glad you are keeping track of the details, including the actual height. And he has really come together now, although I know there is a bit more way to go.

GubernatorFan wrote:I, for one, am glad you are keeping track of the details, including the actual height. And he has really come together now, although I know there is a bit more way to go.

Thanks GTF! He still seems a bit short to me but then again all the recent figures I've been building have been really tall!

Dremelled down and detailed up the glove I made for him with the force push using a soldering iron, files and sandpaper, then paint an clear. Painted his control boxes and sealed off the excess light with rubber gaskets, made a switch extension lever on his back using a screw and part of a crossbow bolt's crescent knock. Everything is now attached and in place, waiting on the HT cape I ordered from the same seller, I just didn't feel like making one from scratch! . Pics show the higher end Vader lightsabre as a 'blueprint' to build a new one out of the two cheap Hasbro ones next to it. Still need to make the base with the sound system of course.

That is looking great. All those different light up features are really well done.

I think that as long as he looks about right in relation to the figures he would hang out with,it would be fine.

Stryker2011 wrote:That is looking great. All those different light up features are really well done.

GubernatorFan wrote:I think that as long as he looks about right in relation to the figures he would hang out with,it would be fine.

Thanks Stryker and GTF! I moved the belt boxes closer together which was a giant pain and doesn't even look that different!  I built his lightsabre out of cut up Hasbro parts and a paperclip for the wire hangers, then decided to take it apart and insert an LED. It doesn't want to run off the other battery packs due to a lack of juice so I'm using a micro lithium polymer battery in the hilt itself to power it independently; these are normally used on my arrow nocks so I can see where they hit the target but are commonly used in fishing lures I think. He'll be standing on a base containing the other electronics for his 'speech' with the large speaker inside so I created holes using a soldering iron to allow the sound out and a place to affix the stand's post. I'll remove the foil from unnecessary areas of the helmet, predominantly from areas you can see it and it is doing nothing beneficial to the lighting effect of the face.





NO PAINT YET

Brilliant way to light up the sabers! I wish I had the skills. So excited to see the blades lit up.

Very inventive. Love it.

Stryker2011 wrote:Brilliant way to light up the sabers! I wish I had the skills. So excited to see the blades lit up.

GubernatorFan wrote:Very inventive. Love it.

Thanks! Not really built yet and I don't think it's going to be super impressive but better than nothing! lol.
While cleaning up the inside of the helmet, getting rid of the excess foil, the stupid LED broke and I don't have a replacement as powerful but came up with a solution using a less powerful red LED and more tinfoil to reflect it further; seems to work well. Then the power switch on the digital recorder broke! I was hoping I could put it back in its casing to keep it safe but now I can't, luckily I can just flick the switch with my finger nail but I guess it will need replacing at some point. Vader's HT cape arrived, really nice heavy piece of kit, glad I got it!
Next the diorama base, well it's the rocky, dusty moon they fought on, I needed to make a 'door' for the side of the base to access the recorder device to operate its controls while still keeping it hidden and safe. I decided to make it out of dense grey foam, using a hacksaw and scissors to shape it then glue it together. I sprayed both parts of the dio with matte black paint and while it was still wet, I kept sprinkling paint dust (collected from the booth's filter) over both parts to make them look more like the dusty moon and also match each other in appearance even they are made of completely different materials; finally coated them both with PVA which is still drying.

Despite the setbacks, you're finding solutions and pressing on. Impressive... as Vader would say.

GubernatorFan wrote:Despite the setbacks, you're finding solutions and pressing on. Impressive... as Vader would say.

Cheers! It's all part of the fun, too easy is boring!
I wish I could find a way around the all the preset programming on the recorder where I could just press 'play' and have the voice effect turn on, rather than going through the whole power up and menu selection rigmarole..

Carrying on with the dio, added the post with a crotch grabber, hinged 'the door', attached the speaker, failed to find a workaround for the recorder to play with the press of a button since even if left on pause it turns itself off after a bit (I think there may be a way around this but it could just be a choice of minutes in settings). I had much more success with the lightsabre! At first it was a disaster as nothing would solder to the battery terminal (you don't want to get these lipos hot either or they go bang and burst into flames), eventually I decided a more mechanical approach was needed so I found a tiny female pin connector, crimped that on with a bit of solder for luck then soldered the LED wire directly to it as length was paramount here to keep it all self-contained. I hadn't worked out a switch yet but figured the springiness of the other LED wire/leg could be used in some way so I covered most of it in shrink wrap to prevent unwanted contact, then cut out a groove in the hilt's handle section where it could poke out like a trigger. I'd done a fair bit of careful dremelling and filing on the sabre parts beforehand too so the parts could all fit properly and stay together by friction only, I also cut off the sabre's blade insert tab bit and polished that end increasing the ability for it to capture and funnel as much light from the LED as possible; made a remarkable improvement as you'll see from the pics taken during daylight below.

That’s not bad. I see what you mean about it not being as bright as you’d like, but it’s still really cool for a custom made light saber.

Stryker2011 wrote:That’s not bad. I see what you mean about it not being as bright as you’d like, but it’s still really cool for a custom made light saber.

I said that before I built it properly!  Now I think it is pretty darn bright!

I also cut off the sabre's blade insert tab bit and polished that end increasing the ability for it to capture and funnel as much light from the LED as possible; made a remarkable improvement as you'll see from the pics taken during daylight below. wrote:

I agree, these look very good, and more impressively you made them yourself. Nice to see him perched on his base, waving "hi."

GubernatorFan wrote:I agree, these look very good, and more impressively you made them yourself.  Nice to see him perched on his base, waving "hi."

Yeah I just kind of plonked him there with no posing, I only wanted to check if his boots would fit on the ledge ok.

Yay! Finished and filmed. The only things I changed since filming are placing the chestbox straps under the tunic as I think it looks better and replaced the batteries for the red led on his face for slightly stronger ones.

Main video with sound and lights working



Zooming in and playing with lighting etc..



Behind the scenes setting him up etc..