Hey Guys,
Thought it was about time to document all the work that went into making my korbanth hilt as accurate as I possibly could.
First a little history for those who don't know the original hilt:
This prop was designed based on the stunt "3d printed" likely rubber cast lightsaber prop we all saw at Celebration, it was manufactured and shipped out and in my hands before the movie was even released. Awesome to go into the movie already owning a prop from it, but as a result (and to make the hilt a reasonable price) there were several major inaccuracies when compared to the hero prop:
For the purposes of electronics, the hilt was hollow all the way through with a 7/8ths diameter. Plecter Labs' Crystal Focus 8 was released allowing for delayed quillon ignition, unfortunately it would not fit within a 7/8ths diameter.
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So, I had my work cut out for me
I began by purchasing a bottle of Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black and darkened the hilt more. The finish that had already been applied had largely been polished off, which looked nice and weathered, but didn't quite fit the images I'd seen.
Then I straightened the quillons. I found a steel tube roughly the same diameter as the inside of the quillons, put the hilt in a wooden vice and slowly hammered them into place. As they weren't symmetrically crooked I had to bend one further than the other. This caused a small crack which was disappointing but not that much of a problem.
I then began painting the heat stain. This is something I ended up adding to throughout the project, ending up with a lot of layers and variation which ultimately gave a pleasingly realistic look. I polished the ends back to clean aluminium and used watered down and dry brushed layers of gold, copper, metallic purple, metallic blue etc. acrylic paints.
Next on the list was the cutaway battle damaged part where you can see some of the internal components. This is a detail I really like on the real prop so there was no way I was leaving it off mine
I set up a mini projector and projected an orthographic view of a modified (to fit the korbanth dimensions) version of guabe's incredible 3d printable design directly onto the hilt and outlined where it should be.
I then spent many hours dremeling away material and trying to create a lip to give the illusion of depth. The aluminium here is pretty thick so I ended up being able to go quite a long way in, I somehow made myself go very slowly and carefully so as not to break through or lose the correct line
It was fairly difficult to photograph how much material was gone so I inserted a dime sized 5p piece to help with perspective
I painted the pommel with Tamiya clear red but ultimately didn't use it with my 3d printed chassis.
Next up was a base for the cutaway detail:
It was made from plasticard and required a lot of trial and error to fit in the oddly shaped hole and still give the look of an octagonal shape inside.
I based my detail on guabe's model and drew myself a scaled flat layout of each of the three panels.
I build up the detail using plasticard (everything white) some scrap Games Workshop bits (silver and grey) and some thin brass rod. The 'vent' part was made from layers of overlapping plasticard and painted with a series of washes, dry brush coats, more washes etc. Like the side emitters this part was added to all the way through the project and was one of the last things finished. Here it is before I started concentrating on other areas.
Leaving the vent detail for now I learned that Khal from KR Sabers lived nearby and assisted me by boring out the filled in pommel section.
This left room for all the necessary detail.
[The saber has been finished for some time but I will be splitting this build log into a few different posts]
Thought it was about time to document all the work that went into making my korbanth hilt as accurate as I possibly could.
First a little history for those who don't know the original hilt:
This prop was designed based on the stunt "3d printed" likely rubber cast lightsaber prop we all saw at Celebration, it was manufactured and shipped out and in my hands before the movie was even released. Awesome to go into the movie already owning a prop from it, but as a result (and to make the hilt a reasonable price) there were several major inaccuracies when compared to the hero prop:
- The size: It's noticeably thinner.
- The 'cutout' battle damage: Completely absent, also missing the external red wire.
- The quillons (side blades): Angled strangely, not perpendicular or symmetrical.
- The pommel detail: Like the stunt prop, completely absent and lacking the holes all the way through.
- The end cap: Present but a completely different design and not red.
- Missing a few other small details.
For the purposes of electronics, the hilt was hollow all the way through with a 7/8ths diameter. Plecter Labs' Crystal Focus 8 was released allowing for delayed quillon ignition, unfortunately it would not fit within a 7/8ths diameter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, I had my work cut out for me
I began by purchasing a bottle of Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black and darkened the hilt more. The finish that had already been applied had largely been polished off, which looked nice and weathered, but didn't quite fit the images I'd seen.
Then I straightened the quillons. I found a steel tube roughly the same diameter as the inside of the quillons, put the hilt in a wooden vice and slowly hammered them into place. As they weren't symmetrically crooked I had to bend one further than the other. This caused a small crack which was disappointing but not that much of a problem.
I then began painting the heat stain. This is something I ended up adding to throughout the project, ending up with a lot of layers and variation which ultimately gave a pleasingly realistic look. I polished the ends back to clean aluminium and used watered down and dry brushed layers of gold, copper, metallic purple, metallic blue etc. acrylic paints.
Next on the list was the cutaway battle damaged part where you can see some of the internal components. This is a detail I really like on the real prop so there was no way I was leaving it off mine
I set up a mini projector and projected an orthographic view of a modified (to fit the korbanth dimensions) version of guabe's incredible 3d printable design directly onto the hilt and outlined where it should be.
I then spent many hours dremeling away material and trying to create a lip to give the illusion of depth. The aluminium here is pretty thick so I ended up being able to go quite a long way in, I somehow made myself go very slowly and carefully so as not to break through or lose the correct line
It was fairly difficult to photograph how much material was gone so I inserted a dime sized 5p piece to help with perspective
I painted the pommel with Tamiya clear red but ultimately didn't use it with my 3d printed chassis.
Next up was a base for the cutaway detail:
It was made from plasticard and required a lot of trial and error to fit in the oddly shaped hole and still give the look of an octagonal shape inside.
I based my detail on guabe's model and drew myself a scaled flat layout of each of the three panels.
I build up the detail using plasticard (everything white) some scrap Games Workshop bits (silver and grey) and some thin brass rod. The 'vent' part was made from layers of overlapping plasticard and painted with a series of washes, dry brush coats, more washes etc. Like the side emitters this part was added to all the way through the project and was one of the last things finished. Here it is before I started concentrating on other areas.
Leaving the vent detail for now I learned that Khal from KR Sabers lived nearby and assisted me by boring out the filled in pommel section.
This left room for all the necessary detail.
[The saber has been finished for some time but I will be splitting this build log into a few different posts]
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