Scottrooper

Well, I never miss a chance to nitpick a Nihilus... But, unfortunately I can't really see many to pick. I'm not looking at the cowl or the way the fabric there hangs right now since you said that you're still working on that aspect. You will need to stick that foam padding in the chest, it'll help get the look right for that aspect of the suit. You're right about not being able to make out the details on the shoulders in the current pics, also can't really see the mask, it's washed out by the overhead light. Belt looks good, and the overall fit looks good on you so far.

Sorry for the delay in review, I've been kinda distracted lately. Suit does look much better now than it did before, but not quite there yet. Looks like the silver paint is rubbed off of the forehead decoration, it'll need to be touched up. Your outer tunic needs to be crossed over itself, worn like a Jedi tunic or Ninja gi. It may have slid open on it's own during the course of the pics, but we'll be looking for that cross over in the submission pics. (there should be two visible layers of wrapped tunics, I actually don't see either tunic wrapped in the pics.) The "horns" on the sides of the mask are two wide. THey need to come in so that the sides of the cowl drop down just barely to the side of the white mask. The inner layer on your tunic looks like it has some kind of zipper or seam running right down the center of the chest. That'll need to go. Nihilus's tunics are, as mentioned above, just like Jedi tunics or Ninja gis. They cross over one another and are held in place at the belt line.

In my opinion, whatever that's worth to ya, the RL is the right place for the Imperial Knights since they definately weren't villains. At one point in the run, one of the Knights reminds Emperor Fel that their duty is to prevent the Emperor from turning to the Dark Side. They spend the whole series fighting against Krayt's people, and working alongside the Jedi and Cade's crew. Maybe if the series had gotten to continue we would have eventually seen the Empire return to what we expect from an Empire in Star Wars, but with the cancellation, and what felt like a really overly rushed ending....we didn't get to see that. Doesn't make them any less cool looking

The shape of the ears is much better! But too high. They should be pretty close to straight out from the ornament on the top of the forehead

It all looks good to me so far How well does the mask fit on your face?

My preferred version as well. For the CotF version, here's my recommendations for where to start. 1. You're going to need a LOT of fabric. This Nihilus wear's multiple layers of tunic (like the Prequel era Jedi) plus two full length skirts, plus the full length cape and hood, and the obi. I'm partial to black raw silk (or silk noil) which we got from Dharma Trading Co. for mine. (took pretty much 2 full bolts) Additionally, you'll need some other fabric to make the quilted sleeves, try to avoid anything very shiny though. (we just used plain old cotton broadcloth for mine with quilting batting sewn in for the ridges) 2. Mask, there are a few ways to go for a mask these days. I know there are a couple available from various ebay sellers, and then, I make one. 3. Hood shape, I'll be honest, other than the fiberglass crown piece that Pam and I make available on occassion, I've not seen any truely well shaped hood support pieces up for sale. There've been some very nicely done individual efforts, but nothing for sale. 3. Boots, Just some nice simple black laceless boots. 4. Gloves, Motorcycle gauntlets without decoration. I think you can find some good recommendation links for gloves here on the forums. 5. Belt, Almost like a prequel Jedi belt, has the two stacked belts with the studs, but no buckle at all. Saber... I'm really not sure if there's anyone out there really making a decent CotF Nihilus saber these days. I'm sure that everything is here on the forums, but I've also got a site with Nihilus construction info at http://www.chucrew.com

Well, the place to start is going to be, which version of Nihilus do you want to do? Champions of the Force (CotF) is the more commonly done version of Nihilus. It's the version depicted in most of the various paintings and artwork of the character, as well as the action figure and miniature. This is the worn and tattered version. Knights of the Old Republic 2 (KOTOR2) is what we see in the game. It's a much more sleek and clean version. There's really no "main difference" between the two versions as they're completely different costumes. Once you've decided on which version you'd like to tackle, we can give more advice and info.

Agreed, much better, but not quite ready yet. Went just a little too far with minimizing the horns. Here's a rough pic of what you're looking for (forgive the photoshop work...it's not my forte.) Basically raise the horns back up just a bit to create a more squared look for the top. And move them forward. In profile, the cowl should cover almost all of the face.

