First saber

**rlobrecht** · 10-07-2015, 05:50 AM

Things got hung up somewhere in USPS la-la land for a couple of days, so instead of coming Thursday, the parts came Monday. I got the chance to unbox everything yesterday, and do a test fit.
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Next task is a little paint in the grooves of the hilt. A bright metallic blue. My wife thinks I should only paint the narrow grooves, so the paint doesn't flake off. I can't use the oven to bake the paint on. Thoughts?

Here are some bad photoshop renders of the two options.

SaberBuilder_render both blue.jpg

SaberBuilder_render narrow blue.jpg

**Silver Serpent** · 10-07-2015, 06:41 AM

Go pick up a cheap toaster oven. You can get one new from Walmart for about $20, or you can hit up the thrift shops and yard sales to get one cheaper. They're perfect for baking painted parts.

**rlobrecht** · 10-12-2015, 05:15 AM

Originally Posted by Silver Serpent

Go pick up a cheap toaster oven.

Thanks for the idea. I picked one up at Wally world.

**rlobrecht** · 10-12-2015, 05:32 AM

Got a lot done this weekend. Started with some salt water etching. I cut vinyl resist with a Cricut machine. This worked really well. I also used bright pink nail polish and packing tape to cover up the rest.

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I started the etching with a 9V battery, but it was dead in minutes. I thought it was new, but maybe not. Switched to 4 AAs, and it worked great.

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Jedi logo on the pommel insert. I have a few mistakes on the lip of the insert where I didn't get good coverage of the nail polish, but you can't see it when it is actually inserted.

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Aurebesh and a tiny Jedi logo around the top of the hilt body (blade emitter end). This Jedi logo is about 1/4" across. Pretty good detail. I only put the first inch or so of this end of the hilt in the salt water, and had the positive lead outside the water. It still ate a little bit around where the alligator clip was. I should have paid better attention to the tutorial. Looking at it again, it looks like there is still resist on the outside of the hilt, and the alligator clip is only contacting metal on the inside.

**rlobrecht** · 10-12-2015, 05:36 AM

I also painted the grooves. My lovely wife found 6mm masking tape at Hobby Lobby, which worked perfectly for the raised sections of the #4 hilt.
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I added some greeblies to the pommel. They are computer case thumb screws.
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And last, I made a blade plug (since they have been out of stock every time I looked.) A short piece cut from a blade, a bit of transparent blue "tupperware" lid, and part of an old hard drive.
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