Makeshift Unorthodox Costume (In Progress)

[DarthProdigal]

Ok, that'd be a bit funny for sure. Someone who didn't know about his "hobby" seeing a desktop background or screensaver and doing a double take... Thinking it's mortal kombat at first glance, and then upon further inspection thinking perhaps he's living a double life fighting crime (or perhaps perpetrating it). I mean the full outfit makes him almost unrecognizable with the mask added but I'm thinking an acquaintance or family might recognize the biceps lol. Sorry I take such joy in something so simple... too many years of "create a character" games makes this just too good. I now wanna download your persona as an NPC to assist me with quests, missions, and fights. SirLiftaLot has joined your party, +5 to party member strength stats!

[SirLiftaLot]

It has been done! I now have deltoid armor! Picked up a pair of lacrosse bicep pads on Amazon Prime for under $20 shipped, thinking they'd look like this:

Which would be fine, if not optimally color-coordinated with my outfit, but they ended up being these:

Which fit my grey/black theme much better.

So here's the full sparring outfit, without any robe/cardigan, both to better show off exactly what parts are covered, as well as because a full-length robe/cardigan could be a bit cumbersome while sparring. A similar grey sleeveless cardigan that doesn't drop down past the knees may be a nice alternative here though.





And a quick movement test, where the limited indoor space was the limiting factor much more than any of the sparring gear, which is a good sign:

https://i.imgur.com/PuprFS0.mp4

There's also a Red Dragon gorget under all the layers for additional neck protection, and I have some padded football girdles that have integrated thigh, hip, and tailbone pads for some more protection.

I suppose the only thing that can be added for full heavy protection would be a piece to add to the back of the fencing mask for back-of-head protection, and some lacrosse gloves if I want maximum hand protection.

[SirLiftaLot]

Picked up a shorter grey sleeveless robe/cardigan so I can have one to wear with my sparring outfit and not have it all the way down by my feet. Not a bad look if I say so myself, and is doesn't have any major limitations on movement and mobility.

[DarthProdigal]

Not bad, great find on the pads.

[janx]

Looking good, and sounds like these are actual pads that should be sparring wearable

[SirLiftaLot]

Looking good, and sounds like these are actual pads that should be sparring wearable

Thanks! They’re pretty solid and thick. If they’re good enough to get hit by a lacrosse ball or stick, they should suffice.

Here’s the rundown on the sparring gear:

Head: Fencing Mask (pretty much the default recommendation for lightsaber combat)

Neck: Red Dragon Gorget (not visible, came highly recommended for fencing use)

Torso: Motorycle Armor (I’ve seen multiple people use and recommend this one for lightsaber dueling)

Biceps: Hard Lacrosse Pads (discussed above, seems very sturdy)

Lower Arms: Century Martial Arts Forearm and Elbow Pads (if they’re good enough to take full force kicks, they should suffice for at least medium saber sparring)

Hands: Hard-knuckled motorcycle gloves with some light finger padding (should be sufficient, although some people recommend larger lacrosse gloves, but I want mobility for staff use)

Upper Legs: Hard padded football girdle with thigh, hip, and tailbone pads (not visible, just a little extra protection for good measure)

Lower Legs: Catcher knee/shin/foot guards (if it can take a 90 MPH fastball, it’s good enough for me)

Should be solid for medium to heavy sparring, with the only thing left I see on various organization websites being a metal forget for tournament sparring, and back of head protection, as well as perhaps lacrosse gloves as mentioned above. But I’d imagine those would only be necessary for actual tournament use.

[SirLiftaLot]

Picked up a 3D-printed Imperial tsuba for my Sentinel V4 (when it's separated from being a staff). Slides onto the blade and secures to the blade itself, so it can be used with hilts that don't have removable emitters and/or have different threading. Now I just need to pick up a longer blade to use it like a sword, since a 24" staff blade on it leaves only ~19.5" of actual "blade" between the emitter and tsuba. A 34" blade should give me a ~29.5" "usable" blade length, which is good for a katana length I'd say.


Also put together some extra pieces and a crossguard emitter with my Ripper Clone spearhead to make a light-dagger. The hilt is too short for a full core and battery from any company I've seen, and I didn't want to buy another core, so I just put a small but strong rechargeable flashlight into the stem of the spearhead. Black gaffer tape for wrap:

[DarthProdigal]

Epic. I hope that tsuba has durability, but either way its gorgeous.

[SirLiftaLot]

Epic. I hope that tsuba has durability, but either way its gorgeous.

Thanks! It's not solid aluminum or anything, so I don't know how it would stand up to repeated full-force impacts from other sabers, but it seems like it should handle being dropped and that sort of thing. I'm planning on mostly using it as a katana for some Taekwondo sword forms for now.

