“Greyflex Saber” – Rey’s repaired Graflex

Hello Everybody, I hope you liked last week’s Mandalorian inspired design and today I hope to go one better than that. And to achieve this I am bringing you another of my “Master Series” line of sabers! This time I bring you the Graflex, or rather as I call it, the “Greyflex” saber belonging to Rey in The Rise of Skywalker. This hilt was originally constructed and used by Anakin Skywalker. He eventually “lost”the saber after his defeat to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafaar (in Revenge of the Sith) when Kenobi left Anakin in a lava pool and walked away picking up the fallen saber and taking it with him. Around 20 years later Obi-Wan met up with Luke Skywalker on Tatooine and he returned the saber to Luke as it was “Your father’s lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight.” Luke then carried and used this till he “lost” it and his hand in his duel with Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back. The saber fell down the ventilation shaft of Bespin City and wasn’t seen until Rey discovers the saber in Maz Kanata’s basement during The Force Awakens. As if this wasn’t enough of a story, the evil Kylo Ren wanted the saber and at the end of The Last Jedi, he and Rey fight over who owned the hilt and the hilt was seriously damaged as it was torn in two pieces!

That you would think was the end for the iconic lightsaber right? Well, no, in the trailers for The Rise of Skywalker we see Rey using a saber and it is the Skywalker family lightsaber that she has repaired. Here is a before and after comparison of the hilt…

“The Grail” Graflex saber from Star Wars on Tatooine(?)

“Greyflex” repaired Graflex

The center section of the saber where it broke in two has a new band clamped around it and a new activation style box. It must have taken a lot of skill to repair the saber as it was severely damaged and Rey had no one to guide her, only possibly some information in the books she took from Luke’s hideaway. There are a few subtle differences I’ll describe later but here are a few more pictures….

“Greyflex” repaired Graflex

“Greyflex” Saber 2

“GreyFlex” Saber 3

The new Flex Clamp Band

As mentioned the saber broke in the middle so this is where the biggest difference obviously is. That difference is the new Clamp Band and activation box. This caused a bit of disquiet in the Star Wars saber community when fans saw Rey had just repaired the hilt with what they called a “Band-Aid” and hadn’t built her own new saber. I felt a little like that at first but now I have modeled the new saber myself I am beginning to like it more. The remaining differences are the glass eye portal has been refitted and the grip section has been modified. The black T-grips are slightly shorter and one has been modified with a slot cut into it.

You can see the belt slot cut-out on the lower T-Grip

This slot allows Rey to hang the saber from her cloth belt/cumberbund as it slides onto the belt like the pocket clip on a pen top. This means that Rey’s version of the hilt doesn’t have a D-Ring loop to hang the saber, it just has a smooth flat unmarked pommel cap. So onto a few more pictures I think…no better still MOVIE TIME!…..

The eagle eyed viewers among you will have noticed the saber in the animation has a D-Ring pommel…I rendered the video with one, then newer pictures came out showing the ring-less pommel! I didn’t want to re-do the whole video so I left it be, but I did add a few crystal chambers! So here are a few more pictures…

“Greyflex” Saber chambers studio

“Greyflex” Saber Glamour shot

“Greyflex” Saber top view

“Greyflex” Saber bottom view

“Greyflex” Saber Glamour Shot

Phew, there’s a lot of pictures for this hilt don’t you think? I will admit there is only one “work in progress” picture but I do have a special 24 carat gold special treat for you this week, I learnt a new function in Blender that produces a unique effect. That function is called MatCap, which allows the user to apply a single texture over the whole model to help when using sculpting tools to shape parts. However it also allows you to render images quickly to check how a model looks and I have a few “MatCap” style images to share…enjoy…..

“Greyflex” Saber or should that be Goldflex?

“Greyflex” Saber or should that be Goldflex? 2

“Greyflex” Saber or should that be Goldflex? 3

“Greyflex” Saber or should that be Goldflex? 4

Now that just about wraps up this bumper edition design. I think I have outdone my Mandalorian hilt. Now I just have to congratulate and thank you for getting this far!

Thank you all so much for checking this hilt out and all the support, likes and kind comments you give me, it is much appreciated. I still have a pair of sabers for a mystery woman who will debut in The Rise of Skywalker, another Mandalorian hilt, some unique original sabers for some friends of mine and a final “Master Series” saber for the last Jedi Master….I sincerely hope you will all return to see those in future posts. Till next time…..

