*cracks knuckles* awright, here we go again
Well, it took forever, but at long blasted last, my Saber VI is done.
Presenting Saber VI: Crusader:
Wall of Features:-Fully custom MHS based crossguard saber, with Prequel Trilogy inspired hilt design
-Hand filed metalwork throughout
-Arduino Pro-mini based DIYino Prime, on custom carrier board, running Binary Sunrise, a self made modification to stock FX-SaberOS code
-Custom 3D printed Chassis, with a detachable speaker pod and recharge port
-Custom anodising, featuring my independently developed Anodetching technique
-DIY neopixel quartz crystal
Wall of pictures:
Wall of Moving Pictures
Quick Version
Long Version
Long pointless rambly bit
This has been a saber that I've been meaning to make for a long, long time, and has been through many, many designs before reaching its final state. it's no culmination of my skills or magnum opus, but blast it, is it good to finally tick this one off the list.
In one form or another, this saber has been in my head since... I dunno, 1999? See, what happened was, there was this 8-year old kid who broke his foot doing something stupid. And despite that, he managed to keep up his solid test grades. So, as a treat, his dad took him to see this film that had just some out. You might have heard of it. The Phantom Menace. And it blew his mind.
Now, this kid had seen all three other Star Wars, on a grainy VHS on a tiny 4:3 crt. Star Wars? On a full sized screen? Jedis taking names and kicking axx? Ooooooh, yeah.
And so, like what happened to many other kids before him, (and many after) suddenly, every broom handle became a lightsaber.
Now, it happened that this kid was in crutches for that broken foot. but hey, as soon as the foot got better and he could put weight on it, you bet those crutches became lightsabers. Unfortunately, that kid's parents caught him duelling his sister with his crutches. And so, they decided they'd try and use that energy productively. As competitive saber combat wasn't a thing yet, they enrolled him in fencing lessons for a few years.
And boy, did I suck at it.
and when I tried again in university, and still terrible. But, it gave me a soft spot for swashbuckling and traditional sword fighting. Pro Tip: never watch The Princess Bride with me, I'll put the duel scene on repeat for a few hours. And I've wanted to bring that into my sabersmithing for donkey's years. Around the time when the TFA trailer first dropped, and crossguard sabers became a thing, I started drawing the first drafts of this saber up. It would be a lightrapier, with a crossguard-like ignition.
Now, I bet I know what you're thinking: SRTM, that's not a lightrapier, that's a crossguard saber! Also, that green blade picture is really blurry, you suck, loser!
And you'd be right, it really is blurry. Man, I screwed that up. my bad.
Last May 4th, after a few years planning, I decided to pull the trigger on this build. I'd been wanting to use MHS parts to make an MHS saber for some time, and not just hack them up, E57 style... I mean, okay, just a little bit
At this point, I was still planning on building a lightrapier. My plan was to use a cut up MHS Tonfa handle as quillions, as they have a 1" inner diameter. But, when the parts arrived, I assembled them, gave it a swing and something, well, magic happened. It was like in Harry Potter, the Wand chooses the Wizard. Only, in this case, the lightsaber chose its fighting style. And that's when I knew I wasn't making a lightrapier any more.
Also, I really don't know what it was, but when I swung the hilt that first time, there was just this instant click in my brain, and suddenly, a lot of Kylo Ren just made sense. The stance, the combat style, it just made perfect sense right on the spot. This wasn't a more elegant weapon for a more civilised age, this was a broadsword. Something that cleaves shields through brute force.
So I went back to the drawing board.My first idea was to make a Tales of the Jedi-styled saber. This was based on the idea that when Kylo Ren's saber was first revealed, Disney said that his hilt was "based on ancient Jedi saber designs" I thought about what that could mean, and figured that if you went any further back, you were going into retrosaber territory, with power packs. So, that was too far back.
Seeing as Exar Kun was the first to use a double bladed hilt, I thought "hey, what if one of Kun's dark jedi decided to make their own custom saber in the image of their Dark Master. Or, what if that Rodian who likes to tinker with technology you meet in KOTOR, Suvan Tam, cobbled together his own lightsaber from Sith War relics and made improvements to it?"
Ultimately, that didn't get far. I couldn't find a way to make that design fit the parts I had. And then, the final nail in the coffin came when Eastern57 made his Tales of the Jedi saber a few months back, and it was just miles beyond what I was thinking of, so I nixed that.
Back to the Drawing Board!second time around, I kinda latched onto the New Sith Wars. And I gotta say, for something that was invented essentially to cover a George Lucas brainfart in TPM, I've grown to really, really love that setting. For those who aren't familiar, it was a 1000 year long war between Jedi and Sith, where the Republic gets knocked out 400 years in and for the remaining 600 years, the Jedi order just holds the remnants of the Old Republic together by taking over every political position. in the last 100 years of the war, the remnants of the Republic have crumbled so much that whole star systems just offer to make Jedis feudal lords if they liberate them from the Sith.
So, what appealed to me was the Jedi vs Sith comic, which has an odd Renaissance-like aesthetic to it (I've got my theory as to why, but that's for another time) with Jedi wearing plate armour, and fighting with swords, axes and bows as well as blasters, lightsabers and starfighters. And so, I thought, "What if some Jedi Lord heard of Lord Hoth's call to arms for the Grand Army of Light , and decided to commission his castle armourer to make him a custom lightsaber the likes of which the Galaxy had never seen?"
Design 2: CrusaderSo, the idea here was to make an armoured lightsaber for an armoured Jedi, inspired by Gothic parade armour. Tons of detailed shroud work, anodising, some plating. This got very close, but just as I was about to get started, I realised that, with the exception of the "pauldrons" on the crossguards and the name I'd given it, I kinda hated the whole thing and just didn't want to make it. Kept the name and the pauldrons, though.
Back to the Drawing Board!Third time around, I decided to try my hand at something else I've been meaning to make for a while, an Art Deco-themed lightsaber. I love me some Art Deco, so why not? I researched Art deco architecture, sculpture, metalwork, etching, art, cabinetry, vehicles, just about everything for inspiration. And my idea was to make a saber that looked like it was some kind of monumental sculpture taken from an art deco skyscraper. It would be extensively etched, it would feature some bas-reliefs of idealised Jedi, it would have Darth Malgus-style axe blades on the "shoulders" of the crossguard in imitation of the Rochester, New York, Times Square Building.
So, I got pretty far along on that one. In the end, it was the etching that killed it. I spent a lot of time doing test runs of the various etches, and while I could get a consistent fine etch (0.02mm) on a flat surface, I couldn't get a consistent etch on a curved surface. And sabers are all curves.
Back to the Drawing Board!Last time around, I spent some time looking at crossguard sabers made by various sabersmiths and saber vendors. And I just don't know why, but for some reason, Prequel Trilogy sabers kinda started creeping into those searches, and then started blending together. And I just had this weird idea of trying a Prequel Trilogy design. And I kinda liked it. Anyway, I knocked up some designs in CAD And yeah, I built the dang thing.
Okay, that's all I've got. You may emerge from your bored stupor now.
Anyway, that's all from me for now. I'm off to win Eastern57's Flashgun Challenge
ps: jbkuma, Obi_1, if you guys want to have a look at my moded FX-SaberOS code for future release, drop me a PM or something, I'll gladly share.
Topic: Saber VI: Crusader (Read 1327 times)