I wanted to teach the kids airbrushing, and I’ve always wanted to make a lightsaber. We made them in pairs, with each pair painted to the right age level. Geena wanted Anakin’s from ‘Clone Wars’ and Rose wanted Obi Wan’s from ‘A New Hope’, so it worked out perfectly. Anakin’s was new and shiny, easy to paint. Obi Wan’s looks like it was run over by a truck.

I tested my new printer enclosure with top fed spool:

With mixed results:
(It got so hot you can see the one on the right is melted, fixed after some tweaking)

Base coat going on after primer:

Small details done by hand:

With Obi Wan’s we started by painting it all rust tones (the airbrush table is 3d printed too):

Rolling on crushed salt:

Then painting over the salt and scrubbing it off with a toothbrush:
(before scrub shown)

Final with Geena (my youngest)

Final with Rose:

I also filled them with lead encased in wax for a realistic weight and feel, and ran a brass rod through it for strength. My 11 year old self would have killed for this.