The Antihero - Custom Luke v2 finishing

[Welsh Pirate]

So I finally coughed up the dough to one of Roman's gorgeous steel v2's. Beauty shot:

So I have to be honest; as much as I'm a fan of the v2's form, I'm not crazy about the paint job. So, I'm going to do an idealized version. At first I thought about giving it the color scheme of the hero, but instead I decided to run with the idea that Luke was clad all in black in RotJ to make the audience wonder if he was going to fall to the Dark Side, and make his saber appropriately dark (which just so happens to coincide with the original Obi-stunt).

But first things first. This is a Star Wars prop. Time to beat the snot out of it;

...with a wrench,

...with a paint scraper,

...with a driveway.

I then used a file to deburr and soften the edges to make the damage look less "fresh."

I'm still pretty new to this hobby, in practice if not in theory. And I'm tight on disposable income. As such, I'm having to buy tools and supplies on an "as needed" basis while spreading the cost across a few paychecks.

Chucking this down the sidewalk has loosened the grub screws' hold on the nipple and the pommel, so I'm currently awaiting on a precision Allen key set in the mail.

Excited for my first build! Stay tuned for further updates.

 

[Welsh Pirate]

Next, I got some Birchwood Casey Perma Blue and went to work on the grenade section. It took me a dozen or more passes to figure out my technique, but I finally got it as dark as I wanted.

For the booster I was originally planning on cold bluing as well. But I was worried that would be just a little too plain. I felt like I needed some texture there as well. Then I came across an old discussion about the original Obi stunt that gave me an idea: a gaffer tape wrap.

I never liked the gaffer tape on the neck of the v2, but this really works for me. I think because it makes sense in-universe that Luke might add a textured tape wrap here for some extra grip, whereas in the neck it just looks like he'd been watching too much Red Green.

I then hit it up with some sand paper to make it look worn down with use.

 

[Dewy]

This is a really cool concept, looks great so far! Interested to see how it all turns out.