Limited Run Padme's blaster, ELG-3A, (Delayed) screenaccurate details and proportions - idealized metal and wood materials

eethan

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi everyone and happy Star Wars day !

This is the interest thread for Padme’s blaster in polished aluminum and wood.

The very detailed build log can be found here:

Padme's blaster project - ELG-3A - screenaccurate details and proportions - idealized metal and wood materials

As usual, I talk a lot, I’m sorry in advance for that, I like to have everything explained and detailed clearly, please try to read as much as possible to make sure you are clear with my offering :)



About the project:

This is a project that I have been contemplating for a long time, I did a lot of research for it over the years, seen exhibits and took photos first hand, tried my hand at doing one completely by hand with very crude tools a few years ago and it was only logical that this was finally my first big project now that this is my actual job and I have access to much better tools

The amazing thing is that right at the end when I was about to start on this project again, I was approached by someone that had access to amazingly clear photos of every angle of the screen-used hero, photos never seen by the public before. This helped a lot figuring out the last detail and go very far in the screen-accuracy of my replica.



About the materials:

The real prop is almost surely made of resin; the body is then chromed, the handle painted to fake wood grain, the trigger painted with aluminum like paint and the long barrel is actually made of aluminum. This gives a lot of different aspects to each part of the blaster. My idea for that project was to do something extremely accurate in shape, proportion and details but to use idealized materials for the construction. As a result, I’m using two types of woods, Pao Ferro and French Walnut to replicate the look the handle has depending on the lighting and photos, the wood is oiled to best replicate the shine of the real handle. The body is made out of hand polished aluminum to replicate the chrome; the trigger is aluminum that is carefully dulled by rubbing it with steel wood until it is uniformly mat in look. And finally, the barrel is brushed aluminum, unpolished as in the real prop.

Here is a couple really good examples seen in an exhibit of how the barrel is dull compared to the chrome of the body:
dullbarrelref.jpg
dullbarrelref2.jpg




choice of wood:

I'll be offering two woods by defaults, Pao Ferro and French Walnut and posibly a few extra "one offs".

Pao Ferro:
the Pao Ferro handles are cut from a blank that was intended for a guitar neck that I had in my stash for a few years, this will be limited in any case to a maximum of 10 if I don't break any, I'm keeping one blaster of each wood and one is already gone to the US, so that will be a maximum of 8 for sale.
The Pao Ferro is what replicates the best what we see on exhibits photos or in some books of the hero blaster, here is a comparison:
comp_hero.jpg


Salvaged century old French Walnut:
Walnut is traditionally used for weapons stock. In France, French Walnut, which is a very high quality of Walnut and a bit darker and more figured than the american one is also traditionally used for all high end furniture. I was given an extremely nice piece of Walnut from a very very old bed piece, I estimate it is approximatively a hundred years old. I need to point that the figuring is nicer and more contrasted than the piece used for the protype shown bellow. That piece also came from the bed but was a smaller piece with less figure. The actual plank can be seen at the begining of the WIP thread.
The Walnut replicates perfectly the look that we see in the film as well as several photos seen in books, here is a comp with the stunt blaster for instance:
comp_stunt.jpg




What you will get:

Each blaster comes with a long and a short barrel that simply threads into the main body. You choose the actual wood type when you buy the blaster.

So far, I think I’ll take a pic of each side of each blaster and put them all for sale individually on my website with their serial number and wood name and you can all choose the exact blaster that you want to purchase. Different people will like different grain of wood and I like the idea to make you choose instead of just receiving a random one that you would have happily traded with someone else.

Display stands should be available separately if I manage to make that happen properly. I have an idea for a very museum like display that I like, but I haven’t had the time yet to actually make it come to life. I hope I can manage that, if not, I’m sorry!

The blasters are hollow and should accomodate very nicelly for electronics. They are approximatively 350g each. Doesn't seem like much but they feel quite nice in the hand and the weight is quite coherent with the volume of the pieces. for information, the long barrel version is 33.5cm long.


