Sym-Cha
Master Member
Hello there,
Some time ago I received my Luke ROTJ Hero Lightsaber purchased from Jamanticus and seen here in his 'For Sale' pictures, it was almost complete :
except for some essential parts on the controlbox :
When looking in The Star Wars Archives Book you'll see why I wanted this particular lightsaber :
It's rings on the 'grenade' part are not evenly spaced which I really love. However I still had to finish the controlbox. Which meant I would have
to work with metal pieces . . . which is NOT my speciality
Jamanticus had been so kind to send me the measurements already so I could gather all the info I needed on how to tackle the job ahead :
So when the lightsaber finally arrived, like always I was far too eager to get started . . .
which usually means I've got to do everything twice :wacko
Here's my table-top workshop with the work in progres (this picture was taken after the first attempt) :
A close-up of the original prop made me realize that there is an open space between
the activator plate and the metal controlbox by means of some grey parts and thin
L-shaped copper colored sidebars :
Which can also be clearly seen here from the back :
These parts needed to be made from scratch so I used some thin black ABS plastic so by means of 3 layers glued together, one of which was a bit smaller, I produced some nicely looking grey parts meanwhile cleverly avoiding to having them created from metal bits and pieces
Then I purchased a 300 mm brass L-shape in our local modeltrain shop for only € 1.50 and . . . a tid bit more expensive real copper foil from a Tiffany Glass-in-Lead workshop. I told you metal is not my speciality so by means of folding the copper foil nicely onto the brass L-shape I made myself some thin copper look-a-like L-shape sidebars
Also the activator board that came with this lightsaber was the wrong color ... brass in stead of copper. So I needed to make that from scratch too. From that same copper foil I cut 13 strips of about 2.0 x 24.0 mm placed them unevenly, just like the uneven rings, onto a 18 mm wide and 49 mm piece of black ABS Plastic, then glued a slightly smaller piece however still 49mm wide of ABS Plastic on the back to secure the copper strips from moving and voilà . . . a custom copper activation board was born.
Here are some more pictures of the first attempt together with the quite smaller already made by MR black boxes :
The controlbox in these pictures looks okay . . .
. . . however the next day I looked more closely at my reference pictures and to my horror I realized that on the original prop everything is off by some degrees . . . as if all additional parts were just losely slapped on in a hurry by the propmakers, which in fact was indeed what they did most of the time back then . . . and even now I suppose.
Here are some reference pictures of the MOM version :
(Pictures courtesy to whomever made them ... thanks very much indeed!)
Those grey parts are not aligned straight onto the metal controlbox at the red/green arrows-side however it is slightly
hanging with an angle and is also a bit thinner then my first attempt :
Also that copper L-shaped sidebar attached, is hanging a little lower on the grey part towards
the right thus making the activator board fit kind of diagonal inbetween the L-shape sidebars.
Furthermore on that same picture I noticed that the small black rectangular boxes were about
the same hight as the copper L-shape sidebar and grey part together. However the box on the
right in the picture hangs a bit lower then the left one (sounds familiar guys lol) even though
they are supposed to be one piece. And it also sticks out a bit more then the box on the left :
So I took the top parts on the controlbox apart and went back to the drawing board/table-top workshop
First attempt from the front :
Final result from the back :
Lots of plastic was shaved of, bits modified and now checked and re-checked before glueing them back onto the metal controlbox
Meanwhile when waiting for small parts to dry from painting I restorated the neck piece by means of a mix of copper and gold paint (still needs to be darkened and smudged a bit) and also weathered the nickelplated Tri-ring with matt black and dark reddish brown Revell paint added with a top matt transparant finish layer to avoid scraping off to easily.
