Jay-gon's PVC Hilts - Full tutorial on last page

[xwingband]

Hey Jay, I notice you're having issues selling them on eBay. IMO you should paint the curved ones to cover the writing. Also saying just a Luxeon instead of giving the designation. People less in the know start wondering if a I is going to be weak since III's are the standard.

Even if you state in HUGE letters that the small blade makes it brighter they'll still be... "duh, isn't a I weaker than a III, can I have a V?"

[TorLinWaDur]

yeah i saw this on eBay. ive been watching. lol

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I have thought about painting them, but with all the extra work involved, I'm not sure I'd want to do that....I'll try painting some of them after Halloween. My idea was to wrap them in some kind of grip material, similar to Ventress' sabers. I have also considered checking into getting them chrome plated also.

Did my starting price seem to high? They already cost me $38 to make them in the first place, and that's not counting the shipping on everything I have to order. There's also some level of fabrication involved, too. The lens/led holder takes some time to make. I did change the derscription to simply say a "Luxeon Star'" instead of a Luxeon I. These things really are as bright as a Lux III that's run on an MR board, though.

I'm also not tyring to sell them as a business type thing either....I just wanted to recoup the costs of building them, and cover the ones for the photobooth props.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I found some paint at Wal-mart today that is intended for plastic and features a hammered finish when dry. I'll post pics after it's fully cured and re-assembled. Painting it only took a few minutes, so I may go ahead and do them all.

EDIT:
Here's the first painted Lil' Tyrant!


The other side, where the writing was:

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Here it is re-assembled, with an unpainted Lil' Tyrant for comparison:


That's much better, and was easier than I thought it would be. I bought two cans of spray paint, the silver shown here, and what look ed lke either black or gun metal gray, I'm not sure. I'll try that out on another one. I may end up painting them all....prep was a snap with this paint.

[Lord Maul]

That looks a ton better without the barcode/lettering showing Jay.

[Angelus Lupus]

Agreed, looking very nice.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I painted some more this morning!



The two on the bottom might look black in the pic, but they are a charcoal mettallic in person. I like these much better now, myself!

[Tom Starkiller]

They looks awesome.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I re-assembled my green one:





Since I decided to paint these, I changed out the end caps for the white pvc style. they look more like a saber pommel, and don't have the embossed writing on them, either. Just remove the screw and the cap comes off to change batteries!