Three New Darth Vader Figures (LAST TWEAKS TO EMPEROR'S DEATH DIO) & Dio Builds For Them 1) Bespin Gantry Scene 2) Force Lightning Killing Emperor Scene 3) Meditation Chamber Scene.

Funny that the SSC body is more flexible. Folks always seem to praise HT for their bodies, but I honestly have always thought they were overrated.

Stryker2012 wrote:Funny that the SSC body is more flexible. Folks always seem to praise HT for their bodies, but I honestly have always thought they were overrated.

I think the praises for the HT bodies came from more than half a decade ago, when they were in fact generally sturdier and more poseable than many others, and when they still made them available for purchase, first with and later without heads. But this ended, and their improvements stopped, while others overtook them.
At the time, Sideshow bodies were notorious for loose joints and for being often improperly scaled (exactly 12 inches invariably, etc).

GubernatorFan wrote:Interesting about HT Vader's limitations, although not surprising. Would removing the underpadding help or are the upper legs really incapable of achieving 90 degrees to the trunk even by themselves? Sideshow Vader's stature is indeed very imposing. If I recall, however, it might be a little bit too tall. From that point of view, unless you find the HT Vader not tall enough (and you certainly know how to give him a lift), perhaps Sideshow Vader should be the one to sit?

No padding in the HT figure so it will need to be a Dremel job, shouldn't be a big deal hopefully.
I completely agree with your logic about using the SSC to sit down and make the HT a bit taller but nearly all my Vaders on display are using SSC bodies or comparable custom bodies of the same height. The other thing is that this SSC guy for 2) has a bit of a damaged suit which is made more glaringly obvious when sitting down and facing out since his tunic and cape will be draped to his sides, finally lifting ankle pegs tend to throw the rest of the bodies proportions out of whack imo.

These are the other Vaders (I'll give the TIE Fighter one a regular base and use his for 2) since it looks really weird displayed like this!).

Stryker2012 wrote:Funny that the SSC body is more flexible. Folks always seem to praise HT for their bodies, but I honestly have always thought they were overrated.

Well this one is in particular as I had to repair it and he does have the thinner Hasbro suit on but the basic articulation of the mould is definitely better.

GubernatorFan wrote:

Stryker2012 wrote:Funny that the SSC body is more flexible. Folks always seem to praise HT for their bodies, but I honestly have always thought they were overrated.

I think the praises for the HT bodies came from more than half a decade ago, when they were in fact generally sturdier and more poseable than many others, and when they still made them available for purchase, first with and later without heads. But this ended, and their improvements stopped, while others overtook them.
At the time, Sideshow bodies were notorious for loose joints and for being often improperly scaled (exactly 12 inches invariably, etc).

Very true. They also have always claimed to value accuracy over articulation.

I was actually wondering if the damage to the Sideshow suit wasn't a deciding factor. I agree with you that ankle extension can throw the proportions. My Nelvaan Anakin is probably the only M33 body where I have used the ankle extenders (as intended), and I feel the legs are too long. But M33 is otherwise not particularly tall, so I've kept it that way so far.
Maybe the HT Vader (or at least this particular one) uses thicker legs so it doesn't need padding, hence the problem with sitting well. I should know, as I've kitbashed several HT Vaders (meaning I've reconstituted them from parted out sets and slightly modified them), but I honestly can't recall the details. Perhaps there are a couple ways to help it. One would be to try to twist the upper torso in a bit more, although I imagine you would have tried this already. The other is to elevate the seat (and perhaps go for a customized, non-flat seat surface), so that the figure looks like it is sitting more properly.

GubernatorFan wrote:I was actually wondering if the damage to the Sideshow suit wasn't a deciding factor. I agree with you that ankle extension can throw the proportions. My Nelvaan Anakin is probably the only M33 body where I have used the ankle extenders (as intended), and I feel the legs are too long. But M33 is otherwise not particularly tall, so I've kept it that way so far.
Maybe the HT Vader (or at least this particular one) uses thicker legs so it doesn't need padding, hence the problem with sitting well. I should know, as I've kitbashed several HT Vaders (meaning I've reconstituted them from parted out sets and slightly modified them), but I honestly can't recall the details. Perhaps there are a couple ways to help it. One would be to try to twist the upper torso in a bit more, although I imagine you would have tried this already. The other is to elevate the seat (and perhaps go for a customized, non-flat seat surface), so that the figure looks like it is sitting more properly.

True but I'll start by taking some 'meat' off his pelvic area first.

What a marvellous adventure, as always it’s intriguing to see your processes and creative tricks with use of materials and parts!

Tanzenwolfe wrote:What a marvellous adventure, as always it’s intriguing to see your processes and creative tricks with use of materials and parts!

