This time around, I'm more pleased with the eyes.



I've also widened the rectangular notches in the nose. None of the original nose remains; this is all scratch built. I'm not referring to just the bridge of the nose. As you will recall, the nose itself is Aquamend and has held up quite well.

Knowing that the Rubie's is inaccurate compared with the Don Post, I realized that making individual features "screen-accurate" does not mean the entire composition of the helmet will even resemble an original Don Post Deluxe or the Rubie's own alleged progenitor, the Rubie's Fiberglass LE.

Rather than make everything "screen-accurate" I decided to try to capture the emotion of Vader: the anger. I wanted the anger to stand out even if the dome's not being worn.

So here he's either angry or constipated.

I've also enhanced the middle frown bump.

Now, onto the dome.

I took a chance at hacking the dome properly. It's better if you use a string or something to place the lines down rather than eyeball it like I did.



I used a sander as well as a Dremel sanding flapwheel to remove material on either side of the strip. I think it is structurally sound without the limited reinforcement I had done earlier.

So a shot of balck primer to see how the setup looks.

This one almost has an ANH-like mood to it.

That's it for the day!

WOW!

I like what you have done!

Thanks, NHM!

And I also wish to publicly acknowledge NHM. If it weren't for him driving me to frustration throughout this whole modification process, I would not have learned to constantly push myself to get better.

Here are some temporary lenses from Artisan Props. My eye sockets are not the right shape for the lenses, so they're stuck with just poster tak right now.

I just want to see if the mood is maintained with lenses, or if it would look dorky.

I have no illusions that this is accurate, but the mood is there, so with gloss paint and the proper highlights, it has a chance of looking better from this point on.

It's a Rubie's, but so much customization has gone into it now that people would have to look a little more closely, as a majority of the regular telltale signs are gone. If a recaster ended up recasting this on e-Bay, I'd actually get a kick out of it. Still the basic structure of the Rubie's thin, long face is there.

Nice mean look. Again, it inherits the Rubie's narrowed-face look, but I'm saving the uber-accurization efforts for one or two of my upcoming projects.

It's getting there...!

This is exciting stuff.
Your really capturing the look. As ive said before its the eyes that make the difference between an average vader and a vader with the "look" and escence of whats on the big screen.
All your hard work is paying off big time mac.
You should be very proud.



cheers

Great work as always Mac. It's really coming along.

Great looking Mod there MAC!

I think i may have to follow your foot steps and rework the helmet strip... Looks great!

Thanks guys! The more I think about it, I wonder "Why am I making this ESB/ROTJ style, when it's marketed as ROTS?"

Rubie's master mold was supposedly the Don Post Deluxe's. They used it for their Fiberglass Limied Edition, but the vinyl Deluxe (we've called it the Supreme, but that's actually the name of the full costume bundle; the correct name is the Deluxe) is so far removed it isn't funny.

Based on its lineage, the logical modification is to make it ROTJ. However, the thick mouth wall and the very unpronounced dome crease (the line separating the domecap and the flange) still screams "ROTS" even through the mask is asymetrical.

Ironically, the eyes were forced and made symmetrical, and now that I think about it, the eyes are more a ROTS style. I may attempt a ROTS mod but I'll do it as another thread, and this time the steps will be a lot simpler.

Youre a freak Mac, insane.

Do you ever stop? LOL

any updates?