With there being a popular Darth Vader cap out there that seems to draw quite a bit of attention.

When I see pictures of him on peoples keyboards I just feel he's missing something..

..Then it occured to me, Vader never stormed princess Lia's ship in 'A New Hope' by himself! He didn't burst into the base on Hoth solo! Was he all on his tod in the Cloud City?

He needs a team of Storm Troopers!

Time Needed.
15mins

Items Needed.
Modeling saw - £10
Old keycap for stem - £0
Needle file - £2
Storm Trooper helmet - £2
Milliput modeling putty - £4

Step 1
Saw Trooper helmet in half.

Step 2
Saw old keycap stem to remove the stem.

Step 3
Clean edges of the stem and helmet with the Needle file, also rough up the inside of the helmet and top of the stem to ensure the putty can bond well.

Step 4
Mix Milliput so you've the right amount, then sandwich it in the helmet and push the stem on top. Leave to dry for a few days.

Step 5
Repeat until you've a full squad of storm troopers.





Now your Darth Vader keycap can be the Hoth rushing bad-ass he should be! And not on his own crying and wimpy, like the end of Jedi.

Really good job there. Milliput is a good putty, I've tried myself to make keycaps with it too.

priceless. (cheaper than clickclacks though)


where'd you get the stormtrooper head from?
and on what key is it now, insert or caps or something else you don't wanna press?

off wrote:where'd you get the stormtrooper head from?

I'd guess it's a Lego Star Wars (TM) head.

You sir, are very much correct. He pm'd as much; I hadn't bothered editing my post.
Which, I could have guessed seeing how the vader one has an uncanny resemblence to a lego char as well

Hey, that idea looks familiar!


But clever use of putty directly to the stem. Getting these to precisely match the cylindrical face of the key required me to build a wooden jig.

If people here want I can post it in the mods subforum.

dirge wrote:

How did you cut a hole into a keycap with a saw? O_o

Icarium wrote:

dirge wrote:How did you cut a hole into a keycap with a saw? O_o

If you looked at the top of the cap you'd see the straight line cuts across the length of the cap. I didn't cut all the way through. That keeps the cap surround together, I'm going to use that for smaller heads like in ripsters examples. Which along with the Vader cap was what made me give this a go.

I've got a 1970's C3P0 in bad condition and I think his head may get mounted in the empty cap. I'd imagine having some issues getting it aligned right and I'd be restricted to using the same row as the donar cap... Not sure if it's a really good idea.

Good thing with the lego heads is the insides are already carved out. The old Star Wars figures would need dremmeling out before stem mounting, or they'd be too far above the key profiles.