Ideas for modding an Overlord

[James Casey]

So, I have an Overlord on the way.

I wasn't expecting to. It just... sort of happened. There was a thought in my head of an ancient 'sabre, an Old Republic style thing.

^{But, y'know, in proportion. My MHS skills are better than my Photoshop ones.}

The Overlord is similar at core to the Dark Catalyst, but long enough to house a proper MLS/LED unit, which makes it easier to adapt. I'm intending to use a Dark Shock emitter and an Archon pommel. It'll have a Sentinel Yellow blade, a nod to Zayne Carrick, and quick disconnects to allow me to change things up as needed.

Initially, I'd planned to have Drahcir do some of his amazing weathering on this to give it some age and wear, with an idea that this was a relic hilt retrieved from an archaeological dig or similar. I was going to have the Emerald driver in place to give it an unstable yellow-orange blade, showing its age. Those ideas may be returned to in the future, but I've settled on a cheaper approach - an unstable soundfont and a yellow blade with orange flash.

What I'd like to do as well is mod the hilt a little. I though about attaching a leather strap at the pommel end, as this is something I like on Aurra Sing's hilt.  Weathering with sandpaper etc. is a possibility to give it some age , but I've not done that before so not sure about it. I've thought about some sort of staining to the silver sections to suggest decades or centuries underground... but I'm not sure how to go about that.

I'm also open to ideas here, so if anyone has any suggestions on how to customise this setup - I normally keep mine stock, but this one seems to demand adaptation, so what do people think would look good here?

[bigBear]

maybe play with brown shoe polish on the sliver...a mild rub should give  a faded look (maybe black even)

[RevanReborn]

Hey JC . 

So glad you put this up, heard about it at the raffle thread and sounded like SUCH a cool project!  I'm really liking the design ideas, big time- think this would make for an epic saber. 

There were some great examples of sanded black hilts, but man does the time fly lol!  Went back to look for them and no luck- went deep too lol.  Found one at least through search:
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=25930.msg388655#msg388655

When I put the sanded finish down as a base on my sentinel stunt project I was inspired by what he had achieved on the way to his final result, and also by some finishes I had seen on other hilts. 
Here's that project (still way deep in it lol): there's some good shots of the sanding early on in the build.
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=28335.0
There was also a memener called thereisnostrike, or thereisnostrife or something like that- he did the sanding beautifully also, and actually had a vid up on his thread of process!  Go figure I couldn't find it- thought it was around same time roughly as telepathic's, but who knows.

Also- one thing that works wicked to achieve the look you're talking about of age and tarnish is gun blue.  I used it on my catalyst mod a lot- can give you the look of patina or even can get it all the way to a perfect rust like oxidization, wether subtle or intense, depending how much you play with it. 
You have to go a ways into the thread lol, but there's a lot of stuff with it so you can see- all over saber and on d ring and shrouds etc.  You might wanna use it more sparingly for a little less extreme effect but worth considering . 

http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=25425.msg381877#msg381877

I think a bit of that bronze/ tarnish/ rust colouring in the silver areas would look amazing!! 

Look forward to following this- good luck in the raffle!  MTFBWY. 

[MavRick]

I like the looks of what you put together there James, go with it. 

[Zren Tobas]

That'll look nice I think, I can't part with the stock windowed emitter though

[scifidude79]

I like how the Dark Shock emitter goes with the overall theme of the saber, since both have the close together recessed silver lines.  And, of course, the Archon pommel looks great with any of the black and silver hilts.

[James Casey]

One thought I had for this, which I saw suggested on another thread earlier, was to have the leather strap be a loop akin to that which'd be used on a warhammer or similar - something to keep the 'sabre attached to the wielder's wrist. I'll have to look into how to do that...

That'll look nice I think, I can't part with the stock windowed emitter though

I know it's one of your favourite pieces, Zren. You have an Overlord too, right? I like it looking from the top downwards - nice wide lip to it, but I prefer emitters to have a bit more heft to them, where the Overlord one steps in. I wonder how it'd look on a Menace, though, as that has a lot of depth changes along its length.

[Zren Tobas]

I was about to say, you have a Menace so far but no Overlord yet so When you get one I'd actually like to see both emitters swapped on both bodies. But yeah my Overlord is still strong today from early 2013 =]