Custom Darth Vader Prophecy V3

[CyberKyber]

Hi all! I'd like to show you my customized prophecy V3, made to resemble Darth Vader's Heiland/MPP from ANH (not ROTJ, since that was a graflex, and not ESB, since this one has some space between the activations box and the grips). I've actually shown it before in my first video review of the prophecy V3 and my review of the Graflex SE, but I never posted anything about it here in customizations So, here it is!









Basically, Darth Vader's Lightsaber is my all-time favourite, and I'm considering purchasing the US Chosen One at some point. However, I've heard that although the Chosen One is beautiful, it is a bit bulky, and not necessarily ideal for Heavy dueling. So I decided to get the prophecy instead, which is very dueling and spinning friendly and give it a Vader look. All of the black stuff that you see (except the grips) is 40mm OD heat shrink tubing heated and shrunk to adopt the shape of the emitter and the ignition box and then painted with black (between glossy and matte) spray paint. I would have preferred to paint directly on the hilt itself, but as you know, aluminium isn't great keeping paint on, you need a primer and then paint on top of that. Or, if you're lucky enough to have an expensive powder coating machine, you can get the best color finish on a metal hilt...

Anyway, this is how it started and how it was painted:





Finally, I added some self adhesive rubber T-grips, and despite thinking they're come off eventually since things don't stick easily to aluminium, they've held their own very well, very tightly fixed in place, and haven't moved a bit since I first put them. (I put 6 of them since that is the maximum number the space on the hilt allowed, but how many does the original MPP/Heiland have? I know that the original graflex had 7, but I'm not too sure about Vader's saber.)
They're also quite comfortable to hold, since they're made of rubber and not hard plastic:





Finally, the last (and probably most important) change that I did was changing its LED. First, it housed a single Blazing Red LED, and I replaced it with a custom TRI DEEP RED (not blazing red) LED. I'm a big fan of deep red because sabers with LED come off without a single tinge of orange, just like Vader's saber in the original trilogy, more a sith red than a fire red. Now, it's disadvantage is its brightness. Here, I compare it to a single blazing red LED initiate, first with daylight and then in total darkness:





Although the deep red looks so much more beautiful than the blazing red in my opinion, it's not as bright. That's why I went for tri deep red and not just a single deep red. And even so, it still looks dimmer than the blazing red. This is especially noticeable in daylight, but it's ok when it's quite dark.

And that's the end of the customization! If you have any questions on the specifics of how I did any of the stuff, don't hesitate to post! Happy Dueling!

[scifidude79]

It looks great.  I've always loved the black and chrome of Vader's saber.  The deep red definitely looks more true to the movie color.

Though, if you really want to go original trilogy style, the Covertec needs to go bye-bye and you need a small D-Ring on the emitter so that it hangs emitter up.

[Master Medwyn]

Very nice job, also the deep red looks fantastic!

[CyberKyber]

It looks great.  I've always loved the black and chrome of Vader's saber.  The deep red definitely looks more true to the movie color.

Though, if you really want to go original trilogy style, the Covertec needs to go bye-bye and you need a small D-Ring on the emitter so that it hangs emitter up.

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! Yep, you're right, I would need a D-Ring and a Kobold Ring instead of the covertec wheel, but since I had a black covertec wheel lying around, I kept it and put cut bits of T-grip at either side to kind of mask it, but I did keep an extra full grip, so could remove the covertec and replace it with a full grip. Did the MPP have 6 grips then?

[CyberKyber]

Very nice job, also the deep red looks fantastic!

Haha, thank you! All though at this point you've seen it so many times already that you might soon get sick of it XD

[Duskheart]

Actually I think you could do without the Kobold ring - I believe the only vader prop to have a pommel mounted D-ring as well as the emitter mounted one was the ROTJ saber, and since you're doing ANH, you'd be alright

[CyberKyber]

Actually I think you could do without the Kobold ring - I believe the only vader prop to have a pommel mounted D-ring as well as the emitter mounted one was the ROTJ saber, and since you're doing ANH, you'd be alright

Yep, you're completely right, the only one with a D-ring on the pommel was the ROTJ version (too bad they lost the original prop and had to replace it with a graflex =S).

[Zren Tobas]

Or kinda combine the 2? Have ANH and ROTJ type look? Only thing I don't like but that's just it bugging me is the covering of the switch, just looks kinda odd

[RevanReborn]

Dude- this is epic!  Sorry took me so long to respond I'm swamped ATM lol.  Amazing job all around- love the deep/ photo red!!  I've been meaning to grab a few of those myself.  Yeah I'm a huge MPP fan as well .  Also love the dv6 / return Vader hilt.  Point awarded.

[CyberKyber]

Or kinda combine the 2? Have ANH and ROTJ type look? Only thing I don't like but that's just it bugging me is the covering of the switch, just looks kinda odd

Hahaha, I totally agree with you XD The thing is, originally it wasn't covered, there was a hole in the heat shrink tube covering that area just to house the button. BUT, that section kept wobbling non-stop, so I just covered the whole thing with another piece of tube. Now it's tight, doesn't move at all, and I can still press the switch easily despite the tube being in the way, but it does look awkward =S

[CyberKyber]

Dude- this is epic!  Sorry took me so long to respond I'm swamped ATM lol.  Amazing job all around- love the deep/ photo red!!  I've been meaning to grab a few of those myself.  Yeah I'm a huge MPP fan as well .  Also love the dv6 / return Vader hilt.  Point awarded.

Haha, thanks! I'm glad you like it! I just think that Vader's lightsaber is the original sith lightsaber, the first one of its kind, so it was my favourite since I was a kid XD.
I'd really recommend deep Red LEDs! However, please remember that they're not the brightest LEDs around, since deep red gets close to the end of the visual spectrum =S I'll see if I can somehow emulate that same colour with the emerald driver, maybe with a tinge of blue/pink to eliminate traces of orange, wish me luck XD

[scifidude79]

Did the MPP have 6 grips then?

Sorry, I missed that before.    I believe it did, but I can't be certain.  Unfortunately, a web search comes up with what looks like varying amounts of grips. 

[CyberKyber]

Sorry, I missed that before.    I believe it did, but I can't be certain.  Unfortunately, a web search comes up with what looks like varying amounts of grips. 

Yeah, same problem, I've seen 6 and 8 (not 7 though), but no confirmation =S

[scifidude79]

Maybe his varied from film to film like Luke's did.  Luke's ANH hilt had 7, the one for TESB had 6.  I know for sure they changed Vader's emitter for ROTJ, so it's possible his hilt varied in other ways from film to film.  I'm not going to get started on the one they made for the end of ROTS.   

[CyberKyber]

Maybe his varied from film to film like Luke's did.  Luke's ANH hilt had 7, the one for TESB had 6.  I know for sure they changed Vader's emitter for ROTJ, so it's possible his hilt varied in other ways from film to film.  I'm not going to get started on the one they made for the end of ROTS.   

Yeah, too confusing =( I guess I'll just have to stick to 6. I wouldn't be able to fit any more anyways XD