“Greyflex Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. “Rey”, “The Rise of Skywalker” and all other Star Wars names, images abd related materials are Trademarks/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

 

The Grail Graflex Dark Edition Saber

Hello everybody, well we had quite an exciting week with the release of the final trailer for the final Skywalker saga Star Wars film, Rise of Skywalker! And what can I say? It’s certainly not guaranteed that there’ll be a win for the Lightside….I have to say the trailer’s scenes looked pretty dark and gloomy….:(  But that got me thinking, with a lot of my designs I try and bring you a “Lightside” and a “Darkside” version of each hilt and as I posted the iconic “The Grail” Graflex Lightsaber model I built which is definitely a Lightside hilt….what would the Darkside sibling look like? I decided to have a look and created some new dark material textures and came up with the shadow version…The Grail Graflex DE (Dark Edition)….

The Grail Graflex DE 1

The Grail Graflex DE 2

The Grail Graflex DE the business end

The Grail Graflex DE the “Glass Eye”

As you can see this saber looks very stealthy and sinister just by changing the texture. I managed to create a slick gloss metallic texture that didn’t create a lot of speckles in the rendered images. It is suitably dark but still allows detail to be seen. And you might have noticed I have a picture showing the underside of the emitter which has a red “Eye. This is a small window that is part of the flashgun and is located just below the emitter and was the Light Level Meter sensor aperture called the Graflex “Glass Eye”. When the flashgun was modified by fans when they built their own replicas, they discovered that the blade shone out through the eye. A nice little feature I forgot to mention in my last post. Here is the photo of the Graflex attached to the camera and you will be able to see the small round hole beneath the reflector dish and bulb socket…

The Lightside version also has the “Glass Eye” as can be seen slightly more clearly in this next picture…

So I have now shown you the light and the dark Graflex and as I am very big on keeping things in balance here are the two hilts in “mirror” image…

I posted the Lightside Grail hilt on the Ultrasaber’s forum and it was warmly received with some members leaving nice comments on how much detail I had managed to capture in my model. I think they were quite impressed. Because I created the mirror image picture above I thought I would do a side by side comparison of my model with a real life replica image…

Real life Graflex replica

“The Grail” Graflex Saber

I think I have done OK considering this was the first Graflex I have built! However, not only did the members of the forum compliment my model, they also provided suggestions for other variations. One member had the idea of adding red accents to the hilt such as the ridges of the handgrip, so I like to tinker and I modeled a full “Sith” version for pure evil Force users…and here it is….

The Grail Graflex Full Sith 1

The Grail Graflex Full Sith 2

I modified the T-Grip ridges and coloured them a deep red, just like dried blood and as a nice bit of “Sith Bling” I illuminated the activation switch. You may recall I mentioned the switch is actually the display screen from an old pocket calculator. Well the screen would have lit up when the calculator was powered on and so the screen part works fabulously when it is backlit!

And once more that just about concludes this design. However, the story doesn’t end here for the Graflex, as it appeared in the second Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back (ESB)…but it looked slightly different and as such I have modeled the variant from ESB and I also have the versions that appear in The Force Awakens and the new film Rise of Skywalker….all coming in upcoming posts! I hope you will return to see those but for now as always it’s thank you time. Whether you are a first time visitor or a regular viewer thank you for your support and looking in on this post. If you liked what you saw then please spread the word about FTSabersite and join me again next weekend for another new model. Till next time….

“The Grail Graflex Dark Edition” is a For Tyeth Editions model and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. It is inspired by the Roger Christian designed Lightsaber prop seen in Star Wars – A New Hope. “Star Wars” and all related names, logos images are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

 

“The Grail” Graflex Lightsaber – I have built a Master’s saber

Hello Everybody, today is a very, very special day as I join the ranks of the Master Lightsaber Smiths. And the reason for this “promotion” is that I have made a saber that is considered a classic and a must have in any collection. That saber is the famous lightsaber given to Luke Skywalker by Obi-Wan Kenobi. The hilt belonged to Luke’s father, Anakin and was then carried by Luke in two films. The saber was the creation of set designer and props builder Roger Christian, who modified a batch of vintage camera flashgun handles known as Graflex 3 Cell Flashguns. These were the type that you see Press Photographers use in 1940’s and 50’s films and had the bowl shaped dishes on top.

