Nicksdad ROTJ "Hero" lightsaber show-off thread

[Lichtbringer]

To bring this thread away/back from talking to more pictures - here is mine:

It looks shiny on the pics, but nonetheless i build it close to afb, it isn´t.

First i replaced the copper neck with a brass one.

Then the parts had a run in the dishwasher, which dulled the alu, and made the brass darker and more orange/copper (to a certain degree). On the first try the brass had a lot more different stripes where the "soapwater" had different drying times - so i polished it again to new brass shine and gave it a second run, this time i adjusted it more level so that it got a more even treatment.

The black is a gloss black, after drying back on the lathe and dulled a little bit with a abrasive mesh, so it´s now more of a satin black.

Other paints that i used are Tamiya clear blue on the edges and the underside of the card, Tamiya leaf gold for the card "clamps". And for the line under the clamps i used Ral 7031. It´s a paint i use when refurbishing my vintage machines, and i think it looks matching.

 

[Lichtbringer]

And some detail pics:

 

[The 48th Ronin]

Very nice.

Are you going to do a circuit board for the box?

 

[Lichtbringer]

Not sure.

I found a board that has areas that might work

but with the blue paint on the underside it slides not really easy anymore.

 

[The 48th Ronin]

but with the blue paint on the underside it slides not really easy anymore.

You have to "break it in" - push it back and forth a bunch, take it out and put it back in a few times... that'll scuff some of the paint off where it contacts the rails. It's much easier to slide it open then. I also sanded the blue paint off the long edges, since those are never seen when it's in place - only the edges of both ends.

 

[Lichtbringer]

Thanks for the tip, i might give it a try.

 

[pinkwlri]

I'm still working on mine. For the copper-should I leave it alone, clearcoat or metal polish it? I would rather not have a lot of patina.

 

[Geof]

I'm late to this party, but, I was fortunate enough to get one of these from Nicksdad a few weeks ago.

I have a question. Regarding the emitter nipple, why are some of you drilling the pre-existing hole all the way through and then tapping it with an 8-32 thread?

Is there a real prop basis for this?

Thanks!

 

[JoeG]

I believe theres a good photo of the Luke ROTJ hero in the book From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives that shows this detail.

 

[Geof]

Khal, thank you.

 

[thd9791]

I have a really bad cast of the hero post production and theres a set screw buried in that hole in the nipple. I can even see the hex-allen socket


also, I became one of the lucky peeps to get one of these too.. pics to come soon

 

[thd9791]

I drilled through and tapped for a set screw that mostly matched the diameter of the hole. The hole itself was slightly off center, not sure if thats a detail on the prop I missed

I cut some circuit board that I thought looked awesome, off some equipment from a scanning electron microscope lab, and dropped it in without glue. The rails are actually copper shielding tape for guitar pickups. Super thin but very metallic looking.

Black paint is high heat grill paint thats been heated up to cure, with a satin clear coat

I also drilled an extra smaller hole in the nipple, at the base of the one already provided. that is a detail on my casting I wanted to replicate - best I can figure - this is the hole for the mounting rod.

Aluminum blacked the inside of the nipple for "carbon scoring" too

 

[Geof]

Beautiful job!

 

[BobasBounty]

Figured I would add mine into the mix. I found the time to finish it (pretty much). I tried copper foil tape for the box rails but didn't like how it was coming out so I purchased a 26 gauge copper sheet. I used a table vise to get the 90 degree bend then I cut it to the proper size.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

OUTSTANDING job!

Figured I would add mine into the mix. I found the time to finish it (pretty much). I tried copper foil tape for the box rails but didn't like how it was coming out so I purchased a 26 gauge copper sheet. I used a table vise to get the 90 degree bend then I cut it to the proper size.

View attachment 749700 View attachment 749701
View attachment 749702 View attachment 749703

 

[JoeG]

Just got this back from the folks at ArtisanFX. I think they did a fantastic job finishing it off.

 

[adan valera]

Re: Nicksdad ROTJ "Hero" lightsaber show-off thread

I'm not too crazy about the Hero version of Luke's saber, but this one is definitely one I would love to own.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh! Okay. I'm officially a fan of the Hero version now.

Just got this back from the folks at ArtisanFX. I think they did a fantastic job finishing it off.

View attachment 758730

 

[mrwax]

I finally got around to finishing this saber. I took some cues from others here, especially D48thRonin with using ammonia vapors on the copper wind vane and Tamiya clear blue paint on the card. I then finished the wind vane with flat Rustoleum clear enamel.

I didn't want to rust the tri-ring, but I did blue it using Super Blue. The grip was painted with flat Rustoleum black enamel, but that turned out to be way too flat so I clear coated it with satin Rustoleum clear enamel. I scraped the rings clear with a plastic spoon as halliwax (no relation!) did in his V2 tutorial.

For the control box, the rails were painted with Tamiya flat neutral grey, and the copper tape on the rails got the same ammonia bath treatment as the wind vane. I studied pictures of the control box to try to determine reasonable arrow locations, and I slightly idealized them from the reference pictures. I made a template from a scrap of cereal box and glued them down with super glue. The buttons were painted the same as the grip, flat black Rustoleum plus a satin clear finish.

Everything got a good helping of 0000 steel wool plus a little bit of sanding/filing to clean up tooling marks, particularly between the pommel cubes. This also took care of the rough edges from machining, it's much more comfortable to hold. I tapped the emitter and filled it with an 8-32 set screw, and used some aluminum black on the inside. It's not quite as dark as it appears in the pictures.

It felt so good to finish, now I need to start tackling everything else on my to-do list!

 

[Bones22]

picked this up recently. Cleaned her up, Needed some TLC on the control box and i added some fake electronics

 

[mrwax]

That looks great! I'm not totally sure it's a Nicksdad saber though, at least from this run. The mark at the bottom of the pommel is a bit different, and I don't remember my emitter having any dimples on the bottom.

That doesn't make this any less of a fine saber though! Maybe someone else can corroborate what I'm seeing and knows what run it might be from.