A weapon for a more civilised age

[Talion]

Ok according to starwars legend you are not a Jedi until you can create your own lightsaber.

And thats the question.

The Lightsaber

I\'ve been painting a couple and creating a couple of StarWars minis.
But how to, not only create, but paint a good looking Lightsabre escapes me.

So i thought i would set-up a thread that can be as a giant tutorial. If people could give ideas on how to create a Lightsaber, paint a Lightsaber, and create OSL with a Lightsabre

Then this thread can be the bible to making Lightsabres, and earn us all our Jedi Knight title

 

[StarFyre]

Some of it is possible, but some is not.

The issue comes that the lightsabre, being light is essentially white or a very bright colour near white. the halo around the \'blade\' is what has the true colour of the sabre. You can\'t create a halo on a miniature like that in the sense that, you paint a rod for the sabre. Ok...so you\'ve painted a rod white. Now how do you create the halo? you can use cotton, etc but it won\'t look right.

Also since it\'s a cylinder essentially, it has no real edges, so you can\'t blend towards the edges with a colour and the center white. Its round so the only edges we see, are due to it being like a rectangle if you look at it from the side.

I don\'t think you can get a true effect of a proper lightsabre without actually using fibeoptic wiring and using a very thin and strong bulb for the actual weapon.

In terms of OSL, this would be done like any lightsourcing, (look for Shawn\'s tutorial thread on this) or read Victoria\'s tutorial on this, although the colour would vary based on the sabre colour you want to imitate.

Sanjay

 

[NecroN]

Didn\'t I just see this.

I just read a thread near identical to this late last week. I am looking for it in another window now.

The example mini looked rather convincing, with the osl working perfectly.

I think for painting the blade you are going to be stuck with either a blade that only looks right from one angle or one that doesn\'t look like it\'s glowing.

I think the osl should show that the blade is glowing without having to do anything too special for the blade.

Here is the other thread:

Sart Wars

Edit: oops that\'s not the thread I was thinking of, that was your original thread... All I remember is that it was noted that the sabers were shaded backwards with the lightest part being at the bottom, the reverse of how you would normally shade.

Can\'t seem to find it.

Check these mini\'s out though:
Temperance\'s Jedi 1
Tons more Jedi on CMON

 

[Talion]

@ Necron - That link is to my one of my gallery submission.

For this thread I was hoping for a look at possible ways of creating the glowing look of a saber.

E.g. blending certain areas like NMM to create a glow, painting the saber the colour you want but adding washes to make a glwoing look.

as for the OSL what colour would it be white, white and a colour, or just the colour.

All the working ideas could then be compiled into a sort of tutorial specifically for people who want to paint Lightsabers or similar items.

 

[NecroN]

Sorry you replied before I got a chance to edit. I noticed right after hitting submit that I had the wrong post. Sorry I can\'t find the other one, I can\'t remember the title for the life of me.

Please see edited post above.

 

[vincegamer]

I\'m sure theres a tutorial on how to do OSL with a colored light.
I would suggest trying painting the sabre white then glazing with a thin colored ink to suggest the color, then doing the OSL with the color much stronger.

 

[Talonicus]

i agree with starfyre in that I think fibre optics would be the way to go for this. Osl is ok but I am never overly impressed with it. It is always to dependant on the ambient lighting, angle of viewing etc etc.

With a bright led light source you should be able to manage this.

The only problem with fibre optics is that they are designed to bounce lightwaves down there length and not let the light radiate outward. But I think a little go with Mr Sandpaper along the fibres length should sort that. If you try this and it works let me know.

 

[airhead]

Fiber optic cable should not work. A good fiber will not let any light escape out the sides - which is where you are wanting to see it.

Plastistruct has some green nylon pieces that would work. They come in a couple of sizes.

here

 

[RedSevenBlue]

I say, do a sith, take some sorta of clear plastic and bore it out and put a decent sized LED in there, that should give it some fade and the desired effect. If wrong, don\'t yell at me, it experimental.

 

[Godlikebuthumble]

What Vince said.

Or the hard way: take a clear plastic tube (like the brush cover thingies, but thinner), insert a white rod inside, then paint the clear one with a transparent colour of choice... or vice versa.
Then do the Heavy OSL on the mini itself. Dunno how it works, never tried it, but if you\'ve nothing else to do, it might be worth a shot ...

 

[Shawn R. L.]

I have messed around with fiberoptic\'s with varying results. Acrylic rod, if the sides are roughed up will light up but I\'m not sure how small that applies to. Also, for a good bright effect you will need a VERY bright light. Some of the acrylic fiber or small rod is really cheap so you could experiment.

Also, I\'m doing an OSL tutorial here in the forum\'s if you want to try that route.

Another \'trick\' you might try is to paint the sword with dayglow paints then hit it with a black light. I KNOW that will light up.

 

[insaniak]

Originally posted by GodlikebuthumbleOr the hard way: take a clear plastic tube (like the brush cover thingies, but thinner), insert a white rod inside, then paint the clear one with a transparent colour of choice... or vice versa.

The transparent colour over the top would just tint the white.

Might work though if the white rod was semi-transparent, and you mount a high-output white LED in the hilt.

 

[generulpoleaxe]

you could try using vallejo flourescent paints.

 

[Necrontyrtitan]

My cousin made up a figure of Frodo, with Sting painted in UV-reactive paint....you could use the same principle, just with a longer sabrey (?) blade. You should be able to find him here under the guise of Temet Nosce.