Darksaber Scratch Build - WIP

[hydromatic93]

One of my favourite weapons from Clone Wars was the Darksaber, the pre-vizsla version during the Mandalor arc. I had to take a bunch of reference images from the show, other peoples builds and attempts (Studio49's was very helpful for designing it, and some other threads on thedentedhelmet helped as well for other perspectives). I'm using some MDF pieces to make a master copy that I should be able to mold, and I'd like to make it hollow so some lights could go in it (probably rotocast it in a junk mold and do some shaping).

First a design/blueprint of it, I made it so the whole thing is 28cm long (from end of handle to tip of blade socket), 4.5 cm handle width and 3cm-ish thick.


Then cut out the MDF into two 4.5 cm planks, glued and clamped them with wood glue, and used some body filler to tidy up the sides (I used a hand saw, wish I had a band saw)


I smashed this out in 1 afternoon, I would have had more done but on the first attempt the cut between the handle and blade holder was slanted wrong (***king hacksaw blade was messed up) and had to redo the whole thing. The guard will probably be lengthened a bit as well.

 

[Halliwax]

I am a HUGE dark saber fan!! Real excited to follow this thread!

It looks like it's coming along great!


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[PropReplicator2]

I am a HUGE dark saber fan!! Real excited to follow this thread!

It looks like it's coming along great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree with Halliwax! The darksaber is one of my favorites!!!! Keep it up!

 

[hydromatic93]

I am a HUGE dark saber fan!! Real excited to follow this thread!

It looks like it's coming along great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, I had your build thread with Studio49's 3d print saved and that really helped when I was drawing this up (Clone Wars is good for colour, but accurate stills are hard to get). Hopefully I have some more progress tomorrow, I'd like to make a full display piece with a blade and lights.

Do you have any plans on adding a blade to it, or are you just making a stand and 'solid' display piece.

 

[Halliwax]

Thanks, I had your build thread with Studio49's 3d print saved and that really helped when I was drawing this up (Clone Wars is good for colour, but accurate stills are hard to get). Hopefully I have some more progress tomorrow, I'd like to make a full display piece with a blade and lights.

Do you have any plans on adding a blade to it, or are you just making a stand and 'solid' display piece.

i did have plans to make a FX chassis for it, and i contacted a member on the imperialroyalarms site about the blade. his blade isn't 100% accurate but it would look good. i made some paper templates to make it fit inside and then gave up. i did how ever make it that if i ever wanted to add the electronics the chassis slides in through the emitter hole.

there is a all metal dark saber run going on, on another site it will be FX ready and come with a accurate blade. i DO plan on installing electronics in that bad boy once i get it!

im glad my thread helped! 3D print is a lot of work to get smooth, and i mean A LOT lol but its worth it in the end. im glued to your thread, keep us posted!! :thumbsup

 

[PropReplicator2]

i did have plans to make a FX chassis for it, and i contacted a member on the imperialroyalarms site about the blade. his blade isn't 100% accurate but it would look good. i made some paper templates to make it fit inside and then gave up. i did how ever make it that if i ever wanted to add the electronics the chassis slides in through the emitter hole.

there is a all metal dark saber run going on, on another site it will be FX ready and come with a accurate blade. i DO plan on installing electronics in that bad boy once i get it!

im glad my thread helped! 3D print is a lot of work to get smooth, and i mean A LOT lol but its worth it in the end. im glued to your thread, keep us posted!! :thumbsup

I want a FX handle setup for mine! I wanted to do a plexiglass glass blade though. Think it would look cool like that.

 

[hydromatic93]

Ok so it is about 38* today and plans to be like this for a few days (so 40* in the metal workshed...), it is just too hot to work ATM. I did do some work on the emitter end, I cut in the U shape for the blade (still need to sand and sharpen edges), cast a prototype spine piece which needs to be thinned a little, and made the guard a bit bigger. Need some more low grit sandpaper to shape the handle still, but for about 6 hours work this is going well.

Drilled a hole through the middle and sawed down from the top.


I used much softer craft balsa wood to cut out the spine parts of the emitter. Resin cast the top to test fit.


Any hints or tips so far? I might drill down the handle to make space for batteries/circuits sometime.

 

[Halliwax]

really taking shape! very exciting! :thumbsup

 

[hydromatic93]

Been a while since an update, haven't really worked too much on this cause of the heat so no new pictures at the moment. I redid the whole blade end because it was too short, just cut another length of MDF, drilled a hole down the middle and sawed the excess out. I've cast a couple of the spine pieces so I can sand them down, glue them to the emitter spine (that balsa strip) and make it one solid piece for ease of reuse. Handle has been sanded down to be more cylindrical and easier to grab, and I've just been working on cleaning everything up with filler and primers. Hopefully have something more saber-y next week.