TOPIC: Lunar New Year ~ Monkey

Happy New Year [Kung Hay Fat Choy]

It's New Year's day here right now, (New Year's Eve likely for most subscribers) and I thought I'd share an idea or concept that's been challenging me for a while. There are many versions of the Monkey King and his infamous Staff that accompanies him as the instrument of choice during his engagements of battle. I am focusing more on the darker, sinister depictions of him and all it's glory.




Relative to SW I guess it'd be associated with the Dark Side, Dark Jedi or Sith. Whilst the staff is aggressive in its own right, have always pondered the idea of making this as a Lightsaber. It makes sense to have a staff turn into a staff but the idea of two blades at opposite ends never sat well with me. (relative to this concept only) Then comes the challenges of designing a hilt, single or double length, that did the intricate detailing any justice.




I haven't come across an existing SF hilt design to use as a base premise for the design to add to and because of the difficulties I have with toying with ASP (I don't get it, the site always runs stupidly slow for me and takes ages, not exaggerated, to load a single part let alone design an entire hilt-so I avoid it), the process is more user friendly doing primitive cut-n-paste jobs on Paint. Perhaps it's just my setup?

Will have to explore the full band of resources with Justin in due course to determine if casting resin and molds is even an available option. Engraving or etching is a possibility to translate the designs but I fear the raised edges may be too shallow and not prominent enough.




Am thinking this. A staff cut in half. A streamlined hilt with PC or plating with etching and actual etching on the actual blade too representing the symbols and characters that are scribed. A White or Red Led that'll still shine bright but then highlights the inscription. (much like the ripper blade theory or the other blades in development tested by I think it's Morgan and Daniel)

Back to the drawing board I guess and squat on the ponder wagon.

Thanks for looking.

Happy New Year to you OvrcAHst.

Interesting concept I must say. I was playing around with staff ideas just the other day, didn't actually realise it was the year of the Monkey! The red and gold etch sceme would look amazing, don't quite know how to etch the blade though.

I might have another play around with the ASP and Photoshop and see what I can come up with.

OK so I've just had a play and came up with this




It comprises of
Emitter 1 x2
switch 1 x2
Fallen main body x2
Staff extension 1 x2
Coupler male 3
26" blade x2
with 12W+ Amber LEDs

Emitters, switches. bodies and coupler anodized in gold and the extensions anodized in red on the main part and gold at the coupler end.
Although I didn't add it to the image the etching would be done before the anodizing the filled with gold enamel after.

I hope this gives you some inspiration. Oh and of course it would be named "Ruyi Jingu Bang" (hope I got that right, I looked it up on google!)

恭喜發財!
Happy Lunar New Year folks!
I'm really digging the design of The Money King staff saber you've conceived. I grew up watching the shows and films about Journey to the West and I think you've managed to capture the look and feel of his design and character. Absolutely a fantastic idea!

GreyJedi73, Wow! Wow! Am wide-eyed with gratitude. Jaw-dropped with appreciation. Very admirable of you good Sir. You have my envy. I wasn't hinting or suggesting the fact that someone else go to the trouble to configure the concept as a result of my own user unfriendliness and misgivings with the ASP Builder. I thank you and sincerely hope it did not exhaust a lot of your own time.

I can only view with envy at the many designs and configurations that are posted from ASP builds and this creation of yours (perfectly named as well I might add) is of no unparalleled exception. I like what you've come up with. Tell me though, is it actually smooth operation and insertion of parts when you use the Builder? I really have no explanation for my experiences with it. An additional side symptom my PC develops when I jump to that page is the CPU whizzes uncontrollably as if it's struggling up hill and about to stroke out and on several occasions PC has indeed switched off as a result.

I'm going to try investigate your chosen pieces because you've come up with a phenomenal premise. Does ASP display total length of configurations? Curious with how long emitter-emitter is. Even with the 12w Amber, I'm convinced simply using blade plugs without actual blades will be quite effective. From the parts you've listed, can a staff extension connect to the switch piece without the body? And is there a length limitation on the extension piece? I'm thinking about reducing the gold section (and ultimately proposed etch surface) to potentially extend the spear part.