Timing:

I made a lot of progress on the actual run in the meantime but am currently working on only 13 blasters for sale. if the interest is bigger, I need to catch up with all the new blasters to do then finish everything up. and the last setp, polishing is extremely time consuming. I expect in any case that this will take at least until the end of the month and probably a bit more. This is just the interest thread, I'm well advanced in the work and sure I can finish it but don't expect the blasters are already ready to ship :) As usual though, i'll keep updating everybody the same way I updated the WIP thread :)


Price:

The blaster will be available for 575€ +-20€ depending on the success of the interest thread. Shipping costs will be additional.


What I need from you and that interest thread:

If possible, I would like every person that is truly interested by that blaster, ok with the price and serious about buying it when it’s released on my website, to say so in that thread and possibly comment on the kind of wood they would most likely take. There is a possibility I will offer a couple of “one off” in ebony, curly Sapele or any other cool wood from my guitar treasure stash, feel free to express if you would like that too.

This thread will serve the sole purpose of having a clearer idea of how many people are interested and adjust the size of my run.

Now, please be aware that I will not be displaying a list of reservation and can’t promise that someone that posted here will actually get a blaster if he is not there to buy the blaster when they go for sale. I have thought about a lot of options to put them for sale and make everybody happy. Giving the choice of the actual handle that you will receive is one of those efforts and since the French Law regarding sales for an independent worker like me is quite complex, I need to edit an invoice for every sale, and this all goes through my website, I have no choice, sorry.

To be fair to everyone, I think I could send a group PM to all the people in the list the day before the blasters go for sale to let you know this is happening. Then I’ll put the blaster for sale on the website, and the day after, I’ll advertise it on the RPF and facebook.

Finally, if this surprisingly gets a really large interest or people come late to the party after they are all gone, I’ll try my best to do a second small run, so please don’t worry, I’ll work with you. In any case, it will be limited, but I’ll try my best to satisfy everyone J this blaster is done completely by hand, it’s a huge amount of work and I’ll never do a 100 though ;-)


How/Where to buy:

As usual, everything I sell can only be purchased on my website, supergreenprops.com:

https://supergreenprops.com

I am obligated by the French law to edit an invoice for any money that goes into my bank account and the invoices have to be sequenced. The only way for me to handle that is through my website. It is easy for you, the website is fun and bilingual, it is perfectly secured and the payments completely handled by Paypal. You just need to register, enter your shipping address and the shipping costs will be calculated automatically. Make sure to enter your address as soon as you create your account as shipping costs are shown for France by default.

I know that some people might feel uncomfortable with a website, but please understand that I have no choice and that, even though there is a website, it’s still me, eethan/Matthieu, behind everything and you can reach out anytime for any question here or by mail contact@supergreenprops.com

I’ll always be happy to help or have a chat; really, you know I’m a friendly and talkative guy and love to talk about cool props, so, don’t hesitate!


Payment:

As explained above, I am obligated by the law to edit a sequenced invoice with all my sales, this goes exclusively through my website. The payments are completely handled by Paypal checkout, with buyer protection, and you can choose to pay directly with paypal, credit cards through Paypal (even if you don’t have a Paypal account), or even local payment options like iDeal, Sofort, Bancontact, Giropay, MyBank, P24, EPS... At no time will I have access to your payment information or bank details, never. When the order is paid, you’ll receive confirmations by mail for every step of the order and an invoice.


Shipping:

When you are logged in and have created an address, shipping costs are automatically calculated in your cart. There are two options, less than 3cm in thickness or more than 3cm. I encourage you to take the less than 3cm option when available as it is much cheaper and still tracked :)

All shipments are shipped with the French post service and tracked; you’ll receive the tracking number by mail when the package ships. It can be tracked directly on your local post website, usps, royal mail and so on. No need to use the French post website link included in the shipping notice mail if you are not in France. If you didn’t receive a tracking number, please check in your spam folder or don’t hesitate to contact me, it’s important to get it :)

Shipping time varies greatly and we all know it has been pretty unreliable lately, however, to give you an idea, it should usually take between 5 to 12 working days to get from France to the US, there can be some rare wild exceptions that I sadly can’t foresee, however, so far, I have never had a lost package, so fingers crossed, it continues that way!


