Hello everyone! So many many months ago I did some customizing and weathering to my dark initiate and was pretty satisfied with the results. Weeeell a few weeks ago I was bored and decided to do a little more.
The first thing I did was shorted my blade. I originally had a 32in blade and cut it down to about 26in so around 24in would show. Two reasons, I found it easier to spin and it was easier for my three year old to wield. I marked on the blade where I wanted to cut and used a band saw to cut through the blade. After which I had to hit glue the film on the inside to make sure it wouldn't slip out over time. I then took the excess tubing from the blade and cut it into 2in. Sections which I will later use a blade plugs. Sadly I forgot about taking pictures so I don't have any for that, I can take some of yall would like.
The second thing i did was add a little more weathering on the hilt.
I did this using a bench grinder simply to get the paint off. After that I used 60 grit sandpaper then 220 grit to clean it up. To be honest I didn't really like how to bench grinder removed the paint but I made it work.
After that I wanted to make a sheath. I got this idea from another user, I don't remember his username but as soon as I find it I will give him credit!
For this I used a 1" ID PVC pipe. I painted it black then about an inch or so down I used a 1/8th drill bit and a 8-32 tap (I was able to purchase the two together from Home Depot for around 6 bucks) and created a hole about an inch or so from the top for the covertec wheel I took from my bellicose.
Now at this point some of you are probably thinking "Andrew, if you took the wheel off the bellicose, are you gonna need another for that saber?'" And you'd be correct. So I went to "the other guys" and purchased a few things.
I got a new clip (lost my original), D-ring clip, covertec wheel and screw, and a red screw for my initiate to replace the blade screw.
Here is a few pics of the red screw on the dark initiate
Personally I love the way the red screw looks on the saber. I think it make it pop a little more and looks awesome.
After that I needed to put the new covertec on my bellicose.
Just like my dark initiate I love the way this looks, I like that the wheel stands out and like it better than the black.
I believe that's about everything I have done! The next few pics are just for fun.
Here are a few of the sheath with the clip
Pics of the d-ring clip
Some of me wearing the sheath with my dark initiate and bellicose
So that's all I got. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this post, hope you enjoyed!
