ROTJ - Darth Vader lightsaber from a real Graflex

[Lichtbringer]

Nice work, as always Michael :thumbsup

Markus

Thanks Markus, really kind of you.

 

[Lichtbringer]

Next step was to round the corners ot the t-track - for that i used 2 sheets of coarse sandpaper, glued flat on a piece of flat stainless. Some pulls on the coarse to get the shape, some pulls on the medium to soften the marks. Then some polishing with one of these sticks the ladies use for their fingernails.

Again the marking procedure

Followed by adding the seven rounded t-tracks

Due to the fact the bottom cell was prepared to be used for the ESB-Luke, and not wanting me to mill on it, there was only one position it could be assembled to the clamp

And i didn´t like it. :cry

The best way will be to forget about the small holes and the D-ring bracket position to the grips, and reglue the grips matching to the control box - as this is the most obvisiously part.

 

[KaanE]

The back of that lightsaber was covered so you could cover it and do again the holes. It'll look uglier, but it would be even more screen accurate, or another option is to build a new bottom and keep that one for an ESB Luke's.

 

[Lichtbringer]

Indeed it was always planned to use this bottom cell for the ESB Luke when i start that, and make a new and accurate one for this saber, then (prefered on a not so nice bottom). That´s why i first build it completly to the choosen ESB Luke.

Atm. i only had this nice lower one, so i was aware that i had to do some tweaking - i´m just still trying to find out which way i get the best Vader result from gently tweaking the Luke, without using irreparable methods (drilling/milling). :lol

 

[benhs1898]

I always thought this hilt was so strange/intriguing looking. Nice work! One day I'd like to build my own Luke ANH.

 

[thd9791]

rounding off those corners really made a difference! I thought it looked amazing before, now it's hard to tell this from the actual prop, great work!

 

[Lichtbringer]

Thanks pals - the strange thing with this ugly thing is ...... the more i work on it, the more i like it. :wacko

 

[dcarty]

This is a WIP pic of the endcap on the one I was working on. I traced out the shape on thin brass sheet loaded it up with epoxy and riveted the D-ring in place on top of it. One of these years I'll finish it:

 

[Lichtbringer]

This is a WIP pic of the endcap on the one I was working on. I traced out the shape on thin brass sheet loaded it up with epoxy and riveted the D-ring in place on top of it.

That´s something i will do to the next bottom, the final one for this saber when i use the present one for the ESB-Luke.

 

[Lichtbringer]

As i never planned to build any sabers or other stuff that needed the reflector clamps of the Kobold, i only bought one and then stopped searching for them. :confused

But now i need one for this saber and one for the ESB-Lukes. Later the MerrSonn,..... - so i decided to make me some. They are not completly accurate, but they will do the job until i have found real ones.

A piece of big dia alu round material was used to turn on it´s inside the stepped radius that´s on one side of the brackets. Then the ring was cut to several pieces which were milled to the size of the Kobold parts, and the round outer side was milled flat, got a irregular sanding on all corners and edges to replicate the wear of used for many years - and after that slotted with a 6mm endmill.

After that i drilled the mounting holes.

And used a tiny t-slot-endmill to finish the slots.

The last step on them was to drill the holes on the side - now i have some parts that i can use until i get real ones in my hands.

 

[OdiWan72]

Magic... Pure magic !!!

Markus

 

[Lichtbringer]

Magic... Pure magic !!!

Markus

Not really, just some oldschool work - but thanks.

 

[Lichtbringer]

OK, the distance between the first row of boltheads and the frontside of the clamp was deleted by readjusting of the pushed together parts, and the nut inside the front was turned by 30° to show the same direction as on the MOM-pics.
A kickback was realized when i tried to find metric nut and bolt to replace the machined nub and the threaded rod of the forward D-ring holder of Kennys set - the stuff i found has either a to small nut, or a to big head of the bolt, so i will live with his solution for now.

Also i realigned the t-track according to the saber frontpart, so it´s appearance is now much more like a ROTJ-Vader, i think.

And one of the Kobold brackets is added, looks not that bad.

But now some pics:

Still missing is the D-ring, whoever knows the dimensions of the movie used one, please chime in. (Same for the ESB-Luke D-ring).

And the vintage ball catch - if you can help me with this, metal prefered but atm also resin would get a go, please don´t hesitate to pm me.

Without finding the other needed parts i´m afraid i´m done for the moment - many thanks to all those who had the endurance to read all my stuff, and still found some nice words.
I know this somehow strange one never gets the recognition and love of the ANH-Luke and the ANH-Obi, so ... much more kudos to your kind attention. :cool

But please, if you read this thread and find something that can be improved, something i´ve overseen ...... please post it and let me know. I will redo the part or explain why i did it the way i´ve done. I´m not one of the well informed saber builders here, so please excuse any mistakes.

 

[Sym-Cha]

Hi Michael,

Excellent work! Here's how the shape of the front D-ring should be to resemble the screen-used :

I'll see if I can find the real lightsaber pictures in my archives lateron, as well as for the Kobold D-ring.

-Chaim

 

[Lichtbringer]

Hi Chaim,

thanks.

Excellent work! Here's how the shape of the front D-ring should be to resemble the screen-used :

All my MOM/other pics of the real were in a angle, so i wasn´t sure - but i already had a bad feeling about the one i had, it looked to "long".

I will make/look out for another one.

I'll see if I can find the real lightsaber pictures in my archives lateron, as well as for the Kobold D-ring.

I have great pics of that - but i´m not sure if it is really such a big D-ring, or maybe just a small one that looks so big due to beeing bent so much to fit in the Kobold clamp?

If yes - could it be a standard 25mm ring, something like this: eBay: Neue und gebrauchte Elektronikartikel, Autos, Kleidung, Sammlerst

Or do you think it was a bigger one?

 

[DARTH SABER]

THe ring I have on my ROTJ seems to be spot-on size with the original.
I have a side by side comparison photo of my saber along with he screen used saber.
I'll post pics and give dimensions when I get home tonight if you want.

 

[Lichtbringer]

THe ring I have on my ROTJ seems to be spot-on size with the original.
I have a side by side comparison photo of my saber along with he screen used saber.
I'll post pics and give dimensions when I get home tonight if you want.

Sure i do want.

That would make you my hero of the day. :cool

 

[Sym-Cha]

This is the only one I have from the front and you can tell that the D-ring is custom made:

and here's the only good picture I have of the Kobold D-ring:

-Chaim

 

[Sandcrawler]

Sure beats my MR Someday I'd like to upgrade it though to something on par with the costume. It's kinda of neat to "construct your own lighsaber" good luck with the build.

 

[Lichtbringer]

This is the only one I have from the front and you can tell that the D-ring is custom made:


and here's the only good picture I have of the Kobold D-ring:


-Chaim

Thanks, Chaim.

Unfortunately i have the same pics, and due to the rings beeing angled and not flat (would be to easy to measure then, hmmm? ) i´m not sure which size to give them.