New Darth Nihilus WIP (V2.0 In Progress)

[Guest Anonymous]

Hey you live near Hershey PA... I live roughly 90 minutes from you!!!

 

Maybe I can offer some help to a local sith in training.

 

I was actually hoping that. I had applied to the Garrison Carida, as a Death Star Trooper. but some Real Life stuff came up. Now I am seriously approaching this impression.

[ghostred7]

for my saber...i'm doing a "sink pipe special"

eventually on the end will be a MHS blade holder that has the same end as the CotF one...but until i get the $$$ for it, then the standard straight TCSS blade holder will have to do.

 

Intial concept

 

And I apologize for these images...i took them with a cellphone cam i wasn't familiar with, so they're waaaayyy out of focus....now on to the "emitter shroud". I was going to make it a straight line like in the concept, but decided a little curvature gave it more "personality." I cut/formed this with a piece of 1.5" sink tube and a Dremel. In theory, the 1.25" blade holder will go into this and i'll carve my initials in Aurebesh on the back of the emitter shroud so that way light can spill through and it look like it's lit. I'll be using this guide (in hopes this is correct):

 

 

 

It won't look as good as the machined ones...but WITH LED & stuff, it comes out to less than $100. If i stick a painted dowel (my temp solution) in it, then total cost is less than $40.

[ghostred7]

Per advise, we trimmed up the mask a little (still have to repaint where cut and smooth stuff out). I gotta say....it looks pretty cool IMO and really like how it turned out.

 

 

EDIT: I HIGHLY recommend the Schampa "Coolskin" Balaclava. I wear this one backwards, can see perfectly through it (even in low light), it breaths like a champ (uses similar technology/materials to Under Armor heat gear), and feels good to the skin....i am wearing mine backwards in this pic (on the right) with no photoshopping required

[The Clone Emperor]

 

It is subtle, but I for one, like the adjustment. I think the implied guantness in the mask is more forboding, and consequently a better capture of the character.

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

Be well,

Thomas

[ghostred7]

Thank you sir!

 

That means a lot to us.

[ghostred7]

Still have to fix the hood area, but this weekend @ a Halloween parade was my first "field test" of what the trimmed mask looks like with everything else. I love it.

 

The 2d pic I took b/c of the direct sunlight over my left eye. Even with direct sunlight, my face/eye covering barely shown anything through it....i'm really happy with the Schampa balaclava too....it breathed and cooled just as well, if not better, than the Under Armor one. Disclaimer: i don't have a fat roll on that side spilling over my belt...our resident Leia's hair went "funky" (hence her nickname "funky buns") and i have her buns stuffed in my outer tunic

 

 

[Guest Sakara]

Per advise, we trimmed up the mask a little (still have to repaint where cut and smooth stuff out). I gotta say....it looks pretty cool IMO and really like how it turned out.

 

 

EDIT: I HIGHLY recommend the Schampa "Coolskin" Balaclava. I wear this one backwards, can see perfectly through it (even in low light), it breaths like a champ (uses similar technology/materials to Under Armor heat gear), and feels good to the skin....i am wearing mine backwards in this pic (on the right) with no photoshopping required

 

Do you have contact details for this type of balaclava?

[ghostred7]

You can get it from their site...but i found it via random google entries for "Schampa Coolskin,' although I can't recall how I came about this particular product other than googling for balaclavas.

 

http://www.schampa.com/Item.asp?IID=860

 

I'm sure there's other equally as good stuff out there...but for $15USD, that's not bad. I paid less for mine....it was only ~$17 after shipping. Couldn't tell you where I found it though. Heck...and if you look in the above pic (w/ the Leia), you can see that even in direct sunlight, it hardly penetrates to the skin.

[ghostred7]

Thanks to Ris'sa, i have a couple of more pix of the mask from the parade. I love how it turned out after post-trim.....now i gotta finish fixing the hood/cowl area, which i've started

 

[ghostred7]

EDIT: Oops...deleted wrong post

 

I was bored and tried my hand at some photoshoppin' of a pic I took last night.

 

Original:

 

[ghostred7]

A quick recap of 6 months of work....amazing to see everything back to back and how costumes transform over time. Sure, we as costumers notice the changes, because we're the ones making them....but when reflecting, it's amazing how far something can come...and it's equally rewarding as well.

 

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v694/ ... slides.flv

[ghostred7]

Woohoo!!!! I got my hilt in today....here's some pics. Ya'll know me....i had to add some photoshoppin' love to one of them.

 

Reference Image

 

[Guest Anonymous]

That looks great! Nice photoshop magic too

[Guest Anonymous]

Is that the CP model? Are you going to have a Luxeon put in that baby? If so I want to know how that goes.

[ghostred7]

Yes it's the CP one and yes i'm going to put LED in it eventually.

 

I'm going to do a quick-change LED setup so I can use it for my Nihilus as well as my generic Jedi (will probably use an Amber LED for that).

 

Now, if they get optics for the Lux Rebel....then i'm all over that.

[Guest Anonymous]

Looking forward to seeing the saber with the blade!

 

- Carolyn

[ghostred7]

Hey all...just wanted to show the progress I finally made with my saber. It is now wired for LED (LuxIII) with a quick change kit so I can change between red & green. Naturally....I went with red first

 

The blade I have for it is 40". I got it that long b/c of all the Nihilus pics I've seen, his blade is long....so here ya go. First cpl are of it against the wall so you can see the output of the LED. I need to re-do the blade (bought pre-made one) so it's more even, but i'm still happy with it. At some point I'm going to up the output with a driver instead of a resistor, but like i said...i'm still happy with it for now.

 

 

And like the rest of the Nihilus costuming world....i had to do the mask lighting shots...

 

This one kinda shows the length...it's tilted back a little...but gives it a good taper from base to tip.

[Guest Anonymous]

Great blade...I have the same one with the LED and love it. Nice and lightweight.

[Guest Anonymous]

Very nice MH very nice indeed

[Guest Anonymous]

Nice Saber!

[ghostred7]

Greetings again all.....a little update.

 

I've started on my v2.0.

 

Things being done:

 

• * New wimple. Thanks to a very generous gift, i can finally fix the "coat hanger wimple" and make that area look more like it should. I've already started the disassembling of my old setup and fitting to new.
  * New inner tunic
  * Cape/hood fix to accommodate new wimple
  * POSSIBLY new outer tunic
  * New belt
  * Either new hilt or improvement on the blade & electronics for saber