Champagne Cork Darth Vader

This legendary Star Wars character has been on my Corky To-Do list since the beginning, but I never had time to make it until now. This 7cm Darth Vader Corky has probably been the most diverse (and possibly most challenging) Corky yet. Here's how I did it.

Above are some photos of some of the supplies I used. I was planning on gathering everything I used and taking a picture of everything at once when I was done, but there were so many different things I gave up trying to find them all again. Even though I used a lot of different supplies, most of them are simple things that most people will have in their home, so they shouldn't be too hard to find. 

Tools

• UHU glue
• Scissors
• Black, silver, blue, and red permanent markers
• Craft knife
• Glossy varnish
• Soldering iron and solder
• Third hand
• Pliers
• Hot glue
• Wood glue
• Super glue
• Clamps             
• Dough roller
• File
• Sandpaper

Materials:

• Champagne cork
• 3mm red LED
• Mini slide switch
• Insulated wire
• Button cells (I got them from a 12V battery, but you can buy them separately as well)
• Small battery spring
• Transparent plastic stirring rod
• Thick aluminium foil (I got it from a disposable aluminium food tray)
• Black sculpey
• Pieces of black fabric
• Cardboard
• Black rubber (from bicycle tubing)
• Black foam rubber
• Grey card
• Aluminium tape
• Small pins
• Paper

Chop your champagne cork in half with a saw, bread knife, or craft knife, and carve out the inside as shown above. Make sure that the switch, LED, and button cells fit. 
Then, solder the positive leg of the LED to the small battery spring, and the negative leg to the switch. Solder the other leg of the switch to the negative battery plate, and glue the two battery holding parts to the inside of the cork. Make the wires as short as possible, so that all the parts will fit inside the cork when you close it.
Fill all the empty space (except for the battery compartment) with hot glue, so that the switch stays in place and there won't be any accidental short circuits once the cork is closed.
Use wood glue to glue together the two halves, clamping the cork to let it dry.

The mask was surprisingly difficult to make. But whenever I thought that I wasn't going to finish, I thought of Vader's quote, "I find your lack of faith disturbing".
Even though it turned out alright, please DON'T DO IT LIKE THIS. I modeled the mask around a cork, and as I baked the Sculpey the cork expanded, causing everything to crack up. So whatever you do, don't bake the mask on the cork itself.
If you want to follow my example anyways, the photos above describe my process.

To stop the helmet from sticking to the mask, bake the two parts seperately (I had to cut some parts of the mask out of the helmet).
The time and temperature at which to bake the Sculpey depends on the brand and type, so check the packaging.

The lid is fairly simple to make. Just make sure that the cardboard circle and the cork align.

Cut a strip of black fabric and glue it around the cork with UHU glue, joining it at the side where the LED is. Don't forget to leave a hole for the switch at the back.

Cut a piece of black fabric large enough to cover the whole of the back side of the cork so that it flows like a cloak.
Leave a whole for the button at the back. Whereas I always used glue to attach the cloaks in previous Corkies, I realized that small pins are much easier and don't make the cloak as stiff.

I showed and described some of these details in some of the other steps, but here they are again. 

Unfortunately I forgot my camera when I sanded and cut the rod into the lightsaber blade, but it really depends on your rod, so the instructions would probably have been useless to you anyways. 

And that's how I made it. If you decide to make your own, I'd love to see a picture of it, which you can post below. 

May the force be with you.