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| All of the buttons were attached to the chest box by screws protruding from the back of the plaque. I used a little GOOP adhesive for extra security. (You know how those kids like to push our buttons..) |
| I'm not crazy about my side rods, but I was in a hurry. I had a halloween deadline rapidly approaching. I picked up some wooden BBQ skewers and painted them silver. Then I threaded on some different shaped beads. I secured the rod with some carefully hidden GOOP adhesive. Check out Darth Sye's Vader Maker Australia site for instructions on making an awesome looking pair of side rods. They're BEAUTIES!! |
| I used black nylon strapping for the neck and waist strap,attached to the wooden plaque with screws. A plastic back pack type of fastener is used on the wasit strap. The neck strap just slips on over head. A twist/untwist in the neck strap helps it sit more comfortably on the back of you neck. |
| I found a set of ten blinking battery operated Christmas lights that flashed in a 1-2-3-4-5 sequence. I drilled holes through the plaque and fed the bulbs up into the coin slots and arranged them in a fashion that had a cool blink sequence. It's not the PROPER blink sequence if you're going for absolute total perfection....but I like it. I don't know what materials to use to achieve the proper blink sequence (written out below)...so if you do, please let me know! |
| For the chest box's glossy appearance, I made a gasket-like covering out of black vinyl placemat material and secured with GOOP. |
| Chest Box |
| Kept alive by "machinery and his own black will", Vader can monitor and make adjustments to his life-support system using this chest-worn computer. |
| I'll be the first to admit that my chest box still needs lots of work, and I plan to do it over at some point. Anyway.....My chest box is made from a wooden plaque purchased from an arts/craft store. The red/blue buttons were crafted out of Sculpey polymer clay then covered with coordinating colored acetate. Housings for the red/blue buttons were made from this thick, spongy tape put out by 3M. It's true purpose is to attach car mouldings to a car, but painted black, it becomes a housing. |
The coins slots were initially fashioned out of Sculpey as well. I made the basic trapezoid shape, then scooped out the slot portion with an exacto knife using a small chisel-like blade. I made one coin slot, then I moulded it in rubber and recast three in resin. The resin readily accepted silver Acrylic Enamel brush on paint. The lenses are just pieces of the same acetate I used for the red button. I just stumbled upon the acetate at a second hand store. They came from an outdoor Christmas colored lighting display. School report covers would work, as well. |
| According to other Vader costumers on the DVCreations Forum, the proper blink sequence of the coin slots goes like this: 1)TOP.........2)BOTTOM.......3)MIDDLE + BOTTOM together......4)MIDDLE........ 5)TOP + MIDDLE together.........6)ALLTHREE....7)TOP +BOTTOM together...........START OVER |
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| ROTJ |
| ESB |
| A few quick differences between the ROTJ chest box and the ESB are these: The ESB has more little switches than the ROTJ box, and they are found above the blue button and in between the center two rocker switches. The coin slots have no black painting around the red lenses on the ESB. The small rectangles with "bites" take out of them that top off the side rods on the ESB form a "u" shape (like in Shane Johnson's Technical Journal), while ROTJ's form an "n". |
The rocker switches can be tricky to sculpt, but not impossible if you follow this simple Vaderkinde recipe. I found a star shaped cookie cutter that had almost the perfect side view shape. With a little tweaking to the angles, it was then ready to be filled in with Sculpey. I kept the back and top as smooth and flat as possible, then, leaving the cookie cutter inplace, I baked the polymer clay in the oven per package directions. |
| A little fine tuning with a hacksaw and sand paper took place to get some of the angles corrected. After I got one rocker switch the way that I wanted, I made a mold and cast four in resin. I painted three in the sliver scheme, and to the fourth I applied the red acetate using double sided tape. (The tape is wicked sticky stuff used to keep area rugs from slipping on hard wood floors). I'll provide some information on the rubber and resin products later. |
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| Easy Bake Rocker Switches |
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| ANH |
| My sucky chest box |
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| Epi 3 |