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Dave Dorman Dark Empire Luke While Hasbro's Expanded Universe Luke is a good rendition of Luke as he appears in the Dark Empire comics, the version I've made represents Luke as drawn by Dave Dorman for the covers of Dark Empire. He looks much more "Vader-ish" and "dark" like this. The parts used for this figure are the Expanded Universe Luke head, 1st edition Maul torso, Sith Speeder Maul upper arms, MOTDS Vader lower arms and gloves, and lower body and butt cape from the MOTDS Vader. The cape is from the Flashback Vader, with the collar from the Expanded Universe Luke. The head was not modified in any way. The shoulders on the torso were sanded down a little bit. At the bottom front of the torso, the vest was filed so that it appears to be the same piece of fabric as the butt cape. In order for the arms to fit into the torso right, I used the arm pegs from the 1st edition Maul. Both arms have articulation below the Maul sleeves. The left upper arm already had a hole for articulation, but the right upper arm (from Speeder Maul) did not. To articulate the right arm, I had to chop up the right upper arm from a 1st edition Maul, making sure to leave the chamber that holds the articulation peg intact. It ended up looking like a little black cylinder that was hollow. I then drilled a hole the size of the cylinder into the right upper arm, and glued the cylinder in the hole. (This method is somewhat similar to what I did for my Articulated Non-Buff Chewbacca.) After the articulation points in the upper arms were made, I had to cut the pegs for arm articulation. The right arm uses an artic. peg from the 1st edition Maul (to match the artic. cylinder I glued in), and the left arm uses an artic peg from the Speeder Maul (to match the left Speeder arm). I glued these pegs to the MOTDS Vader lower arms, which are discussed in the second paragraph below. Now you might well ask why I did not just use the upper arms from the 1st edition Maul to save myself (and you) all this confusion. Well, I tried this as a matter of fact, but the sleeves were just a little too small, and the angle of the left arm was wrong for the 2-handed saber grip I was aiming for. I also considered the upper arms from the MOTDS Maul, but they were too "poofy" to allow the 2-handed saber grip. The MOTDS Vader arms used as the lower arms need a little cutting to get the angles of articulation right. Keep in mind that the MOTDS Vader has articulated arms that provide a natural "cutting point". For the left arm I cut above the MOTDS artic. point to give the arm a little more length. In case you're curious, I tried using the lower arms from the Flashback Vader, so that I could get a good 2-handed saber grip. However, the Flashback Vader arms turned out to be too big, and he looked a little like a Sith lobster. For the lower body, the legs were shortened at the knees so that the boots would hide the cutting. The butt cape and main cape were shortened using a scissors. The neck hole for the main cape was cut a little larger, and the collar from the EU Luke was glued in place. The whole figure (including cape) was given a very slight wash and drybrushing with blue for that Dark Empire mood. The shirt was painted just a little more blue than the rest. The small piece of neck on the torso was painted a flesh color. The seam where the collar was glued to the cape was painted with a dull coat to hide the glossy glue residue. Luke faces off against the Clone Palpatine. The lightsaber effects in these two pictures were created using the Photoshop tools available at Lightsaber Ignition Action. Click on either picture to see the original version. To see more samples of this effect, check out my Star Wars Wedding page.

This page last modified on 8/25/2006
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