Graflex "SRS Hero" and Vader "ROTJ Hero" builds

Hey guys, Just wanted to show a few pictures of some progress I am making on a couple builds of mine!

Introducing: My Vintage Graflex ESB build and my Korbanth Vader!



So first up is my Graflex. Every part on here including the secondary red button is vintage. While this is something a lot of you guys may not see as a massive accomplishment, as a first time prop builder I'm actually very proud of myself for this.

This is one that I have been a going back and forth on for a while with different things I wanted to do plus If I wanated to gut it for sound. I've decided to go with a sound build on this full with Crystal Chamber and using a Solo's Hold Blade Holder to make it as accurate as humanly possible while also having sound. I'm also leaning towards a "SRS/Hero Combo", taking in my favorite parts of each of these sabers and combining them. Included at the moment is a very nice looking vintage HP-44 Card (thanks to Edraven99 for that!). I am also looking for a vintage Kobold Clip, and might have a lead on one, fingers crossed!



My Korbanth MPP 2.0 has had a little bit of work done to it. I am going to try and make this one as 100% accurate as possible even with it being Korbanth (fantastic replica to turn into a saber by the way!) I've done a bit of work to it already, including adding in small screws into the handle, and swapping out all the buttonhead screws with slotted (thanks to Daniel George on Facebook for those, I have no idea if you are on here, though!) I also ended up buying a Romans Card to cut and use on my MPP for more accuracy, but ended up screwing that cut up. Oops! :wacko Doesn't look terrible, but it isn't great either...

Back to the small screws, though, If anyone is looking for a nice little screw they can use to simulate the small screws used in the grips, I found some 4-40 Gun screws at my local ACE Hardware, and they look pretty nice in that spot. If you don't mind a slight accuracy hit, they were a ridiculously easy find.



I'm also planning on getting a Romans MPP for a replica that is as accurate as humanly possible without shelling out $1000 for a vintage. However, that can always change....

More updates to come!

You're off to a great start with these lightsaber builds Hopkinsc1 ... well done

Chaïm

I dun goof'd...

Well, actually, my friend goof'd. I was showing him the MPP and he pushed down hard enough on my bubblecard to actually snap the damn thing! Probably partly my fault though, I probably sanded the bottom too much to get the button to work. Well now I know for the future, so live and learn! Good thing is I may have sourced another for just the shipping price, and I can actually get a more accurate cut! However it's coming from the UK, so who knows when that will actually arrive?



I also cut off the lever on my 2.0. It got pretty beat up, and there is even a chunk missing out of the lever nub, but I am growing to like it as a bit of battle damage. This thing is gonna be slightly weathered and I don't think will look too out of place. If that changes however I know of some replacement parts coming out soon. So no big deal.



Next big thing I'm going to be doing is getting a WannaWanga Bulb Piece as well as a kit to stamp letters in. So, if anyone reading this has a vintage MPP, what size are the letters that are stamped in above the BES ports? I believe they are 1.5mm but I would like to make sure on that.

As for the Graflex, no real progress has been made on that. I did however realize that while I have a folmer Graflex top piece, my bottom is a post-patent Graflex. I'll need to change that...

Perhaps for now you could use some ducktape underneath them bubbles? That's the props-guys way to fix things on set ... that and clothespins, paperclips and a piece of string at times



Chaïm

I do still have the two halves so I might actually end up doing that either way for now

Well just a small update today, not too much has happened recently due to work popping up. And unfortunately my lead on a vintage Kobold Clip had fallen through My only other option for one at the moment is eBay, but it is hilariously overpriced. So that one is a no-go.

However! There is some good coming in soon, once Roy gets back from his vacation Will have a bigger update once that happens!

Hopkinsc1 said:

My only other option for one at the moment is eBay, but it is hilariously overpriced.

