Greetings! Longtime lurker, first build post, so please be kind. In April one of my friends asked me to make her a custom prop for her Jedi Belle costume for Awesomecon. Final results up first, then I'll do some WIP shots.
Chewie, Luke, BB-8, and co are all part of the 501st Old Line Garrison (I'm pretty sure, please let me know if if I'm mistaken.)
I started with a ultrasabers blade, a toy mace windu hilt, a strip of 12V Yellow LED's, and went from there.
First order was to pull out all the existing internals, and figure out how to securely mount the blade. After a bunch of sanding / dremel work, the entirety of the hilt was cored out. Perfect to fit the battery pack that was to come. The next challenge was how to fit the blade into the hilt. Being under-tooled in my apartment, I went with wrapping the hilt with many layers of masking tape to bring up the OD to match the hilt internal diameter. I would then put two small button cap screws into this area to lock it down.
The hilt had an existing external switch that I wanted to use, so I mounted a switch right beneath it, configured for 'normally closed.' I had to instruct Belle that the switch was actually keeping the saber 'off' instead of turning it on. The LED strip can be seen in the other photo, along with the 8x 1.5V AA batteries in a cage.
These two shots are the final result. I liked the way it came out, but there are always things that I'd like to do better next time.
I hope you like it!
~TSR1
"The Secret Lab"
PS. My fiancée is a big fan of Emperor's New Groove, and she called my workshop space 'the secret lab' once, in reference to this clip. The name stuck.
Chewie, Luke, BB-8, and co are all part of the 501st Old Line Garrison (I'm pretty sure, please let me know if if I'm mistaken.)
I started with a ultrasabers blade, a toy mace windu hilt, a strip of 12V Yellow LED's, and went from there.
First order was to pull out all the existing internals, and figure out how to securely mount the blade. After a bunch of sanding / dremel work, the entirety of the hilt was cored out. Perfect to fit the battery pack that was to come. The next challenge was how to fit the blade into the hilt. Being under-tooled in my apartment, I went with wrapping the hilt with many layers of masking tape to bring up the OD to match the hilt internal diameter. I would then put two small button cap screws into this area to lock it down.
The hilt had an existing external switch that I wanted to use, so I mounted a switch right beneath it, configured for 'normally closed.' I had to instruct Belle that the switch was actually keeping the saber 'off' instead of turning it on. The LED strip can be seen in the other photo, along with the 8x 1.5V AA batteries in a cage.
These two shots are the final result. I liked the way it came out, but there are always things that I'd like to do better next time.
I hope you like it!
~TSR1
"The Secret Lab"
PS. My fiancée is a big fan of Emperor's New Groove, and she called my workshop space 'the secret lab' once, in reference to this clip. The name stuck.
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