Saber is fine. As long as it's not a Vader, Dooku, Maul, etc...you're good to go. For the capes. Remember that it isn't so much how you make it, as how the final appearance comes out. My capes are indeed 2 individual pieces, but they're built in such a way that you can't tell. (Same length, same fabric, wear patterns between the layers match up, etc...) I did initially try what Tags did, and put the outer most cape inside, but it just didn't hang right for me. I think, if you lengthen out the outer cape so that it's as long as your inner cape, as long as they're made of matching material, you should be ok. The length/weight may help with the cowl flaring out as well. For the tunics, pull the inner one a little tighter maybe so it crosses higher, then let the outer one hang a little looser so it crosses lower, then we'll be able to see the two layers

Atavistic nailed almost everything I would have said. The only addition to make to what he has already said is: It looks like you are missing a layer of tunic. There should be two of the criss-crossed tunics to this suit. Visible at the collar area only really. You might want to check Atavistic's build thread to see how he did his if you'd like to avoid making and adding another full tunic. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1965

Well, There's not really a easy way to say this but, you've got a lot of work to do with this one to bring it to 501st standards. The existing hooded cape isn't going to work. You'll need to rebuild that so that the cape can be pulled forward over the shoulders to tie into a knot. "Horns": Far from the worst treatment I've seen for these, they just need to be lowered moved out to the sides of the head a bit. The horns should basically create a boxy shape where the top forehead ornament just touches the top of the box. The fabric of the cowl should then create the sides of the box. Mask needs some paint touch ups, most noticable around the nose there's white paint out into what should be the blacked out face. The fabric around your neck needs to be tightened up so that it's not hanging so loosely. Tunics: Nihilus doesn't wear tabards. He wears two layers of tunics done in the same style as the Jedi tunics in the prequels, like a martial arts gi. Under them would either be the shirt with sleeves or, as many of us have done, the ribbed sleeves are sewn inside the arm holes of the innermost tunic to fake it. Sleeves: The quilting on the sleeves looks good, but the fabric is just too shiny. Gloves: Need a shorter gauntlet, they should reach your mid forearm, the current ones look to reach your elbow. Obi: As mentioned previously, needs to be made of fabric to match the tunics. Belt: Is missing. Skirts: The picture is pretty grainy at the bottom edge, so I can't really tell what I'm seeing there, but make sure that there are 2 seperate skirt layers, the outer one should have a slit that goes all the way to the belt line. Boots look fine. Sorry if it feels like I'm ripping your costume apart. But I'd rather give you everything right off the bat instead of just giving you one or two suggestions at a time.

It's hard to make out many details on the suit. (Pretty grainy picture, combined with the strong light behind you and it just hides a lot.) But, from what we can see... The crown "horns" look to be too far to the sides, and too high. Can't tell the placement front to back from the current shot. Can't see the front of the shirts to see the collars, or see the skirt split to show the layers. The sleeves do look like the quilted lines are too small/close together.

Here is the specific review I made of your costume, "We're definately going to need more pictures. He's currently wearing the cape drapped over his shoulders which hides so much of the costume that it's pretty much impossible to give a full review. He needs to push the cape back so that it just touches on his shoulders and then drapes along his back only. That'll allow us to really see his costume. The head though...the "horns" or "peaks" or whatever you'd like to call them are in the wrong place. They need to be moved forward so that they're just about even with the front of the mask. (in profile you should see just a very little bit of the mask behind the cowl fabric.) They also need to be moved inward, as with pretty much every one of the "Buy a premade Nihilus costume" offers you can find, they're too far to the sides, the cowl fabric should be only about a fingers width from the side of the mask at the cheek bones. Please send him to the Flagship Eclipse forums to share his pics and we'll work with him step by step to get him up to speed. " And here are the pics that were posted.

For number 1. Look around here on the forums, there are half a dozen or more different methods outlined for how folks have made their Nihilus masks. Pick the method you like best and cut loose 2. I use a "zentai" mask. It's just a spandex hood really. Do a google search or an ebay search and you'll turn up tons. But be aware that a lot of the results will be not safe for work. 3. Lightsaber is not mandatory for membership, and you can do one of the more generic KOTOR style hilts, just can't do something like a Vader or Maul saber.

Higher boots are good to go. (I use high boots for mine.) If you're doing the COTF Nihilus, you oughta go for matching your saber as close as possible as well. The Encyclopedia saber hilt is just and additional artists rendition of the saber. Saber's aren't mandatory for costume acceptance other than not being allowed to use another characters saber (IE. can't submit pics holding a Maul or Vader saber).

Looks great! Now you're ready to have your GML submit pics

You may wanna tell your GML not to submit the pics until you've finished making the changes.... and then to have him submit the updated shots. (you'll get the same answer on the pics if he posts them up as is.) Making the obi smaller may take care of the placement issues on the belt/obi really. In the existing pics it looks to be really high on you, but it may just be an artifact of the obi being so big. Weathering looks much better

