Show your custom Lightsabers!

HappyTrooper said:
Yay, my first post! I made this Darth Vader inspired saber with parts available at Lowe's:
~snip~
Love this forum, you guys have some awesome stuff on here.
Click to expand...

Funny, I just saw that video today. Nice build!

Question: On the PVC parts, why not just prime and paint them glossy/satin black or gunmetal? (Instead of priming, flat black, gloss coat, gunmetal, IIRC)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jedi Reali said:
Nice! What're the grips made from?
Click to expand...

Heh...

I was hoping somebody what ask what kind of metal I used... was wondering if they passed at a glance...

They are not metal.

Back on my 1994 custom I used auto molding/trim to make the grips. But, since no one makes cars with giant black moulding strips on them before I haven;t been able to find any.

But they make it in chrome for the bling-factor.

It's basically a semi-hard resin that has a faux plastic chrome surface. It has give when you squeeze it-- but it looks cool.

http://www.eachbuyer.com/car-chrome...uIPEDzwZqS69PSbe2_CkZvk18AWeCvLKxmxoCu7Hw_wcB

I'm going to try treating/weathering/painting some at some point as well.
 
Hey thanks for watching :) Priming and going for the gloss coat is definitely more efficient and probably the better way to do it. I took the long way because:

- as a former model aircraft builder, I was used to using a flat coat, followed by a clear gloss coat for decals, and then clear flat coating again
- I didn't have black gloss spray, I used what I had in the garage
- to be honest, I'm not 100% confident with the colored spray gloss, I like having that ability to sand down the flat coat and then go over it with clear gloss
- lastly, the vallejo gunmetal needs a gloss black under-coat to really show its shine/potential.

I'll practice some gloss on the next few builds, as you have suggested to save some time...and money! :) I just need to man up and try it.
 
SethS said:
Heh...
I was hoping somebody what ask what kind of metal I used... was wondering if they passed at a glance...
They are not metal.
It's basically a semi-hard resin that has a faux plastic chrome surface. It has give when you squeeze it-- but it looks cool.
Click to expand...

Ohhhh, I dig it! Yeah, I totally thought you'd folded strips of sheet aluminum or something. :) It works well! I like the exposed brass section too.

HappyTrooper said:
Yay, my first post! I made this Darth Vader inspired saber with parts available at Lowe's:
Click to expand...

That is an extremely clean and well finished hardware saber! I think the best hardware sabers don't look like hardware sabers, and you've managed to achieve that. Nice job, and excellent photography!
 
SethS said:
Wasn't planning this lightsaber-- so no build thread. Just had an odd assortment of parts on the worktable, moving things around, looking for cool combinations-- and this one sort of just fell together. It's a lot cleaner and streamlined than I usually do (I like the hand-made lived-in universe look), but maybe this belonged to a Jedi on some sort of Royal Guard duty and he had to look fancy.

http://sethmsherwood.com/pretty/Shiny1.jpg
http://sethmsherwood.com/pretty/Shiny2.jpg

That's a Heiland two-cell, mounted the guts out the top, o-ring to hide the metal transition, blacked out the ports, sanded the port area down to the brass and the clamp is from a 60s era minicam.


http://sethmsherwood.com/pretty/Shiny3.jpg
http://sethmsherwood.com/pretty/Shiny4.jpg

The clamp was actually a pain as it was actually too big. I couldn't find flathead screws that both fit the holes, and easily threaded into the flashgun. I used buttonheads, and was then unable to slide a clampcard in as a result. So I elected to just hide the hard wear with greeblies.

http://sethmsherwood.com/pretty/Shiny5.jpg
Click to expand...


Great at job on this one SethS!
 
So, i dug up an old Demornay Budd flashgun that i had started to convert into a custom saber about 8 years ago.
After 8 years i decided that my original design sucked.

i removed the grips, and the other elements which i had added, and decided to start from scratch.
I alwayd liked the low profile, 2 rivet per-grip style of Mara Jades lightsaber so i decided to go that route.
Picked up a PVC pipe and cut out strips for the grips then spray painted them black.
After riveting the grips to the saber i went ahead and weathered them with a rustic wash of acrylic and hit the rivets with some aluminum black.

Originally i had planned on adding a black shroud but instead decided to go with a blade guard similar to Yodas saber with a floating style ring suspended above the emitter.
The floating emitter ring was taken ftom an old math compass i had.

I weathered the thumb screws and emitter guard with some alumninum black and hit the emitter area with a mist of flat black paint, to give it a scorched look from years of being exposed to the extreme saber blade heat.
I pulled back the weathering a bit with some steel wool.

Then i stumbled on this thread and noticed Scotts saber grips.
He pointed me in the right to pick up a few of these grips for a future custom saber.
He also gave me the low down for the Magnavox connector cards. Thanks man!




