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Thread: colored film?

  1. #11

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    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.

    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.

  2. #12
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    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.
    In order to see the Light,
    you must sometimes risk the Dark.
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  3. #13

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    There is red polycarbonate blade material available in the store:

    http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Co...tube-P430.aspx

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

    http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/1-...lade-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.

  4. #14

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    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!

  5. #15

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    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.
    Phil Higgins


  6. #16

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    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.
    "Art is never finished, merely abandoned." Da Vinci

  7. #17

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    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.
    Last edited by Onli-Won Kanomi; 02-12-2010 at 10:46 AM.

  8. #18

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    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.
    "Art is never finished, merely abandoned." Da Vinci

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