For the most part, it's looking good! Here's the few things that're jumping out at me as problems. 1. The skirts and tunics, in the pictures, are clearly different fabrics. They photograph differently enough to cause an issue when it comes time for approvals at the legion level. 2. The obi is too big by about 1/3. You should have about an inch or so of material above the belt and the same below. (right now it looks like you could fit your belt on there 3 times and just barely cover the obi.) Might be able to just fold it under to fix that look. 3. Belt and obi are riding too high on your torso, pull them down to your waist. 4. Weathering, you're gonna need more. The existing weathering, especially on the skirts and cape is too minimal. That tattered look is one of the defining characteristics of the COTF Nihilus, so it needs to be much more apparent. (get it damp, then hit it with a cheese grater, or a wire brush (like you'd use to clean a grill) to get some more wear into it. you can cut irregular shapes out in spaces and then hit the edges with the wire brush to get the look in there some more as well. Sleeves look great, and I dig the dickie you put together

Welcome back buddy! Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one

Yeah, we make em. Currently not available though. (the mold is out of commission.) Anticipating a new mold, and new construction medium by July/August though.

Hmm...I posted a note last night, but now it seems to have vanished. VERY nice work! I look forward to seeing your costume go up on the official approval thread, it'll be one of the easiest Nihilus reviews, ever. The only thing I can see to even make any kind of recomendation on is to paint the belt studs flat black, to knock down the shinyness of them.

VERY Nicely done! Advice on the obi, don't put leather in there, that area gets hot already. Instead, put a piece of stiff batting / interfacing in the obi. It holds it stiff, without adding weight or retaining a lot of heat. Definately add some more weathering. Hit that sucker with the cheese grater around the bottom edges of the cape, skirts, and tunics. It'll rough it up nicely. (a handy hint I was given, get it wet first and the fibers won't go everywhere.) The cover tec clip is fine for trooping, but take it off for your submission pics. Also, set the Maul saber aside for the submission pics. When this shows up on the Approval thread at the legion level, it'll be one of the easiest reviews for Nihilus.

Just posted this up on the GML boards in response to your application, but I'll bring it here as well. Sorry I didn't post earlier, but here you go. Step 1: Go outside and get some pictures with enough light to actually see the costume. (all the pics supplied for your application are really dark.) Specific critiques: There are some must fix items and some recommended items. Must fix: The cowl. It's too loose across the top of the head. Left "peak" isn't defined, and he's missing the look of the gathered fabric in the inside of the peaks. The bottom of the cowl could really use some cleaning up as well, it doesn't quite look right. The cowl also doesn't seem to come forward enough, the look of the costume is that the mask is inside the cowl, currently it just looks like it's hanging off the front of the cowl. Cape. The cape attachments aren't defined well enough in the provided pics, but they should be sewn directly to the padded shirt at the front of the shoulders. Needs to be longer, it should reach the floor. Padded tunic. The current padding isn't achieving the correct padded/armored look. It may be a need to add more, but if you hadn't posted the pic of his padding, there'd be no way to know he actually has any. Sleeves. Too loose, a look at the reference material shows that the sleeves for this version of Nihilus are tight and not loose at all. Gloves: in the current pics the gloves are too bunched up. This may be fixed by fixing the sleeves, by tightening the sleeves, it'll remove the additional material from under teh gloves allowing them to lay flat. Sash/belt/obi: You can pick your own title for it, it sorta fits all three purposes. Needs to be tighter. Lower body: Needs to be longer, it should reach the floor. Recommended fix: Mask. I always hesitate when looking at masks, but this one is just not shaped right. It's supposed to be representative of a skull and therefore curve back like a skull, this is just too flat

Looks like you're off to a terrific start (or maybe restart is the better term?) with your soft goods. Sleeves look great Can't really see the shade difference in your skirt fabric but that could either be from the pic itself, the monitor I'm using, or just my inability to see it. The mask and crown though....not as good. (These are the same problems that've always been present in that particular kit unfortunately) Mask problems: There are no black jewels on Nihilus's mask. I don't know what the mask maker used for them, so I have no idea how they'll take paint. But they need to match the color of the rest of that centerline detail. And, while this is maybe more of a personal taste, the two round pieces on the centerline detail are just too darn high on the head. (the top one looks like it's sitting smack dab on top of the head instead of on the forehead.) Crown: Interesting way to go after the peaked "horn" look, I'd wondered how that was done with that kit. Here's what I'm seeing as not really working out on it. That inch or so of black that sitcks up so much higher than the mask detail is too high. It should curl up right there behind that detail and then slowly rise upward toward the back of the head. The side horns flare too far out. The hood should just frame the shape of your head. It's also not showing the gather points visible in the underside of the side horns from the artwork.

I've played around with several of the cheapy halloweenish voice changers from time to time. They can do some interesting things with your voice, but I've always found that one of two things happen with them; either they don't have enough volume to be heard over your normal speaking voice while being used in an event situation or they distort your voice so much that nobody can understand a word you are saying (not necessarily a bad thing for Nihilus, unless you find yourself needing to be able to talk to somebody)