So, I've been working on a Star Wars story of my own and this thread spurred me on to make the hilts for some of the characters in my little drama. I had set out some rules before I started so each saber looked consistent:
1) I needed one very OT, one very PT, and one "based on an ancient Sith design", which, to me, means KOTOR. At the end though, it had to look better than Kylo Ren's design.
2) They needed to be made with real-world parts: camera flashes, sink/plumbing equipment, whatever else I had
3) They all need to carry the build logic from the OT. Design choices for each thing needed to be made based solely around the key item as well as whatever items were available.
With that in mind, I went to the 'Bay, bought the cheapest/most reasonably priced camera flashes I could find and then to a few other sources for things that I definitely wanted. The T-tracks were the second things on the list.
The first saber I finished was for the main protagonist (his second saber, to be precise), and keeping it OT as possible, I needed to keep it simple. Any modification I was gonna do; it was with what the camera had on it. The only other things I wanted to do to it was just add a bubble strip (I prefer the look of them instead of the edge connector) and T-tracks. What I ended up with is this odd transition animal between the ANH Luke and the ESB Vader.
It's built on a Busch/B-C Synchronizer and the bulb-release/telegraph thing on the back is the thing under the case for the flash trigger, just reversed and moved up to sit under the shroud. I didn't know which way to take it until I got it in hand; it's about the same size as a Graflex but it has an MPP-looking shroud with similar outlets, and considering the situation my protagonist is in, I thought it would make sense that it would look something like Anakin's/Vader's saber.
The d-ring was handmade from a spool of galvanized steel I have, the thing that's holding it is a part hacked off the casing for the flash trigger, and the bubble strip and t-track are from a Roy kit I botched from some time ago. The bubble strip is (obviously) two strips glued together but the longer, top piece cracked in half from me playing with it. Oh well, looks more OT that way.
For the second lightsaber, that was going to be my PT-esque hilt because it belonged to the Jedi master that was put in charge to watch over my main guy. Her lightsaber had to be humble, elegant, and refined...well, as elegant as something made from a sink tube, some washers, and hardware parts could be.
This was a pain. In fact, this was my second attempt at this. There is a pvc pipe inside with two small flash guns inside (the bottom, exposed part with the covertec wheel from Ultrasabers, is one of them) holding the thing together. The first time I was fiddling with this, it jammed and got stuck and my prying it out just wrecked it all up and I had to trash it. Most of it was due to the opaque grip in the handle which is just layers of wrapped PETG, with the film on it, over the pvc pipe inside the body. The emitter are varying sizes of washers, stacked up on top of each other and soldered together. The pommel is a thing from the inside of a sink knob (from the next saber) and the greeblies that aren't rivets are things leftover from my Heiland Vader conversion that I saved.
Dunno how I feel about this overall. There are parts that I like and there are parts that I don't like. I really had no idea what to do and where to go with it design-wise; I really was just putting this together as I went until I got fed up with it and called a quits. So, here it is, in all of its "good enough" glory.
But here... this! This is the pride and joy of the three sabers I've completed. This is my KOTOR/"ancient Sith weapon" and I am extremely pleased with how this came out. In terms of the OT sabers, this is my Obi-wan. Even though it's a villain's saber (obviously), I added a sink knob to keep that lineage.
Who says lightsabers have to be round? This is a built up Kalart Improved Master Automatic flash and when I saw it online, I just had to have it because of its hexagon body. However, when it showed up, it was a bit smaller than I expected and I decided to compensate for it with some t-track grips (from Todd's Costumes) and added a steel pipe to the end to extend it. It turned out a bit longer than I expected because the steel rods that line the extension pipe, to support the t-track, caught on the insides of the sink knob and it didn't slide further up. The hood that sits at the top is made from steel weld plate and soldered together, which I don't recommend because it really doesn't work, painted and then screwed into place. I kept the inside unpainted to keep the heat discoloration because it just added an extra "umph".
Brass rods were placed into the guide track under the clamp to add some color, metal rods were bent and put into the back just to fill up some negative space, and another Ultrasaber covertec wheel was placed on it because I couldn't see a d-ring doing any favors for it. Also, to keep it truly OT, I added the circuit board under the bubblestrip because it just doesn't scream villainy without it. I can't say enough of how pleased I am with it.