Customs taxes:

All orders are shipped from France. If you are outside Europe, it is possible that your country collects customs taxes or fees, I can only let you know that this is a possibility and encourage you to know how your country deals with international packages and know if you have to pay taxes and how much they are. Please understand that this is out of my control.


Always eco-friendly whenever possible:

As I explain on my website, I try to be as eco-friendly as possible. I live and work in a farm in the south of France, I have all kind of animals around me and we try to respect nature as much as possible.
This kind of work, let's be honest is not by definition eco-friendly since it's purely for our enjoyment and not something we all need to survive (or do we?). That being said, I do my best to always use recycled and recyclable shipping materials or even clean re-used materials sometimes. I also try to do as much as I can for the projects themselves. International customers might notice the very light 50g/m2 ecological paper I use for all mandatory invoices and customs declarations, so light! :)


OK! now let's show some photos!

materials.jpg

DSC_0662.jpg

DSC_0663.jpg

DSC_0664.jpg

DSC_0665.jpg


all the photos after that are with the Pao Ferro Handle:
DSC_0672.jpg

DSC_0673.jpg

DSC_0674.jpg

DSC_0678.jpg

here showing the clear difference in finish from the body and the barrel, just like the real deal:
DSC_0675.jpg

DSC_0677.jpg


here are a few more photos outside to show a bit more the difference between both woods available:
DSC03367.jpg

DSC03368.jpg

DSC03372.jpg


That’s it, I hope I didn't forget too much stuff! thank you so much for reading me and for your interest. This blaster was a child dream for me, I poured my heart and soul into this and I hope you’ll all love it.
 
Last edited:
I'm in mark me as interested and locked in. :D

(Pao Ferro handle)

And as always fantastic work man, I'm beyond excited. Those new photos look fantastic!
If I were a richer man I'd grab two just to display each barrel size
 
Last edited:
I would like to buy the Pao Ferro but I need it by mid-June at the latest, is that possible?
Hi Solomort, Oh I guess I just answered your message on facebook. although I'm really new on facebook so here or by mail is way better for me :)

I think the blasters will be put for sale around mid-June. I don't know exactly where you are from, I ship from France, Europe is pretty fast, Us is between 5 to 12 days. First blaster that I shipped for an exceptional reason got to the US in 6 days, so that was pretty fast :) The rest of the production will follow its course normally though and I can't rush it :)
cheers

I'll take this opportunity as well to thank from the bottom of my heart all the people that "signed up" so far. The beggining was pretty difficult for me and I really was scared of all the hard work I did for the past few months was for nothing but I'm starting to feel better with all your nice messages and early sign ups :) thank you so much for your trust in my work and for supporting a really small and pationate builder trying to make a living out of his passion. it's not easy. I worked really hard on those blasters, put my heart and soul into them and your support means a lot :) (y)
 
Hello there,
thank you so much to all those that expressed their interest so far, I'm really grateful for your support :)

just wanted to show a bit of progress on the run :) I'm moving forward quite nicelly and pretty happy with everything this far :) almost all of the metal work is done and ready to be final sanded and polished. Just a few operations left on the main body tube, the rest is ready :)
so far the run is limited to what is showed in the photos because of a problem of aluminium supply, I've been waiting for a shipment for more than a month and I'm a bit blocked with that.
That's why I encourage people to express their interest here as I'll be sending a message to all those here a couple days before opening the sales to the public as their might not be enough blasters available for more people this far. I'll do my best to do more in the near future but I need to receive that aluminium first!

cheers

DSC03416.JPG


DSC03417.JPG
 
So far, I think I’ll take a pic of each side of each blaster and put them all for sale individually on my website with their serial number and wood name and you can all choose the exact blaster that you want to purchase. Different people will like different grain of wood and I like the idea to make you choose instead of just receiving a random one that you would have happily traded with someone else.
I was thinking about getting a plaque made and was wondering if the blaster would have its serial number etch on it.

Display stands should be available separately if I manage to make that happen properly. I have an idea for a very museum like display that I like, but I haven’t had the time yet to actually make it come to life. I hope I can manage that, if not, I’m sorry!
Are you thinking about a wooden display stand using the same material as the blaster handle?
 

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top