The beginning of my A New Hope Graflex build!

JRHunter13

Member
So I'd like to start off by thanking everybody who helped me verify the authenticity of my vintage folmer graflex with serial number! This community has absolutely amazed me with positive and helpful responses, and the well of knowledge available goes so deep you can never find the bottom. I'd like to send an extra special thank you to the one and only Scott JUA for his guidance and help sourcing my exactra 20. He is also going to be doing this as a commission for me when it comes time to put it all together. While I realize that a graflex build is fairly simple in nature and I could probably pull it off myself, I've poured too much money into this project to make any mistakes. You only get one shot to get the orientation perfect and I'm not about to accidentally butcher my beautiful vintage on a rookie mistake. I have however caught the bug for replica prop building and expect to post more projects here on the rpf constructed by my own hands in the future.

That all being said, let's get into it!

I'm very happy with the condition of my folmer. It has a lovely level of natural weathering. Not too much, but exactly the amount that I was looking for. I decided to keep a lot of the funk, as I felt that it added the right character to the saber. I did go in with a micro fiber and carefully dust it off. The clamp section as well as a few of the other parts had a decent amount of rust that I didn't like. While a lot of you would have kept it exactly as is, it wasn't what I wanted. I disassembled the entire flashgun and hit the really bad parts with a mild non abrasive metal polish. I'm looking into other products to help hault the rust. I was extremely carful while cleaning not to disturb the natural grain of the metal. Polishing the entire flash gun would, in my opinion, be a giant mistake. I've yet to fully decide if I'm going to add some of the weathering back using non corrosive products and methods. So that's it for the graflex so far!

Scott JUA helped me source the exactra 20. I can't express how great full I am for his help and guidance.

I bought some vintage graflex D-rings and parts off of eBay. I tried my best to scale the sizes of the parts but they might end up being way off and unusable. I suspect that they will be a little too small, but I'm crossing my fingers that some may work out. The D-ring I'm looking at in particular is off of the bag of a graflex graphic 35 camera case. The other part is a triangular ring that I would like to use the mounting assembly off of. As soon as I located the exactra, I began to obsess over the idea of going all vintage and found parts, unless they are just too far from screen accurate. I am willing to fudge this a little bit if vintage parts can be obtained though.

I've also ordered Roy's wannawanga ANH set. I'm planning to use it to help me match the sizes of D-rings I can obtain, as well as useing the parts provided to build the saber if vintage ones cannot be found.

I'd like to say at this point that if anybody here could help me obtain vintage T-track material I would be so extremely thankful. If you know anybody who has used it or has some it would be awesome if you could send me in their direction. I have yet to check the junk yard, or even upgrade to a premium account so I can search, but that's on my list of things to do very soon.

I will post an update as soon as the parts show up!
Until then, here are some photos!
Thanks for checking out my build, advice and comments are highly encouraged!
 

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I don't think ANYONE has found accurate Vintage T track that's accurate. The best bet are Roy's or Gino's, or actually Todd's Costumes has the correct profile. Todd's matches exactly what we know of the T track used on boba Fett's blaster for ROTJ, which looks to match the ESB archives stuff... and MAY match the screen used ANH and ESB... but we'll likely never know for sure. In my opinion, it's fairly likely to be the same exact stuff..

So... take that with a grain of salt. The fact is we don't KNOW for sure, but we can make educated Guesses.

For the D ring strap... I think Roy's is pretty nice shape and probably mostly correct. Again... we'll likely never know until photos of the original are unearthed. It's highly likely that the ANH D ring came from a graflex case... but again... it's open to your opinion.
 
I don't think ANYONE has found accurate Vintage T track that's accurate. The best bet are Roy's or Gino's, or actually Todd's Costumes has the correct profile. Todd's matches exactly what we know of the T track used on boba Fett's blaster for ROTJ, which looks to match the ESB archives stuff... and MAY match the screen used ANH and ESB... but we'll likely never know for sure. In my opinion, it's fairly likely to be the same exact stuff..

So... take that with a grain of salt. The fact is we don't KNOW for sure, but we can make educated Guesses.

For the D ring strap... I think Roy's is pretty nice shape and probably mostly correct. Again... we'll likely never know until photos of the original are unearthed. It's highly likely that the ANH D ring came from a graflex case... but again... it's open to your opinion.

I saw a thread where somebody had used what looked to be vintage track from a door or cabinet. It was brown and needed to be painted black. I thought it was worth a shot to try and find something like that, but I'll be more than happy with Roy's parts! As far as the d ring goes I'm just having fun with the idea of using old graflex parts. There is almost zero chance that they did that on the original prop, but if my parts match close enough when they show up I think it would be really fun, conceptually. We'll have to see!


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I saw a thread where somebody had used what looked to be vintage track from a door or cabinet. It was brown and needed to be painted black. I thought it was worth a shot to try and find something like that, but I'll be more than happy with Roy's parts! As far as the d ring goes I'm just having fun with the idea of using old graflex parts. There is almost zero chance that they did that on the original prop, but if my parts match close enough when they show up I think it would be really fun, conceptually. We'll have to see!


