Techotic

This steam punk Darth Vader mask was created by modifying an old mask that was bought at Disney World. Now up for sale on eBay, the auction is ending Apr-03-08. As of this moment, the bidding price was $65.50 USD, i think it’ll end at around $150 USD. I wouldn’t go for it, since i think it looks like a piece of junk, but the chest plate i digg.

This Vader mask was sitting on my shelf for about 14 years. It was originally purchased for me on my first trip to Disney World. Rather than get rid of it, I decided to have a little fun with it. I was inspired by some art from the Vader Project, and some other cool steam punk Star Wars stuff I found online. The mask itself was a Don Post mask. Not the best quality, but not the worst either. It is made of plastic and comes in two parts, the front face mask and the back dome. The two pieces are held together with Velcro, which actually works quite well. I modified the helmet by carving out detail to make it look like brass plate and adding several tacks to simulate rivets. This process was tedious and took forever. I finished it off with a WWI style helmet spike, which is actually a ceiling fan pull chain and an antique paint job. The chest plate was made from a shadow box frame (8 inches tall x 6 inches wide x 3 inches deep) and a bunch of cannibalized clock, and other device parts. I wired a green LED to a switch in the back that runs on two AA batteries. The steam tank was made from a piece of PVC pipe with a vintage pressure valve inserted into it. There are two holes drilled in the end of the tank which a rubber hose can be inserted into and then into the holes in the mask. I drilled out the spot where the tusk pieces should be. I am not going to permanently affix the hoses to the mask or the tank, in case the buyer wants to change them. The chest strap and shoulder straps were fashioned from a set of two men’s belts. the total width of the chest strap, including the chest piece is about 53 inches. The shoulder strap is in two pieces 22.5 inches and 18.5 inches in length. I did not cut any holes in the shoulder strap. I will leave that up to the buyer to measure. A lot of time went into making this piece. It would be a great start to a cool costume for either role playing or a convention, or just use it as a nice display piece.