Hello gang! I hope this thread helps someone in the future when it comes to doing a V2. first off I have to thank everyone who made this run possible, if it wasn't for the guys who took the time, and money to make these parts i wouldn;t be be able to do this.
PARTS LIST
Anakin Starkiller V2 (first generation 2015 run)
Trooper_Trent stencil kit
Slothfurnance RoTJ circuit board with soldered traces
Wannawanga (roy) V2 clamp lever
Wannawanga (roy) ANH D-ring
Roman's prop chrome graflex clamp (chrome isn't accurate, but is all he had left. see below for dealing with chrome)
Celebration 7 we saw new photos of the V2 in the state it is today. With these 4-5 new photos Dan (Anakin Starkiller) took it upon himself to set out and make the most accurate V2 replica to date. i was in the right place at the right rime and saw his Run thread go live, and i instantly joined being the first on the run list. The v2 has always been one of my favorites and i was glad i didnt miss the sign up list.
heres a few pictures of how the saber came to me, perfect
I slowly started to collect parts, a vintage clamp was going for around 150 at this time. i had a hard time spending 150 for a clamp that i am going to bang up and damage on purpose. i contacted Roman's prop to see if he had a replica clamp. he only had chrome. I purchased the chrome clamp because i did alittle research on how to make chrome look like stainless. so i figured if i could get it to look like stainless then dull it, maybe it can pass for old nickel plating?
the clamp straight from roman, so shiny!!
My trick for simulating the finish was, wet sanding with 300grit paper, then soapy water bath. then wet sanding with 400 grit paper, soapy water bath. then wet sanding with 1000grit automotive paper, then soapy water bath.
below you can see that i only started to the right of the square holes, i believe this was with 300grit paper at the time. to the left of the squares is still shiny
After all the wet sanding i needed to dull it, i poured some vinegar from my moms kitchen into a rubbermaid container and used a old allergies medication bottle to clamp to. to keep the clamp out of the vinegar so that only the fumes will touch it
I let the clamp stay inside the container for 40 minutes
the end result i was very happy with! beware of the fumes it will take your breath away lol
a damp cloth removed the greenish tint and left the finish below
now was onto my first layer of weathering. i figured dent and ding the aluminum so that it helps the weathering stand out. Trooper_trent did a amazing job proving this works with his tutorial he made on painting. i tried my hardest to copy what he did.
I took a carpenters hammer and used the claw side to lightly dent some surfaces, i also used a ballpien hammer and used the round side of the hammer to dent the booster area. i also softly dropped the hilt (assembled) down my stone drive way to help simulate random nothingness. i use my driveway allot for weathering. especially cloths, my neighbors must think I'm nuts when they see me rolling down the driveway in different cloths trying to weather it up lol..
above you can see the damage taking place. the photo above also shows i started filing 1 side of the emitter, in the Celebration 7 photos it looks like it was dropped pretty hard and 1 side of the emitter is really flat. i didnt want to do this fully, but filing 1 side so it wasn't completely symmetrical was my goal.
so now comes the first coat of krylon satin black. there was a reason behind going with the primer+paint spray. i find it that the paint is actually really horrible. when working with these paints with built in primers it seems if you let it dry and re-hit it it really stands out and looks horrible. which in this case i thought would add alittle more depth to the project.
Just like trooper trent did i followed his instructions to the tee. Sprayed the booster, let it get alittle hard, then started patting it with acetone soaked paper towels. i did the booster and emitter
and the finished result.
now onto the oven clean. I saw D48thRonin used oven clean to dull the aluminum. this was a genius idea, my only concerned was i remember being a kid and my friends used oven clean on their aluminum rims to remove the brake dust. they left it on too long and it burned the aluminum, leaving it a orange color...
i figured i would soak the parts for 5 minute rounds. between rounds i had a bucket of warm soapy water to rinse them, i changed the water each round as well. i hung the center section upside down and taped off the booster. the center section (all the rings) i didnt want too dull, the pictures to me look like the rings are much shiner then the rest of the saber. so i only coated the center section once. with the booster taped, and the saber upside down, i didnt have to worry about damaging the booster section.
heres the pommel, and emitter after 3 rounds at 5 minutes each
above you can see i filed much more out of that side of the emitter
here you can see the difference in soak time, again pommel and emitter 3 soaks, at 5 minutes. center section 1 soak at 5 minutes
next came the most intimidating part for me. i was so afraid of this next step. i had to have watched Trooper_trents videos 15 times! along with reading his instructables over and over. i just took my time and paid close attention to all the details being sure to put the stickers in the right locations
one thing that really helped me was i marked where the upside down T is suppose to line up with the booster. i marked it with a red sharpie to stand out more
i waited a long time to get this far, cracking at it 5-10minutes a night. glad to have gotten this far. i knew i now had to step it up because i didnt want the stickers to cure and give me a hard time in the removal process and destroying the paint job
back to the yard.. time to spray. this is my makeshift spray tower. a CD case as a base and a PVC pipe lol.
