Sunday 20 April 2014

Darth Vader Chest Armour Phase ONE Complete.

After such a long time i have finally started work on the my Vader suit. Now i have not finished, not by a long shot but the first phase is compete. So what was Phase One? Well it comes done to cutting the Shoulder Bells... I have to ask. 

Why are the called bells anyway?

But back to what has been going on lately. The hope for the day was to get the bells cut and sanded and then put back on to the chest armour. I am happy with how it has turned out. But remember i am not going for a screen accurate costume. More of an idea of what the costume looked like to me as a child. Also a lot can be hidden but a cape.... if thing don't go to plan.   


The tools for the job. I got my Dremel tool and some blades or are the called discs??? anyway i got set up and i started cutting. It was at this point i started to doubt myself... I mean i have never done something like this before and the first time is a little scary. But after cutting a few test bits off i made the leap and started to cut.


I know i should not be holding the bell and just cut but i have to make do with what i have and i have a habit of doing things on a wing and a prayer. So with health and safety out the window i carried on regardless. But... But i did wear goggles. 


One side done and on to the other.


One down one to go.


With both bells done i then sanded the edges to smooth them out. This is just the primary stage so It was not sanded down to be perfectly smooth as i did not have the right sand paper but that will be sorted when i go to Phase Two Sanding and Painting.



With the bells cut and i was happy enough with the shape i started to reattach them to the chest armour. I know that the bells are covered in the glue from the masking tape i used but that will all be removed before i start to paint the armour.



Both bell cut and back on the chest armour done i will be ready to move to Phase Tow in the next couple of weeks.



With the bells done and i can move on to panting but that will come later. I am happy with how things went Doing all this will change the silhouette of the suit when the cape is worn. I just never liked the rounded shoulders of the Ep 3 Darth Vader suit. This means that the cape will fall straighter off the chest armour also it will look narrower than it did before. When ever i wore it it felt to big and cumbersome to walk around in. Also with the smaller bells or are they just pad now? Ok that is beside the point but with smaller ones i should have better movement in the arms as well.  
     
And more importantly 

I DID NOT LOSE ANY FINGERS! 

So with this done i feel like things are moving forward i will not get this done in time for the May expo but i am hoping to have it ready for the October Expo. But cutting the bells and repainting the chest and leg armour is the easy part... Once those are done that will leave me with the helmet.... And i wont lie that has me worried. The helmet will be a BIG job with a lot more work involved than anything i have done so far.... 

That is in the future as for now Phase One complete time to move on to Phase Two.   







No comments:

Post a Comment