Cheers! I might be swearing more than usual on these builds though!!

Bollocks.... helmet arrived but too small, shrunk helmet is still a tad too big and can't be shrunk anymore...
I'm thinking maybe I can combine them in an artistic way with matching jagged edges to mimic lightning effects and have two shades of translucent blue (interrupted by bits of black) which might help get the size right too?
Sadly there's no magical chemical to enlarge PC, PS, ABS, PEI etc... maybe hot water and an air pump? lol









VINYL MASK ISN'T FULLY RECONSTRUCTED YET.

Ah, the new helmet's a tad too small, like you said. Bummer.

Question: Why not look at 3D printing a Vader mask in clear resin or translucent blue?

Zes wrote:Ah, the new helmet's a tad too small, like you said. Bummer.

Question: Why not look at 3D printing a Vader mask in clear resin or translucent blue?

I've already been talking to a guy on eBay about it, he said transparent colours can be problematic with 3D printing and the helmet is part of a statue set only, not available on its own but I'll see if he can quote me a price for the set to get an idea whether it's affordable for the project or not. Meanwhile I'll just experiment with what I have.

Sent a message to the eBay printer guy who I think is in the UK and English is obviously their first language so that always helps! Explained more in depth about what I'm doing and what I need, also attached measurements pics and a comparison pic of what I have.












GOT THE CLEAR ONE APPART WITH HOT WATER AND BRUTE FORCE..







Yeah, this kind of sucks...

Perhaps it's the same guy, but I found this UK printer on Etsy very reliable and helpful:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CBPrints3D

I've used Fiverr to find 3D printing services, with great success. There should be several UK printers on there. I think I worked with a UK-based printer a year or so ago. I can find his page if you'd like.

I also printed a bunch of stuff in regular clear resin and translucent blue resin by Siraya Tech, which I can definitely recommend.

My thought process would be to find a Darth Vader 3D print STL set meant for 1:1 cosplay, scale that down to 1:6 scale or to your precise measurements, and then try to get that 3D printed in a suitable color in 4k or 8k resin.

removed by creator.

The photos show up fine if I go into your thread in edit mode or hit preview, but show up as links when posted; the links work, but I understand your frustration. The workaround we used last time does not seem to work here, unless Dave manages to solve this mystery too. Try to think back to whether you pasted in these links in any way differently from what you did in the previous posts, where they worked correctly. Or perhaps the sheer number of images in a single post send up a red flag to the software and somehow causes this.
One of the links had a ? in it; removing it did not help.
We have had Imgur-related issues before, but they seemed to be resolved. At the time we consulted Forumotion, we discovered that posting the BBCode directly in the message was sufficient for it to display the photo. But when I remove the [ img ] [ /img ] tags from your links, all I get is a link, so that does not seem to work now.
Here is a link to that thread, but I don't know that it would help:
https://help.forumotion.com/t155601-imgur-images-and-insert-image-function?highlight=imgur

EDIT: I experimented with breaking down the post into three smaller portions and it works. I don't know the precise limitations and conditions that lead to this issue, but as I suspected, it does have something to do with how many Imgur image links you are posting in a single post, at least in part. The second portion (with 18 photos) still had enough image links to prompt the anti-spam protocol, but it nevertheless posted the images fine. My suggestion is that you post smaller sections of photos at a time.

Shovelchop81:

Thanks guys! Great links to have!!
I'm currently discussing the model below being printed 1/6 clear white or blue resin (he has dyes) and I've asked if they have a skull and spine the can print in clear white resin too which would save me making moulds and buying resin etc.. which isn't cheap and goes off. [/img]









modded Predator skull to be recast in clear if needed

Shovelchop81:

I've been working on the 3) Vader too, dremelling his crotch and removing the rubber 'pants' he had to get him to sit better. Along the way I discovered a connector had broken in the past due to the ridiculously strong spring connecting his groin to his abdomen, so fixed that and put in a much weaker spring which will aid with articulation too.
The new HT vest, groin armour and light up chest box (ESB correct)  arrived today so I installed those and discovered even though the ANH chest box he came with (second hand) doesn't light up and never did (no wires) the belt boxes actually do! So now he has a full light up armour controls system which is really cool.









BROKEN BIT







STUPIDLY STRONG SPRING!!



LARGER BUT MUCH WEAKER SPRING NOW USED



RUBBER 'PANTS' REMOVED







IMPROVED ARTICULATION





BELT NEEDED TO BE MODDED A BIT





INITIAL TRIAL WITH CLOTHES, BETTER BUT NOT GREAT

Shovelchop81:

MUCH BETTER AFTER DISCONNECTING HIS GROIN ARMOUR THONG AND PLACING THE CHEST BOX BATTERY PACK HIGHER UP HIS BACK MAKING HIM LEAN FURTHER FORWARD WITH THE WEAKER SPRING IN PLACE (HS IS SSC SO WILL NEED A MOD I THINK TO FIT RIGHT).



