wayouteast
Sr Member
I'm a little nervous posting my latest project here alongside so many amazing, beautiful and hugely researched other examples! Nervous, and feeling slightly inadequate! But here goes! I've just finished making something I've always wanted - a 'set' of original trilogy lightsabers. I should say up front that I absolutely realise that these are not strictly accurate to any one of the various versions of these iconic props. Rather than representations of specific filming versions, what I was after was a set of four 'idealised' hilts for Luke's ANH/ESB and ROTJ sabers, Vader's saber and Obi Wan's saber, each one incorporating details that I liked from the various filming props and getting as close as I could to that ideal.
These are all 3D printed in resin on my Elegoo Mars printer using STL files from a variety of sources, free and for sale. When printing the final parts, I mixed and matched elements from various vendors' versions to get a final selection of parts that were (to my mind) as accurate as possible. I also modified and/or resized several of the parts in Meshmixer and Blender for accuracy and to get the scale and measurements as close as possible when the final hilt was put together.
The assembled hilts were painted with Hycote rattlecans and Alclad II metallics. Weathering was done with Vallejo acrylics and washes and a small amount of Rub'n'Buff.
While not accurate to any 'real world' version, I'm quite happy with the final result, and I think they're an OK representation of the fictional lightsabers - 'elegant weapons for a more civilsed world'!
The collection
Luke's ANH lightsaber
(I also made the 'circuit board' for the ESB version, although I know there are other differences in the later version like the missing beer tab and the second red button in place of the lens on the bottom).
Luke's ROTJ lightsaber
(I based this one on the V2, mostly, since I've always preferred the 'design legacy' of the Graflex clamp rather than the 'switches and arrows' of the 'hero')
Vader's lightsaber
Obi Wan's lightsaber
I want to say a huge 'thank you' to all the people on this board who have so diligently and exhaustively researched the original props over the years, and shared their research with the rest of us. Your skill, knowledge and expertise have been amazing and invaluable, as have all the photos, documentation and, of course, all the beautiful, extraordinary makes posetd here over the years.
These are all 3D printed in resin on my Elegoo Mars printer using STL files from a variety of sources, free and for sale. When printing the final parts, I mixed and matched elements from various vendors' versions to get a final selection of parts that were (to my mind) as accurate as possible. I also modified and/or resized several of the parts in Meshmixer and Blender for accuracy and to get the scale and measurements as close as possible when the final hilt was put together.
The assembled hilts were painted with Hycote rattlecans and Alclad II metallics. Weathering was done with Vallejo acrylics and washes and a small amount of Rub'n'Buff.
While not accurate to any 'real world' version, I'm quite happy with the final result, and I think they're an OK representation of the fictional lightsabers - 'elegant weapons for a more civilsed world'!
The collection
Luke's ANH lightsaber
(I also made the 'circuit board' for the ESB version, although I know there are other differences in the later version like the missing beer tab and the second red button in place of the lens on the bottom).
Luke's ROTJ lightsaber
(I based this one on the V2, mostly, since I've always preferred the 'design legacy' of the Graflex clamp rather than the 'switches and arrows' of the 'hero')
Vader's lightsaber
Obi Wan's lightsaber
I want to say a huge 'thank you' to all the people on this board who have so diligently and exhaustively researched the original props over the years, and shared their research with the rest of us. Your skill, knowledge and expertise have been amazing and invaluable, as have all the photos, documentation and, of course, all the beautiful, extraordinary makes posetd here over the years.
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