First Mods - Dominix, Aeon, Dark Initiate (progress / mini-tutorial)

[Deep]

Really nice mods!  I hope our other members see this and realize they too can modify their sabers in ways like this.

They turned out really nice, I'm impressed!

[Qui-Tom Helms]

I can't believe I'm asking for make-up advice on a saber forum      Was that one or two coats of nail polish?

[Dark Lord Proscidior, Titus Solvan]

Really nice mods!  I hope our other members see this and realize they too can modify their sabers in ways like this.

They turned out really nice, I'm impressed!

Thanks, means a lot coming from ya, Deep. I don't know that I'm done, either. The nice thing about UltraSabers is that they're built well enough that you can abuse them quite a lot with trial and error, and still have a solid saber.

I can't believe I'm asking for make-up advice on a saber forum      Was that one or two coats of nail polish?

Just one coat, applied semi-heavily (like you would if using the nail polish on, yanno, nails). I suspect that it will vary from color to color and brand to brand.

[ThreadJack]

Very nice. I've been wanting to do some painting, but sadly I have never had any luck painting a saber. (I ruined my old PVC Grab Bag earlier this year.)

[Qui-Tom Helms]

Practice on a peice of PVC until you can figure it out, was you spraying it or brush painting?  Maybe you can re-do it after you get better.

[ThreadJack]

Practice on a peice of PVC until you can figure it out, was you spraying it or brush painting?  Maybe you can re-do it after you get better.

Yeah, the problem is I don't have a proper place to paint. All I got is my deck, which means I can't do any painting until the end of March/April at the earliest.

[Kannik]

Tried something out on the Dark Initiate that I'm really digging.

It's nail polish, by the by. The stuff's durable, cheap, readily available in a MOUNTAIN of colors, and if you don't like it, super easy to clean up, since the nail polish remover won't harm the anodizing one bit.

A) that looks great and B) Nail Polish!  What a great idea... especially if the remover won't damage the aluminum or annodized aluminum one bit.  Plus they make that stuff in all sorts of shades and colours -- you could make your own custom LE shades with that and not worry as much if it didn't go on quite right (strip it off and do it again).  Did you still mask for applying the polish?  (with it being thicker I wonder if you could brush it into the grooves more easily w/o worry of it going where you don't want it...)

point for the idea... and all the ideas I now have in my head. 

peace,

Kannik

[Qui-Tom Helms]

I've been using a spare hilt part with groves.  My first attempt with the nail polish, I just brushed it in the grove with the applicator it came with.  I waited for it to dry before removing the tape.  When I removed the tape the nail polish came with it.  I also tried the dip it product (non-spray can), and it basically did the same thing.

@ TJ:  yea, I've been using the garage for spray painting earlier this year, but now it's in the cold.  Today it was 14.

[Dark Lord Proscidior, Titus Solvan]

A) that looks great and B) Nail Polish!  What a great idea... especially if the remover won't damage the aluminum or annodized aluminum one bit.  Plus they make that stuff in all sorts of shades and colours -- you could make your own custom LE shades with that and not worry as much if it didn't go on quite right (strip it off and do it again).  Did you still mask for applying the polish?  (with it being thicker I wonder if you could brush it into the grooves more easily w/o worry of it going where you don't want it...)

point for the idea... and all the ideas I now have in my head. 

peace,

Kannik

For the nail polish, no, I didn't bother masking. It's designed to flow in a certain way, to make painting nails easy, which lends itself pretty well to painting these grooves. It was also a spur of the moment "Hey, I wonder if this will work" idea. That said, I've worked with other enamels and lacquers before, and you /HAVE/ to remove masking while they're wet, or they will come (in part of in whole) off with the mask (as poor Qui-Tom found out).

I'm fiddling with other colors and testing them on the inside of the pommel plug. I've painted, removed, painted, removed about... half a dozen colors (I've got a friend with a large nail polish collection so I don't have to buy a pile to guinea pig) or so. The aluminum when cleaned looks like it did the day I got the saber.

[Kannik]

For the nail polish, no, I didn't bother masking. It's designed to flow in a certain way, to make painting nails easy, which lends itself pretty well to painting these grooves. It was also a spur of the moment "Hey, I wonder if this will work" idea. That said, I've worked with other enamels and lacquers before, and you /HAVE/ to remove masking while they're wet, or they will come (in part of in whole) off with the mask (as poor Qui-Tom found out).

I'm fiddling with other colors and testing them on the inside of the pommel plug. I've painted, removed, painted, removed about... half a dozen colors (I've got a friend with a large nail polish collection so I don't have to buy a pile to guinea pig) or so. The aluminum when cleaned looks like it did the day I got the saber.

Rock on, thanks for that info.  That it is easy to put on and equally easy to remove is golden... now I know what to use in my future projects. 

peace,

Kannik

[ThreadJack]

For the nail polish, no, I didn't bother masking. It's designed to flow in a certain way, to make painting nails easy, which lends itself pretty well to painting these grooves. It was also a spur of the moment "Hey, I wonder if this will work" idea. That said, I've worked with other enamels and lacquers before, and you /HAVE/ to remove masking while they're wet, or they will come (in part of in whole) off with the mask (as poor Qui-Tom found out).

I'm fiddling with other colors and testing them on the inside of the pommel plug. I've painted, removed, painted, removed about... half a dozen colors (I've got a friend with a large nail polish collection so I don't have to buy a pile to guinea pig) or so. The aluminum when cleaned looks like it did the day I got the saber.

I like the nail polish idea. Plus it's the perfect time of year to stock up on it(if anyone gives you a funny look, just say it's stocking stuffers.)

[Dark Lord Proscidior, Titus Solvan]

I've been hunting around for a RED red, and nail polish has been a bust, since most of them rely on the color of the nail beneath them to achieve their final color, most reds turn out very pink when put on top of silver aluminum. So I made a trip to ye olde Pep Boys and had a looksee at the car paint touch up. They carry a pretty big selection of this stuff: http://www.duplicolor.com/products/scratchFix/ So I found a red that I quite like, and had at the Dominix:



The touch up paint doesn't have a super glossy finish to it (there is a clear coat that will give it one), but on the aluminum, it looks a heck of a lot like the finish on the anodized portions.

For comparison, here's the Dominix next to the Dark Inititate, as you can see, the DI is rather more purple than the Dominix.


I'm pondering doing up the Aeon completely with this red (save, of course, the black accent stripes), but I worry about how streak free I'd get it. I'll post once I've tinkered.