I'm going to upgrade my grenade with a Roman's, so I thought I'd document the original state of my Obi-Wan before the changes. It's mostly close-enough parts, or parts that were as accurate as they came when I built it around 18 years ago, but we know how that goes! Real-but-not-vintage-accurate AS handwheel, booster from someone's run way back when (probably before we even knew it was a booster), yodashouse bubble strip, Real-but-not-vintage-accurate transistors, washers from someone's run way back when, likewise the flame tube (again, probably before that was identified, either).
But hey, real Graflex clamp!
The grenade and stem is aluminum, from the very first run by Parks, back when you could get individual parts from him. I had actually been dealing with someone else (Steve was the name, I think?) who it turned out had either been working on the project for Parks, or subsequently turned it over to him, not sure. I think he passed away. Anyway, delivery was ultimately from Parks. I weathered it with aluminum black. It had cuts that went through the first ring, which I filled with JB weld. Those areas of course reacted to the weathering differently, but that's okay. I painted the stem and wheel. Some of it's flaked off over time.
I'm actually okay with the grenade portion but the stem and windvane have always bothered me. I was looking into replacing just those parts, but I have no idea if the size/threading is going to match, and someone was looking for an old grenade anyway, so I'm doing the entire assembly.
And yes, I could update more parts, but that would be everything but the clamp, and it wouldn't be my old build anymore. This was my grandfather's axe....