this is where this 2 in one paint comes in handy. with a sunny day it drys fast, 1 light coat, and the second coat i would only do say 1 side of the booster. let it dry, then i would do another side, i would make it all un even. these way the paint has a someway wavy feel to it. i dont know if this is the right way to go about it, it just makes it look and feel old to me
sticker pulling was more time consuming then i thought. i had couple hours this night pulling stickers because i still wanted the paint somewhat soft. for the up coming step
i want the paint soft because i wanted to give the stencils a rougher edge. when doing this i used plastic spoons and wooden popsicle sticks. this way it wouldn't scratch the aluminum, and would still be able to remove the paint, and rough up the edges.
just softly rub the edgers, you dont really have to go hard, you can just see the edge slightly change color, this is exactly what i was looking for. i then used 3 spoons on the grenade rings... time was against me and the harder the paint got, the harder it was to remove...
here i ended up wearing out the spoon, so i used the other end of the spoon, i hit it on the belt sander and then went to town on the rings
there is some great reference pictures on this site, thank you Chaim for the photos, these really helped me determine which ring gets what scratch
heres another shot of the roughed up edges
this is something i did from day one. i was so tired of going back and forth on trying to get the alignment just right every time i took the saber apart.. i used a chisel and stamped a alignment line. this way it is hidden in the weathering and i can quickly lock her in the right orientation. i did the same thing for the clamp, i could fit a small chisel in-between the actual clamp (under the circuit board) and hit it with a tap of the hammer making a mark on the inside for throne room orientation.
the photo above also shows the sanding i did to the mysterchunk. this photo the chunk is 2 turns less then it should be. when tightened all the way it sits flat. the reference photos i swear i see angled sides to it. so i sanded the sides down, like a pyramid shape... if that makes any sense lol
some watered down acrylics on the cone knob, inside the clamp lever gives it a dirty feel. i also had to rust the metal block that Roy supplies with his lever. i think its stainless, i soaked that thing in everything i could think of to make it rust and that baby stayed like new. i had to result to many layers of acrylics
roys ANH D-ring installed!!
there we go, all finished!
Again i can't thank everyone enough, i really appreciate all the hard work you all put into these parts. they are truly amazing. i hope this thread helps the new timer with questions.
May the force be with you
Danny
PARTS LIST
Anakin Starkiller V2 (first generation 2015 run)
Trooper_Trent stencil kit
Slothfurnance RoTJ circuit board with soldered traces
Wannawanga (roy) V2 clamp lever
Wannawanga (roy) ANH D-ring
Roman's prop chrome graflex clamp (chrome isn't accurate, but is all he had left. see below for dealing with chrome)
Celebration 7 we saw new photos of the V2 in the state it is today. With these 4-5 new photos Dan (Anakin Starkiller) took it upon himself to set out and make the most accurate V2 replica to date. i was in the right place at the right rime and saw his Run thread go live, and i instantly joined being the first on the run list. The v2 has always been one of my favorites and i was glad i didnt miss the sign up list.
heres a few pictures of how the saber came to me, perfect
I slowly started to collect parts, a vintage clamp was going for around 150 at this time. i had a hard time spending 150 for a clamp that i am going to bang up and damage on purpose. i contacted Roman's prop to see if he had a replica clamp. he only had chrome. I purchased the chrome clamp because i did alittle research on how to make chrome look like stainless. so i figured if i could get it to look like stainless then dull it, maybe it can pass for old nickel plating?
the clamp straight from roman, so shiny!!
My trick for simulating the finish was, wet sanding with 300grit paper, then soapy water bath. then wet sanding with 400 grit paper, soapy water bath. then wet sanding with 1000grit automotive paper, then soapy water bath.
below you can see that i only started to the right of the square holes, i believe this was with 300grit paper at the time. to the left of the squares is still shiny
After all the wet sanding i needed to dull it, i poured some vinegar from my moms kitchen into a rubbermaid container and used a old allergies medication bottle to clamp to. to keep the clamp out of the vinegar so that only the fumes will touch it
I let the clamp stay inside the container for 40 minutes
the end result i was very happy with! beware of the fumes it will take your breath away lol
a damp cloth removed the greenish tint and left the finish below
now was onto my first layer of weathering. i figured dent and ding the aluminum so that it helps the weathering stand out. Trooper_trent did a amazing job proving this works with his tutorial he made on painting. i tried my hardest to copy what he did.
