This is my first progress post of the mods I am doing to my Rubies Supreme Vader. I took Mac's advice and am incorporating some of them into my project. I am trying to duplicate the Vader and Boba Fett image in the dining hall on Cloud City.




The second photo shows the Rubies overlayed over the ESB photo. These are just the initial mods to the nose bridge and heat forming the neck and dome. I also ground the center dome stripe to match the ESB configuration.


One photo with flash and one without. I modified the dome mount with a plumbing fitting to let the dome sit more in line with the reference photos. I will post better photos when I get back from vacation. Let me know what you think.

What an excellent start!

So can you post an image of the mask looking directly into the camera? Stand right in front. Also, photograph it 6 feet away, not 4. Do so with the dome on, and then do one with the dome off.

well done!

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I dremeled out the mouth vents and squared them off. Still need some filing and filling. I forgot to mention that I thinned out the left side of the mouth by dremelling the inside plane all the way back. There seems to be plenty of thickness to the plastic for all the mods I have done so far, even for the strip down the dome. Also evened out the chin vent on the left side so it is more centered to correlate with the reference photo. Here you go Mac. 6 feet away and zoomed in. There is one with flash and one without. Let me know if I should reduce the size of the photos or if you would rather have them this large to see the details?









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Looks like your off to a great start. Keep the pictures coming.

Wonderful start! I'm glad you were able to benefit from my thread. As you can see, much of what I did was trial and error until I more or less began to actually know what I'm doing!

So here is what you may want to do:

1. The bridge of the nose treatment was a good call. The rectangles are lower but you've compensated well.

2. The upside-down "U" shape of the nose is on the thin side with the plastic remove. Use the same material you used for the eyebrows and pad the interior to increase the thickness by about 2 mm. It may require 3 mm.

3. The eyebrows are done right, so now the challenge is to make them more elegant by making the curve more gradual rather than abrupt. See if you can smooth things out.

4. Also the eyebrows should not end touching the rectangles. They should be about, oh, 3 mm above and away from the corners of the rectangle. Check the screenshots of the original prop.

That's it off the top of my head at least for now.

Nice work on the dome too!

Looking good. Like what you did with the dome mount - the dome definitely sits better. One thing regarding the center strip... how did you get so straight? Also... at the bottom of the center strip... you shouldn't have the brow lines extend into the center strip like that. Otherwise things look great.


Much easier to just put the plug back in and then fill out the seamline between it and the mask. You'll get the correct shape and less work.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for the comments and feedback guys. Keep them coming. I used 1" painters blue tape and masked off the center stripe on the helmet. I then took a larger head carbide cutter and removed material up to the tape on both sides. Once the initial plastice is removed you can go progressively deeper with the cutter without to much danger of ruining the straightness of your line. Once you're happy with the depth of the strip then switch to a sanding disc and smooth out any irregularities leading up to the strip. When done I removed the tape and sanded the strip level and slightly curve the edges. I was very happy the way it turned out and seems to be plenty of plastic remaining. I will get going on the changes you suggested when I get back from an extended weekend vacation. You can make a list while I'm away if you see anything else or would like some different views.

Carbide cutter? Is this a Dremel disc or a much larger tool? (I'm thinking the latter. Can you post a pic?)

I had considered a rasp. I wouldn't mind blowing away the mid strip on mine, but my concern has always been that if I file it down till it was completely smooth that I might grind too much away and compromise the dome structure.

So did you end up making the dome cap completely level?

Mac, it was just a normal carbide straight cutting bit with a square nosed tip #9908 I believe was the number. No I didn't completely eliminate the strip just taped the original strip off w/ the tape and leveled the dome off up to it. I then removed the tape and flattened the bulge on what was left of the existing strip. I will try to post more pics when I get back next week. Thanks.

good stuff,i want to see one of these painted properly,i'm sure it will look pretty damn cool with the mods you've done..

Sorry its been so long since I posted on this project. I finally was able to find time to continue on it and work on the changes you suggested. I reinserted the silver piece and filled the gap with gap filling super glue. The eyes are where I concentrated most of my recent efforts. I reformed the inner lids to better represent the TM ESB photos which have been invaluable. I added the tear ducts and also heat formed the cheeks to spread them out some. I resculpted the tubes after heat forming to better represent the photos. After placing the dome I was not happy with the position and decided to take apart the mount and remount it at the appropriate angle shown in the photos which required me to remove a half an inch from the mount. The photos are taken from 6 feet zoomed in. Let me know what you think.

Here are a couple from 5 feet. I will try to get some higher resolution photos later this week.

Wow, it shows some wonderful progress from the stock state. What a great improvement already!

Beautiful!!!

But it looks like one eyebrow (left one, viewers side) is higher than the other one, making him look in a strange way...

just my 2 cents.