ScourgiousJinx
Master Member
I didn't realize it was used as practice saber for ESB. Good to know.
-
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Interest DaveP's V2 and V3 run - 2024
I'm changing my V2 from the current day to the throne room too. Very cool.
I ordered the V3 throne room too but I still seem to be strangely attracted to the NASA version. I think it's because I've seen it so many times and that copper paint is so unique.
I ordered the V3 throne room too but I still seem to be strangely attracted to the NASA version. I think it's because I've seen it so many times and that copper paint is so unique.
**UPDATE COMING TOMORROW**
Hi everyone. Thanks so much for your patience! There is an update landing tomorrow.
It's mostly written out but is going to be VERY picture heavy, and I am currently in the process of taking said photos whilst we have some OK weather.
I will go through everything this evening, and get it posted tomorrow at the latest.
Lots of progress to share, as well as things to discuss!
Thanks again for your patience everyone! And apologies for not posting one last week.
I'm looking forward to showing you all where things are up to in the morning (or possibly this evening).
Hope you're all having a great weekend.
All the best and MTFBWY,
Dave
Hi everyone. Thanks so much for your patience! There is an update landing tomorrow.
It's mostly written out but is going to be VERY picture heavy, and I am currently in the process of taking said photos whilst we have some OK weather.
I will go through everything this evening, and get it posted tomorrow at the latest.
Lots of progress to share, as well as things to discuss!
Thanks again for your patience everyone! And apologies for not posting one last week.
I'm looking forward to showing you all where things are up to in the morning (or possibly this evening).
Hope you're all having a great weekend.
All the best and MTFBWY,
Dave
These look absolutely beautiful!
Is it too late to get a V2 kit…?
Sean
Edit - never mind… I see they sold out
Is it too late to get a V2 kit…?
Sean
Edit - never mind… I see they sold out
**UPDATE**
Hello Everyone.
The time has come to post another update on the progress of the run.
Please accept my apology for not posting one last week. I did fall slightly behind schedule and this time last week I wasn’t quite at the stage I would have liked to have been.
I did get an update mostly written up, but never got around to taking the photos and posting it.
I instead put all of my energy in to getting caught up.
As I’ve said before, witting these updates doesn’t come naturally to me, and they can take hours (and sometimes days) to put together.
When I’m behind schedule, the work always has to take priority.
By the time I’d gotten caught up, I figured we were nearly at weekend again, and so here is one big update that will hopefully make up for my absence last week.
I’m VERY excited to share with you the results of the past couple of weeks.
Just a heads up that I am still a couple of days behind schedule.
It had become clear to me that finishing ALL of batch one in time for this weekend’s update was not going to be possible.
I was determined to get at least one commission from of each version of both the V2 and V3 completely finished however, so that I can show the finished result:
Fist though, I just want to reassure you that the rest of Batch One is very nearly finished.
ALL Aluminium parts have been detailed. This includes the following:
I decided to stencil and paint all of those which did not require chemical darkening (sandstorm and throne room V2s), but when the time came to darken the rest of the parts, I chose to only darken enough to finish one of each of the V3 versions and one current day V2.
I figured it would be better to show one of each completely finished, rather than the whole batch at the 90% stage.
I’ve adjusted my schedule to allow for next week to tie up any loose ends and to get the whole of batch one finished, pending clamps and rings (I’ll give an update on these further on in this post).
I’ve now planned out my time for October and Batch Two, and I’m happy to say that there are still Four full weeks to work on that batch. It is also a smaller batch and does not include any DIY kits. So, based on the work that has been done this past month, I’m more than confident that the schedule can be kept to. I’m looking forward to there being a little less pressure in fact. :-D
So just a brief overview of Batch One and where things are up to (excluding the few finished examples):
Now without further ado, this is how the commissions have turned out:
Sandstorm V2:
This commission includes a vintage clamp/bubble strip and Wannawanga lever. It is still missing it’s D-Ring, but other than that it is 99% complete.
Throne Room V2:
I’m really happy with how this one turned out. It’s a nice middle ground between how the prop looked at the start of filming, and how it looks today. Shinier metal, slightly more paint, but very much retaining that “used universe” look. The throne room V2 is kitted out with the boot stud and cone knob greebles as well as the neck tape. The tape here is still tightly wrapped (with no flap). This commission is finished but awaiting it’s clamp and D-Ring. I think it might look just a little too clean, and plan to add a little weathering powder to some areas to dirty it up a little.
