Darth Vader (Dark Lord of the Sith)

Darth Vader was born when Emperor Palpatine seduced young Anakin Skywalker to the Dark side of the Force. He served as Palpatine's right-hand man during the Galactic Civil War. He was redeemed when he killed Palpatine to save the life of his son, Luke. This is a rather simple custom figure. All I was really trying to do here was come up with a pose that I liked better than the original. I am pretty happy with the result.

Parts: Head (COMMTech Darth Vader), Torso (COMMTech Darth Vader), Arms (COMMTech Darth Vader), Gloves (POTJ Darth Maul), Legs (COMMTech Darth Vader), Lightsaberer (Dagobah Darth Vader).

Supplies: X-acto knife, super glue, file or emery board.

Reference: Photo stills from any of the films.

Step One: First, I cut off Vader's gloves and superglued the Maul gloves on in their place. I glued the open hand on so that he appeared to be reaching out to manipulate the Force. This was the main thing I wanted to achieve with this figure. The hand holding the lightsaber was attached so that the blade was angled toward the ground (he is attacking with the Force rather than the blade).

Step Two: Next, I used the X-acto knife to trim the molded lightsaber off Vader's leg. I then filed and sanded, as necessary.

Step Three: Finally, I trimmed the length of the soft-goods items so that they would fall correctly (the ones on the figure I used were way too long).