Limited Run OT Blades

thd9791

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RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Update:

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Had a messy disaster with a couple bottle of foam and I’m going to remove that option. You can do this yourself of course! I pulled it off once or twice but it’s not incredibly reliable.. haha I’d rather give you the best blade I can
1/5/22
I’ve started. It’s slow but I have proper tools and some good materials. Reminder these are hand made, but I’m focusing on getting the bottoms and tang flat/true.

I checked today - I have American aluminum so the ID is 5/16 which is around 7.8 mm….. so I’ve been running a drill bit through the opening and a rat tail file to open it up to close to 7.9

These will be going on personal builds and other kits so each person should sand their tang to fit. If it’s small (which I doubt) a layer of packing tape on the tang should do the trick. I actually sanded one of my motorized stunts by turning it on and resting it in my palm with some sandpaper!

Anyway, I have the hardware done for a few of them! These are the smaller versions - Obi FX (click for larger)
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Next is to apply the reflective material

I’ll start some of the larger FX ones (barbican, warehouse) next

I’m saving the white ones for Yuma Blades and ESB Vader/Luke ones

12/6/22

I went ahead and struck a deal for some antennas. I also sat down with calipers to judge the best “standard” for blade making for you guys.

These are dark fiberglass, same as Glomex but 8 footers cut down so a similar taper, but a bit more uniform, we're splitting hairs though.

The blades seem on screen vary in length, size and scene by scene! They definitely cut 8 or 12 footers down and had some 4 footers most likely. Collars, length, diameter, etc are all different scene to scene. I have been doing this for quite a while so I measured all my props that I made to duplicate the items themselves, and they all seem to fall in a category. I measure these in diameter:taper:length and wrap all those measurements into the overall cuts. These are sectioned from 8 foot antennas, all from the same company. Each company has a proprietary shape, so I make the best section with the given radome or shell. I have to buy aluminum to fit so this is what I can offer:

measured for myself in the places you need to look. Diameter of base and tip in mm


ANH fx blade - black fiberglass, reflective fabric
Vader 18 to 10-9
Warehouse same

Obi Wan <17 to 9

ESB - reflective fabric
Vader 17 to 9
Luke 18 to 9

ROTJ - black paint or white paint
Luke Yuma 17 to 9” or 20” length (or custom)

Throne room? White paint No data on these,
17 to 9
18 to 9

I will cut the collars to the height we generally see for your sabers. Single M4 grub screw for most is all you can access. For Obi I can do two. Luke ESB you can use two if your bunny ears are out, I have to drill one higher than the other.

Blades themselves will be $110 plus shipping. I have to nab some proper shipping tubes, aluminum, reflective sheet if I run out and some rattle can paint. If I can protect multiple blades in a tube it will be the same price as one!

Foam filling, extra $15, I will fill them, sit by their bedside and trim the excess in real time to prevent it from spreading to the outside.... and then bore the hard foam for the tang. It takes between 1-3 days to dry, sometimes I have to pop a smaller hole into the inside to get air into the core of the foam to fully cure.

I will do these at a slower pace than people are used to buying things. Extras are going on my Etsy store later.

I can ask source empty fiberglass blades and material for you to make your own. Please don’t hesitate to ask, less work for me and more people building, I’m happy. Message me and we’ll talk price.


In this first section, I have:
17mm to 9mm 9 white 2 black
18mm to 10-9mm 10 white 1 black
however, I'm 99% sure I can grab a ton more black ones, my source wanted me to buy more! They just tossed some black ones in as a surprise....

yep, I was able to nab 10 more black antennas 12/7/22

Interest Thread:

Hey folks,

Wanted to gauge interest here. since some of my projects just haven’t been sticky lately, I honestly want to know what interest there is.

I accidentally found empty 8 foot radomes (marine antenna shells)

So, I have made almost 10-20 blades so far for various things and I enjoy it. It takes me a while, so it would be like Poopapapapalps runs, each would be a special project and they take time. But I love it.

Estimated, the blades would be (for materials) $60 and then labor on top, sometimes I do hourly so be fair, these take a while but I know exactly what aluminum and what reflective coating I need, and they’re not extremely expensive

I’ll attach some photos of my blades, I can do:

ANH Fx - black stripe and reflective
ESB/Jedi - Reflective coating
Yuma - dry black painted short blade
From screenshots, there do appear to be white painted blades in Jedi but I haven’t bothered, the reflective ones are just too cool.

I would just be duplicating my personal projects which are really using some reference and my own interpretation. This is not a “screen accurate 100%” thing, I’m not using any reference like that and there was so much variation in blades it would be a joke to try and pinpoint one.

Let me know! I would take my time, to do them nicely and to be gentle with the fiberglass

I think I’d just buy shipping tubes to properly transport them to you. Also, I can fill them with foam or not, the old ones had a filler and the new ones are hollow.

5/16 tang, to the length of your choosing. (Inside blade is around 2 inches, never needed more.)

It can fit an 8mm hole, since 5/16 is like 7.9mm

There would be a set price, of course, just wanted to give an idea of what it may be
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Your work is absolutely worth the price you’re asking but I’m pretty tapped out with Christmas and I can’t afford it right now. I’m bummed because I’ve wanted a ‘real’ reflective blade like these for a while.
 
Your work is absolutely worth the price you’re asking but I’m pretty tapped out with Christmas and I can’t afford it right now. I’m bummed because I’ve wanted a ‘real’ reflective blade like these for a while.
that's totally fine, keep tabs with me. I'm not going anywhere and I might be able to figure something out with you another time.

They take me about 3-4 days each lol
 
Dear god I just got my shipping tubes. Why do we have to buy in bulk. This is like the size of a desk

They’re perfect tubes though, there will be no issue shipping these
 
I hope you guys are following this thread.

I got a bunch of black antennas on my porch today. Considering how popular the FX version is, I grabbed more black ones. Chopping them to size today

Metal for the bushings and collars is in purgatory, it’s shipped but none of the tracking info updated lol
 

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Happy new year everyone! I finally have the metal for both sizes of collars.

My inner bushing materials are somewhere in the mail… this happens all the time and they always show up

I have the blades cut and I’ll be slicing up and burnishing some collars today
 
Here we are folks, I’m working on the fx style right now.

I can do the ESB, raw and Yuma versions out of the white because the ESB is fully wrapped and the Yuma is painted.

While I am waiting on metal for the inside, thought I would do as much as I can here
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Alright folks, I wish I had taken video of this. It’s a really neat process but the result is not as exciting. Anyway, I have a 3D converted to 2D template for the reflective material. I apply it at the end when there’s no more workshop needed, but while I’m waiting for my metal might as well take the time to map everything out.

They’re rough templates. I use fabric scissors so even wiggly drawn lines will end up straight when cut

I actually use gaff tape to take the frontal measurement of the ends of the reflective material and match it to the on screen pattern. I wish it was a rectangle over a cone…. It’s not
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Like I said, I’ve done this so many times (and it’s all by hand) so I use rough templates and do my fine line-ups with a thin point sharpie and scissors when I’m actually trimming the final material. Templates are helpful though. And yes, they’re 1.5mm shy so I can sharpie around them and get the exact line I want later on
 

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