Finally got my kit installed this week.
Saber is a combination of a TGS 1.9 'blem' upper shell (ears, eye, button) and the KR 'conversion' kit.
Scorch marks were done with a dremel cutting bit and enamel weathering wash. I'm not sure I really captured the 'burn marks' as well as I'd like, so any suggestions for improvement would be appreciated.
Saber is fully installed with a mb-sabers chassis printed in plastic, combined with a brass fin kit and a quartz crystal. The bladeholder is the TGS unit, so I didn't go for the fully removable chassis with 'plasma gate.' Did the chamber rods by hand with some 1/16 rod picked up at the hobby store.
Chamber closeups. I'm actually pretty happy with how the chamber turned out. When I purchased the chassis parts, Shapeways wasn't printing in metal due to Covid restrictions. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably print the crystal holder pieces in brass, rather than plastic. Still, I went for a heavily carbon-scored look for the chamber parts and I think it was pretty successful.
And lit up. Now that I've got it installed, it's time to get the chamber and the chassis 'windows' programmed to do more that just mimic the blade as they are now. All the leds are neopixel, so I should be able to program some solid blinky variations for the window section and color-match the crystal for all the various blade styles.
The mb-sabers chassis is actually a fairly easy install, the only major frustration was getting the brass rods bent nicely for the crystal chamber and ensuring that it was all bolted together straight so that it fit inside the graflex shell. I find that the KR kit is just ever-so-slightly thicker gauge than the TGS kit, so the ID of the lower section makes for pretty snug fit on the chassis. Getting the kill switch at just the right level so I could actuate it AND it would fit inside the saber was somewhat challenging.
One of these days I'll spring for a two-piece emitter and do the fully-removable mb-chassis but I doubt I'll ever want to spend the $$ for the full-metal option.
The KR kit was really nicely made and the included stencil for the burn marks was welcome. I now have installed saber replicas for all the 'major' Graflex variants: ANH, ESB, TFA/TLJ and TRoS. I should really get them all in the same room for a 'family photo.'