im building my first saber and i want to give it a little bit of a darker look ive watched the saber shop youtube video but im wondering what other ways there are
Printable View
im building my first saber and i want to give it a little bit of a darker look ive watched the saber shop youtube video but im wondering what other ways there are
Welcome
There are tons of methods. Check out the A-Z build threads.
You can also look at videos by various prop makers on YouTube for specific ideas.
Well it depends on the material you're using. In my case, my hilt uses several pieces made of solid brass and after a few days of handling them with my bare hands, my handgrip is already developing a slight patina. Over time, and/or with the application of a little vinegar, it'll start to dull over and patina, get scratched and dinged, and acquire natural weathering, which is why I went with brass in the end.
If you're painting your hilt at all, using sparing amounts of paint remover or a little screwdriver can take the paint off, or you can use a relatively weak paint and just let your handling do the work for you. This is what gave Luke's main hero hilt in RotJ its signature appearance.
Aluminium (the default material for MHS parts) will also oxidize on its own, given time, and that'll give it a duller appearance, and acquiring natural scuffs and scrapes will help with that.
Any refinishing like anodizing for aluminium and parkerizing, bluing, or a black oxide finish for steel and other materials will, over time, wear out on high-contact areas and can be exacerbated with rubbing/buffing/sanding. Buffing hardcoat anodizing results in a nice bronzing effect, if my "battle-worn" M16 receivers are any indication.
If you want to know how to get your saber to look like some of the commercially-available "weathered" sabers, then looking at online videos or talking to sabersmiths is your best bet. Most sabersmiths I've seen can do a variety of weathering effects, from a simple discoloration to heavily rusted parts.
May the Force of others be with you,
Beskar Anooba
For a rusty look, I like to use hammered bronze spray paint sprayed from a good distance away.
Properly placed abrasive scuffing followed by strategic applications in the right places of gunsmith finishing product Birchwood-Casey Aluminum Black (now also available in a pen), "Cajun Agin" (thanks Gemini twins) using Tobasco or similar hot sauce and/or 'baked' olive oil can provide interesting coloured finish effects.
You don't need to go any further than your kitchen for examples of the oil. Any pan with baked on black or brown oil is what you'll get. olive oil has a high content of things that will smoke and polymerize to give the effect more readily than "cleaner" oils.
the tutorial for this is here http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...ighlight=olive
the are two surviving photos in the thread.