Vader Costuming Questions

[Starbuck]

I have been interested in joining the 501st for some time (in part due to my wife).
http://www.501st.com/members/displaymem ... serID=4827

I was curious about the "Supreme Darth Vader" armor is up to speck for "canon" membership.
This is the set that retails for about 800-1000 on various costuming sites.
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodi ... LargeImage

Would anyone know if it is acceptable?
All imput appreciated.

[DarthBarbieDoll]

The Rubies Supreme Vader out of the box is not accepted for membership in the 501st Legion. Many modifications are required to bring it up to standards. The official Sith Lord Detachment of the 501st has their own discussion forums which has a lot of helpful information there about the Vader costume. Here is a link:

http://www.501stsithlords.com/forum/

We have a couple of Vaders in our garrison that might be able to post to this thread as well and give you some helpful advice.

[judge_hellfast]

Hey Starbuck. Welcome aboard. I'm one of the Vaders for our Garrison. If you need some helpful hints and tips, just let me know. I do have a little bit of advice. Vader is an expensive costume and a question you may want to ask yourself is....am I willing to spend at least $2,000 for a Vader setup or would I rather spend a little less on a nice set of trooper armor?

If you want some nice resources for information on armor, etc., you can email me at judge_hellfast2003@yahoo.com and I'll get you all set up, bro.

Good luck on your quest.

[TK2774]

I just finished mine, but I am not happy with the way the helmet fits. I had to modify the Rubies outfit to get to specs. I am going to get a helmet liner and install it so I can just put the helmet on as one piece. I wil write back to let you know how it goes. I think the hardest part on the outfit is the helmet and having the leather suit fit right. I still need to get mine tailored a little more.

[TK2774]

I got the helmet liner in and I love it. The leather has now been fit for me. It fits around the arms and legs a lot better. I got some great gloves from ebay. You will need to modify the chest box. The lights are not in the right places. The helmet will need the nose piece taken out and painted. New grills in the mouth section. The lenses can be replaced, I have not replaced mine yet, but I am thinking hard about that. I also got some new shin armor, I ended up destroying mine in the repainting process. Need a new neck chain. Also I go that off of ebay.
You will aslo need to paint the helmet. No, two tone color on the helmet. Just gloss black.

[Darth Mosher]

Straight out of the box the Rubies has some really good parts and some really bad ones. First and above all else you will want to spend $500.00 to $800.00 and get a Master Replicas ROTS Vader helmet. The Rubies helmet is terrible if you are looking for accuracy. Just get the standard M.R. version with no signature plaque for the best deal. There is no difference in the standard and signature edition helmets except for the plaque that comes with the signatures of James Earl Jones and Hayden Christiansen. This plaque is not part of the helmet. It is separate. The helmet you get is the exact same one regardless of edition.
Next I would add some padding to the armor to make it fit correctly. I have found that the foam rubber floor pads that piece together to place under gym equipment work perfectly. They are just the right thickness, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch, and are easy to cut and form. You can find these at Wal-Mart for about $10.00 to $15.00 for a set of four. You will only need two of these padds to do the armor so you will have some spares for mistakes. I use spray adhesive to apply it but you can also use velcro in case you wish to make the padding removeable. Painting and padding will cost probably not more than $100.00 if you do it yourself.
Next I would replace that cheap pleather suit. Do this after the helmet and armor fixes as the stock suit can be alterd to be more accurate, but just does not look as good as real leather. Get a good suit of real leather tailored to fit your form. But leave a bit of slack as Vaders suit is not skin tight, particularly ROTS. There are some really good suits offered on ebay for $200.00 to $500.00 depending on style and number of parts. You can get one, two and three piece suits depending on your preference. Ebayer "customsprops" offers some really good suits and makes them tailored to fit. Personnally I use his one piece with some special modifications I had him do for me. He will probably throw in a set of gloves to at no extra charge if you ask.
With these three major changes to the costume you will have a very convincing ROTS Vader. The rest of the parts look really good for a box costume in my opinion. Hope this helps.

Ed Mosher
SL2134

[cblackthorne]

Hello,

I just finished my Vader back in December. I looked into modifying the Rubies Supreme, but decided to build it from seperate pieces from different vendors and Im thankful I did.

Regardless of the style of Vader you want to build, I would recommend against the Rubies. You will do just as much work getting good quality pieces from the different vendors and assembling the costume yourself.

If you are looking for pieces, there are several 501st members with "spare parts" for sale. You will get your best deals there.

There are also several vendors you need to stay away from who make inferior pieces that are overpriced.

To keep costs down, I recommend making the soft parts yourself such as the cape and robe, but still plan on spending a minimum of $2000 or more.

Good luck and be sure to ask for help as you go along.

Regards,

[rebelbuttkicker]

I imagine they can help since we have half a dozen Darth Vaders (which one do I follow again? ).