A Sith Saber

[Tom Tilmon]

Where does one buy "aluminum black"? I like the look of this saber.

Tom

[hapki]

I got mine from Amazon.com. It isn't paint, interestingly enough. It reacts with the metal to result in a black color. I have trouble with the black rubbing off, unfortunately. They say you can seal it with clear coat, but I haven't had much luck with it so far. I'm going to keep applying, rubbing off the white residue that forms overnight, and then reapplying. I hope the white residue will finally stop appearing. Then I'll seal it to prevent rub-off.

[hapki]

I am beginning to appreciate weathering as a form of art. More fine tuning done today...
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[Darkmatter73]

Hapki, great work! I use Alu black quite a bit. Water will neutralize the chemical reaction completely. What I do is get the parts looking how I want them, run it under water, and air dry them. If you let it sit, it is still reacting with the aluminum.
Weathering is what I do =)

-Darkmatter73

[hapki]

Thanks for the tip. That’s gonna help me out a lot!

[hapki]

I added a panel to the "cover".
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Still more to do...

[darth_chasm]

Looking good hapki

[hapki]

The panel on the side of the saber comes off to allow full access to the core. Here's how that works:
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I'm using a 28mm bas speaker in the pommel. I'm using a stereo amp and different kind of bass speaker as well. The idea is not to make it louder but instead to get a richer, fuller sound. You can see the second speaker hidden in the chassis here:
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[hapki]

The aluminum black kept wiping off, and I couldn't get a good seal. I decided to use black for accents only. I also painted the chassis/electronics mount. I'll be wiring in a deep red/red/amber copper nova soon. I'm still using the stereo amp with two speakers. I finally decided to have an external kill key/R.I.C.E. port using Activation Box 15.
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[hapki]

The rectangular shape seemed more Sith-like. I don't know why.
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