And here they are next to each other...
...Here's hoping the next sabers I make turn out just as good.
1) I needed one very OT, one very PT, and one "based on an ancient Sith design", which, to me, means KOTOR. At the end though, it had to look better than Kylo Ren's design.
2) They needed to be made with real-world parts: camera flashes, sink/plumbing equipment, whatever else I had
3) They all need to carry the build logic from the OT. Design choices for each thing needed to be made based solely around the key item as well as whatever items were available.
With that in mind, I went to the 'Bay, bought the cheapest/most reasonably priced camera flashes I could find and then to a few other sources for things that I definitely wanted. The T-tracks were the second things on the list.
The first saber I finished was for the main protagonist (his second saber, to be precise), and keeping it OT as possible, I needed to keep it simple. Any modification I was gonna do; it was with what the camera had on it. The only other things I wanted to do to it was just add a bubble strip (I prefer the look of them instead of the edge connector) and T-tracks. What I ended up with is this odd transition animal between the ANH Luke and the ESB Vader.
It's built on a Busch/B-C Synchronizer and the bulb-release/telegraph thing on the back is the thing under the case for the flash trigger, just reversed and moved up to sit under the shroud. I didn't know which way to take it until I got it in hand; it's about the same size as a Graflex but it has an MPP-looking shroud with similar outlets, and considering the situation my protagonist is in, I thought it would make sense that it would look something like Anakin's/Vader's saber.
The d-ring was handmade from a spool of galvanized steel I have, the thing that's holding it is a part hacked off the casing for the flash trigger, and the bubble strip and t-track are from a Roy kit I botched from some time ago. The bubble strip is (obviously) two strips glued together but the longer, top piece cracked in half from me playing with it. Oh well, looks more OT that way.
For the second lightsaber, that was going to be my PT-esque hilt because it belonged to the Jedi master that was put in charge to watch over my main guy. Her lightsaber had to be humble, elegant, and refined...well, as elegant as something made from a sink tube, some washers, and hardware parts could be.
This was a pain. In fact, this was my second attempt at this. There is a pvc pipe inside with two small flash guns inside (the bottom, exposed part with the covertec wheel from Ultrasabers, is one of them) holding the thing together. The first time I was fiddling with this, it jammed and got stuck and my prying it out just wrecked it all up and I had to trash it. Most of it was due to the opaque grip in the handle which is just layers of wrapped PETG, with the film on it, over the pvc pipe inside the body. The emitter are varying sizes of washers, stacked up on top of each other and soldered together. The pommel is a thing from the inside of a sink knob (from the next saber) and the greeblies that aren't rivets are things leftover from my Heiland Vader conversion that I saved.
Dunno how I feel about this overall. There are parts that I like and there are parts that I don't like. I really had no idea what to do and where to go with it design-wise; I really was just putting this together as I went until I got fed up with it and called a quits. So, here it is, in all of its "good enough" glory.
But here... this! This is the pride and joy of the three sabers I've completed. This is my KOTOR/"ancient Sith weapon" and I am extremely pleased with how this came out. In terms of the OT sabers, this is my Obi-wan. Even though it's a villain's saber (obviously), I added a sink knob to keep that lineage.
Who says lightsabers have to be round? This is a built up Kalart Improved Master Automatic flash and when I saw it online, I just had to have it because of its hexagon body. However, when it showed up, it was a bit smaller than I expected and I decided to compensate for it with some t-track grips (from Todd's Costumes) and added a steel pipe to the end to extend it. It turned out a bit longer than I expected because the steel rods that line the extension pipe, to support the t-track, caught on the insides of the sink knob and it didn't slide further up. The hood that sits at the top is made from steel weld plate and soldered together, which I don't recommend because it really doesn't work, painted and then screwed into place. I kept the inside unpainted to keep the heat discoloration because it just added an extra "umph".
Brass rods were placed into the guide track under the clamp to add some color, metal rods were bent and put into the back just to fill up some negative space, and another Ultrasaber covertec wheel was placed on it because I couldn't see a d-ring doing any favors for it. Also, to keep it truly OT, I added the circuit board under the bubblestrip because it just doesn't scream villainy without it. I can't say enough of how pleased I am with it.
And here they are next to each other...
...Here's hoping the next sabers I make turn out just as good.
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