Clawed Dark Prophecy / Pyrestone LED
Being that I'm fairly new to the LED saber world, this is my first customization. Let me know what you think, good or bad. I love how these sabers turned out, so you'll only be able to hurt my feelings so much
.
I started with the 2 fire orange Dark Prophecies from my review (posted here:
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=1128.0)
Crystal Chamber Vents and Grip Tape: I decided to add to the two holes that come in every prophecy on the side of the hilt. When I would do saber tosses at night (when sabers look the coolest!), it was really hard to find my hilts again since they're black. Ever once in a while I'd see the two pinholes with the blade color shining through and that really helped, so I added to them.
I tried to make it look like vents for the crystal chamber and I like how it turned out. Looks a little like Krillin's forehead, but hey. A couple of the first ones were a little off for sp aci n g, but the rest went pretty smooth once I got my procedure down. After that, I covered the two smaller diameter sections in black grip tape and used an Xacto knife to cut the holes back out of the tape.
I also drilled three tiny holes around the top thumbscrew in a triangle to let light out just for a cool LED effect on the emitter.
Claws:A friend of mine ordered a War Glaive and I noticed (after taking his saber apart) that the claws fit RIGHT ON my Prophecy! I just used the top thumbscrew hole and put his Glaive's claw right on and the angle of the emitter rolled right into the inside radius of the claw perfectly, plus it missed the step up in the hilt by just enough to get the screw in!
So I ordered a set of Dark War Glaive claws from Ultra and put them on. It took a little work even though they bolted right on because I plan on sparring, so I knew I'd need to put the pins in the saber too in order to keep the claw from coming loose and scuffing up the anodizing in a radius around that screw. Below are the pins and screw that came with each claw.
After getting one pin installed for each claw, I noticed that the screw that held them on was too long and would stick into the blade - I already have one retention screw and I don't need another, so I ground them each down some for clearance inside the emitter.
After that I just put the claws back on, put some loc-tite on the screws and re-drilled the top hole over the screw so that it would go through the claw as well.
It's a little hard to see, but the top hole is where the pin goes through, the middle hole is the ground off screw that holds the claw on (surrounded by the three accent holes I drilled), and the lowest one is the blade retention screw.
Pyrestone Color:Last but DEFINITELY not least - I sent both sabers back to Ultra to get a redder orange LED put in. It is a red/green combo that I believe is similar to the RGB orange they used when there were no ambers for a while called Pyrestone. That is an awesome name for a blazing, deep orange, so I'm just going to roll with that.
NONE of these pictures show this great color well at all. The best way to describe it is lava. It goes from almost yellow in the holes in my hilt to a fire orange out of the emitter and gets slightly more red (but not dimmer) down the blade. There really isn't as much color variance as I'm making it sound like, all in all it's pretty uniform after the emitter, but I LOVE the way it all looks. I'm a fan of fire and that is what these sabers look like now. It is definitely more red than the fire orange color offered, but it is definitely still orange, not just a weak red. Here are before and after shots that show a little of the difference, but like I said, they do not do the Pyrestone justice.
Fire Orange
Pyrestone - There is nowhere near this much color variation in the blades. It does change down the length of the blade, but it is one or two shades MAX, not a span of 3 full colors and the effect is AWESOME.
I could not be more happy with these sabers. As I mentioned in my review - the 32" blades are GREAT for dual wielding, as are the shorter hilts the Prophecy offers. They have a really menacing look. I love the claws (plus they hook right into a belt loop!). The color is unique AND stunning and it fits my character. The crystal chamber vents let me do tosses in pitch black.
Obviously saber style and color are all opinion, but these saber fit me and I'd just like to send out thanks to Ultra and the US crew for doing the custom work for the color (which anyone can order for an extra $5) and for making a great saber and some sick claws that (accidentally?) fit on it!
More Pics:
