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yeah, guys, the only thing you will hve to do if anyone else buys a vader rubies suit is work the helmet over some. mostly take off some plastic on the bottom edge of the neck so when the armors on the armor dont shove the helmet straight up like mine did. its better now tho. ive taken off around a 1/2 inch so far. i can move my head and the helmet sits on my face better. might still need to trim some more off. the biggest area needed trimmed is on both sides from the back corners about 4 to five inches towards front. then ya gotta smooth it all out to look right. i cheated and used my dremel with a sanding drum. lol take off a good amount then sandpaper it out smooth. saved some time.
and the armorall ultra shine stuff did shine it up fairly good. i will need to go over the parts again one or two more times. the first time the plastic just pretty musch absorbs it. dont worry, it wont hurt the parts. this stuff is made for injection molded abs plastics. you use it on your cars.
got the fans installed. one in the top key alignment area. i hotglued it to side and switch next to it, hotglued. then on other side of the squared area i used super velcro to attach the 9 volt to that side of the key square area.
the 2nd fan i placed right in the lower front grill. i touch of hotglue to keep it there and i hotglued the switch to the side of the breather box speaker which is already installed in helmet. its stuck ther with velcro. i cut out the foam padding right beside the breather speaker box and used velcro to attach battery next to it on the helmet.
ive been thinking and working on the vader voice box. the one i got from triktoys will work ok. you just need to play around with it till you get the volume of your voice and the tone right. youll see if you get one. my best solution so far, which works the best is to put either a piece of cloth or microphone foam over mike. it has a clip on back of it. i tried a elastic cord tied around my head just tight enough, when mike is clipped on it to hold it up against the corner of my mouth.
after playing with this thing i found that if you hold it against the left or right corner of mouth, just so, and speak, it comes through clear and no air blowing when saying f's or c's ie....
so as it stands right now, a bit more trimming probably on helmet neck, gotta get a flat elastic band, i was using a cord, just to figure this out, also the shoulder armor, just like others have said, flips up and chokes/cuts into your throat from cape weight.
i will go to army surplus and get some web belt and a buckle, just like the ones the suit has, and epaoxy it to the underside of the front armor, (shoulder), then i can run, yet one more, web belt around my chest and buckle it in back. that should hold the armor down. well its time for bed, and 2 days of going to work. i will be off again for 3 days on fri, sat, and sun. i will work some more then on helmet.
overall, super suit, just know youll have to work on helmet and a few tweks here and there. oh and BTW, the suit is hot. its big enough on me, i think i can use oine of those cool vests underneath.
later..............
You dont know the POWER, of the dark side...
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Council Member
Sith Warrior
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Be sure to include pics of the individual parts (please?)... [
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Council Member
Sith Warrior
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Council Member
Sith Warrior
Ok,
Unexpectedly got to break free, and go to a friend's house, and take some pictures. Some may be a little grainy, but this is the first set. 
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER01
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER02
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER03
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER04
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER05
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER06
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER07
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER08
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER09
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER10
http://members.aol.com/JEDISITHLORD/VADER/VADER11
I'll post more at a later time. I am extremely happy with this costume. It seems like it was made for me, fits like a glove.
I made some adjustments after seeing how low the chest box was hanging, and I'll have to make a few minor ones, like putting velcro on the back of the belt boxes to keep them in place, and cutting back the cod to keep from shaffing my legs. 
