https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/8/28/an-elegant-weapon/

Apparently hobby stuff happening now

Kinda cool. I'd like to see this as a stream. Or at least more photos.

I like the idea of articles based more on the hobby side... I'd love to see how this can be done with Grievous.

That is the same one i would like to see. All four sabers!

So who's going to start doing this with firing blaster weapons? Could be pretty cool!

Wonder why FFG decided to do this now?

These were posted one year ago.

54 minutes ago, Draycos said:

I like the idea of articles based more on the hobby side... I'd love to see how this can be done with Grievous.

I use LED lightsabers on all my models, a fun alternative to painting and I do plan on doing 4 saber Grievous (I am not any of the people who have done these tutorials)

Please share pics when it is finished!

On 8/28/2019 at 9:07 PM, JediPartisan said:

Wonder why FFG decided to do this now?

These were posted one year ago.

Probably because someone in charge only saw it recently?

They also most likely thought: "Hey, this is a super cool thing someone did with our models and we have a platform we can use to make more people see it!"

On 8/28/2019 at 7:26 PM, Sharkbelly said:

Please share pics when it is finished!

I will

So I saw this and I thought it was a neat, pretty much the same, conductive paints by greenstuffworld

http://www.greenstuffworld.com/creative/en/projects/642/?fbclid=IwAR2Mrc3Uvh_0_HXMXoEp5sMsy1fr4VSbLMJjClFHZutb3JRtmtwnR_S_axc#Luke-Skywalker-LED-lightsaber-with-conductive-paint

Really cool to see an FFG article for this. I keep telling myself I need to do one myself to show another variation of the process. I'm not sure if I'm doing it the best way but I just take a pre-wired LED and drill a route through the whole model then use magnets to hold the battery underneath. So far I have Luke, Sabine, and the turret but Grevious is going to be really fun to do.

(still need to work on my painting though...)

25 minutes ago, chadrgriffith said:

Really cool to see an FFG article for this. I keep telling myself I need to do one myself to show another variation of the process. I'm not sure if I'm doing it the best way but I just take a pre-wired LED and drill a route through the whole model then use magnets to hold the battery underneath. So far I have Luke, Sabine, and the turret but Grevious is going to be really fun to do.

(still need to work on my painting though...)

Well done that is the same technique I use, it seems to work really well, Sabine and the turret look really great!!

On 8/28/2019 at 7:26 PM, Sharkbelly said:

Please share pics when it is finished!

I admire the work that goes into the mod, but I really don't like the overall effect - the light isn't uniform along the blade and the whole thing looks like an oversized flashlight.

4 hours ago, costi said:

I admire the work that goes into the mod, but I really don't like the overall effect - the light isn't uniform along the blade and the whole thing looks like an oversized flashlight.

Basically the same reason I got out of the lightsaber replica hobby.

I wonder if sanding the acrylic rod would help (to give the surface a matte finish)?

2 hours ago, costi said:

I wonder if sanding the acrylic rod would help (to give the surface a matte finish)?

I feel like that and rounding off the ends would help the look quite a bit.

3 hours ago, costi said:

I wonder if sanding the acrylic rod would help (to give the surface a matte finish)?

33 minutes ago, Lochlan said:

I feel like that and rounding off the ends would help the look quite a bit.

I don't know if it applies to such a small piece of plastic, but I know for the full size replicas they used a polycarbonate tube in opaque white or frosted with a diffusion wrap on the inside topped with a light diffusing tip with a mirrored film on the inside.

turned out like such:


If I had to make a suggestion, based on my time in the lightsaber hobby, to remove the effects you're seeing I'd say use an opaque white or frosted acrylic rod for the blade itself, and if that's not enough glue a small piece of foil (or something reflective) at the tip, then cover it with a drop of hot glue maybe elmers or anything that would adhere and cure opaque white.

I think you'd get a much better diffusion using a method like that

The product is not a finished state. but wanted to get it out there, also with a cell phone camera the glare distorts the effect compared to seeing it in person, yes sanding helps a bit

On 11/4/2019 at 10:52 AM, TheHoosh said:

The product is not a finished state. but wanted to get it out there, also with a cell phone camera the glare distorts the effect compared to seeing it in person, yes sanding helps a bit

I think it looks great.

