As Promised: McC's Darth Vader Costume (IMAGE HEAVY)
Posted: 2005-04-21 10:18am
Under construction for the past 6-7ish months (since late October 2004), I'm aiming to have it done by the Episode III premiere. So, I'm still working on it 
Anyway, away we go:
The armored chest piece. Constructed out of vinyl placemats, "Amazing GOOP", and vinyl spraypaint. Supported by a hangar that I cut in half and reshaped into the shape of my shoulders.
What will end up being one of two electronic belt boxes. These will have green and red LEDs, as well as house batteries to run them. What you see here is just the drilled enclosure.
What will end up being the electronic chest box, with blinking LEDs, control switches for the entire electronics suite, and possible the respirator circuitry and speaker. Constructed from balsa wood.
The basic Don Post helmet, heavily upgraded. The neck line has been significantly cut down and I even went so far as to hold this thing over my stove so as to reshape the neckline to more closely match my own. That bit of warping in the corner is the result of a first attempt, when I helt it there too long There's masking tape over the grills right now because I'm giving it several new coats of paint and I replaced the plastic black grills with metal grills. I also cut away the framing for the old lenses (which you can't see through at all) and will replace the lenses themselves (mounted on the inside this time) with regular sunglass lenses. UV protection, good visibility, and a higher degree of accuracy. What more can you ask?
Ah, the pants. Sewn together from scratch using vinyl tablecloth material and my mom's old, shitty (:x) sewing machine. I unstitched a pair of old jeans to get a template for making these, and stole the zipper from them so as to make the pants easy to get into and out of (a vital necessity). The horizontal stitch across the left leg is an inaccuracy, but ultimately a necessity, as I didn't have sufficient material to do it in the exact number of pieces I needed. I think it looks cool, though
A demonstration of how placemats can be used to create 'armor.' These two pieces will become shin guards. They need a few more surface additions before they're ready to be painted and armatured like the chest piece.
This isn't very clear, but this is the shirt and inner cloak. Like the pants, the shirt was sewn from scratch using vinyl tablecloth material. The inner cloak was sewn from scratch using some light broadcloth.
More as more gets done.
Anyway, away we go:
The armored chest piece. Constructed out of vinyl placemats, "Amazing GOOP", and vinyl spraypaint. Supported by a hangar that I cut in half and reshaped into the shape of my shoulders.
What will end up being one of two electronic belt boxes. These will have green and red LEDs, as well as house batteries to run them. What you see here is just the drilled enclosure.
What will end up being the electronic chest box, with blinking LEDs, control switches for the entire electronics suite, and possible the respirator circuitry and speaker. Constructed from balsa wood.
The basic Don Post helmet, heavily upgraded. The neck line has been significantly cut down and I even went so far as to hold this thing over my stove so as to reshape the neckline to more closely match my own. That bit of warping in the corner is the result of a first attempt, when I helt it there too long
There's masking tape over the grills right now because I'm giving it several new coats of paint and I replaced the plastic black grills with metal grills. I also cut away the framing for the old lenses (which you can't see through at all) and will replace the lenses themselves (mounted on the inside this time) with regular sunglass lenses. UV protection, good visibility, and a higher degree of accuracy. What more can you ask? Ah, the pants. Sewn together from scratch using vinyl tablecloth material and my mom's old, shitty (:x) sewing machine. I unstitched a pair of old jeans to get a template for making these, and stole the zipper from them so as to make the pants easy to get into and out of (a vital necessity). The horizontal stitch across the left leg is an inaccuracy, but ultimately a necessity, as I didn't have sufficient material to do it in the exact number of pieces I needed. I think it looks cool, though
A demonstration of how placemats can be used to create 'armor.' These two pieces will become shin guards. They need a few more surface additions before they're ready to be painted and armatured like the chest piece.
This isn't very clear, but this is the shirt and inner cloak. Like the pants, the shirt was sewn from scratch using vinyl tablecloth material. The inner cloak was sewn from scratch using some light broadcloth.
More as more gets done.
