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Author Topic: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber  (Read 18055 times)

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Offline BOBA FETT

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Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« on: April 18, 2013, 12:20:26 PM »
Hi everyone!

It's time to show you guys another one of our newest creations. Ever since the Clone Wars episode aired where padawan Gungi puts together his very unique saberhilt, we at Force Relics have been trying to find an affortable and screen accurate way to replicate what we saw on screen.

And today we are proud to present our 90 % finished prototype.

The hilt main body is completely made out of wood (beech wood to be precise) which was colored to mimic the blylark wood seen in the CW cartoon.
The top shroud around the emitter is made out of "Alumide", a 3D printed material that combined plastic with aluminium powdre. We choose this material because it's an affortable method and it looks pritty darn close to what we see in the cartoon.
When you look closely at some screen caps, you can see it's not made out of "plain aluminium" and looks much more textured than bare metal. Hence our choice for the Alumide.

The blade holder and pommel you see in the pics, are prototypes for now (in painted plastic). We are having these 2 parts machined in aluminium because, franky, if you want to build a saber that is duelworthy, you need to add some strenght to these 2 parts.
Depending on how they turn out, we might leave them as they are, or maybe powdercoat them in a similar look as the Alumide parts.

The 2 holes you see in the alumide shroud part, will contain 2 thumb screws (ordered from TCSS). One will keep a custom machined heatsink in place, the other will function as a blade retention screw.

The 3 and lowest hole, will contain a tactile activator switch.

The hilt itself has an inner diameter of 28 mm. So there is room for light AND sound.

What do you guys think of our progress so far?







Offline Lord Bane

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2013, 12:27:52 PM »
Wow!! Very nice concept of that saber. I like the Alumide idea too. Looks really nice, can't wait to see the whole thing finished.

Bane

Offline LordBlako

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2013, 12:42:12 PM »
it looks really cool! :) great work! how long is the hilt...? it looks quite short, if i get it right!  :)

Offline Arryck Corso

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2013, 01:12:43 PM »
Nice work so far guys!!  I never ceased to be amazed by the 3D printed parts you use on your sabers.   I was thinking the same thing Lord Blako was....that hilt looks short....but also very comfortable.  I'm also excited to see how this turns out as well. 


The question isn't who is going to let me;  It's who is going to stop me!

Offline BOBA FETT

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2013, 01:28:53 PM »
Thanks for the kind words everyone.

To answer some questions: yes, the hilt has an overall length of 28cm. Not one of the longest out there :) I wanted to keep it small enough, Gungi is a padawan afterall! And yes, I think this will be a very comfortable dueler when finished.



Offline LordBlako

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2013, 01:32:19 PM »
that's longer than expected, to be honest!  ;D

will it be a run or just for your own purposes?

3d printing is really amazing...

Offline amwolf

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2013, 01:47:05 PM »
Looks great! How is the workability and durability of the Alumide? The one part I used out of 3D "stainless steel" was a real PIA to modify, and it was heavy...

Offline parfaitlumiere

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2013, 02:46:37 PM »

I'm actually working on a first wookie saber,to train for the gungi saber.
I'm planning to make a 2" large emitter,or 50mm
then the entire saber would be 30 or 33mm long the nerrowest section of hilt will be 34mm,the inside is drilled to 32mm and it will have full internal structure,including cristal chamber.
of course,it leaves only 1mm wall at some areas,but it won't be for duelling,and if it's really dangerous,I will increase to 35 or 36mm.
the emitter will be very diffiult,due to the thickness near the wood,especially on a traditionnal lathe machine....
Then,the main problem will be adjustments between emitter,activation plate and the wood.

cartoons are not funny,lots of impossible quests...
This saber is really difficult,I
The main problem are the proportions,and some thickness,it's impossible to have some details(sharp emitter end,with a 1" blade,very narrow body with thick internal structure)


I think this prototype is good,but a little bit short,or "fat".
What I would change:
-adding 1" in lengh,probably only on the wood,not the "metal"
-reduce "metal"thickness for a more delicate look,closer to original design
-change the pommel design too proeminent.
-replace colored white wood for exotic wood as they use for windows,no more expensive,and no need to change color,better look.
exotic natural wood will look better than easy-to-recognise tinted white wood.

Then,there is a problem in the cartoon,is the conical emitter visible or not,during assembly,when saber is finished,it's not,and on the "group saber" photo(from facebook page),it is,not easy to know.
I'm more trusting the "group" photo so Iwill add the conical part of emitter,makes extra blade retainment...
Seems you too!
good job,and...good luck!

My facebook page,dedicated to lightsabers:
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Offline Deke

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2013, 06:26:16 PM »
Respectfully disagree.

Even at 28cm I think it's still fairly big, keeping in mind that a canon saber for an adult human was around 26-27cm (ie graflex, obi tpm et al), and Gungi, despite being a wookie, was no more than 5ft tall as a padawan, so wouldn't be using a full-sized hilt yet...

Sounds like you're making more of an adult wookie lightsaber parfaitlumiere, I imagine Lowbacca's hilt ended up being around that size when he was fully grown...

Anyway, I think this looks really good, and will be interested in it pending price...