Current Day V2:
This is how we are used to seeing the V2. Dulled metal and paint mostly chipped away, leaving behind an intricate pattern. The metal has been chemically aged prior to painting. Again, this example is finished but awaiting it’s clamp and D-Ring.
Production V3:
I’m extremely pleased with this one! I was provided with a vintage clamp, Vectorbord and D-Ring for this commission, so this one is 100% complete! This might be my new favourite ROTJ hilt! I just love it. It includes all of the physical imperfections of the Post Production / NASA V3, but it’s appearance is similar to that of the V2.
Postproduction / NASA V3:
This is the NASA V3 and is how the prop looks today. The metal has been chemically darkened prior to painting. All physical imperfections have been painstakingly replicated based on the available references. Mylar tape has been added in various places. This will eventually be applied to the clamp also.
Here are a few comparison pics to show how each prop changed over time:
I particularly love how the pattern on the V2 progresses over the course of the prop's life.
Plans for this coming week:
It was a relief to discover that October is in fact a five-week month. This means that I can dedicate this next week to finishing up the few remaining jobs for Batch One and catching up entirely.
My focus for this next week will be as follows:
Now for the situation with the clamps and rings…
My chrome plater is ready and waiting to plate the clamps. Unfortunately, the D-Rings and Clamp levers were originally ordered together as part of the same quote. So although the levers have now all been finished, the ongoing problems with the rings has delayed everything.
Having discussed this AT LENGTH with my manufacturer, the rings have now been removed from the quote, and the clamp parts are “IN TRANSIT”. As soon as these arrive, I’ll get all of the clamp parts in for plating.
The good thing about the clamps is that I’m having them plated in three batches rather than six, so there will be enough clamps in the first batch to cover Batch One and Two.
As for the Rings, I have made the difficult decision to cancel them from the order entirely. This is not as problematic as you might think. The only real disappointment is that had they been correct, they would now be on their way. We are now going to have to wait for me to receive the CNC bending jigs that I have designed:
Once these are made though, it does not take long at all to form the rings and install them.
I hope that you understand this decision and don’t mind waiting just a little longer to receive your commissions.
As I explained to the manufacturer, it may be a small part, but to go to all of the effort to get everything else correct, only to install a D-Ring that is not correct, would be a crime against humanity!
I explained to them the lengths that had been gone to, in order to replicate the exact shape and size of the rings:
This is how I was expecting them to look:
Anything less than this is not going to be acceptable.
The samples I was shown were just NOT good enough. Terrible in fact!:
The samples have clearly been heated, which explains the tarnished finish. The ends are untidy too, and have not been deburred (as requested).
I hope that you agree that these are not good enough, and that you don’t mind waiting just a little longer for me to make these myself, as soon as I receive the Jigs.
This delay will not effect the overall schedule of the run. Batch One is nearing completion. Four weeks in October is more than enough to get through Batch Two (approximately half the workload).
As commissions are completed, they will be safely stored in their custom made foam shipping inserts. Then, as soon as clamps and rings can be installed, shipping can be arranged.
So, Batch one will be shipping a little late unfortunately, but I expect Batch two and all subsequent batches to be completed on time.
I hope this sounds ok to everyone.
If you have any concerns or questions regarding any of this, please do get in touch!
Remaining Stock:
On October 1st, I will be listing the remaining stock as planned. These will be listed as pre-orders for Batch 5 and Batch 6 commissions, which will be worked on in Jan and Feb of 2025. Stock is now extremely limited, so I’m no longer able to let these go as DIY Kits unfortunately. I’m really very sorry for any disappointment. I just really want to make sure that everyone who wants a finished commission from this run is able to get one. Once these last few are gone, they’re gone, and I have a long list of upcoming projects. So, it could be some time before I’m able to revisit this one.
Now, this has been a long one, so I’m going to wrap things up and sign off for now.
I hope you’re all happy with how things are shaping up (apart from the rings of course!). Now that we’re seeing things come together on this first batch am more excited than ever to begin getting these out to people!
Thanks again for your support and patience! I couldn’t do this without you all, and truly appreciate you putting your trust in me, and allowing me to make these for you all.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
All the best, and MTFBWY-A
Dave
Hello Everyone.