“I searched and searched for something suitable to adapt and, as time was running out before the first day of shooting, I found a dusty box of old Graflex handles in a photographer’s shop in London and I knew I had hit the Holy Grail.” Roger Christian quote from a BBC News interview “Oscar Winner tells of building Star Wars Lightsabers”

Mr Christian then used a few other parts to decorate the flashguns, including the plastic bubblestrip screen from a pocket calculator, and the lightsaber was “born”. When George Lucas was handed the saber for him to approve the design or not all he did was hold it in his hand just like a sword….smiled and spoke three words, “You found it”. Ever since Star Wars fans (and saber manufacturers/builders) have wanted to own a Graflex saber in their collections. Well I don’t have a real solid metal saber but I have built a 3D version of it and here is my “Grail Graflex” saber…

“The Grail” Graflex Saber

“The Grail” Graflex Saber 2

“The Grail” Graflex Saber

“The Grail” Graflex Saber (note the bubble strip)

“The Grail” Graflex Saber (close up of strip)

“The Grail” Graflex Saber 6

“The Grail” Graflex Saber 7

“The Grail” Graflex Saber 8

I think I can safely say this is my most complex model yet. It has 36 textures pasted onto the model’s various parts and even has the bubble strip I mentioned from the calculator. The bubble strip was fitted into the jaws of the clamp which attached the flashgun to the camera. The clamp is the band which circles the middle of the saber and has a small lever to loosen the clamp enabling the flashgun to slide off the camera. It also has the name Graflex embossed around it. The black strips on the hand grip were originally made from the plastic “T” shaped runners used on sliding doors of bathroom cabinets. On the pommel a “D” shaped ring was attached so Mark Hamill could hang the saber from his belt, but in certain shots and photos you can see the Graflex manufacturer’s marks and logos embossed in the end cap too. And to show just how complex this model is, here are two wireframe images and a couple of “Glamour Shots” for you to enjoy….

“The Grail” Graflex saber wireframe 1

“The Grail” Graflex saber wireframe 2

“The Grail” Graflex saber from Star Wars on Tatooine(?)

“The Grail” Graflex saber showing it’s crystal.

I think I may have found my new favourite hilt in my collection (well joint favourite with my New Asguard hilt!) This lightsaber is so iconic I hope I have done it justice and that Mr Christian would approve if he ever saw it.

That just about wraps this saber up and I have to say the Graflex is a classic so much so that the saber re-appeared in the movies The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and a modified version will appear in The Rise of Skywalker – and so I modeled the latest version too! I will post that hilt nearer the release of TRoS along with another Master Series hilt, that of Luke Skywalker’s green saber from Return of the Jedi, so please call back to see those in future posts.

But for now I need to say thank you very much for checking out this iconic classic, you have helped push the viewing figures for this site through 14,000! So many thanks and remember, whether this is your first visit or you are a regular, your support is much appreciated and please spread the word about FTSabersite and call back again to see what else I have in store! Till next time…

“The Grail Graflex Saber” is a For Tyeth Editons model and is Copyright of For Tyeth?Ftsabersite 2016-2019. “The Grail Graflex Saber” is inspired by the lightsaber created by Roger Christian/George Lucas which appeared in Star Wars. The Roger Christian quote is taken from the BBC News interview “Oscar Winner tells of building StarWars Lightsabers”. Star Wars and all name, logos, images and related material are Trademark/Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

 

Korbanth Graflex 2.0 installed by DK44 Designs

Hello Everybody, today I am very, very excited as I get to share with you a lightsaber that has been assembled by a good friend of this site DK44. And this lightsaber is a Graflex replica hilt! DK44 bought this hilt as a replica kit from a company named Korbanth and assembled and installed the lights, sounds and blade (plus a little extra something I’ll get to later). What is astounding is that this was DK44’s first full saber build project! He did build a Saberforge Adaptive Saber Parts (ASP) lightsaber but that was fully modular which screwed together fairly easily, with no need to solder wires or cut and shape parts. This saber was built very much the same way as the original lightsaber was way back in 1976 by the special effects artists John Stears, John Mollo and Roger Dunlop . This particular hilt is made to look like the one seen used by Finn and now Rey in The Force Awakens. Here is DK44’s Graflex Lightsaber…

Graflex Hilt

Graflex Emitter

Graflex Emitter 2

Graflex Emitter 3

Graflex Emitter 4

Graflex Switch Box circuit card

Graflex Body and Grips

Graflex Pommel and D-Ring

As you can see this is BEAUTIFUL! Sorry to raise my voice but I love this hilt. The saber is a work of art (although DK44 says he wishes he could have done better!) and has everything that you associate with the Graflex saber. The emitter with the slanted opening and metal collar that extends through the tube to form two tabs, which are affectionately called “Bunny Ears” by fans. The collar and tabs are actually the mechanism that held the flash bulb in place when the handle was used as a photographic flashgun. Just behind these Bunny Ears is the red topped activation button and below that there is the “Glass Eye”. The activation box is really the clamp that attached the flashgun to the side of the camera. But if you slot a carefully shaped piece of circuit board between the two jaws of the clamp it looks like a switch! Next down the hilt is the famous T-Track grips, the black ridged parts that form the distinctive handgrip. And to finish the hilt off there is the Graflex pommel with the D-Ring to hang the saber off your utility belt! Though I doubt this saber will be hanging on a belt it has a very nice custom stand (built by a mutual friend of DK44 and mine called Kouri, who is a whizz with 3D printing and prop making.) But you will have noticed I haven’t mentioned the blade…well I have a SECOND gallery with this beauty activated and in all it’s glory with a very special REVEAL surprise….

