Kylo Ren Hasbro Force FX Lightsaber mod progress

[The Lightsmith]

As many of us fans, I saw the Kylo Ren force fx Lightsaber and couldn't go home without it. XD I enjoyed it for a while, it made an interesting display for a little bit, then I started doing some light dueling( couldn't resist, the movie was only a month or so away) and I wasn't to happy with how it handled, or with the over all clean look of it. So I started with the paint, that was the first thing to go. Then I torn it apart and detailed the inner defusing plastic and painted that red to give it some more color and variation both on and off.

I thought that it was kind of pointless to have a Lightsaber that I couldn't use, so I started dueling more and more, until the blade broke. Which wasn't to upsetting(or suprising); I had been thinking about ways I could replace the blades, and make them removable, but also make it more duel worthy than before.
Over the past couple weeks, I've been slowly making some progress outside of class and other things in life. Haha I started tearing it down even further, taking parts like the mid section off, making the saber much more comfortable to hold. I also was inspired by Jamestan's work on his saber(if you haven't already seen it, you should check it out, and his black series helmet mod too), and how he made new quillions all together. And the cut away section always bugged me, it didn't look cut away at all; the "blue wires"were practically flush with the body of the saber in my case. The plastic back plate I still use, although I thought about making a metal one to replace it, hopefully with a different switch too(the other saber blade would sometimes slide down and turn the saber off... that was annoying. XD) I also got rid of the rubber wire.


With the Force Awakens release(which was amazing, to say the least!) and the new canon material like the visual dictionary and so on, I was re-inspired


After i had taken off the mid section piece, the saber looked a little funny, so I started cutting the sections surrounding the "heat vent/fins" evening out the pommel and giving a sleeker and more even look. I also cut into the top making the cut away real, which goes to the plastic parts holding the blade.


Today, I did some more weathering, some electrical, fabrication(if you can call it that). The blue wires in the cut away are the positive leads for the quillion lights(the negatives run down the back). I moved the sound board down a little ways, it's not a perfect fit, yet, but it's a work in progress. Doing that gave me more room for a blade(as of right now, there's about 3 inches of length for a blade to be secured, but a small section of the board goes into the blade, which I might be able to use that to my advantage, if all goes well. Interestingly the clash sensor is part of that section). In these pictures, I have a 2 inch section of blade(thick wall polycarbonate, translucent) and some greeblies from an old microscope which may become my blade plug(or I'll try something with a crystal like the dictionary). I found a solid wire with braided heat resistant insulation which I think looks way better than any other insulation I've found. The goal is to get a saber forge led to fit, which I'll most likely have to dismantle. Hopefully I'll remember to take more pictures of the changes and progress. If anyone has any suggestions or tips that would be great!

 

[Jamestan]

Great mod, I'd love to see the finished thing.

 

[The Lightsmith]

Thanks Jamestan! It's slow going, but I'm making progress. Yesterday I started taking the LEDs from the old blade string, and started making a new one. I filed off the dome lens(which I should have been drilling domes into them) and soldering them on a length of guitar string.

Ill most likely make a different one, but this one will give me something to experiment with. I'm thinking along the lines of a removable string blade and keep the quillions in-hilt lit. I like the flickering effect that runs along the length of the string blade, so I figured I'd just work with the sound board best I could. I also had the idea of "meshing" the segments, to give a more fluid and less blocky ignition.(I'm not sure that's a very good way of explaining it)


Has as anyone ever seen anything like that?(the spacing between the segments will vary) I'm thinking it is probably easier to use more segments, but I don't think I can add more(would be easier to just get a new board for that) It'll hopefully give a more unstable look, like some parts of the saber arc out before the rest of the blade. If anyone has ever made or knows about making string blades, I could use any tips and suggestions you have!

 

[The Lightsmith]

Today I worked on the clip, and on my black series helmet.

The pics are all backwards in order. It's pretty rough right now, which is fine with me, it fits the saber, but I'll file it into shape next time I work on it. I used jb weld to connect the layered pieces. I also filed the heat vents on the pommel, but I there isn't much of a visible difference that the camera would pick up.

 

[The Lightsmith]

So earlier this month I ordered a couple red polycarb blades from the CSS(which came much sooner than expected!) I finally found a metal tube I was looking for to finish the quillions so I decided to test the lights ( I cut the styrofoam from the original blade and used the diffusers in the original quillions). They actually glow fairly well in the light which surprised me. I'm thinking about melting parts of the blades for a slight unstable look. I did a test with a torch and a small portion of blade, and I think it will keep its strength, I just need to keep it from bubbling and turning out like a deformed strawberry. XD I'm going to try a string blade with styrofoam diffusion since I kept the original sound board intact, but I'm waiting on a little extra money before I start ordering new parts.



Since the time I took these pictures, I've dueled with it till the quillions started falling off, and then some(I cut the plastic chassis down and replaced the upper section with steel and aluminum tubing machined to allow the switch to still operate as designed(although it needs fine tuning). I've also got thread tapping supplies and set screws so the parts don't rattle around anymore. Next I'll probably work on making then quillions more secure, perfect the main blade holder section and possibly the mid-grip(which will probably just be strips of metal glued or epoxied to the aluminum section. The end goal is to have all the blades be removable but still maintain full dueling ability. (It's sloppy but I guess it fits the saber XD)