colored film?

[Saarai]

so I am toying with ideas to improve a blades look and was wondering if anyone has tried using white p4s, clear polycarbonate, and colored cellophane to create different blade colors.

[theJUDGE]

there have been many threads with the topic of using colored film inside of a blade. everyone who has tried it says that it turns out horrible. it ends up dimming the light. if i were to use a white light and have readily changeable colors i would go with the color disks because they are the easiest and cheapest option in this case.

[Saarai]

thanks wasn't sure how it would turn out, was thinking that might be the result.

[goldsaberwarrior]

If you plan on using a film don't do the colored because as judge said it tends to dim the light. If you want to use a film inside the blade go with a film like they use on the site here. That type of film tends to distribute the light better and gives a bit more of a core affect like you see in the movies. As judge said the colored discs are your best option if you want cheap way to change the color of your blade.

[Jedi-Loreen]

The only film here, in the Store is the blade film, formerly known as Corbin film.


We also use clear cellophane gift wrap to even out our blades.

[DJMoonbass]

im a HUGE fan of cellophane. cellophane by itself if you use enough of it gives a VERY awesome blade.

[Darth Biff]

Greetings all,

I was just wondering if anyone has tried lighting gels? In television production, gels are the coloured transparencies that are used to create coloured lighting. Ecko and I work in television (sort of... indirectly for me, more directly for him), and we're (well, he is) trying to get some sample packs to try out. If anyone has tried this before, your experience would be most appreciated. If not, and we manage to get the samples, we'll let you know how it turns out.

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

Iirc a couple years back someone posted pics of a Nihilus and Revan at a con who had sabers that were red even in broad daylight unlit because they had added gels...it served for that purpose I suppose though that was before TCSS carried coloured poly c blade stock...which would probably be a better solution for that purpose nowadays.

[Novastar]

Onli... I believe that was NeoPhyl, and (genius he is)... I think those were simply colored poly-blades. I may be wrong.

As to colored blade film + any white LED... it = NOT GOOD
As to slightly colored film + whatever LED you're going for = NOT GOOD

I tried the latter a long time ago. It was a SORT of aqua-ish / white-ish / quasi rainbow-ish (?) polypropylene (again, gift wrap) film. I figured... what the heck--give it a shot.

Well, it was about as effective as a two-legged horse. 'Nuff said. :) It's not even like "oh you try another type". No. It doesn't work. All it does is muddy things up because it FILTERS OUT LIGHT. :(

As to "normal" blade diffusion film/plastic + a white LED + a "coin shaped" little filter right in front of the LED at the bottom of the blade (one with a HIGH transference %)... = PRETTY GOOD

Good luck at trying to "filter" for a dark/deep color though. You're better off doing RGB LED mixing. Especially these days.

Some years ago (read: 2005... 2006... 2007, maybe a bit of '08)... RGBs were awful, and filtering whites was STILL pretty awful.

But now... there's just no excuse, you have NO EXCUSE not to get a decent RGB LED. :)

[Jedi-Loreen]

It was NeoPhyl and his friends, but it was clear polycarb tubing and red gel film.

So you were both partially right. ;)

[Darth Biff]

Greetings all,

So, then using a gel, even as say a disk rather than lining the entire polycarb tube, doesn't work?

Cr@p!

Here's my problem: I'm building a sink tube saber for a friend (her son, actually). I recently completed my first saber build, and I used several LEDs, including a white with Tim's coloured discs. My friend thought that her son might want to change blade colours, so she asked for a white LED and the discs. Not a problem, but the red in the disc pack isn't very red. I know her son is a big Vader fan, and I can almost gaurantee that he's going to want a red blade (if not exclusively, then certainly most of the time). My friend didn't want me to go with just a red LED (which was my first choice). I've been looking for some place that I might find a darker red disc; craft shops, party shops, dollar stores. I even rummaged through my Mum's old bingo chips.:rolleyes:

I was hoping that the lighting gels might work. If not as a blade film, then maybe cut out as a disc.

Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

[Jedi-Loreen]

Cutting lighting gels to make colored disk does work. We've been doing it for years with Lee Filters swatch books.

There will be some dimming, just because filtering is a subtractive method of getting color, but not like if you lined the entire inside of the blade with it.

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

There is red polycarbonate blade material available in the store:

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Colored-polyc-tube-P430.aspx

and you can also get a complete blade [add diffuser sold separately] made with it:

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/1-OD-Thick-walled-empty-blade-P451.aspx

...but since RED is one of the LESS effective colours that can be achieved through SUBTRACTIVE filtering a better - and certainly brighter - option might be a second red LED on a QD connector or as Nova said a good modern RGB...TCSS doesnt carry one [yet] but they are out there. I only have experience with the Seoul P5 RGB but its a good one.

[Darth Biff]

J-Lo: Really?!? Oh, good. I was beginning to run out of ideas. Thanks!

Onli-Won: I have a green polycarb blade, with no cellophane or diffuser in it, and to be honest, I really don't lke the look. I've been reading the threads about sanding it, and I think I'll try that at some point in the near future, but I don't think I want to start experimenting on this build. It's for a birthday, and is a little time-sensitive, so if I screw something up I'm... well... screwed. I'm also trying to watch the budget on this one. I can (and will) put the LED on a QD, but I'm not sure if this kid will ever crack the thing open, or just sit it on a shelf. If he shows interest (or better yet, catches the bug), then at least the thing will have been built in a way that he can mod it with relative ease.

Again, thanks for the feedback guys!:)

[neophyl]

Was me :)
Contrary to all the posts above, using lighting gels wasnt 'horrible'. While its true that lighting gels do absolutely nothing to distribute light evenly they werent used for that purpose.

What we did was to put lighting gel inside the blade so it was the visible layer inside a normal clear polycarb tube. Then we added the normal diffusion layer inside that (either the corbin/tcss film and/or cellophane) to do the actual light distribution.

This gives you a coloured blade during the day or when the led is off which looks 'ok' in daylight pictures. When the led in on though the blade is just like having a simple disc infront of the led. I personally have a red one (with a red led) for my dooku sabre and I also have a yellow blade I use on my various P4 led sabres. I meant to get around to buying some blue and green gel too but real life events sort of got in the way at the time so I never did in the end.

Doing the entire blade with lighting gel works about the same as using a disc of lighting gel as far as colour from a white led goes. Its alot more expensive though.

Of course this was back before the store had coloured polycarb available.

[Goltar Bias]

Would be nice if there was a tip for the blade which matched the colored polycarb blades. Or is there one and I missed it. Though running a red led in the red blade looks realy cool and i guess would fix the blade tip color.

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

No you didn't miss them there havent been any so far.

I suppose if one was using the coloured blade stock with white LEDs one might experiment with attaching a disc of similarly coloured Lee Filter material to the tip so that it would also glow with a matching colour? I havent seen anyone do that yet but in principle it ought to work...might be worth a try anyway for those who are making their own blades with the coloured stock.

Though that tip wouldnt be coloured unignited so coloured tips would still be a nice idea too.

[Goltar Bias]

Had an idea, don't know if any one has tryed it. But instead of useing just colored cellophane as the main light diffuser in a blade just run a single colored column of it. Like just enough to rap around a rod(mabey 6 inches worth) a time or two that would fit in the center of the rolled clear cellophane. Just sort of wondered after reading this through on a few threads and figured it is worth an asking. If nobody has tried it or knows of an example i will try it and see how it turns out.