I'd also love to use it for some sparring, since a handguard is a definite plus for that, so maybe we'll eventually see how it holds up to that. That said, I would not use the tsuba with a saberstaff, as it can hit the arms/body when doing some under-arm spins and that sort of thing. I'll likely keep the tsuba attached to a 34 "blade when I get it, and just swap out the standard 24" blade for the 34"+tsuba when I want to use it like a sword and not a staff.

[DarthProdigal]

No doubt, it'd be crazy awkward to try and use them on a staff I bet. Though it may not stand up to repeated impacts in the long run, it could serve it's purpose at deflection for several passes/exchanges hopefully.

[SirLiftaLot]

No doubt, it'd be crazy awkward to try and use them on a staff I bet. Though it may not stand up to repeated impacts in the long run, it could serve it's purpose at deflection for several passes/exchanges hopefully.

Hopefully. It was I think $23 total, between the item itself and shipping, so if it breaks during sparring, I'll probably order a different model from the seller that has the Imperial emblem embossed on the tsuba instead of cut out, so it's a solid piece of 3D-printed plastic. A little less ornate, but likely a bit more durable. The seller has a lot of very cool 3D-printed emitters. There's the two I described, and a hexagonal Imperial tsuba. Also a sword-style crossguard not terribly unlike the one on my dagger, some clawed emitters, and a Fallen Order style emitter, and some others as well. I really like them in that they can attach to my Sentinel hilts, since they don't have removable emitters. So long as your hilt has a flat emitter/body, they should fit.

[DarthProdigal]

Yeah, you could always use the solid one for clashing and a ornate one for display purposes. Still, a pretty sweet acquisition.

[SirLiftaLot]

Question for anyone knowledgeable in this sort of thing:

I picked up a 34" TCSS green photon blade (with Corbin style quad wrap blade film) that I’m using with my blue US Sentinel V4. It seems to do what it’s supposed to for the most part, turning blue light into bright green light, but it looks like the tip is a different shade of green than the blade, I’d assume due to it having no wrap compared to the blade. I tried taking out the film entirely, but that resulted in the blade itself seeming to be a bit too “see-through.” Not ideal.

I know there’s going to be some diminished brightness towards the end of the blade relative to the base given it’s a base-lit saber and that happens with longer blade lengths (one reason I like saberstaffs with shorter blades), but would a non-Corbin film give off a more similar green color to the tip? Would cutting some of the Corbin wrap to make it double instead of quadruple help? Any other suggestions to help make this photon blade look as good as possible here?

Thanks in advance!

Photon Blade on Sentinel V4 shown next to Sentinel V4 with heavy-grade blade.


34" Photon Blade with quad-Corbin wrap turned on:


34 "Photon blade on next to 24" Heavy-grade blade for comparison:

[DarthProdigal]

I picked up a 34" TCSS green photon blade (with Corbin style quad wrap blade film) that I’m using with my blue US Sentinel V4. It seems to do what it’s supposed to for the most part, turning blue light into bright green light, but it looks like the tip is a different shade of green than the blade

Jedi Consular vs Jedi Guardian problems... lol

But the irony in the blade attached to the Imperial seal giving you your problems, that's kinda cracking me up. 

[SirLiftaLot]

You know what, that gives me the idea to try to figure out some headcanon that the blade is so abnormal due to the hilt being strong in dark side energy (with the Imperial tsuba and all), yet the crystal seeking a more light side or neutral orientation, resulting in a blade that is in some level of conflict. It probably makes no sense and is likely contradicted by a bunch of in-universe canon explanations, but I need to make it work somehow in my head.

On a different note, the light whip came in:





https://i.imgur.com/6VdBUrU.mp4

Interestingly enough, this whip/blade also has a gradient color, but it's a much more consistent gradient, so I rather like it actually. Shown here is a white blade color. I also remember seeing green to blue or blue to green when cycling through other colors, as well as other color gradients.

Disclaimer: eye protection is a must with this thing. Scratch that, full facial protection should be s minimum. Hand and arm protection is also advisable. I didn’t even notice, but I drew a little bit of blood on my wrist without even moving it fast at all. This thing is honestly dangerous if you’re not careful. I also have zero idea how to use a whip, and had it on my ~27” staff hilt, so YMMV. But be careful!

This is with white color. The end is red. The base color by the emitter seems to be the natural color of your saber light, and it transitions to a different color towards the tip of the whip. Not always red. Brightness is quite good, but some light from the saber shines through the base of the whip, as you can see in some photos here. It’s not blindly bright to look at it, so I don’t think it’s a major deal, and it doesn’t seem to detract from the whip’s actual brightness. The base that goes into the emitter is black, so if you’re running a window emitter like I am, it’s more or less just black in the windows, with maybe some different color lights shining through the corners.