Color polycarbonate blades...

[DaedalusKnight]

Hi there,
I've been working on building a "silver" colored lightsaber (for a friend who is a fan of the EU) and I've found that just using a white light is pretty ineffectual. The saber works fine, but it's just a plain looking white color rather than something silver (or even grayish). So I thought I might try out a gray polycarbonate tube with a white core. The only problem is that that color seems to be out of stock and has been for a while now.

I searched around the forums a bit but couldn't find the answers to these questions:

1) How often do the colored blades come back into stock, if ever?

2) For those who have bought them, do the gray tubes make an effective "silver" saber? Anyone have any photos?

3) Does anyone have any tips for making a "silver" blade that's more visually appealing than just plain white light in a clear tube? I found a thread where people proposed a bunch of different things that MIGHT work, but nobody had tried anything.

Thanks for all your help!

[Darth_Dadderall]

Tim can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure the colored polyc was a test run and will not be restocked. Having said that, try using the cellophane rollup instead of the white diffuser and see if you don't like the look of that better.

[DaedalusKnight]

Tim can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure the colored polyc was a test run and will not be restocked. Having said that, try using the cellophane rollup instead of the white diffuser and see if you don't like the look of that better.

Darn... I'm sorry I missed out on them, then. Is it permitted to ask about other sources for colored polycarbonate tubes if they're not available from here? I don't want to break etiquette.

I certainly will try the cellophane rollup. Thanks for the tip.

[Silver Serpent]

I have heard some people getting a nice silvery color using RGBA LEDs, using just the White and a heavily resistored Blue. A smoky colored giftwrap or a bit of window tinting might get close to what you want, although you will lose brightness.

[KuroChou]

Try to find a white led with a color temp in the 5500-6000K range. It'll give you a nice almost bluish silver

[cardcollector]

The best way to get a silver hue from a blade?

use a very light blue lee filter over a white P4. Works great.

[DaedalusKnight]

Thanks for all the tips. I'll try some of them out and see if I can find the one that works the best. Or maybe a combination of approaches. I like the idea of adding a light film or filter... I need to be sure that I get a silver effect rather than just dimming the output. Thanks again for the ideas.