The time has come to post another update on the progress of the run.
Please accept my apology for not posting one last week. I did fall slightly behind schedule and this time last week I wasn’t quite at the stage I would have liked to have been.
I did get an update mostly written up, but never got around to taking the photos and posting it.
I instead put all of my energy in to getting caught up.
As I’ve said before, witting these updates doesn’t come naturally to me, and they can take hours (and sometimes days) to put together.
When I’m behind schedule, the work always has to take priority.
By the time I’d gotten caught up, I figured we were nearly at weekend again, and so here is one big update that will hopefully make up for my absence last week.
I’m VERY excited to share with you the results of the past couple of weeks.
Just a heads up that I am still a couple of days behind schedule.
It had become clear to me that finishing ALL of batch one in time for this weekend’s update was not going to be possible.
I was determined to get at least one commission from of each version of both the V2 and V3 completely finished however, so that I can show the finished result:
- Sandstorm V2
- Throne Room V2
- Current Day V2
- Production V3
- NASA V3
Fist though, I just want to reassure you that the rest of Batch One is very nearly finished.
ALL Aluminium parts have been detailed. This includes the following:
- Increasing bore size in V2 Bodies
- Drilling and tapping of all set screw positions
- Reshaping of V3 Wind vanes
- Resizing of V3 rings
- Adding V3 Seams
- V2 Pommel Damage
- V3 Pommel Damage
I decided to stencil and paint all of those which did not require chemical darkening (sandstorm and throne room V2s), but when the time came to darken the rest of the parts, I chose to only darken enough to finish one of each of the V3 versions and one current day V2.
I figured it would be better to show one of each completely finished, rather than the whole batch at the 90% stage.
I’ve adjusted my schedule to allow for next week to tie up any loose ends and to get the whole of batch one finished, pending clamps and rings (I’ll give an update on these further on in this post).
I’ve now planned out my time for October and Batch Two, and I’m happy to say that there are still Four full weeks to work on that batch. It is also a smaller batch and does not include any DIY kits. So, based on the work that has been done this past month, I’m more than confident that the schedule can be kept to. I’m looking forward to there being a little less pressure in fact. :-D
So just a brief overview of Batch One and where things are up to (excluding the few finished examples):
- DIY Kits – All CNC’d parts are prepped and awaiting Clamps & D-Rings (stencils are cut)
- V2 Sandstorm CMSNs - Painted and awaiting final assembly, Clamps & D-Rings
- Throne Room V2 CMSNs - Painted and awaiting final assembly, Clamps & D-Rings
- Current Day V2 CMSNs – Parts ready for darkening & Painting (Stencils are cut)
- V3 Commissions - All Parts Prepped and ready for darkening & Painting.
- ALL necessary stencils are cut and ready for application
Now without further ado, this is how the commissions have turned out:
Sandstorm V2:
This commission includes a vintage clamp/bubble strip and Wannawanga lever. It is still missing it’s D-Ring, but other than that it is 99% complete.
Throne Room V2:
I’m really happy with how this one turned out. It’s a nice middle ground between how the prop looked at the start of filming, and how it looks today. Shinier metal, slightly more paint, but very much retaining that “used universe” look. The throne room V2 is kitted out with the boot stud and cone knob greebles as well as the neck tape. The tape here is still tightly wrapped (with no flap). This commission is finished but awaiting it’s clamp and D-Ring. I think it might look just a little too clean, and plan to add a little weathering powder to some areas to dirty it up a little.
Current Day V2:
This is how we are used to seeing the V2. Dulled metal and paint mostly chipped away, leaving behind an intricate pattern. The metal has been chemically aged prior to painting. Again, this example is finished but awaiting it’s clamp and D-Ring.
Production V3:
I’m extremely pleased with this one! I was provided with a vintage clamp, Vectorbord and D-Ring for this commission, so this one is 100% complete! This might be my new favourite ROTJ hilt! I just love it. It includes all of the physical imperfections of the Post Production / NASA V3, but it’s appearance is similar to that of the V2.
Postproduction / NASA V3:
This is the NASA V3 and is how the prop looks today. The metal has been chemically darkened prior to painting. All physical imperfections have been painstakingly replicated based on the available references. Mylar tape has been added in various places. This will eventually be applied to the clamp also.
