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Darth Vader Helmets - Return of
the Jedi
ROTJ Vader "Reveal"
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Regular contributor Natty15's sent me these images of
his stunning Vader Reveal he's been working on for a number of
months. Working closely to a host of photos taken at the MOM
exhibitions, he's taken an existing helmet and produced a fantastic
facsimile of the screen-used prop. Note that this stunning piece is
currently being auctioned on ebay so if your interested then head over
there! |
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Initially cutting the helmet in sections (balls of Steel
this guy!), he's built up the helmet using a number of techniques, and
photo-etched the helmet to achieve this convincing look. Note that the
face section had to be extended greatly both on the top as well as at
the back. |
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| Below a couple of shots showing the
lower jaw and face together, along with the rear neck support. |
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Below a shot of
the interior, along with one of it fully assembled (not that you'd ever want
to as this baby needs to be shown off in its full glory). The base of the
helmet was a CKing (DP Deluxe copy), and therefore a great place to start,
and the project took 10 months to make from start to finish. |
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To show off its accuracy, he produced the following
shots showing a comparison of the original on the left, with Natty's on
the right. First the upper face. |
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Now a top-down shot of the lower jaw piece |
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And the top of the head showing the intricate detailing. |
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And finally of the rear neck support piece. Like I said
its currently on ebay but be QUICK!! |
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Kroenen77 Darth Vader Reveal
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Update April 2018 - The Darth Vader "Reveal" helmet is one of
those projects that many start with the greatest of intentions, only to
fall by the wayside given the sheer magnitude of the work required to
reproduce the intricate detail seen in the original helmet. The good
news is Mark/Kroenen77 didn't shy away from this task and has produced
the following amazing replica - as these following photos confirm... |
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Mark started the project three Years ago from an old "Portykit", which
was itself based on a Don Post Deluxe helmet - itself not a bad place to
start as the Don Post Deluxe was an extremely nice helmet - one that
stood out at a time when accurate Star Wars helmets were few and
far between. |
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However, to make it really accurate Mark reworked the complete sculpt -
and overall says he changed something approaching 95% of the parts
- so effectively creating his own kit over the three year process. The
top-down shot above shows the level of work required to replicate the
original screen-used prop - and below a great shot of the separated
facemask and jaw/neck sections. |
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All the hard parts on the mask (apart fro the original facce and helmet
sections) are made of resin or fiberglass - and are cast from the kit he
produced. Mark also produced Silicone moulds of the two faceplate
sections - then casting the two sections directly from this in
fiberglass. |
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The metal-looking parts have been sprayed in chrome and other
metal coloured paints to great effect. The quality of metal-finish
paints now is so good that really amazing metallic finishes like this
can be produced relatively easily. |
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| Below a shot of the inside of the facemask - and again he's maintained
that great level of accuracy. |
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Below Marks used a real medical neckcollar - augmented with some pretty
amazing greeblies - just like on the original |
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Mark painted the mask sections with a gloss black and gunmetal paint,
without a clear-coat finish to replicate the same look on the Original
screen-used helmet. Mark's mask also has real diodes and camera shutter
parts - again just like the original screen-used prop. |
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| As we mentioned earlier this is really big undertaking but one that Mark
has completely delivered on. Apart from using hundreds of photos of the
original prop, Mark also visited the "Star Wars Identities" Exhibition
(where the original screen-used prop was on display) when it was in
Cologne during the tail end of his build - just to ensure he
completely nailed the final detail.
And nail it he most certainly did! For more info on this please
contact Mark's at spawn0477@msn.com |
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ROTJ Screen-used copy
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| The following helmet is owned by
"Fatherless One" on the props boards and is a copy from one of
the Elstree screen-used ROTJ Vader helmets and was cast by a prop maker in the U.K.
from a very limited run of around ten. The face looks very similar to the
20th Century to me (although the dome looks thicker) and again is constructed from
fiberglass. Like the 20thC and DP Deluxe the dome is attached to the face via a
mounting ring system and secured with Velcro strip. The mouth opening's vertical
bars are the correct width unlike the Don Post Deluxe helmets and the upper and lower metal mesh is the
correct type unlike the DP Deluxe and other repro helmets. |
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| The sharpness of the lines and facial features are incredible, nothing has been lost, the
DP Deluxe's lines are softer by comparison, the thumbnail grooves on the
upper cheeks are sharp and distinctive again a detail no where near as prominent on the DP Deluxe. The eye lenses are a clear copper in tint
rather than dark grey and the aluminum tusks are screen accurate. The width of the
helmet is 13.5 inches and the height is approx 14 inches. |
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And below a close up of the eyes and cheeks showing off
the sharp detailing. Note one of the key differences between this and the
ESB is that the ROJ has a slightly thicker bottom "lip". |
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And finally below a
couple of shots of the face and mounting mechanism.
