Hot Toys Darth Vader : tips , tricks and any other mods

[Waste Time Continuum]

Don’t know if anyone has done this yet, but I have plans to integrate some of the ESB sculpt into my ANH sculpt, so I immediately tore it apart.

Found some interesting things.

It looks like this might be our RotJ head sculpt as well, folks. As you can see in the pics below, there’s a lot of detail in there for stuff your not theoretically ever going to see, and there’s little bits inside that look to me to have no other purpose than to receive some additional hardware parts in a future RotJ Vader with Anakin reveal.

This is the underside of the top of the mask. Look at all the detail, and it’s painted gunmetal.

The lenses are clear amber on this version as well, which I honestly did not expect.

Here’s the inside of the mask, again, there’s all kinds of detail in the sculpt.

I half hoped to find a face sculpt in there, but it’s just a creepy blank face.

The head sculpt just sits on a peg without any glue.

There’s a little bit of detail sculpted on the sides of the bottom of the inside of the “jaw” of the lower mask

And lastly you can see tiny pegs for what I believe will be where Hot Toys will connect the “piano keys” and the microphones that can be seen in the RotJ reveal scene.

Hope this answers any questions folks may have. Let me know if you want to see anything else that I may have not photographed.




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[agonistes86]

I made some progress with the new grill, and reworked the nose with super sculpey (not painted yet). Regarding the nose, I found that the black nose rim appeared too thin compared to screenshots, so I added a thin layer of sculpey on the inside to make it a bit thicker. Once painted the edge should be smooth.
For the mouth grill, my goal is to add a thin layer of sculpey on the bottom edge and smooth it out with the grill, so it's a seamless transition. Hopefully it will all work out as I have it in my head...

Regarding the inside mesh of the mouth, what are you guys' thoughts on the color? A muted silver?

 

[paulcarson]

I love the way that this is going, some really great work there. As far as I am aware the mesh wasn't painted so it was just a silver colour.

 

[Anthrapoid]

I made some progress with the new grill, and reworked the nose with super sculpey (not painted yet). Regarding the nose, I found that the black nose rim appeared too thin compared to screenshots, so I added a thin layer of sculpey on the inside to make it a bit thicker. Once painted the edge should be smooth.
For the mouth grill, my goal is to add a thin layer of sculpey on the bottom edge and smooth it out with the grill, so it's a seamless transition. Hopefully it will all work out as I have it in my head...

Regarding the inside mesh of the mouth, what are you guys' thoughts on the color? A muted silver?

View attachment 427791

I would suggest something like Testors steel paint for the mesh. It's a couple shades darker than silver, but not as dark as gunmetal. Observe the actual prop:

 

[Waste Time Continuum]

I made some progress with the new grill, and reworked the nose with super sculpey (not painted yet). Regarding the nose, I found that the black nose rim appeared too thin compared to screenshots, so I added a thin layer of sculpey on the inside to make it a bit thicker. Once painted the edge should be smooth.
For the mouth grill, my goal is to add a thin layer of sculpey on the bottom edge and smooth it out with the grill, so it's a seamless transition. Hopefully it will all work out as I have it in my head...

Regarding the inside mesh of the mouth, what are you guys' thoughts on the color? A muted silver?

View attachment 427791

Coming along nicely man!


As others have suggested, I think something between silver and gunmetal should work for the mesh.


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[Waste Time Continuum]

I’m going to combine parts of both the ANH and ESB Hot Toys sculpts.

The plan is to make an ANH head with a partial reveal as seen in ESB.

I’m using dome, and bottom jaw/neck piece from the ANH sculpt, and the mask, collar, and scarred head from the ESB Vader. Of course I’ll be repainting the whole thing to match the ANH look. I want to paint the under the dome area in ANH color pallet, and change some of the details slightly so it looks like another version of the helmet, which it would be.


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[Waste Time Continuum]

Here’s some pictures of the hack job.

Lower down there’s some pics of the test fit. It all goes together much better than I expected.

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[agonistes86]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

@WTC, wow what a project! Are you changing the chin part because of the vent size only, or is there anything else shape wise that you prefer on the ANH chin?

 

[paulcarson]

I love the talent in here ! That is an amazing idea and I'm looking forward to seeing hot the finished combo looks.

