Vader MPP lightsabers details and specifications

[belloq]

I guess anything is possible, but I’ve never seen the correct type of red LED board in a color style similar to that recreation. I think we all are trying to pull details from a fuzzy photo. I too have spent a lot of time squinting at that photo and I’ve found it impossible to be certain.

 

[BTTUK]

Your wish is my command:

Tan PCB with red LEDs

View attachment 1046908

Blue PCB with red LEDs vs. original prop

View attachment 1046909

Seems clear the original prop did not have a blue PCB, lol. The tan one still looks a bit too dark. Might it be possible they used a cream Exactra 21 board? SenorChang, do you have a good close up photo of your board without the bubbles hiding the LEDs? As I look at the original prop, it seems like the LEDs might be closer together than on my prop build on the left.

I'm not at home for a few weeks, but will be able to take a picture once I get back.

I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those times that it might just have to come down to personal preference, unless the prop appears one day.

 

[Mouse Vader]

Your second set of photo's with the tan board is looking more like it than the 1st even taking into account the glare coming off the contact strips. I'm basing this on the area between the LED's where there seems to be less/no glare & the contrast is much closer match. There looks to be a much stronger light source in the original pic shinning more square on - 30-45deg from horizontal than in your prop photo. For a better comparison the prop one needs to de-focused (photoshop?) or a little out of focus / much lower res to match the original like for like. I'll run it through GIMP later on & see if I can save you doing another.

Interesting point cropping up here too - how different lenses & distances to the object affect perspective. Both hilts look exactly the same from the clamp downwards but if you look at the shroud, on the repro the perspective curves the bottom of it upwards where as on the original the perspective is still has it curved downward which also makes the angle cut on the end look much sharper, yet we know they're both the same diesionally. I think the original was taken from much further away. Photo's do lie (or at least bend the truth ) !

 

[belloq]

Yes, the original photo is a medium shot of vader and troopers. Camera was probably eight or more feet from vader. It is a miracle that someone found that shot and enlarged the saber to that degree. I often wonder who posted the original cropped saber photo and if it can be rescanned now to yield more detail.

 

[Mouse Vader]

Playing about with GIMP to blur & degrade quality. With the blue card I was able to get the clamp lever etc much closer whiteness wise but at no point was I able to get the card tone closer to the base photo without bleaching everything else out markedly. With the tan card I was able to get the tone close but not get the clamp lever white enough but bearing in mind that it looks like it's reflecting glare much more in the base photo I don't think I'm that far out.
Blue card:

Tan card:

Strangely it also looks like the card on the original is set much deeper into the clamp. the shadow right side looks deeper & more of the card is blocked by the left side clamp rim. This is I think perspective differences due to lens & distance as we see on the shroud.

 

[belloq]

Cool. Remember- that tan card in the bottom-most photos posted by irondestiny is photoshopped. The board background has been changed from blue to tan. I’ve never seen the correct card in an opaque tan color like that. However, the color to which irondestiny referred to as “tan” earlier in the thread is actually the style with the green mask over translucent natural/cream board, like Newmagrathea’s example here.

 

[Mouse Vader]

Ta - I'll try & remember that,

What should I refer to it as? green ?

 

[Dann]

I always thought the card was cut off-center, and the LEDs are closer to the left side of the clamp.

There was a thread years back, and I cannot remember who posted the pic, but I wanna say that they cut their card off-center and it looked just right.

 

[belloq]

Ta - I'll try & remember that,

What should I refer to it as? green ?

Yes I guess so- it looks mostly green before it is trimmed. This is not my photo...

 

[Mouse Vader]

always thought the card was cut off-center, and the LEDs are closer to the left side of the clamp.

If you look at the top of the clamp, the bit that's protruding looks evenly cut - it's not from image trimming (see post #365 pg19). Also the whole clamp looks rotated to the right a bit more than repro has it.

 

[IronDestinyProps]

Playing about with GIMP to blur & degrade quality. With the blue card I was able to get the clamp lever etc much closer whiteness wise but at no point was I able to get the card tone closer to the base photo without bleaching everything else out markedly. With the tan card I was able to get the tone close but not get the clamp lever white enough but bearing in mind that it looks like it's reflecting glare much more in the base photo I don't think I'm that far out.