Thanks for the images Alan, excellent looking specimen
you've go there! |
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GhostHost ROTJ |
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this is an ESB or ROTJ. Its another "work in progress" from
GhostHost. This particular prop came via a friend with "very close
links with Lucasfilm", and this particular helmet is believed to have
come from their molds. |
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| The helmet has similarities to the
ESB 20th Century, although this is not surprising. However many attributes
of this helmet differ from the 20th C and its overall look is more ROTJ. |
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| The "tears" under the eyes
are extremely well-pronounced, and the width of the area encircling the
nose is thicker than on an ESB. In addition the base of the mouth is
thicker as seen on the ROTJ prop and the shape of the eyes certainly look
more ROTJ. |
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The dome looks extremely good, and overall the prop imo
looks to be a ROTJ. I'll post some images up of a completed helmet when
they're done but I expect this to be some time away. |
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"Elstree" ROTJ |
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I've just received these shots from my old mate and UberVader
Collector Darth Chops of his newly acquired Elstree ROTJ Vader. Only 15 of
these were ever made so its quite a find.
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DC's been through a lot of Vader's including the 20thC,
DP Deluxe and he says that his new baby is his favorite. Though there
exists some dome flare, the finish is simply stunning |
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...and below a couple of images showing off its overall
shape. Darth Chops is replacing the resin tusks with "proper" Aluminum
tusks. Excellent helmet. |
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| Carl's sent me the following images
of his ROTJ Vader helmet which again looks to be of the highest standard.
I've called it the Elstree after the Studio as I cant think of another
name! |
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As you can see its an excellent looking helmet and looks
to have a really nice dome too. The lower lips fat like the one of the
Hero ROTJ Helmets used and the
edges look from these photo's to be very sharp |
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...and I've just received these pics (April '04) of Darth Infamous'
wonderful new RotJ Vader which I am sure must be the pride of his
collection. Its one of only 10 made so is very special! |
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| Again as we've come to expect the
edges are very sharp, but importantly the dome looks extremely good as
well. The lenses were provided by Gino. |
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| The finish is also extremely good and
was painted by professional auto painters |
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JB RotJ |
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Update December 2008 - BUYER BEWARE - There are still a number of
people who have ordered from this vendor, some over a YEAR ago who have
not received their helmets. You have been warned!!!!
Not sure of the background of this
one (although the face has many of the characteristics of the 20th Century), but here's
my JB Return of the Jedi Vader Helmet. |
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The screen-used RotJ and ESB helmets were very similar
although there were a few differences made between movies. The most obvious
being the larger lower grill as seen below. |
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The finish is extremely good - especially the painting. |
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The quality of finish is as you'd expect of a helmet
of this calibre with machined Aluminium tusks, as well as screen-accurate
grills and lenses. |
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I'm not sure how many of these were made, probably
something like a dozen |
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Looks mean doesn't it! Below - I managed to get Dave
Prowse to sign this for me last year - clean forgot to mention that. Thanks
to JimboBond for taking the pic! |
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| ..and I've just snapped off a couple
of shots to show Dave's signature.. |
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Other Helmets |
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| Here's some interesting photo's.
These are the work of Jörg Steegmüller who has sculpted and produced
Star Wars props for a number of years and is a well known stop motion
movie maker and collector in his home Country of Germany. |
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| He's used the same head cast as part
of a reveal although to be honest I'm not totally convinced with the smile
- although there's clearly a lot of talent gone into these pieces. |
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| Over the years he's worked on a
number of costumes and as you can see his workmanship is very impressive when you consider he's
fabricated them completely himself. The Vader Reveal is from a fellow
prop maker in Germany, Michael Peter who made it for Joerg and the Anakin
Head which was correctly painted by a make up artist named Dirk Roeßler.
Joerg made the Stormtrooper together with some friends and the Darth Vader
costume on his own. He also built the damaged Anakin Head |
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| Below, Updated shots from Jörg, who
was working with Dirk Roßler and Michael Peter on this superb
lifesize RotJ Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader including the full Reveal
helmet made by Michael Peter. |
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| Here's a nice shot with Jörg
recreating the famous scene at the end of "Jedi" |
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| ..and a close-up of the reveal helmet
which again looks amazing. Well done Michael! |
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| Below, here's a shot from John C of
his full-size Vader costume. Not sure what the source parts are hence its in
this section. Bottom line is there are only a few "sources" out there so it
must be a derivative of either a Don Post, Fiberdyne, Ghost Host or
20thCentury (or a mix) |
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