antampatz

This week I worked on the beam saber hilts, continuing the clean-up and preparation process across the remaining components of the kit.

Although each hilt is made up of only two relatively small parts, they presented some interesting clean-up challenges due to the way they were moulded. One half is moulded flat on the runner, resulting in a mould line that runs along the length of the part. The other half is moulded vertically, creating a circular mould line around the upper edge. Both parts also contained ejector pin marks that would need to be addressed.

As with previous assemblies, I began by using a marker to highlight the mould lines and ejector pin marks. This helps make the areas requiring attention stand out more clearly and makes it easier to monitor progress throughout the clean-up process.

Removing the mould lines while preserving the cylindrical shape of the parts required a slightly different approach from the one used elsewhere in the build. The saber hilt components were mounted to sturdy toothpicks, which were then secured in the bit holder of an electric screwdriver.

For the shorter sections with circular mould lines, the parts were slowly rotated while I worked on them using a file, a mould-line scraper, the back of a hobby knife blade, and progressively finer grades of sandpaper. This allowed material to be removed evenly around the circumference of the part while maintaining its round profile.

The same setup also allowed me to introduce a panel line that the moulding process could not reproduce directly. On the smaller part of the hilt, the wider tube transitions into a narrower section that accepts the beam saber effect part. Because of the direction of the moulding, there is no panel line at this transition despite one being present in the original design. By slowly rotating the part while holding the point of the back of a hobby knife blade against this location, I was able to scrape a shallow groove around the circumference of the part and recreate the missing detail.

The longer sections required a different approach. Since the mould lines run along the length of the part, the initial clean-up was carried out using the scraper and the back of the knife blade in a straight motion along the mould line. As expected, this left a slight flat spot where material had been removed. To restore the original tubular shape, the parts were then rotated in the electric screwdriver while wrapped in progressively finer grades of sandpaper.

This process proved useful for more than just restoring the geometry. It also helped eliminate the ejector pin marks and slightly reduced the overall diameter of the parts. That reduction may prove beneficial later, as the beam saber hilts are designed to store within the lower legs. Removing a small amount of material now should help compensate for the additional thickness introduced by primer, paint, and top coat, reducing the likelihood of fit issues during final assembly.

The changes are subtle, and one could certainly argue whether the extra effort was worthwhile, especially given that the beam saber hilts are unlikely to be among the most prominent features of the completed model. However, they are visible whenever removed from storage or displayed in use, and refining them now helps ensure they match the standard established across the rest of the build.

With these parts now cleaned up and refined, another small but important step of the preparation process is complete.