Here are a few comparison pics to show how each prop changed over time:
I particularly love how the pattern on the V2 progresses over the course of the prop's life.
Plans for this coming week:
It was a relief to discover that October is in fact a five-week month. This means that I can dedicate this next week to finishing up the few remaining jobs for Batch One and catching up entirely.
My focus for this next week will be as follows:
- Mon- Darken Remaining Kits
- Tue – Stencils and V3 Emitter Details
- Wed – Painting
- Thu – De-Stencil
- Fri – Finishing Touches
Now for the situation with the clamps and rings…
My chrome plater is ready and waiting to plate the clamps. Unfortunately, the D-Rings and Clamp levers were originally ordered together as part of the same quote. So although the levers have now all been finished, the ongoing problems with the rings has delayed everything.
Having discussed this AT LENGTH with my manufacturer, the rings have now been removed from the quote, and the clamp parts are “IN TRANSIT”. As soon as these arrive, I’ll get all of the clamp parts in for plating.
The good thing about the clamps is that I’m having them plated in three batches rather than six, so there will be enough clamps in the first batch to cover Batch One and Two.
As for the Rings, I have made the difficult decision to cancel them from the order entirely. This is not as problematic as you might think. The only real disappointment is that had they been correct, they would now be on their way. We are now going to have to wait for me to receive the CNC bending jigs that I have designed:
Once these are made though, it does not take long at all to form the rings and install them.
I hope that you understand this decision and don’t mind waiting just a little longer to receive your commissions.
As I explained to the manufacturer, it may be a small part, but to go to all of the effort to get everything else correct, only to install a D-Ring that is not correct, would be a crime against humanity!
I explained to them the lengths that had been gone to, in order to replicate the exact shape and size of the rings:
This is how I was expecting them to look:
Anything less than this is not going to be acceptable.
The samples I was shown were just NOT good enough. Terrible in fact!:
The samples have clearly been heated, which explains the tarnished finish. The ends are untidy too, and have not been deburred (as requested).
I hope that you agree that these are not good enough, and that you don’t mind waiting just a little longer for me to make these myself, as soon as I receive the Jigs.
This delay will not effect the overall schedule of the run. Batch One is nearing completion. Four weeks in October is more than enough to get through Batch Two (approximately half the workload).
As commissions are completed, they will be safely stored in their custom made foam shipping inserts. Then, as soon as clamps and rings can be installed, shipping can be arranged.
So, Batch one will be shipping a little late unfortunately, but I expect Batch two and all subsequent batches to be completed on time.
I hope this sounds ok to everyone.
If you have any concerns or questions regarding any of this, please do get in touch!
Remaining Stock:
On October 1st, I will be listing the remaining stock as planned. These will be listed as pre-orders for Batch 5 and Batch 6 commissions, which will be worked on in Jan and Feb of 2025. Stock is now extremely limited, so I’m no longer able to let these go as DIY Kits unfortunately. I’m really very sorry for any disappointment. I just really want to make sure that everyone who wants a finished commission from this run is able to get one. Once these last few are gone, they’re gone, and I have a long list of upcoming projects. So, it could be some time before I’m able to revisit this one.
Now, this has been a long one, so I’m going to wrap things up and sign off for now.
I hope you’re all happy with how things are shaping up (apart from the rings of course!). Now that we’re seeing things come together on this first batch am more excited than ever to begin getting these out to people!
Thanks again for your support and patience! I couldn’t do this without you all, and truly appreciate you putting your trust in me, and allowing me to make these for you all.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
All the best, and MTFBWY-A
Dave
Thanks for the update, much appreciated as always
The Ring situation sucks but you are right, those samples aren't acceptable... We'll have to wait a bit longer but it will be very much worth it in the end. Thanks for you sincerity Dave and can't wait to see how the handmade ones turn out
The Ring situation sucks but you are right, those samples aren't acceptable... We'll have to wait a bit longer but it will be very much worth it in the end. Thanks for you sincerity Dave and can't wait to see how the handmade ones turn out
So happy to be adding one these to my collection thanks so much for all your work it is so much appreciated.
What time will the remaining stock go up on October 1st?
Sorry, I should have been more specific about that.