 

[Anthrapoid]

For those who haven't done the red-eyes mod yet, I found a great solution.
I've seen the other ways people have done it, but for me, those just weren't RED enough. It occurred to me that instead of using regular tinfoil behind the very pale amber lenses, METALLIC RED foil would work better. So, the hunt began at my local supermarket. After searching around for half an hour, I stumbled into the wine section... I remembered that many bottles of wine have metal foil wrapping at the top, but it's a much heavier thickness than the regular kind; perhaps two or three times as thick.

I found the perfect color of crimson red foil on a bottle of 'APOTHIC RED' wine. Great color, perfect metallic reflectivity... BOUGHT. (there are a million images of this brand on Google, so it must be very common... on sale for $8.09)

I cut out the right shape, molded it against the inside of the lenses with the round butt-end of a small paint brush, and fixed it into place with strips of Gorilla Tape... It turned out looking excellent, if I do say so myself. I'll post pics soon.


please mod responsibly.

 

[McHaleyArt]

For those who haven't done the red-eyes mod yet, I found a great solution.
I've seen the other ways people have done it, but for me, those just weren't RED enough. It occurred to me that instead of using regular tinfoil behind the very pale amber lenses, METALLIC RED foil would work better. So, the hunt began at my local supermarket. After searching around for half an hour, I stumbled into the wine section... I remembered that many bottles of wine have metal foil wrapping at the top, but it's a much heavier thickness than the regular kind; perhaps two or three times as thick.

I found the perfect color of crimson red foil on a bottle of 'APOTHIC RED' wine. Great color, perfect metallic reflectivity... BOUGHT. (there are a million images of this brand on Google, so it must be very common... on sale for $8.09)

I cut out the right shape, molded it against the inside of the lenses with the round butt-end of a small paint brush, and fixed it into place with strips of Gorilla Tape... It turned out looking excellent, if I do say so myself. I'll post pics soon.
View attachment 428002

please mod responsibly.

AR is my favorite cheap red. It’s good stuff!

 

[paulcarson]

Something I've had for a while, a couple of photographs that may help with Vader's proportions. I've used this to construct a custom body for my Vader. Dressed it gives " the look" .

Hope they help.

 

[paulcarson]

I seem to recall someone was looking for a photograph of Vader's ANH boots.

Hope these help.

 

[Anthrapoid]

That last photo must have been taken right after ESB... He's wearing the ANH suit with the ESB dome. (notice the pointy widow's peak)

 

[paulcarson]

The ceremony was held on the 5th of August 1977. This was way before the Empire Strikes back.

 

[Anthrapoid]

The ceremony was held on the 5th of August 1977. This was way before the Empire Strikes back.

I stand corrected, and I seem to recall now that the Hollywood ceremony was shown on the news in '77.

That said, I'm confused about something. I just re-checked scenes from ANH and photos of the domes from all three of the original trilogy, and the domes ALL have POINTY widow's peaks. So where did this idea come from that one version of the helmet had a pointed widow's peak and another version of the dome had a much less pointy peak? I've heard many people talking about this over the years, (I fell victim to this misconception myself) but now I can't find any visual evidence of it.

 

[TaliBane]

Great pics, Paul.

Has anyone split the HT ESB mask and re-seated the halves so the "break" in the tusk rails matches better? I'm thinking of just sanding down the upper half a bit so it sits down further into the channels of the lower half. It just seems like the upper half was glued a half mm or so above where it should be, creating the "step" where it should be flat/straight.

 

[rhboyd]

I stand corrected, and I seem to recall now that the Hollywood ceremony was shown on the news in '77.

That said, I'm confused about something. I just re-checked scenes from ANH and photos of the domes from all three of the original trilogy, and the domes ALL have POINTY widow's peaks. So where did this idea come from that one version of the helmet had a pointed widow's peak and another version of the dome had a much less pointy peak? I've heard many people talking about this over the years, (I fell victim to this misconception myself) but now I can't find any visual evidence of it.
View attachment 428067

couldn’t be more wrong! simple image searches will show you that. It drives me nuts that the peak isn’t there...

 

[rhboyd]

see?!?

 

[bebe13junior]

Yeah Vader totally doesn’t have the peak in ESB or ROTJ.

Anywho...do you guys think the new ESB belt would fit on the SS Vader body?


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