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That would be SaberFreak. His track were the real thing, but the wrong profile. That track source has long since dried up years ago though :(

Someone else also found a white strip of cabinet track and made a custom vader saber with it but I forgot who that was.
 
That would be SaberFreak. His track were the real thing, but the wrong profile. That track source has long since dried up years ago though :(

Someone else also found a white strip of cabinet track and made a custom vader saber with it but I forgot who that was.

Thanks for the information! I actually messaged SaberFreak, but got no response. I had no idea how long ago it had all been used. I probably wouldn't have messaged if I knew that. Still worth a shot though. I'm keeping my feelers out for a little bit hoping somebody might be able to help me source some, but like I said, if it comes down to it I'll be more than happy with Roy's.


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here's what the real original prop stuff looked like. Todd's is closest... then followed by Roys and Gino... Roy beats Gino because Roy is easy to deal with and a fraction of Gino's price.

View attachment 749456

I don't think that I've seen this picture before! It's awesome. Is there a hole going down the length of the track? Right in the middle? Yeah, Roy's site is pretty and really easy to navigate. I was very happy with the price. Just wish that he provided tracking! It's coming up on two weeks since I placed the order. He's on vacation right now but I placed my order before he left.


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As for the grips I wonder if they had the original source for ANH. Then casted that for ESB and RoTJ props. Roger Christian was the source for the track back in ANH time. a new team came on for the construction of the graflex for ESB.

We've also heard so many different story's of how the grips felt

Early on Christian said they were rubber, then hamill is quoted saying the grips were so hard they cut his hands.

I wouldn't be surprised if the original parts were soft plastic/rubber and then the prop department casted them off one of the originals

But I'm a crack pot so don't take anything I say seriously lol


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As for the grips I wonder if they had the original source for ANH. Then casted that for ESB and RoTJ props. Roger Christian was the source for the track back in ANH time. a new team came on for the construction of the graflex for ESB.

We've also heard so many different story's of how the grips felt

Early on Christian said they were rubber, then hamill is quoted saying the grips were so hard they cut his hands.

I wouldn't be surprised if the original parts were soft plastic/rubber and then the prop department casted them off one of the originals

But I'm a crack pot so don't take anything I say seriously lol


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The prop that could have cut Mark's hands might have been the stunt that was a cast of a hero. I think there was a stunt like that.


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Some years between ANH and ROTJ - i wonder if there was another variant/make/brand used for ANH, with maybe slighly different details.

Possible, but the ESB hero has exactly the same profile. It's likely they just had a bunch of it.

- - - Updated - - -

As for the grips I wonder if they had the original source for ANH. Then casted that for ESB and RoTJ props. Roger Christian was the source for the track back in ANH time. a new team came on for the construction of the graflex for ESB.

We've also heard so many different story's of how the grips felt

Early on Christian said they were rubber, then hamill is quoted saying the grips were so hard they cut his hands.

I wouldn't be surprised if the original parts were soft plastic/rubber and then the prop department casted them off one of the originals

But I'm a crack pot so don't take anything I say seriously lol


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his testimony is all over the map... he doesn't remember correctly.
 
Hey scottjua ! Is that a Vader lightsaber that that T-track photo is from, it doesn't look like a GRAFLEX end?

Hey JRHunter13 ! I'd guess that hole is either a photo artifact, or an air bubble formed accidentally during extrusion of the T-track.

Hey halliwax ! Don't forget that Christian also said he superglued the T-tracks on, and superglue can harden rubber. Not to mention that cold can too! ;)
 
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I thought I would throw this into the mix...

I ran into Colin Skeaping at Comikaze last October in LA. He was Mark Hamill's stuntman for the original trilogy. He swore up and down, 100% positive, adamantly affirming that the strips were rubber. The prop guys on the set told him they were (and I quote) "tank wiper blades". Of course, tanks don't usually have windows, but I could give the prop guy the benefit of the doubt and believe he exaggerated a bit and that they were wiper blades from some heavy military vehicle with windows. I take it with a grain of salt, but he was there and I was not. Also, he held the original props and I did not. Also, he talked with the prop guys on set and I did not. So...for what it's worth.

I'm sure Skeaping is accessible for further questions about this (he would probably love the attention) and does anyone think it would be worth reaching out to any of the surviving prop department personnel for answers? I'm sure they would gladly tell what they know.
 
here's what the real original prop stuff looked like. Todd's is closest... then followed by Roys and Gino... Roy beats Gino because Roy is easy to deal with and a fraction of Gino's price.

View attachment 749456

I don't know how this can be true. My track is the only track made using specs directly off of screen-used track.
There is a Luke ESB screen-matched saber in the archives and my track is a perfect match, even with caliper measurements.
There are different sources of t-track out there, but NONE are as screen accurate as mine just for the record.


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