I'll be listing Pre-Orders for Batches 5/6 at Midday UK time - BST / GMT+1
This will be the last of the V2/V3 for a while.
**UPDATE**
Good morning, everyone.
Just a very quick update this week if it's ok; just to let you know where things are up to...
First up, I’d like to thank everyone who joined the run last week! Thank you so much! I realise it’s a long wait for those joining at this stage, so I really do appreciate each and every one of you for your support!
The V2 is now SOLD OUT. All slots are now taken. All of these fell in to Batch Five, and are scheduled for completion in January 2025.
** There are still some V3s remaining! ** (HERE) The next two of these to be taken will also fall into Batch Five (Jan).
After this, all subsequent V3 orders will fall into Batch Six (February 2025). As such, Batch Six will be exclusively made up of V3 commissions.
Once Batch 5 is filled, I’ll be in touch individually to confirm everyone’s weathering preferences.
Thank you once again to everyone who has taken part in the run so far!
Progress:
Getting batch one as close to “finished” as possible was my top priority last week. It was an incredibly busy week right up to Sunday evening (last night).
I'm happy to say that a lot of progress was made and batch one is pretty much complete (aside from the clamps and D-Rings).
It's been an eventful week! Darkening/stencilling/painting/de-stencilling...
Everything has been safely stored away for now, and final assembly (then shipping) will go ahead as soon as I'm in possession of the final pieces.
The clamp parts HAVE now arrived and are looking great! I’ll share some images soon, which I’ll be taking today.
I'll be VERY busy going through everything today, inspecting every individual part and packaging everything up to drop off at the platers. (Hopefully tomorrow morning).
At some stage this week, I'll take a few examples from Batch One commissions and get some more beauty shots for next week’s update (weather permitting!).
My top priority today though, is to get the clamps in for plating ASAP! The sooner these are finished, the sooner I can get Batch one out to everyone.
I'm now officially moving on to Batch two also!
I have a plan drawn up for this month and should have All Batch Two commissions finished by November 1st (if not before)
First up is to prepare the foam inserts, which will be used throughout the prosses, for organizing the batch and for packing everything safely away at the end of each day. These require gluing as they arrive as a top/middle/bottom.
So, today is very much an organizing day!
I'd like to have clamp parts ready to go and packaged up by the end of today, as well as having all aluminium parts for batch two set aside ready to work on over the course of the rest of this week.
I’d also like to give the workshop a good spring clean between batches and get everything nice and tidy for another busy month ahead! This last week was particularly messy!
So, no pictures this week unfortunately, as I’ve just been too busy, and jumping straight in to this week’s tasks. I’ll be sure to get some together for the next one though.
Signing off for now as it’s time to start the day and can hear little feet!
Wishing you all a fantastic week!
All the best and MTFBWY,
Dave
Good morning, everyone.
Just a very quick update this week if it's ok; just to let you know where things are up to...
First up, I’d like to thank everyone who joined the run last week! Thank you so much! I realise it’s a long wait for those joining at this stage, so I really do appreciate each and every one of you for your support!
The V2 is now SOLD OUT. All slots are now taken. All of these fell in to Batch Five, and are scheduled for completion in January 2025.
** There are still some V3s remaining! ** (HERE) The next two of these to be taken will also fall into Batch Five (Jan).
After this, all subsequent V3 orders will fall into Batch Six (February 2025). As such, Batch Six will be exclusively made up of V3 commissions.
Once Batch 5 is filled, I’ll be in touch individually to confirm everyone’s weathering preferences.
Thank you once again to everyone who has taken part in the run so far!
Progress:
Getting batch one as close to “finished” as possible was my top priority last week. It was an incredibly busy week right up to Sunday evening (last night).
I'm happy to say that a lot of progress was made and batch one is pretty much complete (aside from the clamps and D-Rings).
It's been an eventful week! Darkening/stencilling/painting/de-stencilling...
Everything has been safely stored away for now, and final assembly (then shipping) will go ahead as soon as I'm in possession of the final pieces.
The clamp parts HAVE now arrived and are looking great! I’ll share some images soon, which I’ll be taking today.
I'll be VERY busy going through everything today, inspecting every individual part and packaging everything up to drop off at the platers. (Hopefully tomorrow morning).
At some stage this week, I'll take a few examples from Batch One commissions and get some more beauty shots for next week’s update (weather permitting!).
