TefaTBob's 1st Build - "Light Side" Starkiller w/ CF7

[TefaTBob]

Hey all,
For my first build I decided to take a slightly modded Saberforge "Monarch" hilt and put in a CF7, Cree Triple-Force LED, some accents, a rumble motor, R.I.C.E. port, and then rust-weather the whole thing. I actually started with a BBW Luxeon Tri-Star, but the blue was too "sky-blue" and didn't match the crystal chamber so I ended up going with the Cree rB/rB/W and it matched perfectly. Thanks to Erv from Plecter Labs for the CF7 and all the wiring/resistor advice, and thanks to SaberForge for being awesome getting me the hilt and custom bits and parts I needed. This was also my first experience at how infuriating trying to fit all this in the hilt can be, especially with a crystal chamber taking up half the thing...luckily bouts of loud cursing seemed to do the trick.

Parts list:
Hilt: Saberforge "Monarch" (weathered, 2 button ports, 1 recharge port, 5 supports around crystal chamber.)
Board: Crystal Focus v7
Main LED: Cree Triple-Force (2 Royal Blue in serial, 1 White for FoC)
Crystal Chamber LED: adafruit - Super Bright Blue 5mm LED
Accent LED: Generic Red/Green/Amber tri-color 3mm LED (behind crystal chamber, blink when saber is not activated)
Buttons: 2 AV Momentary (Blue & White)
Rumble Motor: Pico Vibe 4mm Vibration Motor
Speaker: 27mm 8 Ohm High Bass Speaker
Power: 7.4v Li-ion 800mAh 14500 Battery Pack w/ Recharge Port
R.I.C.E. Installed behind pommel
Rust Weathering: Rustall Paint Kit w/ Satin Clear-Coat Finish

First time around I installed the switches first, with wire long enough to exit the hilt and then slid in the board from below and chamber with the LED from above. This led to overcrowding in the hilt, dislodging of the accent LED contact and also led to much cursing....
So I took everything apart, made the wiring between the chamber/main LED and CF board very short, slid the whole thing in from the emitter while pulling out the switch leads as they passed the switch holes. Then cut the leads short and wired in the switches, which was still a tight fit because those AV are so damn long. Then I connected the battery, slid in the rumble motor below the battery (which has been inserted in a slightly larger diameter vinyl tube and held in place with hot-glue), attached the speaker, put in the R.I.C.E port (which kind of just sits there inside the pommel), and then closed the whole thing up!

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[TefaTBob]

Few extra photos.

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[enzio]

Nice weathering!

[Silver Serpent]

That's an impressive upgrade.

I'm also jealous of your helping hands. Did you make those yourself, or get them from somewhere?

[craig139]

Looks great! How did you do the weathering?

[TefaTBob]

Nice weathering!

Looks great! How did you do the weathering?

Thanks!
I used a rusting kit from http://www.rustall.com/ . Primarily layering "rustall" and "blackwash" and then spraying a satin clear-coat so it wouldn't rub off.
Also I first scuffed the hilt, shiny switches, pommel, etc with different grade sandpaper and added some gashes/dents both for effect and so the rust would stick.

That's an impressive upgrade.

I'm also jealous of your helping hands. Did you make those yourself, or get them from somewhere?

Thanks, the helping hands were from amazon actually. Pretty nice solid heavy base.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1