1:12 scale lightsaber with lighting.

[chrislunetta]

I'm about to start a Bandai Darth Vader model kit and of course I was very interested in lighting up the lightsaber. There's a few tutorials online using flexible filament, but I was wondering, has anyone ever tried using a side lit fiberoptic cable? I know most of the light still comes out the end opposed to the sides, but I was wondering if I could possibly just put some paint over the end, I'm not sure if black would be better or something more reflective to push the light back into the cable. Has anyone tried this? Do you think the side lighting would be bright enough?

 

[rokket2001]

Fiber Optics (FO) are designed to light the ends, but there are side-lighting FOs. I've never used them so I don't know how good they are, or how easy to get. These folks sell them but they are expensive: Side FO

I think your best bet is to use filament LEDs. They look fantastic. Yes, they need power on the end, but just check YouTube and you'll find a lot of filament projects that handle that creatively.

Good project, it should look nice.