Hello everybody and welcome to a special post for me. Way back on August 17th 2016 I posted my first ever design here on FTSabersite – yes I’ve been around that long. Little did I expect to still be coming up with material almost four years later. I spent around a fortnight setting this site up and a friend of mine, Savannah95 helped debug it for me and make sure all my links went to the right place and I went live with my first design, which you can see here…
This was made using a third party online saber building app, and I entered it into a design contest held by the company that created the app…and I won! That gave me the confidence that I could create sabers and I must have come up with over 500 by now! Ah yes 500! That is also the number of this post, my milestone I reached today. And to celebrate I wondered “What gift would I like for my 500th?” The answer was….an X-Wing maybe, so now I use Blender I built one and here it is…the FTX-Wing….
These work in process images and wireframes show how I progressed and complex the model is. Of course I had to have a gold plated ship too. However as nice as these studio shots are you want to see the Glamour pictures so here is gallery two…
The first three images are slight work in progress test images and you can see how I modified the cockpit and even added R2-D2. I think this is a little bit different than a lightsaber and it turned out nice for my first spaceship. I used a lot of modelling techniques and features within Blender including Mirror Modifiers to build one half of the ship while Blender automatically “mirrored” the opposite half. Then I used a new tool add-on that adds nice crisp cut-outs, recesses, grooves and slots (around the engines). I even remembered to add navigation lights!
But then I thought “Ok, I now have an X-Wing…what can I do with it? I know….take it on a mission!” So I decided I’d try to recreate a piece of movie history….the Death Star Trench Run!….
I made this little video recreating my attempt to defeat the Death Star. (I watched a documentary on how the Empire fastened the parts of the Death Star together…..it was RIVETING!)
And I have my friend Neil of https://makeroommakeroom.wordpress.com/ to thank for the Death Star trench. He told me about another Blender function that I used to recreat the panels and blocks that make up the trench walls….the Discombobulator function (yes that’s what it’s called!) I then swung the camera around 180degs and filmed the aft view of the FTX-Wing and get a close up view of the engine pods and the glow I created for them. I’m really proud of these as they look really close to the original FX in the re-released version of Star Wars (George Lucas added more ships and glowing effects). You can see much more clearly where I’m flying to…I’m flying to the end of the trench to finish my mission. Was I successful? Let’s take a look….This is Emerald Leader reporting in…..
OK, again I know I’m not going to worry Disney or Lucasfilm with my film making skills but I bet for a moment you thought it was real! And at the very end I did reach my objective – the exhaust port I aimed my torpedoes at was shaped as a 500! Success!
That just about wraps up this special 500th edition of FTSabersite and as always I’d like to thank everyone, and I mean everyone who visited from day one to today. You have been fantastic and I have loved getting to know some of you better, I have made good friends which is priceless. Now before this sounds like some sort of retirement speech I’d better let you know I still have 7 saber designs and 3 more spaceship designs to display so I might just have enough material to get to 1000 posts….who knows? I hope you will return to find out in future posts. Till next time, stay safe and thanks once again….For Tyeth, Emerald Leader!
“FTX-Wing” is a For Tyeth Editions design insired by the Incom T-65 X-Wing seen in Star Wars. The model and animations were made by me For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2020. Star Wars, X-Wing Fighter and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.
FTSabersite 
Exceptional post for N°500, FT, congrats!! You might know the X-Wing is my fave ship, I had a Palitoy battle damaged one as a kid, and as an adult collector I had about eight from different licenses and films until I sold all but one. I also wrote an online guide for a popular Star Wars website about the X-Wing toy, which is still referenced today.
The trench run videos are brilliant, and as an added bonus you even included an X-Wing pilot helmet which super rocks! I like how you kept the nose shorter than the film version – true to the toy for the original 3.75 inch figures. Glad you included R2 in the design too!
This post is just X-cellent my friend, bravo!
Hi TVTA, I’m so glad you enjoyed this post and design. I recall we chatted about our X-Wing toys as I applied the “battle damage” stickers incorrectly and it looked terrible.
R2 in the model is actually the protective cap I built for my R2 saber – I imported the part into this X-Wing model and scaled it to fit.
Finally the helmet I “built” on the Rogue One website Disney launched in the run up to release date – you could pre-order tickets and there was an app to create the flying helmets. I chose a green scheme and created Emerald Squadron…I thought that had a nice ring to it.
Thanks as always…and maybe I’ll be here for my 1000th!
You did a super job, mate! That Disney app for the helmet was a really good idea from them. I’m sure you’ll be here for post 1K! Keep up the creativity, and stay safe and well 🙂
Congratulations on your 500th!
The video are excellent, best yet! I was listening to The Beach Boys… It worked perfect…. unexpectedly so!
Hi Resa, I am slowly getting to grips with animating now. The problem I have is interruptions from Microsoft adding updates and the fact I have to “build” all my own scenery for my films now. I only built part of the Death Star but I’m working on the rest of it!! Glad you liked my 500th, thanks again and hopefully I’m around for no.1000!
Me too!
Awesome, FT! That animation is so neat. X-Wings are my favorite ship in the SW universe. Congrats on 500, and here’s to many more!
Hi Mei-Mei thanks so much. The X-Wing has always been a favourite for me too. It looked like a normal “aeroplane” at first but when the S-Foils split to attack position I was like “WHOA! What is that?!”
And I’m glad you liked the mini movies, hopefully I will have an updated HD version with all the bells, whistles and effects for my 1000th!
I did laugh at your love for Windows 10 comment. Congratulations on post 500. I wonder what version of blender we will be on be post 1000. You will have several laptops by then, and a 3d printer. I will still be saying I must learn blender, lol. The decombobulator worked out well.
Hi Neil, I’m glad you caught my little joke and thanks. You have helped me a lot over the past few months, especially with your advice on the Discombobulator. I mentioned above that I have another ship that I have built and it features the “Bobuator” function a lot! I just have to get permission to share it here as it was designed for a friend’s story.
And finally, yes I’ll probably have several laptops by the time of my 1000th post and I bet I’ll still be swearing at them too. Thanks for helping me get to 500 and stay safe.
Great post. And Way to go on 500 posts / sabers! It has been an inspiring journey. So rewarding to witness your progress. Keep up the excellent work!
Hi there EF! Hope you are well and keeping safe. I have to thank you for accompanying me on that journey. It has been meeting great folk like you that produce great art/films etc that keep me designing. I look forward to the next EF Production!