Darth Vader
I have had this model on the shelf for quite a long time. This is an AMT/ERTL kit that was out in 1995. I never did a figure kit, and this was going to be my first. I thought how hard would it be to do Darth Vader when he is mostly Black and there are no skin tones and eyes to play with. But trust me, it was hard enough. Because I had to get three different shades of black. Plus his Shoulder Armor was a bit off from the Episode 4 (Star Wars), and nothing like it in Episode 5 and 6. (Empire Strikes back and Return of the Jedi)
So first things first, I had to put him together
Getting him together was not bad at all because many of the seems were hidden by Boots, or armor. The biggest gaps that had to be cleaned up and puttied was his arms. they came with the upper part as armor, and the lower, his arm pits. So I used Apoxie Sculpt and placed that on the gaps, then used a toothpick to align the strips of his clothes together through the sculpt so the edges would match. If you notice in the picture above, the armor that is between his legs sits a little lower than normal. I messed up on that, and ended up pulling him apart with Nail polish remover and a bit of cussing.
Next, I gave him a base coat of Tamiya Flat Black. I like using the Tamiya colors because they seem to flow real nice, and it is an easy cleanup. In this picture, you may notice the armor between his legs is fixed.
Now I added the gloss colors. For his boots, gloves and belt, I used the Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black, and for the Head and shoulder armor, I used Tamiya Gloss Black.
For his Cape, and the small cape that hangs from his waist, I decided to use a fabric instead of the vinyl ones that came with the kit. My friend Karen suggested that I should use them as templates and add Stiffy to the fabric so it will hold. Stiffy is basically 50% Elmers glue and 50% Water. so this picture above shows the fabric still on the vinyl cape in the drying process.
Next I had to add the Silver. I didn't want to paint silver, because it becomes such a pain to make sure it looks even. So I ended up using Bare Metal foil for all the silver areas. Plus I added Bare Metal foil to the areas that I found through research to be a light or button that lit up. With that, I would put down the BMF, then go over it with a Clear colored Tamiya paint. It makes it look like a lens or plastic covering for a light.
I also found through research, that his helmet did have areas that were a silver, or a silver base with a clear dark coating over it. So to add the shine of such a feature, I added the Bare metal foil to a couple of areas, and then covered them with Tamiya Smoke. That gave it a type of hidden shine. I also wanted to do the eyes like the Mask, and used the BMF, and covered it with a mixture of Tamiya Clear Red, and Smoke. that gave it the dark reddish lens look that you see in the movie. Now in episode 4, his shoulder armor has no real silver in it, but it is basically the design of the models armor, then in episode 5 and 6, the armor had silver in it, but was in vertical stripes. So I added the silver to give him a better look. so I just tell people that it is between Episode 4 and 5 that he had this armor. Good Excuse huh? As for his Light Saber, I used the Tamiya Clear Red again, and added BMF to the handle.
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