NathanM
Well-Known Member
Hi all!
I recently joined the community after finding a 2-Cell Graflex in a large lot of vintage camera gear I sourced to sell. I've been flipping camera gear for years now and this was the first Graflex flash I've come across, surprisingly. I generally don't keep any of the stuff I find as it's my income but this piece was in such good shape that I decided to finally make myself a lightsaber hilt for display with it.
Here's how it looks as-is as a 2-Cell flash:
It was very clean which was nice. I like the look of a nicely patinated version but I can't complain when it looks real nice too, lol.
Thhis has been a fun little journey over the past 2 months as I've educated myself and read threads upon threads on here and Roy's book was the best source of consolidated and to the point information to distinguish between the various ways one can proceed.
My first thought was to use it to make a screen accurate ANH build. I wanted to keep it as vintage as possible with as many original parts as I could fesibly do. And, wow, what a rabbit-hole that proved to be, lol.
I realized that maybe the ESB version would be better so I settled on that, with the eventual goal being, a trilogy display with ANH, ESB, and TFA displayed together.
During the process I obviously discovered all of the vendors that have popped up to satisfy the demand for parts and pieces and this intrigued me as a obviously needed a 3-Cell bottom to bring my 2-Cell up to spec. Looking at the normal venues, it was going to be hard to find that piece by itself and I was also nervous to try a scratch build with zero experience and limited knowledge.
So, Roman's pre-configured and put together hilts hit my radar and I figured that was the easiest way to put a full hilt together with my vintage top. Fast and easy, right?
Nah. Stupidly, instead of just asking, I leapt in and ordered what looked right to me. I ended up ordering the Maz Kanata found version hilt. And once I got it in hand, I had done a lot more research and realized my mistake. Oh well, I guess I now have a hilt for TFA representation.
Here it is as it currently exists after receiving Roman's bottom section:
The Graflex logo is still present and not covered, so I need to address that and while waiting for this setup, I did some hunting and decided to just go for it.
I now have coming to me, a full 3-Cell, a 3-Cell without a clamp, an Exactra 19 calculator, and various odds and ends from WannaWanga to make a revised, 7-rivet ANH, saber. I also ordered the circuit board seen in the build above from SlothFurnace and it's obviously the ESB board so it doesn't match the TFA board but that's on the way from Roman as well so it will be adjusted.
My plan is as follows. Take the hilt above, and reconfigure it as an ANH build with the actual bubble strip I purchased. I'm going to scratch build the hilt bottom so I'm looking forward to that.
Because I have the TFA replica from Roman and I'm missing a clamp out of the three flashes, I'm going to get a replica clamp from Roman for the TFA build. It's kind of halfway there anyways and the TFA version is the one I care about least of the three so it not being a full vinatge piece is fine. I had ordered the TFA clamp sleeve from WannaWanga so I'll add that to the replica clamp. I had also ordered a replica red button from Roman as I thought I'd be putting together an ESB saber so I think I'll use that as the one red button for the TFA as well.
That means I can have two vintage red buttons on the ESB build which will be nice. That will be a scratch build as well so I'm debating if I tackle that one first as it seems to be the easiest build version especially considering the nuances of the current ANH build.
WHEW! Sorry if that was a lot, but I'm super excited and I'm hoping I don't fall down the Kenobi rabbit hole and Vader rabbit hole but I hear them calling...
I'll update this thread as I go.
Thanks for listening and looking forward to hanging in the community!
I recently joined the community after finding a 2-Cell Graflex in a large lot of vintage camera gear I sourced to sell. I've been flipping camera gear for years now and this was the first Graflex flash I've come across, surprisingly. I generally don't keep any of the stuff I find as it's my income but this piece was in such good shape that I decided to finally make myself a lightsaber hilt for display with it.
Here's how it looks as-is as a 2-Cell flash:
It was very clean which was nice. I like the look of a nicely patinated version but I can't complain when it looks real nice too, lol.
Thhis has been a fun little journey over the past 2 months as I've educated myself and read threads upon threads on here and Roy's book was the best source of consolidated and to the point information to distinguish between the various ways one can proceed.
My first thought was to use it to make a screen accurate ANH build. I wanted to keep it as vintage as possible with as many original parts as I could fesibly do. And, wow, what a rabbit-hole that proved to be, lol.
I realized that maybe the ESB version would be better so I settled on that, with the eventual goal being, a trilogy display with ANH, ESB, and TFA displayed together.
During the process I obviously discovered all of the vendors that have popped up to satisfy the demand for parts and pieces and this intrigued me as a obviously needed a 3-Cell bottom to bring my 2-Cell up to spec. Looking at the normal venues, it was going to be hard to find that piece by itself and I was also nervous to try a scratch build with zero experience and limited knowledge.
So, Roman's pre-configured and put together hilts hit my radar and I figured that was the easiest way to put a full hilt together with my vintage top. Fast and easy, right?
Nah. Stupidly, instead of just asking, I leapt in and ordered what looked right to me. I ended up ordering the Maz Kanata found version hilt. And once I got it in hand, I had done a lot more research and realized my mistake. Oh well, I guess I now have a hilt for TFA representation.
Here it is as it currently exists after receiving Roman's bottom section:
The Graflex logo is still present and not covered, so I need to address that and while waiting for this setup, I did some hunting and decided to just go for it.
I now have coming to me, a full 3-Cell, a 3-Cell without a clamp, an Exactra 19 calculator, and various odds and ends from WannaWanga to make a revised, 7-rivet ANH, saber. I also ordered the circuit board seen in the build above from SlothFurnace and it's obviously the ESB board so it doesn't match the TFA board but that's on the way from Roman as well so it will be adjusted.
My plan is as follows. Take the hilt above, and reconfigure it as an ANH build with the actual bubble strip I purchased. I'm going to scratch build the hilt bottom so I'm looking forward to that.
Because I have the TFA replica from Roman and I'm missing a clamp out of the three flashes, I'm going to get a replica clamp from Roman for the TFA build. It's kind of halfway there anyways and the TFA version is the one I care about least of the three so it not being a full vinatge piece is fine. I had ordered the TFA clamp sleeve from WannaWanga so I'll add that to the replica clamp. I had also ordered a replica red button from Roman as I thought I'd be putting together an ESB saber so I think I'll use that as the one red button for the TFA as well.
That means I can have two vintage red buttons on the ESB build which will be nice. That will be a scratch build as well so I'm debating if I tackle that one first as it seems to be the easiest build version especially considering the nuances of the current ANH build.
WHEW! Sorry if that was a lot, but I'm super excited and I'm hoping I don't fall down the Kenobi rabbit hole and Vader rabbit hole but I hear them calling...
I'll update this thread as I go.
Thanks for listening and looking forward to hanging in the community!
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