From anodising examples I've seen as an application (whilst higher durability) I dislike the frosted surface appearance that remains. Thinking a polished spear extension with a trans mahogany PC with an outsourced custom cut extension shroud negatively cut with characters and either a nickel plated emitter, switch, pommel & coupler or a brass PC.

Inspiration is an understatement. Not just toying with, am actually entertaining the idea as inclusion to an extensive collection. This idea alone may force a feasibility analysis to determine if it's a wish-list only or an actuality.

Thank you. In spirit of the New Year, may you be blessed with good health, fortune and prosperity.

It really is an amazing tool to use. Have you not tried it on another computer or even your phone? I know my phone loads it reasonably well even considering the type of software it is.

What makes Greyjedis mock up even better though is that he had to have done the red and gold coloring himself, that's definitely not something you can do in the builder (yet??) As of yet I'm not a big fan of powdercoating but I know a lot of people are and that SF does offer it so it could be included in the future with expansion parts and whatnot.

As for your question it shows not only the total length of your saber but you can also see individual part lengths. I used it once to make a monster dual saber that was something over 3 feet long without using any of the extra extensions, just a standard dual blade with the longest parts possible. Quite fun!

To OvrcAHst,
You are very welcome. it didn't take that long really, 45 minutes approx. As for the ASP builder, it runs pretty instant for me so it may just be internet connection related issues on your end.

I totally agree with the powder coating rather than anodizing (I did actually mean powder coating!) plus I think the Fallen main bodies may look better in red as there is a lot of the gold colour especially if you include the Amber of the blades. The overall length of this is 7'8.1" with blades and 3'4.1" without.

OR you could try this




Simiar thing only usin staff extension 1W x4 with dark red leather. this has on overall length of 5'1"

To Kirabi,
I did indeed add the colour myself in Photoshop! Fun little project to do.

D'you have larger versions, GreyJedi? The site seems to have shrunk the pics and obscured a lot of the details.

I'm afraid not Borommakot!
They were screen captures that I imported into photoshop and coming from the web the resolution was pretty low to begin with. The only thing I can suggest is play with the zoom in your web browser settings

@Kirabi It looks it. No-go on my phone. I typically limit its usage for work and emails only and when I switch off, it switches off. Tried it just for curiosity and whilst the speed improved a little the entire screen is blacked out disabling any clarity or visibility relative to the phones screen size.
Might try and play around with alternate Search Engines to determine success as I feel like I'm missing out! I imagine it would be a better filler of down-time waiting for delivery rather reading 60 pages of Open Topics forwards then backwards.

@GreyJedi73
Still, it was 45 minutes of your time that could've been spent working and creating additional configurations and designs much like the pleasing Gemini Staff.

I'd actually feel somewhat unsettled now if I were to use your design for an actual build. Your design, your credit, ownership should be yours.

Thank you. You are very talented with cross application manipulation.

@OvrcAHst,
Thanks but you are more than welcome to use that design, creating it was fun for me!

Besides if my skills can further help anyone achieve their goals I'm happy to help and 45 minutes is only time I would've spent watching some random YouTube video or re-watch a Clone Wars episode!!!!

Think of it as a New Years gift lol

It has been shortlisted for now.

EDIT:
The concept hasn't been lost or forgotten. (Still no success with playing on ASP) An idea I'm toying with now (which may lean towards a Custom than via configurable ASP parts) is to powdercoat the rear grips* on both hilts brass instead of wrapping. Over them fix/attach a shroud (like a guardian type) powdercoated in red with either milled or third party laser cut/water blasting to create the negative for the chinese characters. If I can get some sort of a light source under there to make the characters glow? *shivers* spontaneous sketching might have to happen

*

image courtesy from GreyJedi73