Star Wars EU prop

dropshipbob

Master Member
This was never seen on film, but I've heard that it was touched upon in the comics? Reguardless, I always loved the thought that after the events in ESB, someone, either Lord Vader, one of his henchmen...or maybe even a bounty hunter, retrived Luke's hand and saber as either a present or for safe-keeping. I've had this project on the back-burner for months and just recently got everything in place to finish it up.

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The frame is made of wood and had a recessed panel which formed a "basin" in the face. This was constructed by my father-in-law, a master woodworker. There are also panels inset into the sides which would later hold greeblies and lights. All woodwork was sealed with wood filler, allowed to dry and sanded smoothe.

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I constructed a lightsaber out of assorted materials, built with ESB measurements. The hand was part of a Halloween prop, one of those big vinyl severed arms with the bloody stump.

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Since I don't know a thing of wiring LED's, I used a module that's meant for t-shirts. Say you have a shirt or sweater with a big Christmas tree on it...you could use this module for the lights. Simply drilled a few holes and covered them with various bits. Here you can see two lights difused with hotglue. I laid the two nozzles face down and applied hotglue to the interior. When it cooled off, I just pried them off the glass surface they were resting on, and the effect was a flat light difusing surface.

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A cookie for the person who can spot what the greeblies came from.

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The saber was inserted into the hand and set aside. I then poured close to 7 pounds of plaster into the basin. I then quickly inserted the hand/saber into the plaster pool and worked it with a spatula, making dips and peeks in random areas, and building the plaster up around the edges of the hand/saber.

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Since the hand was made of vinyl, and I was worried it wouldn't take spray paint well, I gave it several coats of gesso and latex paint. When this dried, I gave the entire piece a coat of primer, followed by a coat of gloss black, coated with 4 applications of Krylon metalic silver. When dry, this was given a coat of gloss acrylic sealer. The plaster/hand/saber area was given a wash of black acrylic to bring out the details.

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When all was said and done, the whole thing probably weighs close to 10 pounds. I was going to display it on a wall, but that would call for a 5 inch lag bolt to be inserted into a stud. I'll have to come up with a different means of display.
 
Great Job. :thumbsup

Welcome to the "Alternate Universe" of prop making. :p :D

That's similar to how I made the Jar Jar in Carbonite. With a bit of creativity anything can be "frozen".

Keep up the good work.
 
Are the greeblies form a tie fighter model kit?

Didn't Luke's hand, or more properly Luke's saber, go to the first Luke clone in the expanded universe?

Cool carbo-prop dude.
 
That looks great.

Could the long panel be one of those Mother Board aluminum place holders you see on the rear of a computer? I dont know what there called exactly, but that's what it looks like to me.
 
Sulla, I couldn't tell you. I don't know much about the expanded universe books, I seemed to recall someone saying there was something on this in one of the books, and I already had the idea so I ran with it.
Perhaps it was frozen in carbonite, then given to the first Luke clone? :)


<div class='quotetop'>(the iron 1 @ Sep 28 2006, 04:04 PM) [snapback]1328020[/snapback]</div>
That looks great.

Could the long panel be one of those Mother Board aluminum place holders you see on the rear of a computer? I dont know what there called exactly, but that's what it looks like to me.
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Nice guess, but the greeblies came from a Star Trek Klingon cruiser kit made by MPC. The light nozzles came from a MPC SW Star Destroyer.

Thanks for the replies and kind words.
 
great looking prop. I can't remember exactly how it goes, but Luke's hand was retrieved along with his lightsaber. The emperor used Luke's hand to clone Luke's clone Luuke. The lightsaber was then given to him.
 
<div class='quotetop'>(useful idiot @ Sep 28 2006, 04:28 PM) [snapback]1328033[/snapback]</div>
great looking prop. I can't remember exactly how it goes, but Luke's hand was retrieved along with his lightsaber. The emperor used Luke's hand to clone Luke's clone Luuke. The lightsaber was then given to him.
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Ahhh, looks like I was a little off on the actual EU. Well, perhaps we can call this expanded, expanded universe? :angel

Probe Droid, thank you.
 