Spruce up the base and you're good to go.

I really wonder if you can hollow out the head of say Grevious or Vader and get a glow in the eyes. (probably too small to do effectively but with 2-3 Clone Cores, you might have enough to play around with.)

Do you light up your AtSt or Snowspeeder?

4 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

I think it looks great.

Spruce up the base and you're good to go.

I really wonder if you can hollow out the head of say Grevious or Vader and get a glow in the eyes. (probably too small to do effectively but with 2-3 Clone Cores, you might have enough to play around with.)

Do you light up your AtSt or Snowspeeder?

I have not attempted those but I do think that would be a good idea, yes the base needs some work, I can also do some things to tone down the brilliance of the sabers and sand the acrylic to make the light diffuse better as I've done on other models. I will also admit I learned this technique from others on Reddit and Youtube so I am by no means a master, but the SMD LEDS are quite tiny so if someone has the patience they surely could get a glow of the eyes for Grievous or Vader

On 11/1/2019 at 8:28 PM, costi said:

I wonder if sanding the acrylic rod would help (to give the surface a matte finish)?

It does - but you get the same effect more evenly and easier with a plain old matte varnish.

Has anyone had any success with any of the aforementioned techniques, e.g.

On 11/1/2019 at 11:08 AM, Darth Sanguis said:

I don't know if it applies to such a small piece of plastic, but I know for the full size replicas they used a poly-carbonate tube in opaque white or frosted with a diffusion wrap on the inside topped with a light diffusing tip with a mirrored film on the inside.

If I had to make a suggestion, based on my time in the lightsaber hobby, to remove the effects you're seeing I'd say use an opaque white or frosted acrylic rod for the blade itself, and if that's not enough glue a small piece of foil (or something reflective) at the tip, then cover it with a drop of hot glue maybe Elmers or anything that would adhere and cure opaque white.

I think you'd get a much better diffusion using a method like that

On 11/7/2019 at 2:36 AM, colki said:

It does - but you get the same effect more evenly and easier with a plain old matte varnish.

I'm about to start upgrading my own lightsaber wielders and I want it to look as good as possible. I'm going to try inserting the " 3 LED Rotator " from Evan Designs into a hole drilled in the middle of a clear plastic disc in an attempt to encapsulate Grievous' (in)famous "helicopter spin his lightsabers" trick - any ideas to help increase the effect are welcome and appreciated.

17 hours ago, TheSharkJuggler said:

Has anyone had any success with any of the aforementioned techniques, e.g.

I'm about to start upgrading my own lightsaber wielders and I want it to look as good as possible. I'm going to try inserting the " 3 LED Rotator " from Evan Designs into a hole drilled in the middle of a clear plastic disc in an attempt to encapsulate Grievous' (in)famous "helicopter spin his lightsabers" trick - any ideas to help increase the effect are welcome and appreciated.

Partially in response to this, partially because I’ve been wanting to post this anyway, please allow me to share a few things that I’ve tried this past week that have NOT worked out well (and one that did).

1. Painting the acrylic rods

I tried taking some clear acrylic rods and experimented with painting them red as well as first priming them white and then painting them. Both methods failed hard. Painting them cuts out too much of the light- down to the point where you can barely tell that there’s a light inside them at all. When I tried thinning the paint / applying less paint so that more light shines through the paint job ended up looking like trash. Maybe there’s a translucent dye or stain or something out there that would do the trick, but if so I don’t know about it.

You’re much better off just buying the lights and/or rods in the colors that you want to use.

2. Sanding the acrylic rods

This one actually did do fairly well at diffusing the light. You still get most of the light coming out of the top of the rod and the area near the base, rather than an even glow, but it’s far better than doing nothing.

I want to get some of this side-glow fiber optics stuff and compare how it works to the sanded acrylic. I have a feeling it will give better results.

3. Using cheaper conductive paint

That conductive silver paint stuff is expensive. So I searched around on amazon and found a carbon-based conductive paint for less than half the cost of the silver paint. So I bought some and tried it. It technically works, but the resistivity of the carbon is too high and you lose most of your light. So the moral of the story is don’t skimp- spend more for the silver paint.