Finally at least to my own satisfaction I'm proud to present my partially scratchmade Luke ROTJ Hero MoM controlbox :
And placed here, not glued yet, on top of the Luke ROTJ Hero lightsaber :
-Chaim
PS I did notice that the tiny screws on the original prop were not made of brass ... furthermore I do not claim my controlbox to be exactly screen-accurate however it was a labour of great passion to recreate it
Some time ago I received my Luke ROTJ Hero Lightsaber purchased from Jamanticus and seen here in his 'For Sale' pictures, it was almost complete :
except for some essential parts on the controlbox :
When looking in The Star Wars Archives Book you'll see why I wanted this particular lightsaber :
It's rings on the 'grenade' part are not evenly spaced which I really love. However I still had to finish the controlbox. Which meant I would have
to work with metal pieces . . . which is NOT my speciality
Jamanticus had been so kind to send me the measurements already so I could gather all the info I needed on how to tackle the job ahead :
So when the lightsaber finally arrived, like always I was far too eager to get started . . .
which usually means I've got to do everything twice :wacko
Here's my table-top workshop with the work in progres (this picture was taken after the first attempt) :
A close-up of the original prop made me realize that there is an open space between
the activator plate and the metal controlbox by means of some grey parts and thin
L-shaped copper colored sidebars :
Which can also be clearly seen here from the back :
These parts needed to be made from scratch so I used some thin black ABS plastic so by means of 3 layers glued together, one of which was a bit smaller, I produced some nicely looking grey parts meanwhile cleverly avoiding to having them created from metal bits and pieces
Then I purchased a 300 mm brass L-shape in our local modeltrain shop for only € 1.50 and . . . a tid bit more expensive real copper foil from a Tiffany Glass-in-Lead workshop. I told you metal is not my speciality so by means of folding the copper foil nicely onto the brass L-shape I made myself some thin copper look-a-like L-shape sidebars
Also the activator board that came with this lightsaber was the wrong color ... brass in stead of copper. So I needed to make that from scratch too. From that same copper foil I cut 13 strips of about 2.0 x 24.0 mm placed them unevenly, just like the uneven rings, onto a 18 mm wide and 49 mm piece of black ABS Plastic, then glued a slightly smaller piece however still 49mm wide of ABS Plastic on the back to secure the copper strips from moving and voilà . . . a custom copper activation board was born.
Here are some more pictures of the first attempt together with the quite smaller already made by MR black boxes :
The controlbox in these pictures looks okay . . .
. . . however the next day I looked more closely at my reference pictures and to my horror I realized that on the original prop everything is off by some degrees . . . as if all additional parts were just losely slapped on in a hurry by the propmakers, which in fact was indeed what they did most of the time back then . . . and even now I suppose
.Here are some reference pictures of the MOM version :
(Pictures courtesy to whomever made them ... thanks very much indeed!)
Those grey parts are not aligned straight onto the metal controlbox at the red/green arrows-side however it is slightly
hanging with an angle and is also a bit thinner then my first attempt :
Also that copper L-shaped sidebar attached, is hanging a little lower on the grey part towards
the right thus making the activator board fit kind of diagonal inbetween the L-shape sidebars.
Furthermore on that same picture I noticed that the small black rectangular boxes were about
the same hight as the copper L-shape sidebar and grey part together. However the box on the
right in the picture hangs a bit lower then the left one (sounds familiar guys lol) even though
they are supposed to be one piece. And it also sticks out a bit more then the box on the left :
So I took the top parts on the controlbox apart and went back to the drawing board/table-top workshop
First attempt from the front :
Final result from the back :
Lots of plastic was shaved of, bits modified and now checked and re-checked before glueing them back onto the metal controlbox
Meanwhile when waiting for small parts to dry from painting I restorated the neck piece by means of a mix of copper and gold paint (still needs to be darkened and smudged a bit) and also weathered the nickelplated Tri-ring with matt black and dark reddish brown Revell paint added with a top matt transparant finish layer to avoid scraping off to easily.
Finally at least to my own satisfaction I'm proud to present my partially scratchmade Luke ROTJ Hero MoM controlbox :
And placed here, not glued yet, on top of the Luke ROTJ Hero lightsaber :
-Chaim
PS I did notice that the tiny screws on the original prop were not made of brass ... furthermore I do not claim my controlbox to be exactly screen-accurate however it was a labour of great passion to recreate it
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