How to create a realistic looking Vader costume for under £100!

Ok, this has been a long time coming. I ment to put this thread up like 2 months ago, but given my computer problems, I have been waylaid somewhat.

However, my computer is up and running, so here it is!

The reason I decided to make a Vader costume is pretty simple. Its the most iconic and recognisable costume in the entire saga. Plus, it is very adaptable and great for working on a bit at a time.

I have had quite a bit of experience of working on costumes in the past. To date I have made a Neo costume (Reloaded), Anakin costume-inculding AOTC robe, Obi-Wan costume-including ROTS robe and a Indian Jones costume (though to be honest, that one was just putting the things together, didn't really make anything).

So Vader will be my biggest challenge yet.

There are certain aspect of the costume that there is just no getting around however. With no plastic molding experince or knoweldge of fiberglass, it is going to be pretty bloody hard to make a Vader helmet. So you just have to bite the bullet and buy one. Early on in the costume development I used the £30 vioce FX helmet. This did fine at first and helped give an overall impression of the costumes development. However, as time went by, it became painfully obvious that it was way too small. So I popped along to Ebay and got myself a delux Rebies model. AND IT IS MASSIVE!

When you first get it out of the box, you think that there is something wrong, there is no way that the helmet is this size! But its just that your so used to the smaller helmet, your perception becomes warped.

This is where the bulk of your bedget goes. I managed to get the helmet for £65, which is a great price considering that I have seen them for sale for hundreds in the past.

Now, I'm not going to post too much info on my first post. The plan is to slowly post photos and stories over the coming days covering the different parts of the costume.

I would say that at present, the costume is around %75 done. I'm still having outer robe issues and I haven't even started to think about the shin pads!

It's going to be one hell of an ask to keep the budget under £100, but I have cheated in certain areas. For example, my father works in the furniture business and he managed to get me a load of black leather for nothing. Now, I know most of you won't have that luxury, so you may want to put a few extra quid on top.

I also bought some Vader gloves. For the sake of £10 and the work that would otherwisr be involved in making a pair, its just not worth it and its so much easier to buy these. However the essence of the costume remains this:

To create it myself. To get the materials together that by themselves are nothing more than a pile of junk, and to make something from them.

I know there will be some purists out there that will scoff at my method for making the chest armour and will be dumbfounded as to why I haven't spent $700 dollors on a screen acurate codpiece, but for me, the exact duplication of the costume isn't as important as the process of making it is.

So while the green lights in his belt boxes may be round, instead of square, I ask you to see the project as a whole and what it stands for, rather than how it the small inacuracies that come with working from such a tight budget.

So with that out of the way, I got to upload some pics now and start the story!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Edit: Jairen - You should start one of these threads for your Wookie costume. I would love to see the process you have gone through for that and how it compairs to mine. Feel free to post your thread here if you want!

 

Yup. Of course, living in the same house, I've seen it, and it is indeed lovely. Agree about the helmet being huge though - but then Anakin was a bit of a big head. Wayne, does this costume come equipped with authentic hand-severing action?

 

Well, depends who's hand is going to be severed.



Ok, first step.

The Jump suit.

Approx price of the leather needed for this suit would be around £20. But if your lucky like me, you can get it for nothing!

The first step was to get a pair of old jeans, tear them apart and use them as templates. seeing as the costume wasn't for me, I was going to have to add several inches all round to accomodate my six foot three friend.

Not only was I going to have to accomodate for the extra height, but I would also have to figure in the extra material needed to create the pleats in Vaders trousers, arms and chest.

I got the basic outline of the trouser leag and cut four of the following shape:

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Welshguy/IMAGE_694.jpg]

Now, I know what your thinking.... Tom Jones right?

I'll be honest, thats what I thought too!

Using my old jeans as a rough guide, it was fairly easy to sew the leather together and create the pleated look. Though I did cheat slightly and not put the pleats in the back of the trousers. I did this because the back of the trousers will never be seen, given that they are covered by not one, but TWO robes! To make extra work for myself for something that will never be seen seemed like a silly thing to do, so while I may upset some "purists" that feel they need a sculpture of David Prowse todger to get the codpiece totally screen accurate, i'm willing to forego these little quibbles, as I feel they add nothing to the costume and only serve to impress those good ol' guys at the 501st.
Remember, the idea of this costume is to do it for under a £100!

Ok, so I put one leg together and it looked something like this:

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Welshguy/IMAGE_702.jpg]

A bit of potching and sewing and it all comes together to look something like this: Sorry its a crappy photo by the way, but these pics were taken with my old phone, which didn't have a very good resolution or take decent pics in poor light.

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Welshguy/IMAGE_703.jpg]

You will be pleased to know that my powers of trouser making are beyond repute! The trousers fitted my friend perfectly. So well infact that it doesn't even need any kind of belt or elastic to keep it in place around the waste.

Indeed, he has comissioed me to make him a pair that he can wear on a Saturday night out... Well, maybe not.

Ok, so now onto the chest and arms.

More cheating going on here i'm afraid. (Can you hear the costumers crying out, as if a million drop stitches cried out in pain and were suddenly silenced).

As over heating is a massive problem when wearing an all over costume such as this, I decided to give my friend as much breathing space as possible. To achieve this I needed an old polo shirt.

My plan was to attach the leather jump suit to the arms and chest, but leave the back bare (with the exception of the original polo shirt material of course). Even with two robes going down his back, I feel that having a natural material such as a thin layer of cotton between him and some circulation will help massivly in warm settings such as a con or party.

The process was pretty much the same for the arms and chest as it was for the legs, with the exception that I didn't need a template of course. For the chest I made a lightly padded large square of seemed leather and attached it in 6 positions to the polo shirt (attaching it in small sections, instead of a straight seem allows more circulation). The arms followed pretty much the same process, but with slightly more padding.