 
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DARTH SABER said:
So, i dug up an old Demornay Budd flashgun that i had started to convert into a custom saber about 8 years ago.
After 8 years i decided that my original design sucked.

i removed the grips, and the other elements which i had added, and decided to start from scratch.
I alwayd liked the low profile, 2 rivet per-grip style of Mara Jades lightsaber so i decided to go that route.
Picked up a PVC pipe and cut out strips for the grips then spray painted them black.
After riveting the grips to the saber i went ahead and weathered them with a rustic wash of acrylic and hit the rivets with some aluminum black.

Originally i had planned on adding a black shroud but instead decided to go with a blade guard similar to Yodas saber with a floating style ring suspended above the emitter.
The floating emitter ring was taken ftom an old math compass i had.

I weathered the thumb screws and emitter guard with some alumninum black and hit the emitter area with a mist of flat black paint, to give it a scorched look from years of being exposed to the extreme saber blade heat.
I pulled back the weathering a bit with some steel wool.

Then i stumbled on this thread and noticed Scotts saber grips.
He pointed me in the right to pick up a few of these grips for a future custom saber.
He also gave me the low down for the Magnavox connector cards. Thanks man!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...E-F976-4E0B-A7B8-056870A307AF_zps9xpdq3oh.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...0-4EA6-4F08-B012-1257B6E3B3AE_zpsbljryvtt.jpg
Click to expand...


That thing is BUTCH.
Some great stuff on this thread. I like this a lot. It looks like something a jedi who was also a gear head/motor head would build. The emitter feels like something off a Harley exhaust pipe. Nice job.

Would like to get my hands on one of those connector cards.
 
Those aren't to hard to come by. Pages back I think it was Dr. Talyn revealed they were from inside Odyssey video game cartridges. Scott D started using them and pointed the news out to me. They can be scored pretty cheap on ebay.
 
That's one of the best DMB sabers I've seen! There have been some amazing customs these past few months :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Dang, this thread really blew up with OT style sabers as the last few days! All of these look great! and SethS, I dig the tattoos, good to see more heavily tattooed saber enthusiasts (there's definitely more, but not that I'm aware)
 
JaxAndTheMoon said:
Dang, this thread really blew up with OT style sabers as the last few days! All of these look great! and SethS, I dig the tattoos, good to see more heavily tattooed saber enthusiasts (there's definitely more, but not that I'm aware)
Click to expand...

I have a double popsicle on my ribcage can I be in the club?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This is my first Lightsaber Prop
Its purely a show piece rather than a working prop
I designed it using sketchup then 3D printed it.
It was then painted by hand, with a few wires added and a leather wrapped handle. The red piece of fabric finishes it off nicely

I thought the printing wasnt to great but after painting it i thought it gave it a good homemade look (kylo Ren style) which was by accident but I kind of liked it.
IMAG0672.jpgIMAG0675.jpgIMAG0674.jpgIMAG0673.jpg

Looking to build another soon but maybe in metal
 
roadie3rd said:
This is my first Lightsaber Prop
Its purely a show piece rather than a working prop
I designed it using sketchup then 3D printed it.
It was then painted by hand, with a few wires added and a leather wrapped handle. The red piece of fabric finishes it off nicely

I thought the printing wasnt to great but after painting it i thought it gave it a good homemade look (kylo Ren style) which was by accident but I kind of liked it.
View attachment 590738View attachment 590741View attachment 590740View attachment 590739

Looking to build another soon but maybe in metal
Click to expand...

The print came out great, and the hand painting works well. For future builds, keep in mind that 3D prints do have to be cleaned up with some sanding and possible spot putty before they become perfectly smooth. In the fourth photo of your emitter, you can see print striations from the printing process, which is fine and all, but if you want to achieve the more metallic look, smoother is better! Also, I really like the red fabric wrapped around the handle. The whole thing has a very Rahm Kota feel, who has one of my favorite leather gripped lightsabers.
 
JaxAndTheMoon said:
Dang, this thread really blew up with OT style sabers as the last few days! All of these look great! and SethS, I dig the tattoos, good to see more heavily tattooed saber enthusiasts (there's definitely more, but not that I'm aware)
Click to expand...


Funny enough-- much like making custom lightsabers, tattoos were something I was into when I was 20 and have recently returned to. I'm slowly covering my bad 90s art school tattoos with something that hopefully proves to be more timeless.

Check in with me in another 20 when I am 60 and my arm is blacked out and I'm making retro TFA/ST lightsabers.
 
SethS said:
Funny enough-- much like making custom lightsabers, tattoos were something I was into when I was 20 and have recently returned to. I'm slowly covering my bad 90s art school tattoos with something that hopefully proves to be more timeless.

Check in with me in another 20 when I am 60 and my arm is blacked out and I'm making retro TFA/ST lightsabers.
Click to expand...

That's awesome! 90's art school tattoos sound pretty interesting. I got both of my sleeves done before my two deployments, hopefully I won't want to cover any of them up in the future... :wacko
 

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