SithLord wrote:
I wager I'll get my head bitten off for mentioning this, but there are a few problems with the TM ESB if you are considering it as the ultimate ANH...and I already have a comparison to illustrate, but if people are curious I can post it in the SL ANH thread. Otherwise I won't say what, because I anticipate that no one is interested in my opinion when it comes to the TM....
Just keep in mind before you lash out at me, I permitted comparison of the TM against the SL in my own thread...
Let me put in my 2 cents here at this point ...
To avoid any "competition" (as that only spoils the fun with such things)
the TM owners agreed over to never say stuff like "the TM is the best".
I know in a few heated discussions that sentence slipped out a few times,
but never was it "advertised" that way, and you won't at least see neither
Tom or me do that, as that is stupid and childish in my view.
As DJ so nicely put it when he came here "my Penis is bigger than yours"
I believe the TM is one of the most accurate castings in fan-hands to
date, and so may the SL be (I assume as I have no chance to compare).
The TM is a "Hybrid" Helmet - ANH Facemask / ESB Dome
The SL is an ANH casting that might have had some cleanup.
Now ONLY talking about the Domes - I think that the TM is possibly the
closest one will ever get to an original ESB Dome, as it came from the
mold all the screenused Helmets came from, so there is no doubt in my
mind that the TM ESB Dome is absolutely accurate.
The SL Dome appears to be an authentic ANH Dome casting with a few
additional Dings and dents I believe, and in my opinion these most likely
are there due to the silicone mold not sitting correctly in the hardshell.
BOTH Domes seem to be the nicest examples for each of those two films.
Now talking about the TM/JRX ANH Dome - Yes - I reworked a TM casting
of the ESB Dome to ANH for the TM owners only, so they have a Dome
to put on their TM/ANH Masks - simple as that. I did the best I could with
working only from screencaps and pictures and no 3D refference to make
the Dome as much ANH looking as possible. I might have overlooked a
few details here and there, but it surely turned out nice enough to have
"the look" to it, and that's what matters at least to me - the look!
I never ever made a claim that this is the best this or that ... never ...
So give it a rest - the TM based ANH Dome is a "fanmade rework" ... it
does not claim to be anything else than beeing that and that it looks nice.
Talking about the TM ANH mask now, I can only say it's loaded with tiny
details ... and really ... does it matter to the look of the face that I had
to rebuild the TIPS on the tusk-tubes ??? Not really if anybody is honest.
I'm again not saying the TM ANH faceplate is perfect, but it is what it is,
and it certainly has the look, and again - the look is what matters to me.
The TM mask did have a few casting faults I had to repair, it did have
some damage to the tusks, and the teeth and eyelenses had been cut out.
But still it remains an authentic ANH mask casting.
I can't really comment on the SL mask, as all I had seen are the pics that
were posted. So I could only post my own observations about it, so to me
it also looks to be a very nice ANH mask casting, missing the tabs on top,
and having had a bit cleanup work done to it. Also it appears to have a
few slight casting faults like the "twisted" right tusk tube ... but hey ...
those are handmade castings - no casting is 100% perfect ... and still
the SL to me "looks the part".
The TM / ESB Mask seen in this thread is again a re-work done by me
for the TM-owners only, so they have an ESB mask to put their original
TM Domes on - again simple as that. Is it authentic ??? In a way, yes,
as I had months to study the Original TM mask and I could step by step
see what the LFL prop guys did to "change" the look from ANH to ESB ...
I cleaned all the stuff off carefully - Bondo, a bloodred wax, smudged
over resin and so on ... All I had to do when making the TM /ESB mask
was to put back on again (in a less rushy and a bit cleaner way) what
I had cleaned off the mask some months before ... and I did learn a lot
about the way those guys were working back then by doing that.
Once more I have written a "novel" here, and once more I hope that
people will take the time to carefully read it all. Once more I hope that
I have found the correct words so I'm not misunderstood again, and
once more I lost the thread now and can't remember all the other
things I wanted to say - LOL ...
The thing that won't go into my head is why this hobby has to be so
combative ... so secretive ... I mean ... we are not talking about
Industrial secrets with millions of dollars in it ... and yet we are all
keeping and hoarding our little precious "secrets", living in constant
"fear" ... yeah - this hobby makes many here live in fear .. that just
isn't right ... it should be fun ... I mean "why all this" when the joy and
fun is overcome by all the intrigues, attacks and all this BS ??? ...
......... ask yourself ... how much am I really enjoying this hobby?
Oh, and Thomas, nobody will tear your head off ...it's just the way you
sometimes "judge" stuff . You know that many people in this comunity
listen to you, and that fact donates you some kind of a responsibility ...
So when you "critique" other peoples stuff it is often not seen as your
personal opinion, but as "fact" written in stone, even though you might
not have intended that. You could maybe just try to be a little bit more
objective and fair which also includes just to be quiet in some cases out
of a certain respect for stuff other people own and love sometimes ...
It's one thing beeing on the search fot the "ultimate" ANH Helmet ... it's
another thing to "trash" everything down along the road, you know.
Maybe it's the way you often word things that they sound too "definitve"
and "fact-like", although they are only your own observations, beliefs,
opinions and theories ...