Hello!

Im new here and i got this helmet from ebay a few months ago, i started to modify it and right now i only have a few adjustments left on the facemask before i can paint it.

My goal is to get the hole costume and have it on an mannequin, and also use it for halloween and stuff like that. Im 6´4,5 tall and about 230 pounds, so i hope my body shape is ok for Vader ;)

This is what i have done so far:

Made the eyes deeper.
Made the eyebrows bigger and more mean looking.
Reshaped the "teeth".
Reshaped the nose.
Raised the left cheek, by the nose
Made left side of the mouth thicker and right side thinner.
Fixed most of the neck flare, and with of the face.
Cut of the dome mount on the face and made a new one from fiberglass (This was the first time i used fiberglass so it was interesting)

This is what i have left:

Some small fixes on the face.
Make the dome stripe thinner and sharper.
Make the edge of the dome thicker.

Here is a picture from the beginning, i started with the eyes, first cut of the plastic and then make them deeper with some green stuff. I also started with the teeth, to make them longer and more square.

I put a second net on the "mouthpiece".

Some green stuff on the nose and on the hanging left side of the cheek.

And this is how it looks right now after i cut the dome mount and made a new one.

I have a question about the front edge of the dome, on high quality fiberglass helmets it seems to be very thick, should the hole dome be thick or is it only the edge?

Hi and welcome to the forum. Nice progress on your Rubies.

Regarding your question on the thickness of the dome - only the edges should be that thick.

Thanks!

Im still not sure how to make that edge, the dome is very flexible and if i make that edge of some hard material, it will crack easily...

I have another question. How wide should the stripe on top of the dome be? Ive read somwhere 2,5cm, but somebody wrote that it should be thinner.

Hi Ossi, welcome to the Den.

Nice work so far, but you should turn the black expanded metal at 90°.
download/file.php?id=445
Looking forward to your next steps.

Thanks Turrican,

I understand what you mean, that is the net that came with the Rubies helmet and its too short if i turn it 90 degrees.
So i either have to find a new net or learn to live with it ;)

I will post a little update later in the evening.

Finally i have some paint on the face mask!

Yesterday i spent some time with the nose and eyebrows, the nose was too wide and didnt have the correct "hourglass" shape. And the left eyebrow was smaller then the right, so i added some filler and sanded it.

I also did some work with the neck flare, its maby the 10th time im putting it in boiling water, bend it and put it under cold water. After each time it gets about 5mm smaller.... So its still not perfect, but good enough...

After that i did some work on the dome center strip with my dremel, but its still very rough.

Then it was time for some primer on the face, it was very difficult to see the proportions of the face before when it was black/green and white. I think it looks quite good, but there is a few flaws and scratches i have to fix. (Like the dripping polyester between the teeth

Very nice looking progress.

Definitely one of the nicer builds I've seen. Looking forward to further progress!

Thanks!

I decided that i will fix the sunken in cheeks, right now it looks like he didnt eat in 30 days... I also discovered in my latest pictures that the left cheek line is sunken in, i didnt see that before.

Im also working on the dome, the center strip is looking better, and today i will start to shape the "eyebrows" on the dome. The last thing will be the edge that goes around the helmet, i will try to do it in fiber glass filler.

As you can see in this picture i did some sanding on the face, the big black surfaces are the sunken in cheeks that i want to fix.

If you dont know what im talking about, Darth Vader have two tubes running from his nose to the back of his neck, the lower tube is ok, but the higher tube is going too close to his face, he looks like his starving. The probleme with the cheeks are that i i have to fill his lower face with filler and then replace the higher tube with some thing else.

I also did some carving on the dome. I tried to carve out the eyebrows but in most pictures it looks like one should be higher then the other, but im not sure in this, i will probobly try to smoothen this out.