Darth Vader Helmets - Revenge of the Sith

Welcome to a brand new section and WOW! what a way to start. The following images are from regular contributor Well Paid Killer and FettPride of their unique 1:1 Darth Vader Life Size.

These parts were all specifically made from scratch by FettPride with a minimal amount of reference and details of the actual suit. The Research and Development FettPride and Well Paid Killer did really turned out something much closer to the real thing than even they thought at the time.

As you can see its a limited edition - Just one! (although FettPride made himself a wearable version)

This really has got to be one of the most impressive items to have ever appeared on www.StarWarsHelmets.com.

As you can see its a limited edition - Just one! (although FettPride made himself a wearable version). As new reference has become available since the release of RotS its great to see that these guys clearly got it right!

Both the helmet and armor have actually been scaled down to fit a 6 ft. 2 plus or minus 200 pound frame. The armor is a new sculpt while the helmet base originally started out as a Don Post Deluxe casting. It was then reworked to resemble the size and symmetry of the ROTS Vader.

The helmet effectively turned out as an entirely "new" sculpt. There were many pro's and con's to a fresh "New" fan sculpt, and they decided it wasn't a real great idea. Mostly because it was felt it needed to have some existing basis for the real world... Otherwise, without reference available, it would have been no different than trying to recreate a CG character.

The first real dilemma was how to make the scaled down helmet. The DP Deluxe was chosen because it is already a bit smaller. And yes, it was reduced in size and percentage by way of thermal casting. Keep in mind that although the RotS armor has been reduced to fit a smaller actor, it still fairly large on Hayden's structure. Its painfully obvious a great deal of under padding was used. But, it will still look proportional on a 6 ft. + structure.

Second order of business... A symmetrical Vader. After the helmet was reduced, it was cut into many pieces. Templates were made to mirror certain aspects, and the helmet was then pieced back together in a sense.

As you can see, the neck is VERY different from the OT design. They knew that the neck was designed to completely follow Hayden Christensen's chest line underneath the chest armor. The neck itself will have the appearance of a much more "plugged in look". As to the idea of the neck being apart of some sort of swivel mechanism there's no way its possible. While the helmet is worn with the armor it would be hard to turn the helmet horizontally. If the mask is articulated with the armor in anyway it could only be vertical, up... not down.

Finally a comparison against the original screen-used helmet..............

Hundreds of man-hours have gone into this, and with the help of a few friends and some exclusive reference, they have hit a new bench mark. This IS the RotS Vader!