Galen Marek's lightsaber

 I've been quiet for a few months, so I decided to shed light more on my previous projects to entertain you people. Now I have three commisions on the burner, and I'll have them finished by the turn of the month, provided that international shipping doesn't screw anything up. Before I start rambling, onto the post proper.

Everybody who knows Star Wars knows what lightsabers are. Everybody who knows something about lightsabers knows that each hilt is unique. The hilt in question on this post is Galen Marek's, who is/was Darth Vader's apperentice in The Force Unleashed. I fell figuratively in love with the character the first time I played the game, and decided to build his lightsaber one day. Turns out the day was somewhere in December 2011, can't recall the exact date.

(Mine doesn't disassemble like that, maybe in a future revision?)

Again, I have no photos of the build phase, but I'll try to explain the construction to my best capability. The hilt can be roughly divided into two; the emitter/crystal chamber and the handle/pommel sections. Majority of both are made of steel tube, which forms the outermost casing of the saber. The crystal chaber chassis is made of a smaller steel pipe that fits inside the casing.

The crystal chamber and the emitter are illuminated with red LEDs. Simple, cheap, yet effective.
Most of the wiring is hidden in the chamber chassis.

The iconic "bunny ears" are made of a piece of aluminum hammered into a U-shape. The tooling was intentionally rough. The knob next to it is just something I had lying around and it's almost if not identical to the in-game model. The activator box is one of the places where I took artistic liberties and made it to look more like the activator box from Luke's ESB* hilt.

Side view. There originally was a screw to fill the empty hole, but it has fallen off somewhere. Kinda adds to the cobbled-together feel of the entire hilt. The control box is actually a slide switch that ignites the saber.

People are accusing me of lying when I claim that no parts were machined for this project. Technically they are correct, as the pommel and the brass piece on top of it have been lathed at some point of their lives, but the were not made for this project specifically, I was just darn lucky to find pieces that fit. Looting industrial trash is useful sometimes always. The pile of washers screwed to the side are for mounting the hilt on a belt. A corresponding piece with a slot that it fits is attached onto a belt. The black grip rods are ABS plastic. They are abit uneven, but that too just adds to the spirit of the hilt. Or that I just suck at making stuff straight.

Starkiller's hilt is an interesting one in the sense that the crystal chamber is exposed. The brass crystal mount is a piece from a shower head. The crystal itself is a clear amethyst. There actually is three "pylons", which support the crystal, but they are hard to photograph. The brass guard rods were originally an antenna of an RC-remote, with the chroming sanded off.

Same chamber with the LEDs off. The knob above the chamber is again just some knob I had in my screw can.

The emitter is also made from showerhead and plumbing parts attached to the crystal chamber. The hole you see above the emitter in the shell was originally drilled for mounting the bunny ears, but proved unneccessary. Another revision to make.

One more view with the saber ignited. In the end I had a full-metal, heavy saber hilt that cost me nohing but time.


Tools used:
-Pipe cutter
-drill press
-hacksaw
-various files
-Dremel
-various screwdrivers
-epoxy glue
-more Dremel
-black paint
-electrical tape
-soldering equipment

Thanks for reading!