TOPIC: Rahm Kota Custom Build

Lit w/ Plug



Full-Body shot



Suede Knot



Opposite side w/ switches



Pommel-view w/ Sithstalker D-Ring

And a one-post WIP (just waiting for the glued switches to dry):

HAVE SOME ARTWORK REFERENCE AND THE (nearly) FINISHED PIECE




Hilt is a *heavily* modified UltraSabers Standard Issue with black leather and brown suede wrap.

Here's how she started (stock photo):



Hilt was brought into the shop. Switch hole and most of the detail rings were weld-filled and ground smooth. A few more grooves were scored with a pipe cutter. Emitter tip flattened. 0.75" MHS extension added to fix proportions and clean up the threads that were warped from welding. Flat pommel with d-ring inspired by the Kota hilt on Sith Starkiller's belt.

Hilt was sanded down, painted black, baked, and sanded again.





Hilt was wrapped in genuine leather, then two switch holes were drilled. Switches are mounted in the 1" section with an MHSv2 switch mount.



Mocked up the emitter wrap with some paper towel to estimate how much I'd need (I also wasn't sure whether I'd go with fabric or leather - settled on suede)



Modified a Nano Biscotte AIO chassis to fit a Spark 2 board that needed some love:



Aaaand quick lit photo until the proper gallery:



Had to tweak the switch setup a bit. I wound up fabricating some aluminum switch extensions/covers, and I'm just waiting for the glue to dry on them before snapping a full gallery. As for a demo, I need to edit the soundfonts a bit. Plan is two Green Kota-themed fonts and an Arctic-Blue Galen Marek. Hilt's running a G/G/rB Tri-Cree LED. Saber takes inspiration from the Force Unleashed novel where Marek takes the saber as his own and eventually replaces Kota's green crystal with his own father's aqua crystal.

More to come in time~

That turned out pretty good! I would have gone insane trying to do that leather wrap myself, so kudos to your for having a lot of perseverance to pull that off.

Looks great!

So, are the switches sitting under the overwrap? Sort of "hidden"?

And I have to agree with Zeddicuus, that leather wrap looks great.

What nearly took my sanity was the initial ito-style wrap with nylon webbing. Finally got semi-even diamonds with all the folds and what not - and found out the webbing wouldn't grip the hilt at all.

Had to undo it all and ordered some leather.

Then found out the leather was too thick to fold.

Came out really nicely in the end though - copied the ito styling, minus the locking fold. Found out how to do a Master-Sword-Style wrap in the process, so glad I tried it. *really* comfy to grip while swinging this thing around like a madman.

As for the switches, look at the picture in the second post with the emitter pointed left. Second diamond from the left. See the two black dots? Those're tactile switches. Intentionally hard to notice, but a bit easier to press now that he aluminum covers are ready to go:



Also had a black ASP Plug 04 from the IGG campaign, so I slightly weathered it and popped it in:



SD Card is all configured - I think. I forgot to bring a battery into work, so I won't be able to test this thing until I get home.

Those switches are almost unnoticeable!

I love hilts like this. On the surface they look simple, but there is such elegance and simplicity in the design.

Not sure I'd have the patience to do a leather wrap like that. Kudos to you!

Still tweaking soundfonts. Music should be louder on the cinematic Kota font, and haven't found a nice set of swing sounds for papa Marek. Here's a preview though:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKWvxmLAn8Q/

Finished configuring the board this weekend. Quick preview of the Arctic Blue Mark setup:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKiw59Wgk_m/

Working on getting the gallery and demo done this week.

Looks great, LOVE the blade color.

This is one of my favorite Custom build I've seen, can't wait for more pics and video.

Still editing photos (and need to take a few more), but here's the first shot (with zoom) of Kota mounted on its stand:

I want a Kota saber after seeing this thread. That thing is spot on.

Love that stand too...

Initial post updated with shots of the hilt. Still need to snap a few with the blade and record a demo of the soundfonts in action.

I also dig the stand. You make it yourself?

Yeah, when I got my first set of Graflex 2.0 kits in, I wanted some offset stands to display them level. Nobody was making them, so I took matters into my own hands.

As a stroke of luck, the difference between the t-track and Graflex flash is the same as the difference between the flash and a 1" blade, so the stand displayed the graflex level as a standalone hilt or with the blade installed.

As a second stroke of luck, the difference between the black leather wrap and brown suede wrap is about the same - so I can display Kota pretty level without redesigning the legs - but I have to swap the legs or hilt around if I want to swap between hilt-only and bladed.

EDIT: Bladed demo from the WIP hilt:

Kouri wrote:
Awesome job as always.

That's fantastic! Impressive work Kouri.

Beautiful work! Now please do a video tutorial on how you do that suede leather cross work, thank you!

Thanks guys. Don't know about a leather wrap video, mainly because I don't have another hilt to wrap. It basically follows a standard Ito wrap tutorial, minus the twisting since the leather was so thick.

Speaking of videos, still need to edit a proper one for this build, but here's a quick demo of the Spark sensitivity.

Kouri wrote:
The more I see about the NEC boards motion sensing the more I want to rip the Sabercore2.0 out of my Bastion on replace it with a Spark2.

Can't wait to order my first one and start playing with it.

Awesome! You made a rather plain ultrasaber into one of my favorite renditions of Rahm's lightsaber I've seen.