The buck literally stops here...
I've been trying to keep this hush for a bit now, but those that follow me on Instagram may already know, with the friendly participation of
vadermania, I am now producing lineage casts.
Vadermania, for those need reminding and for those unawares, owns an original cast made for production of Star Wars back in 1976, which he had modified it to resemble the V3 stunt hilt back in the mid-90's. Very recently, he has had it 3D scanned and had his own replicas produced and even had it laser scanned to find out its composition. He has been very gracious in sending me a copy of this 3D scan to reproduce the original hilts as they were.
I re-scaled his scan back to the original wood master's size and have restored all the details back to its original state, erasing the
casting blemishes and work that has been done to it over the past 46 years; all so they may be controllably lost again when I cast them, as the original was want to do.
There is no more guess work for the buck to make these casts. Short of restoring the original wood buck to make these, these cannot be any better. I'm trying to produce one a day and there's still some things I need to test on the finishing end before I revamp my project run. I was hoping to have more to show but I just can't keep it secret any longer!
The picture on the left is the restored master that I'm using to produce my casts, and the picture on the right is the restored master next to the one I created myself for my run.
Very close, but still damn far off once in comparison!
Lastly, here the current two casts I've got in my possession from the restored master. Now, the originals, as found out by
LOM and Vadermania, were made of 4145---brazing wire. Brazing wire and the casting Al I'm using are similar in composition, the biggest difference is that a356 (what I'm using) has 10% more Al than Si, as brazing wire does. Brazing wire, in the amounts I'd need to get them in to cast the amount that I need, is financially unfeasible for me, and the amount that I need to melt in one setting is hazardous just working outside of my garage. Si--specifically its gas when melted--is poisonous and is heavily regulated as it is. I am not going to endanger my health making these (any further) nor would I ask anyone else to either.