My top priority today though, is to get the clamps in for plating ASAP! The sooner these are finished, the sooner I can get Batch one out to everyone.
I'm now officially moving on to Batch two also!
I have a plan drawn up for this month and should have All Batch Two commissions finished by November 1st (if not before)
First up is to prepare the foam inserts, which will be used throughout the prosses, for organizing the batch and for packing everything safely away at the end of each day. These require gluing as they arrive as a top/middle/bottom.
So, today is very much an organizing day!
I'd like to have clamp parts ready to go and packaged up by the end of today, as well as having all aluminium parts for batch two set aside ready to work on over the course of the rest of this week.
I’d also like to give the workshop a good spring clean between batches and get everything nice and tidy for another busy month ahead! This last week was particularly messy!
So, no pictures this week unfortunately, as I’ve just been too busy, and jumping straight in to this week’s tasks. I’ll be sure to get some together for the next one though.
Signing off for now as it’s time to start the day and can hear little feet!
Wishing you all a fantastic week!
All the best and MTFBWY,
Dave
Good morning, all.
Just posting this week's update.
It's been another busy week!
First priority last week was to go through all of the clamp parts and to get them in for plating. I dropped them off on Wednesday morning and they are now in the process of being plated.
I assembled both a V2 and V3 clamp just to get a few pictures of how the final clamps are looking with their respective levers installed:
** Please bear in mind that the parts are not plated yet in these images. **
The blocks for the V2 clamps aren’t being plated. Instead, they have been darkened/aged using water/heat:
The plating process is usually fairly quick, so I’ll keep you updated as soon as I receive any news.
Ring jigs are also "in production" still. I am expecting those to be finished soon and on their way, with them being one-offs.
Batch One commissions are safely stored away and awaiting their clamps and D-Rings. As soon as I receive these and can complete Batch One, I’ll send out final invoices and get them on their way to their new homes.
I did manage to get a few pictured this week of a couple of the finished commissions. I borrowed the Vintage clamp from Mo’s Sandstorm V2 to get a few pics of a fully assembled Throne Room V2 as well as one of the Current Day V2s. I also installed a Vintage V2 Ring on to Mo's Sandstorm hilt, so here's some more pictures of that now that it's 100% finished. I installed both the Throne Room and Current Day examples with temporary D-Rings. **These are from the rejected samples I received**. I did my best to correct them, but they are still not acceptable (and incredibly difficult to work by hand with them being Stainless Steel!). I installed for the photos only but will be replacing them.
SANDSTORM V2:
THRONE ROOM V2:
CURRENT DAY V2:
Batch Two is now well underway! Foam shipping inserts have been made and labelled. All Aluminium parts have been selected and I’m in the process of working my way through them and applying physical details such as fixing placements, V3 details, Pommel Damage, etc.
I’m expecting to have all aluminium parts finished and ready for chemical darkening (or stencilling) by the end of this coming week, and have more aluminium blacking solution on it’s way.
The rest of October will then be spent on painting and final assembly.
I will obviously need to work around the completion of the clamps and allow for a quick road trip to go and collect those when the time comes.
I’m very excited to finally add those to the completed commissions (as well as DIY kits) and to start getting these out to their new homes!
I hope everyone is happy with how things are progressing.
Apologies once again for the delay in getting Batch One / DIY Kits out to people. The run as a whole is on track though and I expect to continue getting through one batch per month as planned.
In other news, I have made a template for the NASA V3 lever. I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to go about doing this. I was either going to create a vinyl mask stencil, and paint on the chrome (after darkening the lever), or cut the chrome out of adhesive foil and apply that way. I opted for the later in this test, and I’m pretty happy with the results. The foil is obviously more convincing that chrome paint, so I think I’m going to use this method going forward.
** This is a spare Roman's lever that I had. I swapped out the pin for a round headed rivet **
I’ll include one of these pre-cut templates in with the DIY V3 Kits before sending out, for those wishing to build the NASA version.
There are still some V3 slots available, and I have had a few requests to list some of them as DIY Kits.
So, DIY V3 kits are now back “in stock” on the store (HERE). Like the commissions, these are “pre-Orders” due to the clamps/D-Rings still being in production. DIY Kits will be prepared and sent out ASAP though alongside the current batch of commissions.
