Welcome back everyone!

It's time for my first review of this blog! I received my lightsaber this week, the Caliburn MK11 Masters Saber from JQ Sabers! Yes, I know, it's not an exact replica of Lord Vindican's saber, it's not even a double-bladed saber, but as I posted before, the current popularity of Star Wars makes it hard to even find new lightsabers now.

The ordering process was very smooth, but the delivery was a little chaotic. DHL didn't recognize my address and put my saber in a warehouse for me to pick up myself. This wouldn't be such a big problem if the warehouse wasn't an hour drive to get to!

1. The packaging: the box it came in was very sturdy and filled with protective material. The hilt had another layer of cardboard around it to make sure it was well protected. The package also contained: a 34" display blade, a covertec belt buckle, an instructional note on how to operate the saber and an Allen key to secure or remove the blade.
2. The hilt: It has a nice weight to it, feels great in my hands and is beautifully painted. You can feel the duel grade quality when holding it. It contains a 9W RGB led and a Crystal Shard 2.5 from Plecterlabs. The microSD card inside contains 3 soundfont banks. Personally I prefer the third bank because it sounds like the curved lightsaber of count Dooku, and I always loved that sound. There are 7 pre-installed colors for the led, all of them very bright. I don't know if I want the hilt to be worn or not... Maybe I'll give it a try if I have some time left.
3. The blade: the 34" display blade has a bullet tip with a mirror on the inside to reflect the light coming from the led, to give the whole blade a richer light. Not much to say beyond that.
4. Overall conclusion: Very nice saber, feels great, has a good looking finish to it. If you know how to use the Crystal Shard inside, you'll have a lot of fun with this duel grade lightsaber.

Be sure to check in tomorrow when I'll be showing of my black cape and the progress on my DIY shoulderpads! 

Welcome back!

Great news for my build blog, I just got my red-and-yellow lenses! I forgot to mention in my previous posts that I ordered them but now that they're here. Let's check it out.

I found these lenses on this Dutch website, and received them a week later. The unboxing process was a little scary. The small ENVELOPE that contained my order was completely screwed up and the only protection I found inside was some bubble wrap. But the content, two flasks containing the lenses, was OK.

Now let's move on to bracers. At first my idea was to make these myself. But while looking for inspiration I came upon these magnificent artisanal bracers on Etsy. His name is TrollMartelletCorp, and the stuff he makes looks amazing! 

The amount of detail that goes into making these products is unreal. But of course, this is only based of the pictures shown on his page, but the reviews are encouraging.
The day after I ordered them I got a message from the maker, asking me if I was in a hurry to get my order. He had a list of orders and understandably had a hard time keeping up.

When I told him about my deadline he ensured me my order would be ready on time for my convention. I applaud people who go the extra mile to make their customers happy. 

I know these aren't the exact bracers Lord Vindican is wearing in the trailer but couldn't pass up the opportunity to get these.

That's all for now! 

Hi everyone,

Welcome back! 
As promised I'll tell you about some of my experiences shopping online for a lightsaber and Darth Vindican mask.

The mask first. When scouring online, I stumbled upon an eBay-seller/artist who has got some very good reviews. He makes his masks by using the cold cast method with aluminium. The product itself looks really nice, although the bars protecting the face are maybe a little too large compared to the original. But you don't hear me complaining. 

The seller states that it takes up to 4 weeks after purchase to get shipped, so this stressed me out a little. I went for it and ordered the mask anyway. Leaving a little message of appreciation is always a good way to start a friendly business contact with people who make custom stuff, so that's exactly what I did. 

I haven't heard back from the seller in person but the add for this mask got taken down so I guess it's ok.

The story of my lightsaber is a totally different one. A lot of vendors of (custom) lightsabers were still out of stock or had a waiting list that would never meet my deadline for delivery! 

These are a couple of websites I visited in search of my weapon of choice.

1. The Custom Saber Shop: Normally this is a very good website if you're looking to build a lightsaber yourself out of parts. Problem was that their stock of parts got exhausted after the rush of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. 
2. Ultrasabers: The same problem here, everything was out of stock: "It could be 1 week before this saber is back in stock or it could be up to 16 weeks. Please email info@ultrasabers.com for a more firm approximation." I contacted and got a very friendly respons telling me that they couldn't tell me exactly when their stock would be replenished. And with my timetable I couldn't take the risk of being a Sith Lord without my lightsaber. But all in all, they have a very large selection of sabers, with a lot of customizability. 
3. Vader's Vault: Same problem here. 14 to 16 weeks for assembly. But they have some very nice sabers, in different price categories.
4. Saberforge
5. Parksabers
6. JQsabers: I contacted them asking what their delivery time would be if I bought one of their lightsabers. Again, a very polite respons telling me that they had closed their custom sabre list. The only sabers they had ready to build were the Caliburns and that customization would be limited to the colour of the hilt.

Decision time! I contacted JQsabers telling them I'll take their saber. It comes with a 9W RGB led, black hilt, flash on clash, 2W speakers and Crystal Shard V2.5. I'll post a more detailed review once I get it in my hands. Here is a link with a description of the saber and a video showcasing the product. 

Enough rambling for now. 

See you guys next time when I'll be talking about bracers! 

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the first post of my Darth Vindican cosplay! You remember him, the pureblood Sith from the "Return" trailer for Star Wars The Old Republic (2:36).

Since the trailer came out I've been drawn to this character. The way he walks down the ramp, illuminates his lightsaber and charges the two Jedi.

But of course, time and money are important factors when starting a new cosplay dream. At the time of writing this blog, I have the time, though money is a little more scarce. So a lot of the work I'll be trying to do myself with the help of others.

Deadline for this cosplay is 02/04, date of the FACTS convention in Ghent, Belgium. I'll be going with a friend of mine who will probably also be in cosplay as a Jedi knight, though time will be much more of an issue for him.

So let's get started shall we? First thing was to find a proper image of our character. A simple google search gave me some good results, but the images are not from every angle, as I had hoped. But it still gave me something to go on.

With that out of the way I took quite a long time to think about how I could realise such a challenge while still staying under budget. I could try sewing some stuff myself, we'll see how that turns out.

I kept most of my budget aside for the mask and lightsaber, because building those from scratch is a little too much work!

After a couple of minutes of  browsing, I've discovered some awesome artists and craftspeople.

So this is my overall plan for my project:

• Items that will be fully DIY 

1. Shoulderplates
2. Belt (gold)

• Items that need DIY-altering

1. Cheap black cloak from eBay
2. Grey sweater/T-shirt from a local store

• Items with no/slight alterations

1. Lightsaber
2. Mask
3. Bracers

If I can complete this list, I have about 80% of my build, right?

See you guys next time when I'll be talking about my first experiences lightsaber-and-mask-shopping! 

Feel free to comment!