Limited Run Vader stunt sabers kits! Barbican, Severed hand and ANH square shroud version

[eethan]

Hey there,
here are studio photos of the assembled square shroud prototype
This one was painted clean and idealized as my friend asked me that way. Barbican and Severed hand will be weathered.
I hope you like it!

shroud amazingly cleanly painted by my wife Wonder Knight, I can do Star Wars paint, but I can't do that! and this is a modified TCSS clamp with my machined side bars painted by my wife as well

next to my Roman ESB MPP for fun:

 

[Pippin96]

Incredible work both of you!

 

[kurtyboy]

Barbican please. I'm a little disappointed you haven't drilled the grip holes though.

 

[eethan]

Barbican please. I'm a little disappointed you haven't drilled the grip holes though.

Having assembled the kits, I can assure that drilling the grips and tube at the same time is the easiest way to go.
It would be almost impossible to align the grips to the holes on the tubes after the fact.
Some people will probably want to just glue the screws to the grips, not thread them.
Cheers

 

[eethan]

Alright, here are some temporary photos of the assembled Barbican and Severed hand versions. I need to order some paint for the shrouds, so that will be it for a few days
so, just the shrouds left and some additional weathering. I'm really happy with the result, I hope you like it as well!

a little of brass black does wonder on the screws and the Barbican core

cheers

 

[moffeaton]

I'm in for the square shroud version!

 

[thd9791]

I can also confirm grip screws are nearly impossible to do separately. Maybe you could drill the grips first but plastic is a horrible drill guide… and this is for 14 holes.

I was able to successfully drill and tap …. I think they were 0-80 brass countersunk screws. The head size seemed to match exactly. They are common in model building, as well as 4-40, 2-56 and other similar threads. I got mine from an estate sale initially, and when they matched I went online to find more.

To drill the holes I needed a small drill press to bear down just enough. By hand I was worried about bending the drill bit or slipping.

I used a power drill and let only the weight of the drill bear down to tap the holes. slower RPM and some cutting oil. I was worried about tilting when doing it by hand and the drill made a perfect start to the threads.

 

[JoeSheep]

I’m in for a Square Shroud and a Severed Hand.

 

[eethan]

I can also confirm grip screws are nearly impossible to do separately. Maybe you could drill the grips first but plastic is a horrible drill guide… and this is for 14 holes.

I was able to successfully drill and tap …. I think they were 0-80 brass countersunk screws. The head size seemed to match exactly. They are common in model building, as well as 4-40, 2-56 and other similar threads. I got mine from an estate sale initially, and when they matched I went online to find more.

To drill the holes I needed a small drill press to bear down just enough. By hand I was worried about bending the drill bit or slipping.

I used a power drill and let only the weight of the drill bear down to tap the holes. slower RPM and some cutting oil. I was worried about tilting when doing it by hand and the drill made a perfect start to the threads.

I'm providing m1.4 brass screws in the kit, the head size is a match.
I did the two sabers with a 1.2mm bit with a small battery handrill. I broke one bit in the begining because I tried to go through the grip+tube+back plug. After that I didn't drill past the tube for the screws at the end of the tube, cut the screws slightly and it worked perfectly.

I can see this can be a bit worrisome, but it's actually not that hard, and obviously, for people that don't want to try it, just attach your grips as you usually do, drill with a 1.5mm bit and glue cut down screws.

The screws are extremely easy to cut by the way, don't worry about that, it's just 1.3mm of brass.

I'll supply an extra screw per kit. The Barbican will come with 3 extra screws depending on whether you want to add the missing grip or not. The square shroud has just two screws for the activation greebly.

Cheers

 

[thd9791]

M1.4! Man I hate living in the US sometimes

I also forgot, that area with the missing grip that has two holes near the bottom, I used one of those as a set screw for the endcap. Completely forgot about that

 

[eethan]

M1.4! Man I hate living in the US sometimes

I also forgot, that area with the missing grip that has two holes near the bottom, I used one of those as a set screw for the endcap. Completely forgot about that

m1.4 and 0-80 are equivalent anyways, pretty sure the screws would work in both threads.

regarding that double hole at the bottom, my opinion lately is that those are both old screw holes for former grips. I can see on my 3D model that the grips on the Barbican and on the cast are not matching, so they probably came off at some point. They must have reinstalled grips for the Barbican and drilled new holes. There is another extra hole that is barely visible in the public refs near the next grip but that I can confirm is plenty visible on the refs i was given.

so, i'm guessing the end plug is just glued and that is the best option for my kit as well. Just a bit of E6000 and that's good It's a bit hard to drill so far into aluminium with a 1.2mm drill bit, and since the leftover screw holes are not countersunk, i doubt they were used to secure the plug with a screw hidden under the clamp. They used larger set screws in other instances, so if they didn't use glue, I guess they would have done this here as well

 

[thd9791]

Matthieu your research here is incredible. Thank you! I agree with your conclusions too. Wow…

 

[v312]

Are there any theories or evidence why and when the holes under the shroud were drilled on the prop?

I guess most probably there were another set of hex screws holding an earlier version of the core, but it also kind of makes it t look like a Graflex - as if they were thinking of making it a stunt for Luke at some point ...

 

[eethan]

Are there any theories or evidence why and when the holes under the shroud were drilled on the prop?
View attachment 1696303
I guess most probably there were another set of hex screws holding an earlier version of the core, but it also kind of makes it t look like a Graflex - as if they were thinking of making it a stunt for Luke at some point ...

my theory, but that's really a pure theory and I can't prove it.
- in ANH, the square shroud has no holes,

- then, they possibly reused it for ESB, but since the "blade technology" changed, they added the holes and big M6 screws to hold the core:

but, 1: it can't be proved because Vader has his hand on the possible screws. 2 that shroud looks weird to me. But I'm guessing this is still the square shroud saber. The botom looks identical and position of the clamp measures similarly to what I think it is for ANH.

- then, they modified it again for the cast version and Barbican, but I don't know in what order or when exactly. and at this point, the screws were not needed anymore for the cores as those became static hilts with no blades

 

[thd9791]

I'll also bet the core shown in the Lucasfilm Archives video with JW Rinzler is the Barbican's core. The screw holes seem to line up. To add to this theory.

 

[Reel Fakes]

Please put me down for a Barbican - Thanks!

 

[Noir1990]

1 Barbican please

 

[djedi]

Put me down for a square shroud.

 

[3251bimmer]

In for one more severed hand stunt as discussed

 

[Dewy]

I cannot decide between a square shroud or a barbican!

Please put me down for:
1x Barbican
1x Square Shroud