Can you believe it's been over three years? Recent events have brought me back to this armor.
I want to avoid making definitive statements in terms of what is going to happen with this project. I find that a certain fluidity is important, because ideas and options sometimes come about as a result of the creative process.
Years back, I was enamored with a vendor armor (Karline-2000) that give me a great fit. I'm size 40-42", and having dealt with oversized armor, the armor was something else. However, Karline-2000 ended up dropping off the map after he was exposed for taking a lot of fan money and never delivering product - only a series of excuses. It turned out he was a recaster as well. The inherent weakness of the Karline armor was that if you looked at the armor from the side (while wearing it) the armor may have been a good fit for size 40" but the helmet made my chest look very thin.
(Above: note that, depending on Prowse's posture, his chest is deep. With armor, his side profile looks like his chest is at least as deep as the dome of the helmet. The helmet's "depth" will depend also on how it's positioned. So this is all very approximate.)
In the above photo, you can see how deep his chest is. Many interpret 50" to be a very wide chest, but that was not the case (just simply study the silhouette of his shoulder profile). So per the question earlier on how the chest box will work with this armor, let me say this:
If we are, say, size 40" and we're trying to fit ourselves in armor made for someone with a very deep chest, even if we were to wear the screen-used armor, it would not look right on us. For instance, as a body builder, Prowse had developed trapezius (shoulder to neck) muscles. I'm sure that played a part in how the armor and facemask fits on him so naturally, whereas we'd look like a child in adult-sized armor.
The armor seems to fit Prowse like a second skin. The chestbox laid on his sternum area and stuck out a teensy bit past the bottom rim of the armor. However, if we are small, we are going to have a hard time approximating that look.
If you want to simulate Prowse's chest depth, you'll have to wear some kind of padded vest to pad your front and back so that the chest box will lay properly in relation to the armor. The padding can be thick from chest to sternum, and then thin out towards the waist so that you can still rely on your own waistline for putting the belt on. Just an idea for you costumers.
(Above: Just a guess as to how Prose may have looked inside the suit. This incorrectly combines two photos taken at two distances. But we can imagine, can't we?)
So that being said,
I can't guarantee this will fit everyone the way they want it to fit. Some people will want to fit to the armor, while others will want the armor to fit them. I can't predict a person's silhouette as defined by their own trapezium muscles. I understand, for example, that the Rubie's plastic armor is supposedly based off the screen-used, but that armor fits me terribly and gives me a lot of neck and shoulder strain. My piece of styrene fits very comfortably and I don't know why. I had even used the Rubie's strap system to make the Rubie's shoulder profile more pronounced, but it still stressed by neck and shoulders.
I also can't predict how heavy a person's cape will be. Some heavier capes will naturally pull against the armor and want to choke the wearer to death.
With this scratchbuilt armor, I'm trying to add more material around the neck to make up for the fact that many of us do not have Prowse's neck thickness nor his trapezium muscle development. So for any kind of costuming, please don't make this out to be a "Holy Grail" solution. You may have to adapt a cape by using a much, much lighter grade of wool. If you're doing ANH, you may be able to forego the satin lining as you almost never saw it on the screenshots. If that prevents you being 501st-approved, then ask them to disprove the FX stormtroopers because, clearly, they exhibit structural features that didn't exist on any of the screenused stormtroopers!
The styrene is currently a work in progress. I have since cut the armor down on the front to mimic the screen armor more. I'm leaving the excess material in the rear for now. The fit is still fine. The mannequin is a size 40-42". Because I've cut the armor down, the black guide lines are no longer valid.
Now currently the armor is 40-42" as a first pass. When the armor is done, it's conceivable we can do runs to support deeper chests. Also, depending on the thickness of the clay I apply and any gradient surfaces I sculpt, the styrene you see may not necessarily be the foundational surface, so I'm saying this preemptively to assuage the concerns of those who are particularly observant. In other words, this armor will have screen accurate features, but the sculpt will be its own "animal".
The following photos are taken yesterday. Note the mannequin does not benefit from the padding afforded by a leather suit. The first shot is using two dried kitchen sponges under the front chestplate. Also note that the neckline to bottom edge length is longer than the screen used. The shape is not final.
In the next photo, I've removed the sponges. The armor wears flatter.
What I'm probably going to do is a happy medium between the two. Having a leather suit may achieve that naturally. With some sheet foam for chest and sternum/stomach padding, the chestbox would have a platform to lay against.
I will endeavor to make the armor appear deeper as I sculpt the middle portions.