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What do you expect ..... that someone sells you his real clip for small money and reducing (extremly) his Kobolds worth with that? :lol

Lichtbringer said:

What do you expect ..... that someone sells you his real clip for small money and reducing (extremly) his Kobolds worth with that? :lol

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Well I would buy a full Kobold for about $300 - $400... he's trying to sell it for over $1200.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Try ebay, with luck you can get one for that amount - or maybe a little bit more. It´s worth to try it starting with 300, and if needed go higher on the next auctions step by step, until you get lucky.

In my opinion .... as you are trying to make a frankenstein-saber only and not a exact copy, it isn´t worth it, Even if you have a real Kobold, keep it as is, get a copy (wannawangas are good) and call it a day.

So an update on the 'Flex, I have done a few things to it since I last posted about it. I have swapped out my Bunny ear rivets with a rivet screw, as well as cut off the beer tab, and put in my Solos Hold Blade Holder, so everything is going very smoothly, with only a small amount of damage near where the beer tab was.



Now, a problem I have run into is that the hole where the beer tab piece used to be doesn't want to clear itself out. I have gotten it a little bit from the inside of the gun, but the brass piece doesn't want to come out still. Any ideas?

Hopkinsc1 said:

Now, a problem I have run into is that the hole where the beer tab piece used to be doesn't want to clear itself out. I have gotten it a little bit from the inside of the gun, but the brass piece doesn't want to come out still. Any ideas?

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I had this happen to me the first time I removed the beer tab as well. The way I got it out was to remove the blade plug/socket and use an appropriate sized punch to knock it out. Removing the blade/bulb socket let's you put the punch through the glass eye hole and remove the entire rivet and tab with almost zero damage.
Pro tip: Buy yourself an armorers block for working on 1911 and other pistols. I'd left mine out on my bench one day after working on my 1911, started doing some work on a graflex and realized how great it was for workin on sabers. They're really cheap and provide for a great non-marring surface for several tasks while working on prop stuff.

l33tLX said:

I had this happen to me the first time I removed the beer tab as well. The way I got it out was to remove the blade plug/socket and use an appropriate sized punch to knock it out.

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This worked like a charm, Thanks! I also cut down the inside of my slide tab for my aux switch, but I may have done it a bit too much, so depending on circumstances I may need to move to Plan B on that, and make it a tactile switch using Neodimium Magnets. We'll just have to see during install, I guess.

Hopkinsc1 said:

This worked like a charm, Thanks! I also cut down the inside of my slide tab for my aux switch, but I may have done it a bit too much, so depending on circumstances I may need to move to Plan B on that, and make it a tactile switch using Neodimium Magnets. We'll just have to see during install, I guess.

View attachment 723531

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i removed tabs before with a file, like perviously stated remove the grafted guts then sand the inside of the tube with a file and the tab falls right out. i have a question though, have you thought of any way to make the slide switch spring loaded? I'm trying to come up with a way so you dont manually have to bring the switch back... maybe a rubber bushing between the switch and the aux switch?

that may work, also maybe a small spring put onto either the switch or the nub of the slider (if you have a nub left...I kind of don't)

Hopkinsc1 said:

that may work, also maybe a small spring put onto either the switch or the nub of the slider (if you have a nub left...I kind of don't)

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i haven't attempted anything, i was just curious if you were going to make it spring loaded. i love what I'm seeing so far! keep up the great work!

halliwax said:

i haven't attempted anything, i was just curious if you were going to make it spring loaded. i love what I'm seeing so far! keep up the great work!

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I originally was not but I may try to now. and I appreciate it man! It's good to get some positive reaction on this stuff when I am so new to it!

Well I made an interesting find on eBay the other day and these came in the mail today!



One of these is definitely a vintage based off of what I have seen, and I'm heavily considering turning it into a DV6, as the process has already been started. I may keep the clamp for a certain grenade based Saber in the future, but as of now I have no idea if I even want to commit to that. The other (thanks to Scottjua) was identified as a Parks V1. That one Will more than likely be a non-sound build for an ANH style saber. All the glass eyes and buttons are also definitely replica, probably V1 as well.

