Black, two sided, foam tape, for Vader's MPP saber grips?

Hey gang.

I know, I know, a LOT of you hate this trick for stepping up the Blas-tech grips to overcome the end cap on Vaders MPP sabers. But, I've ruined far to many props trying to do them the fancy way, all the wile folks telling me "it's easy", "if I can do it, you can", etc. and, in the end I always have a smocking pile of @#$%.

So, this time I am doing it the easy way.

I recall someone saying that they found Black, two sided, foam tape, that perfectly fit the width of the grips. I looked everywhere, and I thought I found it. However last week, I FINALY started finishing my Vader sabers, and I found that the tape I have, is WAY to wide. I put it on the grips, and cut away the excess, and put them on the sabers. They don't look too bad, but the tape looks "cut" in spots (a little uneven/wonky) They really don't look that bad at all, and I know a lot of people would just leave them the way they are, but I'm SO fussy, I just thought I would see if anyone knows where I can get some of the properly sized tape. (or if enough people can convince me to leave them alone. :lol )

Jason

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For the two Vader sabers that I have built, I used a strip of foam tape that is shorter and narrower than the size of the T-track. The T-track looks just a little bit elevated and you can not see that I have used foam tape. I even used white foam tape on one and it was difficult to see which one of the two it was.

There's a clear tape that I like...it looks red in the package but it's just backing.

Do the grips really need to be "level" or are they supposed to "flare" out over the end cap? What is screen accurate?

The real T-tracks (I refuse to call them grips ) were plastic, probably ABS, so there was no flaring.

This picture shows the Vader ANH saber. Scan from the Chronicles. (saved Feb 2003, probably from a post on the RPF. Please excuse me for not knowing the originator)


The question is: were they lifted above the tube nearer to the clamp, or not?

That is the question. Were they elevated over the tube (and therefore level) or were they elevated by the end cap (and therefore at a slight slant)?

Sporak said:

There's a clear tape that I like...it looks red in the package but it's just backing.

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That's great. I saw that tape at Meijers, and I thought "Oh, great, they have red, but no black". :lol It looks like I'm going to have to redo my ESB saber anyway's, so I'll give that stuff a try.

ddocvjm said:

That is the question. Were they elevated over the tube (and therefore level) or were they elevated by the end cap (and therefore at a slight slant)?

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Well there was a lengthy thread (or a two, or three) about that a year, or two ago. If I recall, they finally ended the speculation as to what the real T-track was, and a member was offering some very similar (if not perfectly accurate.) material. If I didn't already have my Blast-tech kit, I would have love to have gotten some of that stuff.

As far as if it flared out at the end cap. Well, I've seen threads were they've said the pics for the Chronicles where cropped/Photoshopped and when that was done, it cut off part of the grips, making them look straight at a glace, but in fact the cropping cut off the part were it flared out a little. So, in other words, some believed that yes it did flare out a bit.

I've given up on "screen accurate". Most of the time its way to expensive, and usually doesn't look as good, as some of the "idealized" stuff. (I guess that's way they call it "idealized". :lol)

Plus, no matter what you do, there's always going to be someone who says you did it wrong. I think the most important thing is that you like what you end up with. After all, your the one that has to live with it, and if your happy, that's all that really matters here.

That said, it really is a great time to be a prop collector, and a member of the RPF. After 30 years, or so, we've finally discovered all the really parts to the Obi ANH, the T-track, for a number of the other OT sabers, and countless other discovers from the SW universe, and many others.

Jason

I used 3M automotive double sided trim tape. It comes the same width as the grips. Its gray, BUT you CAN paint the edges black, and it works just as good. Make sure and paint the edges of the tape BEFORE you unroll it. Its much easier to do it that way.

Darth Detroit said:

I used 3M automotive double sided trim tape. It comes the same width as the grips. Its gray, BUT you CAN paint the edges black, and it works just as good. Make sure and paint the edges of the tape BEFORE you unroll it. Its much easier to do it that way.

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Yup...that's the same stuff I used back in the day. Gray 3M auto tape. Just wide enough for the grip, just thick enough to float the grips over the endcap. I used a sharpie to make the edges black and it worked just fine.

-Rabittooth

BRAVO my friend...that's exactly how I feel.

jason1976 said:

Plus, no matter what you do, there's always going to be someone who says you did it wrong. I think the most important thing is that you like what you end up with. After all, your the one that has to live with it, and if your happy, that's all that really matters here.

Jason

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