First ESB Luke build and a couple questions!

[DakGibralter]

Hi RPF!

Apologies for posting yet another vanilla ESB build, but it's my first ever and I thought you might like to check it out.



I built this with a genuine 3-cell graf, lots of help from the very knowledgable mugatu, and roygilsing's excellent ESB kit from wannawanga. You guys are right - holding the real deal in one's hand is pretty incredible. As luck would have it, I happen to have kept my glass eye so I can switch it out for a TFA at a moment's notice. Bonus!

I do have a couple questions however - my apologies since these have undoubtedly been asked and answered before, but I've been unable to locate the threads:

Has anyone had any luck weathering the mylar tape strip (which covers the graf logo) to match the brushed look of the clamp a little better? It's a little too shiny for my taste and I think a little steel wool might help it blend better, but I don't want to mess it up. Any thoughts?

Also, my unsteady dremel hand ended up making a couple dings on either side of the beer tab, showing the brass (?) underneath the brushed exterior. Does anyone have any good fixes for this? I'm not only clumsy, I'm a newbie as well so I don't have any ideas there, but those golden smudges are bothering me. I might like to cover the beer tab nub as well, unless the standard procedure is to leave it.



Finally, I'm considering giving this a little weathering to give it some light battle damage, draw attention from some of my less-than-perfect dremel work on the grips, and match some of the less-worn components like the grips, clip and circuit board with some of the more weathered vintage parts like the clamp and the buttons. Maybe even some tempering or scorching around the emitter. Nothing too crazy as I want it to look film-ready, but just something to personalize it and make it feel lived-in. I've searched for threads on this but mostly only able to come up with similar tutorials for the Obi-Wan, which are awesome but I'll have to save until I can buy one. Does anyone have a thread or link handy to some good Luke weathering tutorials?

Okay, this was long. Sorry for rambling. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[Sym-Cha]

Looks perfect to me ... if you have a piece of that mylar tape left over you could experiment on that ... with wet-sanding or steel wool perhaps Is that another genuine red button?

Chaim

 

[DakGibralter]

Thank you sir! That means a lot coming from you.

Yes, the second button is genuine I think - I snagged it from a partial 3-cell i bought at the same time (for which I now have no buttons, no clamp and an uninstalled ANH kit, boo). I should have finished it before all the prices went up!

I'll give steel wool a gentle try and see if it helps at all. Thanks!

Looks perfect to me ... if you have a piece of that mylar tape left over you could experiment on that ... with wet-sanding or steel wool perhaps Is that another genuine red button?

Chaim

 

[Sym-Cha]

As for that beer tap nut ... perhaps you can dremel from the inside what's left and then it leaves you with a tiny hole (seen in white and disregard the mylar tape being used)



... and those scratches ... well they add character to the used-future appearance of your lightsaber prop ... unique to yours only

Chaim

 

[mugatu]

I am reluctantly looking into nickel-plating at home. Once I get all of the equipment together for that, those golden areas from the dremel ought to replate. I am researching whether the rest of the nickel needs to be removed first (hopefully not). I'll let you know once that is underway...if that would interest you.

Your saber looks fantastic to me as is though! You did a hell of a job on your saber, particularly with it being your first!

 

[DakGibralter]

Thanks guys! Yeah, let me know what you hear about replating. Probably not the most reasonable investment but I'm interested to hear what you come up with.

Sym-Cha, I'll look into dremeling from the inside. I should have thought of that earlier! My attempt to get it flush was what caused those nicks in the first place. Live and learn.

 

[Flanman]

This is gonna be a dumb question but to the screws on the esb grips actually go through the Graflex or just into the grips?

 

[Sym-Cha]

They go through the G R A F L E X ... as you can verify here in the ROTJ DV stunt, bottom lightsaber,
which was converted of an ESB Luke but with 7 T-tracks instead of 6 :



Chaim

 

[Panaflex]

Wow Chaim, great photo. Interesting that the drilled holes appear to be out of level with each other. Or is it the grips making it look like that?

 

[matty matt]

Awesome! No need to ever apologize for posting pics of a Graflex! About the remnants of the beer tab, get a small nail set or punch and give it a whack right on the center. The rest of the rivet should fall into the flash, leaving a little hole. You could maybe touch up that exposed brass with a little paint.

 

[mugatu]

Wow Chaim, great photo. Interesting that the drilled holes appear to be out of level with each other. Or is it the grips making it look like that?

Good question. I know on the ESB (well, ONE of the ESB's anyway) at some point they added tiny black screws along side the perpendicular wall of the T track...could explain then holes between these T Tracks (in Chaim's photo) not being aligned.

 

[thd9791]

See, that theory was given up, as the holes on the ROTJ Graflex don't line up with the SRS's screws. I think it was an attempt at something like that though.

On this build, I'll put my vote in for weathering. You've made a beautiful ESB saber and the dings just add character. Also, the more I study these props, the more ugly and trashed they become. Our replicas with a few dings are actually a million times cleaner than the real thing


Here are some of my "battle damage" examples
Maybe that's not as visible as I thought, there's a massive scratch behind my bubbles!

 

[mugatu]

See, that theory was given up, as the holes on the ROTJ Graflex don't line up with the SRS's screws. I think it was an attempt at something like that though.

On this build, I'll put my vote in for weathering. You've made a beautiful ESB saber and the dings just add character. Also, the more I study these props, the more ugly and trashed they become. Our replicas with a few dings are actually a million times cleaner than the real thing


Here are some of my "battle damage" examples
View attachment 467727View attachment 467728Maybe that's not as visible as I thought, there's a massive scratch behind my bubbles!

I totally agree. These things are handled messes at this point, and many were scratched up and worse by filming time. My vote is for weathered as well.

 

[Sym-Cha]

Wow Chaim, great photo. Interesting that the drilled holes appear to be out of level with each other. Or is it the grips making it look like that?

They are out of level indeed ... and they could be earlier attempts of fastening the previous T-tracks and also on the opposite side ... since the tiny screws we see on the ESB Hero are a lot higher up and on the right side from the T-track

Chaim