More updates on the Graflex! I got the grips on, and I gotta say I'm fairly happy with how they turned out!



I bought a pair of both Wannawanga grips and some Blast-Techs from The Custom Saber Shop, I wanted to have some options on what I could do. I did a bit of research on what I wanted to do and I decided to go with.....

The Blast-Techs!

There are a couple of reasons I went with the Blast Techs. One is my roommates dog got a hold of one of my WannaWangas and basically destroyed it, so I only had 5 grips. Second, however, is this picture of the Skywalker Ranch Saber.



Now this isn't a debate on whether or not the grips in the film are plastic or rubber; in fact, I do believe the screen accurate grips are a plastic grip, as are ones used in promo pics. That being said, if you look where the cheesewheel screw is near the top of the grips, it looks like the grip is bowing out around the screw, as if the screw tightened down to the point of warping the grip. Let me know if I'm wrong, but hard plastic doesn't do that. Rubber does. And since I wanted to emulate parts of both the Hero and the Skywalker Ranch Saber, I went with the rubber. All I need now is my Kobold Clip and I'm ready to go!

The grips are also purposefully put on the lightsaber slightly haphazardly; I didn't think it would look necessarily correct if the grips were 100% straight, and although one grip had to be fixed after it was all said in done, overall they all came out fantastic.

I'm in the process of selling the top half of my other Vintage Flex as well. Originally I wanted to do a DV6, but another project caught my eye.



The calculator came in today and the clamp is an extra one I had after I bought the parks and other vintage piece. I'm also talking to parfaitlumiere about buying some vintage transisotrs and washers off of him.

That's right..... I've decided to start on that project....

So . . . now if I'm well informed the dog decided for you which T-tracks to use? :lol Perhaps you just should have asked Roy for a replacement T-track ... his customer service is immaculate ... especially if you order his Kobold replica clip with D-ring along

Chaïm

Hopkinsc1 said:

More updates on the Graflex! I got the grips on, and I gotta say I'm fairly happy with how they turned out!

View attachment 726277View attachment 726276View attachment 726275

I bought a pair of both Wannawanga grips and some Blast-Techs from The Custom Saber Shop, I wanted to have some options on what I could do. I did a bit of research on what I wanted to do and I decided to go with.....

The Blast-Techs!

There are a couple of reasons I went with the Blast Techs. One is my roommates dog got a hold of one of my WannaWangas and basically destroyed it, so I only had 5 grips. Second, however, is this picture of the Skywalker Ranch Saber.

View attachment 726278

Now this isn't a debate on whether or not the grips in the film are plastic or rubber; in fact, I do believe the screen accurate grips are a plastic grip, as are ones used in promo pics. That being said, if you look where the cheesewheel screw is near the top of the grips, it looks like the grip is bowing out around the screw, as if the screw tightened down to the point of warping the grip. Let me know if I'm wrong, but hard plastic doesn't do that. Rubber does. And since I wanted to emulate parts of both the Hero and the Skywalker Ranch Saber, I went with the rubber. All I need now is my Kobold Clip and I'm ready to go!

The grips are also purposefully put on the lightsaber slightly haphazardly; I didn't think it would look necessarily correct if the grips were 100% straight, and although one grip had to be fixed after it was all said in done, overall they all came out fantastic.

I'm in the process of selling the top half of my other Vintage Flex as well. Originally I wanted to do a DV6, but another project caught my eye.

View attachment 726279

The calculator came in today and the clamp is an extra one I had after I bought the parks and other vintage piece. I'm also talking to parfaitlumiere about buying some vintage transisotrs and washers off of him.

That's right..... I've decided to start on that project....

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Roy and ToddsCostumes make equally fine but different track

after a LOT of time, like decades, cheap plastic can start to squish like that. the SRS saber's grips are most likely re-used original grips that fell off. when that prop dept. made look-allike parts they looked awful :lol