Lightsabre 1

So I have decided to try my hand at replica making. So while I am elbow deep in wiring the lights for the millenium falcon, I'm here carving away. I have no idea how i should have begun, or what materials i should be using. So of course all of this is my best first attempt.

I started with a piece of styrofoam. Nothing fancy, just something of enough size that i could whittle down to the right shape. After making some markings here and there i started slicing away chunks of foam until i got it down to a somewhat recognizable shape and size. I think in the end its going to end up too thick, but again....first attempt.

like a weird monolith from 2001..

So as you can see its looking much more like that hilt of a generic lightsabre out of the Star Wars galaxy. I decided to model if off of pretty much all sabres. So there is a little of Kenobi's from the original films as well as Luke's. And of course a little of my own invention.

It started out with a little more detail. But as I am going I'm learning that foam is not the best medium to work with. No matter how sharp the knife. Its also horribly light. I'm hoping once the layers of paint and such are added it will give it a little more weight. And of course if i decide to illuminate it in some way. I'm contemplating putting something on the very top where the blade would emminate from.

Here is a better view of the finger grip section on the lower half.

And the other side. The little section that rises on the left side, i'm debating on putting a strip of leds in it. There was something there in the movies, so we'll see.

After i carved it out of the foam and got the best shape i could. As well as creating some of the detail, the next step was to give it some strength. After all its foam. I mean, come on. My trip to pearl paint yielded me modelling paste. Its just really thick elmers glue which is sandable. The only thing with this is that its glue. And as we all know, cause as kids we all glued our hands, its a bit rubbery when dry. So its taking forever to sand and smoothe down. I think its going to be a coat of this and then a coat of something thicker with more weight to it before I even think of priming it.

So this is my lightsabre. I started this several months ago. Why i'm finally posting I don't know. But hope you enjoy. I'll continue to update as the weather gets nicer and I can actually work on it outside.