Greetings saborforum fans! I've been absent from the forums for a few weeks+ spending all of my time making the below mods. What we have here is two standard issue sabers that started their lives with me from a box of assorted parts I purchased from the interwebs. Both sabers were already stripped of all the electronics and had more than a few blemishes. Basically I was left with some ugly shells that could be awesome sabers. Confession - I did have to use some parts from other web sites (I actually fell a bit guilty about this!). Since I had two identical sabers, I decided to make one dark side and one light side saber with the ultimate goal of making a groovy staff (that is until I couldn't find my coupler). Anyway, for the sake of honesty, I must admit that I am more drawn to the dark side sabers and those with warmer LED colors (red, orange, white, etc.). So, I did struggle more with the design of the light side saber. One of the reasons I prefer the dark side sabers is that I don't worry so much about them getting dinged up during the modification process because I generally weather the hilts. In my vision of the light side saber, I wanted a bright and shinning token of light side goodness; however, I am not really bright and shiny so I'm hoping the saber design is acceptable. As another confession, these are the first sabers that I have built using US hilts, etc. That being said, I had to do a bit of drilling on the drill press and learned a lot about dremel tools. In my mind, I thought that I might sell these, but I'm not really sure. So here it goes!
Dark side themed saber - Nicknamed: Scream Fire: Has red main led and blue FoC
I'm hoping everyone has already seen a picture of a standard issue saber as I really didn't think to take pictures of the saber as it was when I landed it. This first picture is of the saber in the early stages with an aluminum shroud and an activation box. No finishes, etc.
Next pic is of the saber
with the electronics install as well as preliminary cosmetic work completed:
Complete saber with the following features - functioning activation box (accented with small led and gem stones), leather grip, lighted gemstone where the guarded switch used to be to simulate a crystal chamber and heavy Graflex borrowing:
A few close up pics of the finished emitter, shroud, and customized blade plug (purchased online):
A few pics of the lower end of the hilt (activation box has exposed wires as a nod to Vader's saber):
I really enjoyed this build when I wasn't making mistakes! Saber has over 10 carats of genuine garnet.
Now, here's the light side version. I haven't thought of a name yet for this one. At one time I thought to name it, "The Royal Lady" but I don't know! 
How it began (save for the painting I did near the end of the hilt):
Pic with a few mods completed (illuminated switch, custom crystal chamber):
Finished pics!
Close up of the crystal chamber (beautiful hand model not included)!
White FoC! Crystal is set on blink so it is not one right now:
Emitter windows:
To summarize, the light side version has a lot of mods: Custom painting, hand polishing (sanding, sanding, oh the sanding!), custom shroud (hammered bronze finish), dremel work (for the crystal chamber), Blue Blue White LED, RGB accent LED for the crystal (genuine quartz), a nod to the Graflex, a lot of drill work, etc.
I've got one other US saber completed that I built for a friend that I'll post soon and my current project is a Dark Prophecy I'm customizing. I'm sure I have forgotten something about these sabers, so feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them!
I hope you enjoy the pics!
Darth Calico