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Welshguy/IMAGE_690.jpg]

(ignore the glasses holding it down )

Finally I added three strips of velco around the back of the chest that connected to the leather at the front. Pulling this tighter than it would be naturally give a much more fitted and professional look to the jump suit.

I included the helmet and chest box in this pic to give a better impression

 

trust me the actual Vader helm is even bigger than the rubies version!
when you add the shoulder armour it balances out though.

this is a big task and a cool project to undertake, i look forward to seeing its progress

 

Yeh I am also making my own suit. BUt instead of starting from stratch...I'm am using my old biking leathers. Yeh that right I had a motor bike. I will obviously make adjustments and I also took the speak out of my Vader Helmet cause I hat it in my mouth or in my nose all the time.

EDIT: I will post images tomorrow of how costume looks so far.

 

Interesting!

I look forward to seeing them.

How you managing for shoulder armour? I'm really struggling on that part of the costume.

 

I thinking I may just order a mould of it. I need to get extra material(both Leather and Normal Cotton sheets).

I have the following made...

1x Helmet(of course)
1x Complete Leather suit - Top and Bottom
1x Black Boots (I will be making shin gaurds at a later date).
1x Black Cape (but it could do with being dyed again cause it has lost its colour a bit).

I have attached the voice box from the to the front of the leathers and now the helmet sits properly on my nogin'

Welshguy: Try all your costume on and post an image, I will post my images later this evening most likely.
The Shoulder guards will the biggest problem. Also need to make a belt and then make the extra robe he has under his cape.
It will be fun to wear once its done.

Time for Call Of Duty now hehe!!!!

I'm glad to be back aswell....lol

 

I have got a photo of the costume on my friend (he's going to be wearing it cause he's a lot taller than me), but i'm holding back posting it cause I don't want to spoil the suprise.

But given my record of not posting things I mean to, I may as well post it here. I guess it won't spoil the anticipation of the tutorials and the costume. If anything, it will build interest, so people can see the finishes item first (well its 85% finished), so they will be more interested in it.

I'll post the pic when I get home, as i'm posting on my works computer now and I don't have it uploaded to photobucket.

Look forward to seeing your costume dude.

 

Come on Iceman, I want to see what your costume looks like before I post a picture of mine!

I don't want to look like the poor relation who has to wear family hand-me-downs!

 

Apologies I have been busy. I will get one here soon.

 

Ok, at the risk of being upstaged here's the 85% finished Vader costume that I made.

I know the armour is crappy and I don't have any shin armour of lining for the cape, but its getting there.

So, what do you think?

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Welshguy/vader1c.jpg]

 

welshdude, that is awesome!! you really did that for under £100?

 

Welshguy You know what I think of that cossie
But 'tis MOST excellent dude! You have to go take it out for a neighbourhood stroll test, see is local crime plummets whilst Vader is strutting his stuff lol.

 

Thanks Wiz and Tim!

Yeah, I did make it for under a hundred pounds. Turns out that I have something of a skill for costume making. I'm particularly pleased with the cod piece (though I need to take an inch off the top). I made it all myself from scratch and i'm very happy with how its turning out.

I was a bit worried when I got the helmet back as it was soooo big, but when you put all the costume together, you can see how well it works and how its all in proportion. I've also got a Vader lightsaber (not seen with costume) and i've recently bought vynal placemats (odd I know) to make new shoulder armour, so i'm looking forward to that!

You know if I did take it out for a neighbourhood stroll test, I don't think it would make much difference. Not even a dark lord of the Sith could tackle the crime where I live!

 

Come on then Iceman. Lets see your Vader costume!

 

This is an all round excellent project:

10/10 - idea
10/10 - putting a thread here to follow progress
10/10 - resulting costume

FIVE GOLD STARS

 

Thanks very much Sith. Just wish I had the time to go into a lot more detail in the work that i've done. But what with my busy social life and large circle of friends, it gets harder and harder to keep track of this sort of thing..

That and I spend a lot of time sleeping... 18 hours a day sometimes..

Well, all the time really. But I did go out on the weekend... Well, that "Sheep offenders register" won't sign itself.


Here's me attempting to learn how to wire up the correct voltage to the correct resistors. It turns out to be quite a hard thing to do. I blew a couple of bulbs in the process, but got there in the end.

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Welshguy/Image033.jpg]


Here's a close up of the buckle. I made it out of cardboard, some glue and silver spray paint. Got the correct measurments off the net, so I think it turned out really well considering I made it out of bit of rubbish hanging around.

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Welshguy/Image01o2.jpg]

Finally, the belt in all its glory! I know the lights are round and not square, but who cares? I made the belt boxes out of old aftershave boxes and sprayed them black. I created a cut out section in the back to enable me to put the batteries and electronics in there. The belt boxes are operated by microswitches that are located on the far sides of the boxes (don't know if you can see them in the pic) and the little bit of mesh was made using... Well, a little bit of mesh.

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Welshguy/belt5.jpg]

 

W-hoa.



I hope you're charging your friend like, a bizillion for this!!

 

Well actually the costume is mine, I just get my friend to wear it cause he's 6' 3" and he owes me so much, he's practically my own personal Chewie.

But thanks for the kind comments anyway.

So you approve of the belt I take it?

 

Nice looking Vader costume, I'm usualy not interested in the whole dressing up side of things but after V for Vendetta came out I went crazy on wanting to get a mask and a costume, cause V just ******* rocks...

[image=http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/5735/dscf2738qx.jpg]

[image=http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/6627/dscf27315ui.jpg]