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Darth Vader Helmets - Return of the Jedi 

ROTJ Vader "Reveal"

 

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!

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.

Below a couple of shots showing the lower jaw and face together, along with the rear neck support.

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.

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.

Now a top-down shot of the lower jaw piece

And the top of the head showing the intricate detailing.

And finally of the rear neck support piece. Like I said its currently on ebay but be QUICK!!


Kroenen77 Darth Vader Reveal

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...


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. 


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.


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.


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.

Below a shot of the inside of the facemask - and again he's maintained that great level of accuracy.


Below Marks used a real medical neckcollar - augmented with some pretty amazing greeblies - just like on the original


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.

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


ROTJ Screen-used copy

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. 

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.

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". 

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!


GhostHost ROTJ

Now I'm not 100% sure as to whether 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.
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.
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.

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.

 

"Elstree" ROTJ

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.

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

...and below a couple of images showing off its overall shape. Darth Chops is replacing the resin tusks with "proper" Aluminum tusks. Excellent helmet.

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!

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

 

...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!

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.
The finish is also extremely good and was painted by professional auto painters

JB RotJ

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.

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.

The finish is extremely good - especially the painting.

 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.

I'm not sure how many of these were made, probably something like a dozen

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!

..and I've just snapped off a couple of shots to show Dave's signature..

 Other Helmets

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.

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.

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

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.

Here's a nice shot with Jörg recreating the famous scene at the end of "Jedi"

..and a close-up of the reveal helmet which again looks amazing. Well done Michael!

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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