It still makes sense that the hand would be frozen in carbonite to preserve the tissue for cloning. The lightsaber might have been tossed in with it by an Ugnaught who didn't realize the item's significance as carbon-freezing was a common way to ship things and they were both(presumably) going to the Emperor first because the location of the cloning facility was a secret.


Great job.
 
Great job and nice to see that you can think up props.

And thanks for the gluegun tip. It might be hat I need to make my T800 eyes.
 
Maybe a tabletop display like a plate holder but much beefier and manly. :) So it would rest at an upright angle but still be supported from the 'bottom' and not have to be secured to a wall.

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That's very very cool...
Any shots of the inside of the wrist? Did you do any anatomical stuff like the ends of wrist bones or blood vessels?

-Rabittooth
 
<div class='quotetop'>(corranhornjje @ Sep 28 2006, 07:04 PM) [snapback]1328139[/snapback]</div>
Maybe a tabletop display like a plate holder but much beefier and manly. :) So it would rest at an upright angle but still be supported from the 'bottom' and not have to be secured to a wall.

PlatHldr.jpg

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Do they make one of those to hold a 10 pound slab? :lol But thanks, that does give me ideas. Perhaps I can see if my father in law can fashion one out of wood. Or maybe if I can find a podium like churches use to hold their bible open for display...or like what's used for guest books at weedings.

Rabbittooth, by the inside of the wrist, do you mean the flat area where it was "severed"? I can get a picture of that. As for detailing the severed area, I figured all surfaces were covered with a somewhat thick layer of carbonite prior to freezing. This coupled with the idea that a saber would make a pretty clean cut through flesh gave me the idea that you wouldn't see much in the way of anatomical details. I wasn't sure if there would be any pits or open spots inside the wrist when it was cut, so I just assumed it would be a rather solid mass. I thought about googling for photos, but I wasn't sure I wanted to see any real photos of severed limbs. :eek:
 
Lovely work DSB. And very original - certainly the first time I've seen anything like that.

(Rats, that's twice I've missed out on the cookie.) :p
 
looks awesome.....

i had this on the backburner for a few years but never really got it off the ground (sold my hand too). i did have it in a bitching aquarium with "life support" tied to it though :lol

actually, it was c'boath who used the hand to clone luke, not palpatine :)

the only thing that i would have done diff (the only real variation of plans really) would have been to use expanding foam instead of plaster, then cover that with water putty. some spackle and you have a nice "cake frosting" look to it.

my original idea was just to have the fingers poking out, but that would have been a big PITA to get done right. never thought about the saber though. nice touch :)

it looks terrific man, it really does. it makes me wanna go dig out the old plans i had and start trying to get this sucker made again :lol

chris
 
Mini carbon freezing chamber? When you're Darth Vader, you can't get ANYTHING done.

Chris, I actually did use some expanding foam inside the hand to bulk it up. And I had thought of just having a hand in their by itself, but I figured that wouldn't be as exciting. Plus people would be less likely to recognize it. With the saber in there, it takes a little less explaining. :)
 
Incredibly cool. Really neat idea and execution.. :thumbsup

<div class='quotetop'>(useful idiot @ Sep 28 2006, 12:28 PM) [snapback]1328033[/snapback]</div>
great looking prop. I can't remember exactly how it goes, but Luke's hand was retrieved along with his lightsaber. The emperor used Luke's hand to clone Luke's clone Luuke. The lightsaber was then given to him.
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(spoilers)

Correct. When the clone was killed at the end of the Thrawn trilogy, Mara took the saber as her own.

...now, the whole thing is impossible, given that Luke's hand, still clutching the saber, fell out the same shaft under Cloud City that he did, and tumbled to into the gas giant that is Bespin. All right there in ESB. ;)

First Luke clone?

Man, I am waaay behind in the EU.
 
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