ALL LIT UP TOO! FLASHES IN AN ALTERNATING PATTERN LIKE THE REAL THING

I finally had a moment to see all the photos in detail. Definitely not an easy kitbash, with so much customization, but I think it is shaping up great.
Do you think you have more Vaders than Stormtroopers?

GubernatorFan wrote:I finally had a moment to see all the photos in detail. Definitely not an easy kitbash, with so much customization, but I think it is shaping up great.
Do you think you have more Vaders than Stormtroopers?

Thanks so much again for all the effort you put into getting my pics to display! I'll now try to follow the less than 18 pics per post 'rule of thumb' that seems to work best

And thank you for taking the time to comment after what was probably a frustrating solution to find!

I do indeed have more Vaders than original trilogy ST's since I only have four on display but there are other troopers: Death Star, Scout, Snow, Death, TIE Pilots, officers etc.. also lots of different clones (oxymoron?) and First Order ST's and their variants...probably forgetting some.. do Royal Guards count? They are elite ST's after all.

shovelchop81 wrote:Thanks so much again for all the effort you put into getting my pics to display! I'll now try to follow the less than 18 pics per post 'rule of thumb' that seems to work best

And thank you for taking the time to comment after what was probably a frustrating solution to find!

I do indeed have more Vaders than original trilogy ST's since I only have four on display but there are other troopers: Death Star, Scout, Snow, Death, TIE Pilots, officers etc.. also lots of different clones (oxymoron?) and First Order ST's and their variants...probably forgetting some.. do Royal Guards count? They are elite ST's after all.

Just remember, 18 would still trigger the anti-spam check but so far it seems to allow the images to post.

I think you need to bash some more regular Stormies... The relatively cheap recipe was Bandai kit with Hasbro's "flying" Stormtrooper's helmet (which is better than the Bandai one). By now, however, these pieces are probably harder to find.

I still think that you have some leeway with the seating area of the "meditation chamber" and a higher seat would allow you to seat your Vader more comfortably.

GubernatorFan wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote:Thanks so much again for all the effort you put into getting my pics to display! I'll now try to follow the less than 18 pics per post 'rule of thumb' that seems to work best

And thank you for taking the time to comment after what was probably a frustrating solution to find!

I do indeed have more Vaders than original trilogy ST's since I only have four on display but there are other troopers: Death Star, Scout, Snow, Death, TIE Pilots, officers etc.. also lots of different clones (oxymoron?) and First Order ST's and their variants...probably forgetting some.. do Royal Guards count? They are elite ST's after all.

Just remember, 18 would still trigger the anti-spam check but so far it seems to allow the images to post.

I think you need to bash some more regular Stormies... The relatively cheap recipe was Bandai kit with Hasbro's "flying" Stormtrooper's helmet (which is better than the Bandai one). By now, however, these pieces are probably harder to find.

I still think that you have some leeway with the seating area of the "meditation chamber" and a higher seat would allow you to seat your Vader more comfortably.

I also have a Black Hole ST. Yeah the Bandai kits were perfect but they're too expensive and rare now. Got ST's where I need them, had a shelf packed with Hasbro ones before but decided it was a bit tatty and a waste of a shelf tbh. The seat will work with some mods as it's more of a round cushioned backed thing in the movie, I can change the angle of the seat etc..







Chamber's undersized but the chair is about right.

YES!! He's looking great. That unmasked head is looking so good! And the sitting pose is working. Win!

And heh, you sent me down a rabbit hole regarding the origins of "squee".  Yes, it describes a high pitched sqeal expressing a state of joyful excitement, though I consider a sqeal to be more animal-speech (especially pigs), while a squee is a more controlled human sound. I first encountered it on a Magic: The Gathering card and it has stuck with me.  

Bet you wanted to know that.

Diana wrote:YES!! He's looking great. That unmasked head is looking so good! And the sitting pose is working. Win!

And heh, you sent me down a rabbit hole regarding the origins of "squee".  Yes, it describes a high pitched sqeal expressing a state of joyful excitement, though I consider a sqeal to be more animal-speech (especially pigs), while a squee is a more controlled human sound. I first encountered it on a Magic: The Gathering card and it has stuck with me.  

Bet you wanted to know that.

That is interesting! We don't really use 'squee' in English, must be more Germanic in origin maybe? A 'squeal' is used to describe some pig like noises but also often children especially little girls. It also means to inform or 'tell on' someone i.e. to be traitorous perhaps initially described that way due to torture?
Getting there with some parts of the different builds but have some interesting problems for each one to address.