1/6 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - 1/6th scale Darth Vader 40th Anniversary

I made a few tweaks to the face mask.

I used some milliput to make the nose bigger. This alleviates the over scaled mouth/vent.

And i realigned the silver tusks to make them look a little less droopy.

I also padded out the upper body and extended the height by a few mm's.

I'm using the old KAIYODO chest armour at the minute, but i might swap it out for the R1 version.

matrix69 said:

I also padded out the upper body and extended the height by a few mm's.

I'm using the old KAIYODO chest armour at the minute, but i might swap it out for the R1 version.

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Looks better but if you’re going to put in the work, I’d suggest using one of the ANH/R1/OWK helmets. Make the vent bigger and round off the widows peak.

McHaleyArt said:

Looks better but if you’re going to put in the work, I’d suggest using one of the ANH/R1/OWK helmets. Make the vent bigger and round off the widows peak.

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I was thinking of going the same road, but i'm still living in the hope that HT will revise the ROTJ mask.

matrix69 said:

I was thinking of going the same road, but i'm still living in the hope that HT will revise the ROTJ mask.

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It’ll be very surprising if they do.

McHaleyArt said:

It’ll be very surprising if they do.

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It would be a nice surprise though. If they can shrink down the 1/4 Batman sculpt, surely they can do the same with Vader.

Did anyone ever paint up the custom version that Too Much Garlic was offering? I'm curious to see how it looks all put together.

matrix69 said:

It would be a nice surprise though. If they can shrink down the 1/4 Batman sculpt, surely they can do the same with Vader.

Did anyone ever paint up the custom version that Too Much Garlic was offering? I'm curious to see how it looks all put together.

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Never saw one painted up. I think he offered this version and then has been working on a perfected version since.

Hot Toys and their Vader helmet sculpts. What a sad story (not unlike HT's Boba and stormie helmets.)

All of them 10% oversized (along with the armor), domes slightly off, every one with its own set of issues. How on earth they didn't fix the ANH/R1 rounded "points" around the nose for the OWK Vader release I have no idea, and the atrocity that is the ESB sculpt gets a straight re-release for ROTJ.

Using the surprisingly accurate (and more accurately sized) Kaiyodo parts often doesn't work due to the overscale HT parts and overall figure size. It is all so much work, I fixed the button nose on the ESB sculpt, but that leaves the sunglasses eyes, yet even the ANH needs a push-back nose job while you're sanding out those "points" plus the neck line.

Two new HT Vaders, two not-so-new flawed HT Vader helmets. We all do what we can until someone comes along to finally create a truly spot-on Vader helmet in 1/6... Too MuchGarlic, your accursed many-years-long project gets more important with each passing year.

This is all true. I'm willing to compromise now tho, with dx28 mask and body seeming ok. If the coming Rotj release use the same body, I'll pop the dx28 clean mask on it and call it a day, depending on how the rotj cloak turns out. Might need another custom for that.

It never ends.

matrix69 said:

It would be a nice surprise though. If they can shrink down the 1/4 Batman sculpt, surely they can do the same with Vader.

Did anyone ever paint up the custom version that Too Much Garlic was offering? I'm curious to see how it looks all put together.

View attachment 694818

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I still have my ANH set from TMG sitting in a box. I received it right after finishing my ROTJ Vader, which took about half a year. So the motivation to start yet another Vader project has been low.
I've also been tweaking my 1:4 Vader over the last year, which is less work to get right, but is yet another Vader project taking away focus and energy from this one.
I'm hoping to pick it up in 2025 or 2026 realistically.

Felinx said:

Hot Toys and their Vader helmet sculpts. What a sad story (not unlike HT's Boba and stormie helmets.)

All of them 10% oversized (along with the armor), domes slightly off, every one with its own set of issues. How on earth they didn't fix the ANH/R1 rounded "points" around the nose for the OWK Vader release I have no idea, and the atrocity that is the ESB sculpt gets a straight re-release for ROTJ.

Using the surprisingly accurate (and more accurately sized) Kaiyodo parts often doesn't work due to the overscale HT parts and overall figure size. It is all so much work, I fixed the button nose on the ESB sculpt, but that leaves the sunglasses eyes, yet even the ANH needs a push-back nose job while you're sanding out those "points" plus the neck line.

Two new HT Vaders, two not-so-new flawed HT Vader helmets. We all do what we can until someone comes along to finally create a truly spot-on Vader helmet in 1/6... Too MuchGarlic, your accursed many-years-long project gets more important with each passing year.

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Agreed, I've given up hope in HT giving us movie accurate (scaled and detailed) helmets.

And as you said, scaling everything from HT (and SS) to actual 1:6 size and to match the kaiyodo parts is so much work, but it's SO worth the effort.

agonistes86 said:

I still have my ANH set from TMG sitting in a box. I received it right after finishing my ROTJ Vader, which took about half a year. So the motivation to start yet another Vader project has been low.
I've also been tweaking my 1:4 Vader over the last year, which is less work to get right, but is yet another Vader project taking away focus and energy from this one.
I'm hoping to pick it up in 2025 or 2026 realistically.

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I look forward to seeing it finished.

With the R1 chest armour

Comparison with my old custom.

matrix69 said:

It would be a nice surprise though. If they can shrink down the 1/4 Batman sculpt, surely they can do the same with Vader.

Did anyone ever paint up the custom version that Too Much Garlic was offering? I'm curious to see how it looks all put together.

View attachment 694818

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Why is the left and right shin guards different in length?

shadow_wolf said:

Why is the left and right shin guards different in length?

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They're screen accurate to how they looked in the original trilogy.

Everything was gloriously off, imperfect and wonky... Before the dark times...before CGI and DISNEY

shadow_wolf said:

Why is the left and right shin guards different in length?

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Yeah it must have been a crazy production. Where Kubrick wanted things as perfect as possible, the early star wars films have more of a "they'll never notice the difference" vibe going on.

I grabbed an extra OWK deluxe helmet for my ESB Vader

Here’s the stock esb side by side with the new deluxe OWK


Obv not accurate to ESB (not like any of the helmets are that accurate) but I like the look better, I’d say it’s an improvement

Besides the smaller chin vent and the area under the mouth triangle not painted black, the dx28 helmet is more ESB accurate in every way imo

xXLEELANDXx said:

I grabbed an extra OWK deluxe helmet for my ESB Vader
View attachment 698609
Here’s the stock esb side by side with the new deluxe OWK
View attachment 698606
View attachment 698607
Obv not accurate to ESB (not like any of the helmets are that accurate) but I like the look better, I’d say it’s an improvement

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That looks a lot better. I also have one of those newer helmets on the way.

I'm in the early stages of modifying a R1 helmet, but the mouth vent is the biggest obstacle to overcome. At least the newer helmet will make it easier.

If HT can tweak the mouth vent, they could easily tweak and enlarge the chin/neck vent and give us a better looking ROTJ Vader