I took a carpenters hammer and used the claw side to lightly dent some surfaces, i also used a ballpien hammer and used the round side of the hammer to dent the booster area. i also softly dropped the hilt (assembled) down my stone drive way to help simulate random nothingness. i use my driveway allot for weathering. especially cloths, my neighbors must think I'm nuts when they see me rolling down the driveway in different cloths trying to weather it up lol..
above you can see the damage taking place. the photo above also shows i started filing 1 side of the emitter, in the Celebration 7 photos it looks like it was dropped pretty hard and 1 side of the emitter is really flat. i didnt want to do this fully, but filing 1 side so it wasn't completely symmetrical was my goal.
so now comes the first coat of krylon satin black. there was a reason behind going with the primer+paint spray. i find it that the paint is actually really horrible. when working with these paints with built in primers it seems if you let it dry and re-hit it it really stands out and looks horrible. which in this case i thought would add alittle more depth to the project.
Just like trooper trent did i followed his instructions to the tee. Sprayed the booster, let it get alittle hard, then started patting it with acetone soaked paper towels. i did the booster and emitter
and the finished result.
now onto the oven clean. I saw D48thRonin used oven clean to dull the aluminum. this was a genius idea, my only concerned was i remember being a kid and my friends used oven clean on their aluminum rims to remove the brake dust. they left it on too long and it burned the aluminum, leaving it a orange color...
i figured i would soak the parts for 5 minute rounds. between rounds i had a bucket of warm soapy water to rinse them, i changed the water each round as well. i hung the center section upside down and taped off the booster. the center section (all the rings) i didnt want too dull, the pictures to me look like the rings are much shiner then the rest of the saber. so i only coated the center section once. with the booster taped, and the saber upside down, i didnt have to worry about damaging the booster section.
heres the pommel, and emitter after 3 rounds at 5 minutes each
above you can see i filed much more out of that side of the emitter
here you can see the difference in soak time, again pommel and emitter 3 soaks, at 5 minutes. center section 1 soak at 5 minutes
next came the most intimidating part for me. i was so afraid of this next step. i had to have watched Trooper_trents videos 15 times! along with reading his instructables over and over. i just took my time and paid close attention to all the details being sure to put the stickers in the right locations
one thing that really helped me was i marked where the upside down T is suppose to line up with the booster. i marked it with a red sharpie to stand out more
i waited a long time to get this far, cracking at it 5-10minutes a night. glad to have gotten this far. i knew i now had to step it up because i didnt want the stickers to cure and give me a hard time in the removal process and destroying the paint job
back to the yard.. time to spray. this is my makeshift spray tower. a CD case as a base and a PVC pipe lol.
this is where this 2 in one paint comes in handy. with a sunny day it drys fast, 1 light coat, and the second coat i would only do say 1 side of the booster. let it dry, then i would do another side, i would make it all un even. these way the paint has a someway wavy feel to it. i dont know if this is the right way to go about it, it just makes it look and feel old to me
sticker pulling was more time consuming then i thought. i had couple hours this night pulling stickers because i still wanted the paint somewhat soft. for the up coming step
i want the paint soft because i wanted to give the stencils a rougher edge. when doing this i used plastic spoons and wooden popsicle sticks. this way it wouldn't scratch the aluminum, and would still be able to remove the paint, and rough up the edges.
just softly rub the edgers, you dont really have to go hard, you can just see the edge slightly change color, this is exactly what i was looking for. i then used 3 spoons on the grenade rings... time was against me and the harder the paint got, the harder it was to remove...
here i ended up wearing out the spoon, so i used the other end of the spoon, i hit it on the belt sander and then went to town on the rings
there is some great reference pictures on this site, thank you Chaim for the photos, these really helped me determine which ring gets what scratch
heres another shot of the roughed up edges
this is something i did from day one. i was so tired of going back and forth on trying to get the alignment just right every time i took the saber apart.. i used a chisel and stamped a alignment line. this way it is hidden in the weathering and i can quickly lock her in the right orientation. i did the same thing for the clamp, i could fit a small chisel in-between the actual clamp (under the circuit board) and hit it with a tap of the hammer making a mark on the inside for throne room orientation.
the photo above also shows the sanding i did to the mysterchunk. this photo the chunk is 2 turns less then it should be. when tightened all the way it sits flat. the reference photos i swear i see angled sides to it. so i sanded the sides down, like a pyramid shape... if that makes any sense lol
some watered down acrylics on the cone knob, inside the clamp lever gives it a dirty feel. i also had to rust the metal block that Roy supplies with his lever. i think its stainless, i soaked that thing in everything i could think of to make it rust and that baby stayed like new. i had to result to many layers of acrylics
roys ANH D-ring installed!!
there we go, all finished!
Again i can't thank everyone enough, i really appreciate all the hard work you all put into these parts. they are truly amazing. i hope this thread helps the new timer with questions.
May the force be with you
Danny
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