Hello Everybody, I felt it was about time I got back to designing sabers that were Star Wars related and what better way than with a design inspired by the latest movie, SOLO – A Star Wars Story? Well I started my design process as I always do by looking for a suitable character who didn’t have a saber in the film. Well there was only one saber in the whole film so there was a lot of candidates. Chewbacca maybe? But I already made one for him, Lando? The same. Ok Han Solo? He could use a saber but I designed Bloodstripe. Right then Qi-Ra, how about her? Qi-Ra is a new character, doesn’t have a saber, looks as if she could handle one….yes I’ll design a saber for her! The next step was to look for design cues to link the saber to her. Colours, shapes and oh yes markings all went into this hilt and here is the result…
This hilt is one of the first I came up with when I began modelling in Blender using more than just adding building blocks and moving them around. The hilt is coloured a sort of velvety grey/brown which reminded me of the dress Qi-Ra wore at the drinks party aboard the villain’s starship yacht. The emitter is basic but has “windows” cut into it to allow light to shine through from the blade when ignited. The switch is basic but has a nice accent colour of gold to compliment the hilt. There are functions in Blender called “Modifiers” which help mould parts into more complex shapes. I used a “Wireframe Modifier” to create the hand grip ridges. The hilt handle then flares out slightly near the pommel to give a feminine shape and bit of interest to a basic tube! But the best part I feel is the pommel which I modelled on Qi-Ra’s tattoo and necklace. This emblem belongs to a criminal gang called “Crimson Dawn” and Qi-Ra may or may not be part of the organisation but one person most definitely is and this is his version of the hilt…
Yes, this hilt belongs to the kingpin of Crimson Dawn, the Dathomirian we saw in The Phantom Menace…Darth Maul! He is briefly seen with a an old damaged lightsaber and I thought if he was such a successful crime-lord he would have a better weapon. So this is what I came up with. With just a little change in colour scheme and reshaping the emitter I had another hilt. I added some triangular points around the mouth of the emitter to represent Maul’s horned head and darkened the hilt to a black handle with contrasting Crimson red accents….just like his tattooed face! I think he would approve of this weapon.
Oh and I nearly forgot to mention, I have been experimenting with screenshots and here is one final “glamour” shot of the hilt for my catalogue…
Phew, that post was slightly longer than I planned but I hope you enjoyed it. I feel it shows I am progressing in 3D modelling. I still have three droid inspired hilts, two vehicle themed sabers and the special TLJ inspired design I know somebody is eagerly awaiting. They will all appear in future posts and I sincerely hope you will come back and check them out. Thank you for visiting today whether you are a regular viewer or a first timer, I appreciate your support. Till next time….
“Crimson Saber” is a For Tyeth Edition and is © Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-18. “Crimson Dawn”, Darth Maul, Qi-Ra and all other names, logos and related material are Trademark/© Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm 2018.
FTSabersite 
They look good. Nice touch to add the Crimson Dawn emblem on the pommels.
Hi TVTA, thank you very much. I find adding in little details like these add so much to a design. A long time ago now I designed a hilt for a friend in tribute to his favourite basketball team. I added parts that looked like some of the landmarks in the home city of the team. It was this hilt that convinced me of the effectiveness of the trick but now I have even more options using Blender. Thanks again.
Another nice looking lightsaber design. Keep it up! 😀
Hello Saber Sourcing thanks for the kind comments. I think I may have got the hang of Blender (or the basics at least) and have a few more hilts already lined up. Thanks again and continued good luck with your YT channel and your WordPress Blog.