Strangely it also looks like the card on the original is set much deeper into the clamp. the shadow right side looks deeper & more of the card is blocked by the left side clamp rim. This is I think perspective differences due to lens & distance as we see on the shroud.

Yeah, the tan/cream colored card is closer to the original as I suspected earlier. Thanks for your efforts in GIMP. I was thinking the added clarity in my hilt build vs. the original might produce more insights, but I do also see the value in what you did in making my hilt more similar to the blurry original. The lighting is definitely different on both hilts but the main thing is the details of the hilt which seem to be pretty evident.

Cool. Remember- that tan card in the bottom-most photos posted by irondestiny is photoshopped. The board background has been changed from blue to tan. I’ve never seen the correct card in an opaque tan color like that. However, the color to which irondestiny referred to as “tan” earlier in the thread is actually the style with the green mask over translucent natural/cream board, like Newmagrathea’s example here.

Yeah, I guess what some call tan, I'm calling "cream." I Photoshopped it from blue to cream colored to give us an idea of what SenorChang's board might look like in the clamp rails. I can see though the green one as you call it seems like a cross between tan and green.

I always thought the card was cut off-center, and the LEDs are closer to the left side of the clamp.

There was a thread years back, and I cannot remember who posted the pic, but I wanna say that they cut their card off-center and it looked just right.

Exactly! While I am definitely inclined to agree with you, I tend to prefer the symmetry of centered LEDs in the clamp, just my preference.

 

[teecrooz]

Before you can call it I think you need to get the glare/reflection correct. It’d amazing how much lighting can change your perception of an image.

I am leaning toward the cream color, but just need to make sure. I would try with mine from my TI-2000, but it’s my boxed example, so I won’t take the bubbles out. My other two red LEDs found new homes a while ago.

 

[mrwax]

You also have to consider that there could have been a colored filter on the lens, they dramatically change what a B&W photo looks like. Ansel Adams used a red filter frequently, which helped give him dramatic skies.

 

[Mouse Vader]

General practice for comparing anything is to compare like with like as the 1st option but I appreciate that's easier said than done esp. in circumstance like this where we have limited info & so on - we don't even know what gen the 'original' photo is. I'd never set in stone anything derived from pictures of this quality esp in such limited numbers.

This is one funky card, though, what ever the colour.

 

[Dann]

If you look at the top of the clamp, the bit that's protruding looks evenly cut - it's not from image trimming (see post #365 pg19). Also the whole clamp looks rotated to the right a bit more than repro has it.

Yeah, I see that there is material left of the LEDs, what I'm saying is it looks like there's a little less material on the left than on the right, even WITH the angle the pic was taken.

Meh, whatever, doesn't matter to me either way, I'm just relaying what I'm seeing.

 

[jd pilot]

Love it. Been around the RPF for 20 years and still learning about OT sabers. Anyone contact Slothfurnace to maybe reproduce these?

 

[Halliwax]

Love it. Been around the RPF for 20 years and still learning about OT sabers. Anyone contact Slothfurnace to maybe reproduce these?

We have, sloth wants one in hand so he can replicate it exactly

Anyone willing to send sloth theirs for measurements?

 

[roygilsing]

We have, sloth wants one in hand so he can replicate it exactly

Anyone willing to send sloth theirs for measurements?

Here's mine. I could send it to slothfurnace but I thought he's having trouble sourcing something similar to the LED modules and is thinking of red acrylic pieces. But the wires coming out are equally important I have to say.

 

[Halliwax]

View attachment 1048519

Here's mine. I could send it to slothfurnace but I thought he's having trouble sourcing something similar to the LED modules and is thinking of red acrylic pieces. But the wires coming out are equally important I have to say.

Ohhh that’s beautiful roy!!! Lucky dog you!!

I didn’t know sloth was having trouble finding the parts! This makes sense now

 

[Edraven99]

Ohhh that’s beautiful roy!!! Lucky dog you!!

I didn’t know sloth was having trouble finding the parts! This makes sense now

Yeah, the closest that he was able to find for the red squares had a big bubble on top.