Offline BOBA FETT

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #9 on: April 18, 2013, 11:01:43 PM »
Thaks for all the feedback. Some answers and replies:

LordBlako: Thanks for the kind words. We do plan on doing a small run of these if there is enough interest in it. We plan on making this as budget friendly as possible.
So keep an eye out for these when interested!

parfiatlumiere:
I saw your first attempt. Not bad! Keep it up. But trying to machine a wooden hilt with only 1 mm material, will be 1) VERY hard to achieve 2) very brittle to handle. And using tropical hardwood is a complete no for us. I talked about it with some specialist wood turners and they claim it's impossible to do the shape we are using in hardwood. The whole "structure" would just break. So we decided to go with beech. This way we can manipulate the final color as much as we want too.
Regarding the length, I think Deke just hit the nail on the head. I compared our prototype to some other hilts I have (sidous, vader, qui-gon, etc) and the gungi is FAR from the shortest. Keep in mind, Gungi was a Padawan wookiee, and when you look at the group pics, he's smaller than Obi-Wan. Just a child really.
Regarding the blade holder:
I decided to use the official Star Wars images found online. The blade holder helps quite bit in making this a sturdy dueler + it will be made out of aluminium and will help cool the main LED since it will be in direct contact with the LED module. I'm talking about this image.

And if you look closely at the cartoon, when Gungi puts together his hild with force power, you clearly SEE the conical emitter slide into the hilt. Agreed, later on you don't see it in the action shots. But still I think it gives some extra depth to the design.

amwolf: "Looks great! How is the workability and durability of the Alumide? The one part I used out of 3D "stainless steel" was a real PIA to modify, and it was heavy..."
Alumide is an "enforced" type of plastic./ Very durable, very sturdy and it's fairly easy to thread in it. We originally wanted to print the part in "stainless steel" but 3 factors made us decide otherwise: 1) price: WAAAAY to expensive 2) Indeed, as you allreday stated, very hard to mod or even thread in 3) It just doesn't capture the look from the series the way the Alumide does

Deke: Thanks, I agree on the length. It took me several hours to measure, rescale and calculate all of the dimensions looking at screen captures and episode fragments.
We will have a final price for these very soon.

If we do a run of these, it will be a KIT ONLY run. No installs unless someone wants to commission us for it. We want to make this run a "budget friendly" run. I know funds are low and we want to share this hilt with as many Star Wars fans and saber enthousiasts as possible.

Who of you would be interested in a hilt like this?
« Last Edit: April 18, 2013, 11:03:34 PM by Master Jevaho »



Offline Deke

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2013, 12:04:29 AM »
I'm in, pending affordability of course, but it sounds like we're on the same page.

Offline Goodman

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2013, 12:45:40 AM »
Quite an intriguing project, and the most accurate I've seen so far!  Some of the proportions concern me, primarily the relative girth of the front shrouded section, but I would still be interested in buying one to support your project depending on price.

Regarding duelability, how will the aluminum blade holder mate to the wooden hilt core? I'm wary if the foot as shown would be rigid enough...it seems more surface area against the wood ID is needed. And I'm sure you've already considered that achieving a tight physical tolerance between aluminum and wood wouldn't pose the only challenge. Wood at those thin widths are susceptible to flexing, compression under load, shrinkage (imposed or natural)...

I'm excited to see the finished project! I admire and commend your innovation!
**I AM RETIRED from saber commission building**

Offline parfaitlumiere

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2013, 12:51:34 AM »
Yes,that's the photo I was talkig about,I use it as a reference too.

Deke is not totally wrong for me,and you are not wrong too.
My first idea was to make a 36cm long saber because of the ration between lengh and thickness,ad the matter of minimal required wall on wood,especially because of my inner core...
But it can be a quality too,where the matter of wood thickness brings problems,with a core it doesn't matter anymore...


goodman is right too.
When I made the blancks,I created internal diameter,I made a 2 points contact area on saber:front,for blade holder and a partial area of the core,and back for the core centering and mainai,then I enlarged the middle section,to remove a bit of wood,it permits the wood to curve if necessary.
Then I let the wood dry.

This saber is very difficult,it needs lots of skill and patience to make by hand,or it needs lots of study and serious production stuff for serial made...
Hope you will produce them and sell a bunch!
« Last Edit: April 19, 2013, 12:56:51 AM by parfaitlumiere »
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Offline BOBA FETT

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2013, 02:00:12 AM »
Again, thanks for the feedback people! To answer some questions:

Quite an intriguing project, and the most accurate I've seen so far!  Some of the proportions concern me, primarily the relative girth of the front shrouded section, but I would still be interested in buying one to support your project depending on price.

That's great to hear Goodman. I'll update this topic with prices as soon as we have figured out the numbers.

Quote
Regarding duelability, how will the aluminum blade holder mate to the wooden hilt core? I'm wary if the foot as shown would be rigid enough...it seems more surface area against the wood ID is needed. And I'm sure you've already considered that achieving a tight physical tolerance between aluminum and wood wouldn't pose the only challenge. Wood at those thin widths are susceptible to flexing, compression under load, shrinkage (imposed or natural)...

The foot is 4 cm long and fits snugly into the wooden piece. The wood has a wall thickness of approx. 4.5 to 5 mm. So this makes a very rigid connection. It will be kept in place with 2 set screws.

Quote
I'm excited to see the finished project! I admire and commend your innovation!
Thanks for the kind words. It means a lot coming from you.

Quote from: parfaitlumiere
This saber is very difficult,it needs lots of skill and patience to make by hand,or it needs lots of study and serious production stuff for serial made...
Hope you will produce them and sell a bunch!
Quote

You are right about that! Thanks for the support.



Offline evilmonkey4

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Re: Force Relics presents: Gungi, a wookiee lightsaber
« Reply #14 on: April 19, 2013, 01:43:24 PM »
If you did do a run I would definitely be on it!

 

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