Other than that, this costume is HOT although I didn't mind it so much, except the lenses fogging. I need to get a voice changer/amp, and maybe a few fans, and hook up a tube to drink from. The breathing device is loud, and it looks DAMN unbelievable
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Good stuff... :thumbs up:
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ok, update: i got the voice thing done. i had to use 2 different headset things. 1 was a headset with a big speaker over your ear and a boom mike. i cut that off. wouldnt fit wearing it when i tries to slip mask on. kept yanking it off on me. so after seein that, like i said, i cut the whole speaker/boom mike thing off. which left me with a flat wire thing going over my head from left ear to in front of right. i then used a over the ear setup and epoxied that to the right side where i cut off the big ole speaker/mike.
then i ended up cutting off that lil earbud that was on the over ear setup. that left me with a very slim flatter on the sides rig. of course i cut off all the cords cuz i am using the voice amps mike. the boom mike on the over ear part had this lil poking thing on the end. perfect to push into the hole where wire went in mike. i epaoxied that in place. i hotglued the mike wire along the boom a couple inches back towards the ear part.
but unfortunately, i had to rig more up. the mike still would not set where i wanted it too. just a tad heavy, it wanted to droop down. so i fixed that. i got some waist band elastic, flat black. i made a loop of it going around my head trapping the headgear dowm. that made it more stable and didnt move so much when slipping helmet on or off.
but mike still wouldnt stay like i wanted. so i added a strap of elastic making a small sliding loop on the right side attached to the elastic band around my head, running it down and under my chin up to right behind my left ear. so heres how it goes on, i slip the headset on then sliding the elastic chin strap towards the left slip the headband part down in place. then take that sliding chin strap part move it back around to right side in fron of right ear. slipping the chin strap in the clip on back of mike. it stays put and holds in right at the corner of mouth right where i get the best sound and no hissing or air blowing sounds when talking.
that took me all day to figure that out. i know it sounds like a lot, but really when you see it, i will get pics when i can, youll see it aint bad. then i moved on to the next problem.
you have that breather hooked up in there, and rubies run the cord behind the foam padding. so you cant unvelcro and take off your helmet. its still attached, so to speak. so heres where i got creative, i snatched a servo extension lead from my radio controlled airplane and it had both male and a female connector on it. so i cut the breather wire about a 1 1/2 from where it come out of the side tube of the helmet. i used tiny crimp connectors from radio shack to crimp on one end of that servo wire. it had 3 wires, and i just cut one off, leaving 2. then i did the same for the other end with the other connector. i used heatshrink on the connection to make them more secure and less likely to break. the connectors go togehter and apart pretty easily and stay secure when together.
so thats solved. when i take helmet off, i simply unplug the breather wire, and i can set the helmet down. i will run the wire form the helmet connector down under armor inside suit out the right bottom hole for chest box, around to right and velcro the switch box to the backside of right hand belt box.
with the standard vader type pose, i just use my little finger to push the breather button. neat huh? on to i think, the last major task. i got some web strapping, exactly like they used on the costume at wally world, got lucky i guess, and a couple plastic buckles, same as suit.
i sat for hours trying to find the best way to anchor down that front shoulder armor to stop that flip up everyone and myself has discovered. i finally got it, i think. i used the web belt and about 2 inches from top on the underside of front, i epoxied 2 peices of web belt about 90 degrees to each other right in the center so they run down at angles towards the bottom left and right sides. \
heres the neat part, the straps run down on each side of me, down to a slip loop with one half of the buckle on it slipped over the cod strap. i might move that to the strap of the belt boxes if cod strap doesnt work. it might provide a lil more secure and stable hookup. the adjustment part of the buckle is on the straps going down. the straps will be hidden under the guard, and inner robe and the inner robe also covers up both sides, naturally of the cod. the way the waist belt with boxes hold the inner robe in place. so you dont see the straps at all. adjustment is just a matter of tensioning those straps snug, not tight. it shouild keep it from flipping up. it might still raise up a little but not as much as without. or any at all, if i did it right.
i'll hopefully be getting pics today, if possible, if not, im still going over to a friends house to show them the suit. so i'll try it all on and see how its all fitting. as you can tell, even though its a super costume, there room for improvements that rubies could of made. so if you get one, be prepared for some modifications and alterations/adjustments.
oh, and yes the suit is hot. im looking into buying a cool vest off ebay to wear underneath mine.
till later then,
You dont know the POWER, of the dark side...
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