I wanted to post something on a project that I just finished: Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi's lightsaber from STAR WARS/ A New Hope.
I've been collecting parts on and off over the past couple years based on the original parts used in the original prop's construction to ultimately assemble my own. Credit for the identification and reproduction of these parts go to the folks over on the RPF (Replica Prop Forum) who, through their diligence and eye for detail, identified all the parts with members who soon reproduced them.
There's a wealth of information over there and, over the years there, I ran through and plucked the information like flowers for a lightsaber-bouquet.
With info, pictures, and (finally) all the parts in-mind and in-hand; I finished a quest that I started many years ago and acquired a personal holy grail.
Built over a threaded rod, the parts remain mostly hollow with the exception of the pommel and booster gear at the bottom end of the hilt. I poured some resin into the cavity where the threaded rod goes through to secure it better (as well as to give the end section a little weight).
The grenade body and windvane section along with the emitter head were the last things to be acquired, and fairly recently, at that. The grenade and emitter are steel and the neck section is brass. They came with a beautiful machine finish but that wasn't going to last.
The neck section soaked in oven-cleaning material (Easy-Off) to blacken and age the brass while the emitter section and grenade body were subjected to rigorous beatings. The body was dropped, kicked, rolled along sidewalks, concrete, steel, sand, dirt to rough up its finish. The emitter was cooked over a fire, with dunks in stagnant water, and lightly cleaned after each roasting to get a dark and ashy patina (the original part was subject to heat, so I felt it only appropriate that this piece should be subjected to similar conditions). This was done until the desired look was achieved.
With the emitter in a condition I considered suitable, the grenade body got a light coat of black engine enamel and roasted over a fire to flatten the color (and have it stick to the metal better) and given a similar treatment to the emitter head. Only with more batterings afterwards.
Once that was done, both were given a slight salt water rinse, to encourage rusting, and left outside in the humid and rainy weather over the next day and a half. Exposed to the elements, the parts were able to achieve a very natural looking weathered, uh, look.
After sitting in the sun, the parts were lightly cleaned and attached to the windvane/neck section (which, too, got a good cleaning after a day in that chemical bath). Because these parts were meant to screw together (the emitter head needs an adapter to fit with the neck section), a little bit of super-glue was added to secure them tightly together.
As mentioned previously, the whole hilt is fitted over a threaded rod, to keep the body and rear sections together, an inch and a half fender washer with a nut that fit was glued together at the end of the grenade and screwed onto the rod. A similar technique was done to the booster. Finally, the clamp was fitted over the grenade and booster and super-glued together (figured that's how the original prop was put together)...
...And voila!
Rapture.
