Darsh Sinis' Dark Saber

[Darsha Sinis]

wow, thank you! high praise from you all, and coming from some of the heavy hitters here (LDM, et. al....) that especially means a lot to me.
Lightsabers are like potato chips: you can't eat just one. I definitely have the Bug now.

[FenderBender]

Nice work! Can you explain the rear grip a bit more?

[Darsha Sinis]

sure,
there is flat 1/8" black foam sheet you can get at the art supply store or on ebay. I made a template on graph paper of a shape that is a wide V shape with trimmed corners. When wrapped around a tube, they make the back-angled shapes you see on the grip. I just glued the foam Vs on the hilt with CA.
For the grip material, I used a synthetic suede. It has a fabric backing and is slightly stretchy; it forms without needing to be soaked like real leather does. After dying it red, which when combined with its original brown color, made a nice rusty red which is the main color motif of my costume. I just started at the top center, used a quick-setting epoxy and glued an inch section at a time down and around the saber, letting the epoxy cure, and stretching it over the grip shapes as I went. once I arrived at the top center again, i just trimmed the suede all the way around at the trim rings. I used a sectioned piece of aluminum sleeve for the trim panel at the top. I filed and smoothed the edges and gave it 4 coats of black appliance epoxy, after which i color sanded and buffed.
Finally, I took a black oil-based sharpie paint marker and filled in the border all the way around the grip, and then used a smudge technique for around the shapes to give the look of burnishing and age wear.
~Cheers!
Darsha

[Darsha Sinis]

as a separate thought, I intend to add a curved, octagonal piece of steel to the bottom of the shroud, to attract the magnets that shall be embedded within my thigh armor piece. the saber won't hang from my belt, it will mag lock within a matching socket in the thigh piece. I got the idea from 'Robocop', just without the sliding panel.

[Artorius Vidnyl]

as a separate thought, I intend to add a curved, octagonal piece of steel to the bottom of the shroud, to attract the magnets that shall be embedded within my thigh armor piece. the saber won't hang from my belt, it will mag lock within a matching socket in the thigh piece. I got the idea from 'Robocop', just without the sliding panel.

Ok, I was already going to say how much I love how creepy this saber is, but this last idea... absolutely genius! I can't wait to see pictures/vid of that!

[strengthofrage]

That is one sharp hilt, very well done!!!