Darth Vader - Bandai 1/12

[CarlR]

     Going through my selection of Bandai Star Wars kits, I decided Darth Vader would be next. This is another of Bandai's excellent figures but I did not like the way the joints looked on the finished product - they are well engineered to allow the figure to be placed in multiple poses but make for an unrealistic appearance in those areas. 
     To eliminate the "action-figure" appearance and make the the joints look more life-like, I crazy-glued them permanently into position and filled the gaps with Milliput two-part epoxy. After the epoxy had partially hardened I carved the clothing texture into the epoxy filler.
     Another aspect of the kit which I wasn't overly impressed with was the the multi-part depiction of Vader's cape. The resulting concessions made to the cape detracted from the appearance of the final product. I tried replacing the kit's parts with a cloth cape but I could not find a suitable substitute - either the weave of the cloth was out of scale or it wouldn't drape properly or it bunched up too much at Vader's neck. 
     After much fitting, filing and sanding I was able to join the kit pieces into one unit and create an acceptable cape.
     These modifications to the kit result in a one pose only figure but I am ok with loosing that flexibility in order to get a more realistic look.
     Other modifications include carving the left hand clenched fist to show the base of the thumb and curled index finger and removal of the engraved cape chain clasp and replaced with a short length of jewelry chain.

[Scoobydoof]

Looks, great, out of interest how tall is he, and how long is the blade on the lightsaber?

[ScaleModelHobbyist]

That looks much better with the exposed joints eliminated. Good work.

[CarlR]

On 8/11/2021 at 6:10 AM, Scoobydoof said:

Looks, great, out of interest how tall is he, and how long is the blade on the lightsaber?

Darth is 17 cm tall and the light saber is 9 cm long