I have only listed a very limited number of these. The rest are reserved for Batch Six commissions (Feb 2025).
The V3 kits and commissions that are now listed on the store are the very last of these and won’t be available again for some time due to other projects that are planned for 2025/2026.
I’m going to drop off the radar once again now but will be back again with another update soon.
Thanks again to everyone taking part in the run and to all those who are following along.
Wishing you all a fantastic (and productive) week!
All the best and MTFBWY-A,
Dave
Just posting this week's update.
It's been another busy week!
First priority last week was to go through all of the clamp parts and to get them in for plating. I dropped them off on Wednesday morning and they are now in the process of being plated.
I assembled both a V2 and V3 clamp just to get a few pictures of how the final clamps are looking with their respective levers installed:
** Please bear in mind that the parts are not plated yet in these images. **
The blocks for the V2 clamps aren’t being plated. Instead, they have been darkened/aged using water/heat:
The plating process is usually fairly quick, so I’ll keep you updated as soon as I receive any news.
Ring jigs are also "in production" still. I am expecting those to be finished soon and on their way, with them being one-offs.
Batch One commissions are safely stored away and awaiting their clamps and D-Rings. As soon as I receive these and can complete Batch One, I’ll send out final invoices and get them on their way to their new homes.
I did manage to get a few pictured this week of a couple of the finished commissions. I borrowed the Vintage clamp from Mo’s Sandstorm V2 to get a few pics of a fully assembled Throne Room V2 as well as one of the Current Day V2s. I also installed a Vintage V2 Ring on to Mo's Sandstorm hilt, so here's some more pictures of that now that it's 100% finished. I installed both the Throne Room and Current Day examples with temporary D-Rings. **These are from the rejected samples I received**. I did my best to correct them, but they are still not acceptable (and incredibly difficult to work by hand with them being Stainless Steel!). I installed for the photos only but will be replacing them.
SANDSTORM V2:
THRONE ROOM V2:
CURRENT DAY V2:
Batch Two is now well underway! Foam shipping inserts have been made and labelled. All Aluminium parts have been selected and I’m in the process of working my way through them and applying physical details such as fixing placements, V3 details, Pommel Damage, etc.
I’m expecting to have all aluminium parts finished and ready for chemical darkening (or stencilling) by the end of this coming week, and have more aluminium blacking solution on it’s way.
The rest of October will then be spent on painting and final assembly.
I will obviously need to work around the completion of the clamps and allow for a quick road trip to go and collect those when the time comes.
I’m very excited to finally add those to the completed commissions (as well as DIY kits) and to start getting these out to their new homes!
I hope everyone is happy with how things are progressing.
Apologies once again for the delay in getting Batch One / DIY Kits out to people. The run as a whole is on track though and I expect to continue getting through one batch per month as planned.
In other news, I have made a template for the NASA V3 lever. I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to go about doing this. I was either going to create a vinyl mask stencil, and paint on the chrome (after darkening the lever), or cut the chrome out of adhesive foil and apply that way. I opted for the later in this test, and I’m pretty happy with the results. The foil is obviously more convincing that chrome paint, so I think I’m going to use this method going forward.
** This is a spare Roman's lever that I had. I swapped out the pin for a round headed rivet **
I’ll include one of these pre-cut templates in with the DIY V3 Kits before sending out, for those wishing to build the NASA version.
There are still some V3 slots available, and I have had a few requests to list some of them as DIY Kits.
So, DIY V3 kits are now back “in stock” on the store (HERE). Like the commissions, these are “pre-Orders” due to the clamps/D-Rings still being in production. DIY Kits will be prepared and sent out ASAP though alongside the current batch of commissions.
I have only listed a very limited number of these. The rest are reserved for Batch Six commissions (Feb 2025).
The V3 kits and commissions that are now listed on the store are the very last of these and won’t be available again for some time due to other projects that are planned for 2025/2026.
I’m going to drop off the radar once again now but will be back again with another update soon.
Thanks again to everyone taking part in the run and to all those who are following along.
Wishing you all a fantastic (and productive) week!
All the best and MTFBWY-A,
Dave
Sithslayer
New Member
Thank you so much Dave! My V2 Sandstom looks stunning. Glad “everything is proceeding as you have foreseen”. Best of luck with the rest of the run.
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