Graflex Emitter and Blade Plug

Graflex and blade

Graflex and blade 2

Graflex and Blade holder

Graflex and lit Glass Eye feature

The Special Crystal Reveal!

Graflex lit in daylight

Graflex night time action!

Yes this saber has what is called a Crystal Chamber Reveal, which shows that this saber has a “heart of Kyber”. The electronics allow the crystal to light up and actually pulses and flashes along with the blade. This feature is usually found on expensive higher end replicas but DK44 decided he wanted one in his (and with help from another friend called Vechaljian he was able accomplish the feat). The colour matches the effects seen in the film perfectly thanks to an LED that can mix two colours to make the blue light and has a white bulb that flashes when the saber hits something! I think you’ll agree this is impressive.

I’d like to thank DK44 for sharing this fantastic saber with us on this site, he was gracious enough to provide me with great photos and a full description to help me write this post (did you notice he lined up his photos like the images for my designs? Thanks man!) This shows what is achievable with determination, patience and Talent!

I am now once more approaching the end of ths special post so thanks DK44 and also to you my viewers and followers. Your support is much appreciated and I hope you will return to see future posts featuring more designs from myself and my friends…and who knows there may be more “real life replica hilts” to come! Till next time.

DK44 Designs is © Copyright of DK44 and is used here with permission. Graflex is a Trademark of Folmer Graflex Photographic Co. of New York. All Star Wars/The Force Awakens names, logos, images and other related material are Trademark/© Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

DK44ASP – Debut design from DK44 Designs

Hello Everybody, today I have a surprise new Guest Designer to introduce to you! It will also be a surprise for the designer himself as he thought I was going to post this after my Blogversary post scheduled for the 17th! (I have to admit I mis-read my calendar and I realised I had a gap for another post before then…oops!).

So may I introduce a young man I know from the forum I take part in, his name is DK44. DK had posted a few comments on the forum mentioning that he had ordered parts for a saber but never uploaded any pictures of what he was purchasing. When DK finally received his parts and assembled the saber he posted a great review of it with a ton of pictures….all I could say was WOW! You could see immediately great care and effort had gone into the design, rather than just selecting a random bunch of bits. And I am proud to say that when asked if I could share the design with you all here, he readily agreed. So here is the newest “Designer on the Block” and his saber DK44ASP…

DK44ASP Hilt

DK44ASP Emitter

DK44ASP Emitter 2

DK44ASP Switch

DK44ASP Switch and Body reverse

DK44ASP Pommel

DK44ASP Pommel 2

DK44ASP Vertical Up

His saber begins with a vibrant Sith red blade which extends from one of my favourite emitters. The emitter has a wonderful asymmetrical shroud which shows of the body of the saber through the cutaways highlighting the black anodising. Next is the switch section which is positioned 90 degrees clockwise from the position most folks would set it. This gives the saber an interesting detail and allows the cutaways to line up with the detail on the emitter, creating flow (however I might ask DK if he was inspired by my design for Benicio Del Toro’s “DJ” as I placed the switch for that hilt 90 degrees off centre!). The body section has a fabulous grip with the raised blocks (and again this part is carefully lined up) and has a neat pommel with matching squared detailing to finish the hilt off. Overall a stunning design…”How stunning?”  I hear you ask, well take a look at the pictures kindly supplied by DK44 and see what you think of the REAL THING!

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I think you’ll agree this is a phenomenal saber that looks so much better than the design pictures! There are a few “minor cosmetic” changes to the hilt, the ribs in the cutaway section near the switch are now silver rather than black, and one of the red Greeblie buttons is black, but that is due to Saberforge (who make and sell  the parts) changing the parts. They didn’t update the Virtual ASP builder to reflect the changes.

I am sadly running out of time here (even with the extra time I got from my scheduling mistake) and will have to end this post. But I have to thank DK44 for allowing me to enjoy and share this amazing saber with you all. I hope DK44 will come up with more designs! Next up is my Blogversary post (honest!) so I will thank you my viewers and followers for looking in and hope you’ll be back for the celebrations. I have to go finish the preparations so….Till next time!

OH and DK44, I realised the “floor tiles” are actually your crafting cutting board LOL!

“DK44ASP” is a Guest Designer design and is ©Copyright of DK44 Designs used here with permission. All works contained within FTSabersite (including the site, images and content material) are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite.