Hello everyone, this post will be quite short as I have had more issues as my mouse has died. No, not a pet rodent but my laptop’s mouse has broken – the wheel/third button has snapped and collapsed into the shell so I can’t scroll within Blender how I’d like. Luckily I had a design already partly rendered so I will show you that while I await delivery of my new peripheral. Sooo , today I return to the animated show “Star Wars: Resistance” and the world of Air/Space Speeder Races and the heroes Kazudo Xiono, Yeager, Neeku and Tam Ryvora. Their activities take place on the watery planet Castilon and an aircraft refuelling platform named the “Colossus”. The Colossus was originally an Imperial facility but after the fall of the Empire it was inhabited by regular folk who developed a love of Air Speeder racing (a bit like airplane pylon racing here on Earth). The Colossus had communal areas above the ocean surface, including a market place, a tavern, add to that numerous “workshop hangars” for the racing teams and a store to get spare parts. Unseen beneath the waves there were the Engineering Bays for the station. Sounds like a great place and it looked like this…
Unfortunately as with most good things, this station attracted the attention of Pirates and suffered from attacks. Due to these attacks security needed improving and the First Order learnt of the troubles and offered their “help and assistance” to keep the station secure – in other words they took over. Kazudo was sent by the Resistance to secretly gather intel on the First Order and report it back. Obviously his mission didn’t run smoothly.
So as mentioned the station held air races and in the first few episodes I saw the Colossus and from the angles I saw, imagined it operated like an off shore oil rig found on Earth. I figured the main platform was probably triangular and supported on a submerged leg – and I thought that might lend itself to a saber hilt! The platform could form a handguard and the leg would be the main handgrip. So this was what I knocked together…
It worked better than I initially thought! The upper platform formed a Tsuba (handguard) that I added elements to represent the “hangar bays” which housed the Air Racers – I even added “landing light strips”. Atop at the emitter I added a ring of windows to replicate the “control tower” where the administrator of the station, Captain Imanuel Doza, lived along with the “Elite” flyers on the station. The handgrip features a basic activation switch and leads down to the pommel. As I mentioned I hadn’t seen much of the station structures and nothing below water so I figured it was somehow attached to the ocean bed so I modelled the pommel to look like some type of anchor mechanism. Little did I know that later we would discover the Colossus was MOBILE and not just floating around on the ocean. The station has a Type 2 Hyperdrive and that leads to some dangerous situations and dilemmas involving the First Order and…a famous female Stormtrooper.
Later in the series after I had built this saber I saw this angle of the station and realised it wasn’t triangular. But I’m not sure this diamond arrangement would have worked as well anyway. The station in real life was designed by veteran Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) model maker Bill George. The Colossus was also present during the Battle of Exegol in “The Rise of Skywalker”!
Well that just about wraps up this post, hopefully I will have a fully functioning mouse by the time I post next week and I can bring something more up to my usual level! But thank you all for checking this design out and for all the magnificent support you show me and my little site. It is appreciated. Just in closing I may have a few “arty” fashion pictures to share as well as a modified lightsaber with a “K 26 spring”….Puzzled? Keep tuned and all will be revealed! Thanks again and till next time….
Hello Everybody, wow these posts seem to come round quickly – it only seems like yesterday that I posted “The Knight – Gotham’s Greatest”. Well maybe I have just been busy and time flew by. I received an email from Lord Draconical, the famous Nerf blaster expert and YouTuber in which he expressed his liking of my hilt I designed for him (check it out here: https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/2021/03/27/the-drac-onian-for-lorddraconical/ It was nice to hear from him as Lord Drac has built/modified some awesome blasters and is an artist so I’m pleased he liked it. Again you can check out Drac’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5IY3wtFVRFBI7bCFv_U-5w
I also did my usual trip around social media and somebody on Facebook was asking “Are there any new curved lightsabers around?” and I thought, “Haven’t you seen my collection?”. However I couldn’t leave a comment as I’m not registered with FB but it got me thinking I should come up with a new curved hilt so set to work modifying my Mamba hilt from last year…
I took the Mamba hilt with the hooked fang claw and started twisting and stretching bits of the hilt and then pulled parts around…and as I did something strange happened. All of this manipulation of the emitter in particular caused it to heat up…the “metal” started to change…and a strange but rather pretty special effect took shape. The emitter started to show “Heat Blueing” or as it should be called the metal started to become “Tempered”. This manifests as a discolouration that begins with the base metal then as you move along the affected area the colour changes through the colours of the rainbow and appears as a rainbow stain in the metal. You may have seen it on the side exhaust emitters of Kylo Ren’s crossguard saber. His saber over heats and the side emitters vent that heat out so his crystal doesn’t completely destroy itself. This excess heat “blued” the metal – but I never knew I could replicate it in Blender. Enough chat, I’d like to show you this neat new effect so here is my “Tempered Saber”…
I think this looks rather neat and I posted multiple angles so you can see that this isn’t just some fancy Photoshop filter effect but I have actually modelled the hilt and textured it so it has the effect “baked” into it (the effect is fully 3D so I can scroll/move around the hilt and as you can see the Tempering follows accordingly). I didn’t have time to render a video of this new technique but it does look pretty as you move around the saber, the colours seem to be translucent and shimmer just like an oil slick on a puddle of water but you can tell the rainbow is “burnt” into the material.
I love this effect as it is so lifelike and another beautiful thing I have seen recently is the new Star Wars animation, “The Bad Batch”! So far I have seen all three episodes and am well impressed. Some of the scenes almost look cinematic film quality, especially the wide snowy forest scenery of the first episode. But there are some interesting characters so that means I am working on designs for them so keep tuned to FTSabersite to catch those and maybe a review of the show itself.
I am nearing the end of this post as time is against me. I’d like to thank Lord Draconical once more for his kind email (and Dracyou don’t have to be shy ok!)….and to all of you my viewers, readers and friends, thanks for your fantastic support – it really keeps me going. I would ask if you like what you see here then please tell your friends and spread the word about FTSabersite, everyone is welcome. And I still have tons more stuff to showcase. Till next time….
Hello Everybody, today after the “Frightener” and things that go bump in the night I bring you a hero to save you from the darkness, a man who is bats! Yes today I bring a design inspired by Gotham City’s Batman. Whilst modelling the “High Republic” saber I noticed something about the shroud that reminded me of the Caped Crusader and that was how the blade when viewed from below looking upward I could almost make out the shape of Batman’s cowl.
If you turn you head to the side you can probably just about see the “shape of a head” and what appears to be a pair of ears pointing up just like Bruce Wayne’s headwear has! This prompted me to modify the “High Republic Saber” into a new Batman hilt. Now I say new Batman saber because a looong time ago I designed a saber for my friend Lady Revan from the lightsaber forum, who wrote a fantastic Star Wars story and I based the hilt on one of her characters, Alex Khaar. The hilt had a a long bayonet like steel blade as well as the plasma one and on the other end of the hilt it’s pommel looked like Obi-Wan Kenobi’s first saber. Well another friend named BatMike90 told me he was a Batman fan so I gave Lady Revan’s hilt a repaint which looked like this…
I thought this worked quite well, but you know me I always want to do better. I have to be fair however as this was an early Blender built hilt and I didn’t know all the tricks of 3D modelling then. Fast forward a couple of years and I can now bring you a totally bespoke Batman hilt with a special plinth…Here are the Batty Beauty Shots…
The Knight is a recoloured and streamlined “High Republic Saber” but this one has a snazzy bat logo base! This plinth was made using the invaluable Extrude function where I upload a bat logo and instruct Blender to thicken the image to form a 3 dimensional object. I then multiplied it a few times to form the cradle uprights. All the bat shapes were bevelled giving the parts an almost “Batarang” sharp edge (it’s not really sharp but the silver highlight on the edges emphasises the illusion). Ok I think it’s time for some detail shots…
The activation button has a bat logo embellishment just below it and of course the pommel needed some decoration. So I removed the mesh grill from the original design and placed another Bat into the pommel opening, all lined in silver.
Again I kinda liked this hilt and decided to mess around and try out a bit of art so to round out this presentation I have two “posters” I knocked up.
I couldn’t help but put the hilt “in” the Batcave to see how it looked and the second image is just a quick transparency overlay on a moody looking Batman.
That just about wraps up this offering but first I need to acknowledge that Batman and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne were created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger back in 1939. He first appeared in Detective Comics #27 dated May 1939.
I also have to acknowledge you, my viewers/readers and say a big thank you for visiting today and checking out “The Knight” and helping support me and my site. You are all very much appreciated, whether you are a here for the first time or if you are one of my regulars, If you like what you have seen then please leave a like, comment or subscribe if you haven’t already – I’d be happy to enjoy your company again. I still have a lot more to show everyone including some Star Wars Resistance inspired sabers so…Till next time….
Hello Everybody, I hope you all enjoyed “May The Fourth Be With You” day and survived the “Revenge of the Fifth” day, I know I had fun revealing my new costume but now I have to get back to sabers. To do this I have the third of my Nerf inspired saber modifications and I was going to attempt to replicate my most recent Nerf blaster acquisition but I realised there would be an issue. The problem was my 5th blaster is the Nerf Fortnite SP-L silenced pistol but it has a yellow and black colourscheme and I thought it would look too much like my Bumblebee (Transformers) hilt. So, as we had hordes of Sith rising on the 5th May it felt like a horde of Zombies attacking…which leads me to “The Frightener“! This is my Nerf Zombiestrike range inspired design. Nerf brought out a series of blasters and crossbow arrow launchers in a Zombie theme with toxic greens, oranges and brown colours. Other details included fake circular saw blades that spun as you fired the blasters and bandage wrappings on the handgrips. They looked a little like this…
Not only have my recent hilts been Nerf inspired but I mentioned that these hilts had internal “Chassis” parts that held the electronics in place to stop them rattling and getting damaged – well the Not-A-Nerf sabers have that chassis and I thought it time to show you it….
Now a chassis is basically a cylinder that secures the LED (light bulb) into the emitter, holds the electronic circuit board that produces all the sounds and effects, the battery to power the hilt and finally the speaker is mounted near the pommel. The LED is seen in picture 1, the speaker can be seen in pic 2 and finally the complete chassis is in picture 3 which also shows the activation switch and mounting posts to which the hilt and the chassis are connected. There are various different circuit boards made by numerous companies so I didn’t model a circuit board on the chassis I built but I would cut a small rectangular recess to slot the board into – along with a battery slot for the appropriate battery. But enough chat about the insides, you want to see “The Frightener’s” outsides so here is the Ghoulish Gallery….
PLEASE NOTE THIS SABER IS NOT AN OFFICIAL NERF PRODUCT AND IS NOT AVAILABLE TO OWN…OK!
“The Frightener“! I tried to replicate the toxic acid like colours of the Nerf Zombiestrike range but again the colours turned out slightly different due to the metallic textures I used and the scenery lighting (I used a background image of a factory used in the movie Terminator – the scene where the metalworking presses are). But I still had a grimy, murky green and orange paintjob which I embellished with brown and black accents that sorta resembles the blasters I took inspiration from. I even added a white cloth “bandage wrapping” on the handgrip to imitate the pistol grips. And to make this build a bit more challenging I attempted to model the wrapping as a 3D part, so the white spiral wrap you see is actually a three dimensional piece and not just coloured graphics. I took a long thin rectangle object, then instructed Blender to divide it into multiple panels forming a bendable strip. I then created a spiral object as a guide and used a function in Blender that mapped the strip onto the spiral forming the “bandage”. As a result I can add or remove the wrapping, here is a picture of the hilt without it…
That just about “wraps” up this design but it turns out this hilt was so popular even the undead wanted to “get their hand on it”…here is a quick picture I came up with as a bit of Zombie Art…
Created with GIMP
I think it looks right at home in this spooky setting! I wonder if that is Luke’s right hand? 😁 I don’t know but I know I have reached the end of this week’s post so it’s thank you time. As always thanks to everyone who visited FTSabersite this past week. You help keep me designing and I appreciate the support you show. If you enjoy what you see here then please leave a comment, like or even better subscribe if you haven’t already. I still have so much more to show in future posts and I have managed to watch the first episode of Disney’s new Star Wars animated series “The Bad Batch” so I may post my thoughts on the show soon. I hope you’ll all return to check all of it out. Till next time….
Hello Everybody and HAPPY MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU day! Yes today is the big day for Star Wars fans and the Jedi like me living in exile in this universe. And today is a very significant day for me as I finally complete a Star Wars Bucket List accomplishment. About 18 months ago I won a battle with the Banking Clans in the UK and got some money back and bought myself a new laptop after which I had some spare credits left over. Then the COVID scourge hit and everything shut down so I knew I wouldn’t be spending that credit on going on holiday to Bal’Demnic as I usually do and on Earth there would be no social gatherings such as Comic Cons or Sci-Fi Fests, so what could I spend my cash on? The answer is….I decided to assemble a Jedi costume! I have mentioned little bits about making a “cosplay” outfit but now I have completed the base parts and could appear in public with it. So today I reveal what I bought and how I look! Ok first up, the base tunic set.
This basic Jedi Tunic Set I purchased from a well known Cosplay costume company known as CosplaySky and it is a base outfit to modify into a real nice costume. The fit was good but I did need to add a few alterations using “Hook and Loop” fasteners to hold the tunic closed and on the shoulders I sewed “Press/Snap Fasteners” so I could attach the over shoulder tabards in place more secure (they can slip down your arms when spinning/duelling with your saber). However as this was only a basic set the belt and robe weren’t quite “movie quality”. The belt was “pleather” and fastened with velcro -not very strong to hang a saber off, and the robe was made of polyester which was thin, semi-transparent up close and was too lightweight. They needed replacing and I needed an under garment to replace the dark brown “scarf collar” attached to the tunic.
Now I wanted to emulate my “spirit Jedi” that is Qui-Gon Jinn as I have been likened to him in the past and Qui-Gon had sandy coloured tunics not with a dark brown collar, so I had to buy a loose fitting under garment and eventually found this top on a fashion webstore. It had the long scrunched sleeve look and an open V-neck for the “relaxed look”. The Hummus colour went perfectly with the outer tunic. And I was ever so fortunate as I bought the last one in stock! But that was just the start, I had to replace the belt and robe…how would I do that?
The answer to my belt problem came from a fantastic online webstore I found on ETSY named Leather3DNeon, run by a young craftsperson named Eugen. He makes numerous leather costume parts like Mandalorian blaster holsters and belts but it was his Jedi Master belt I was interested in. As soon as I saw it and knew I could afford it I bought one. And I’m so pleased I did….this belt is perfection. It arrived from the Ukraine far quicker than I was expecting and when I opened the packaging (which felt ceremonial with the wrapping paper and red ribbon bow seen in the top image) I discovered a beautiful piece of unbelievably crafted leather. The belt was a nice 3mm (known as 10oz leather) thick band and had the iconic Chicago Studs which held the thinner second belt in place. The buckle on the front was also metal. But the real beauty laid at the back of the belt where I found the belt fastened using more of the metal studs which fitted into “Keyhole” shaped holes. There are six size positions too just in case I eat too many food pellets and gain weight I can let the belt out a little. Then to cover the gap the belt has a wrap-around sleeve which is embossed with the Jedi Order symbol…just awesome detailing. Then as a final touch of class, in the picture you can see an oval shaped tag with a split ring? Well that is an extra little gift of a Jedi Keyring! Thank you Eugen, you are a Master!
Now I needed some footwear as the costume I bought was only the “soft parts” and boots weren’t included. Here I had to push the boat out and spend quite a bit of money. I could have bought a “costume quality” pair of boots that might have lasted a year or two but I also have weird feet and need good shoes. So as I had just received my money back from the Clans, I was persuaded by Mrs Tyeth to purchase a pair of Qui-Gon replica boots I had seen but until then were out of my price range. The boots came from the company Gladiator-Polo, and are the closest boots you can buy to the ones worn by Liam Neeson – they are so good they automatically get approval from the Star Wars costume groups like the Rebel Legion Trooping Group and the 501st Squadron who do charity event appearances. Again I have mentioned these boots before so here is just a quick reminder…
That meant I had my tunic, under tunic, pants, belt and boots but all Jedi costumes need a robe, a great robe and I think I found a perfect robe! Again I scoured the net and I came across a webstore on ETSY once more. This time it belonged to a UK based lady named Linda Reece and her store was titled Creativesewandsew! And boy was I glad to have found this craftperson’s site. Her products are above and beyond. I mentioned I wanted to make my costume “movie quality” well the robe I purchased measured up to that level – and then some. It is a wool mix blend (wool and polyester) so it is very hard wearing yet has a soft draping feel and texture. The hood is enormous and hangs just as a Jedi hood should. The sleeves extend down to my knuckles, exactly as the guidelines say they should and when you wrap the material around yourself boy is it warm! I may suffer wearing it in summer but it looks just too good not to. Anyhoo here is the product image (of course I got a brown one not this black one!)
This robe as I say is almost beyond words, but it didn’t come without a little drama! I ordered the robe and sat happily awaiting delivery notification when I received an email from Miss Reece titled “Regards your recent purchase…” OH NO! I thought it was gonna say “Apologies Master Tyeth but….” and it was going to be delayed or worse…..cancelled but I had a major pleasant surprise. Apparently the price listed on the site was wrong and I was being given a refund to reflect the correct price! I was astounded and want to thank Miss Reece for it. Of course when the robe arrived I was blown away by it’s quality. Proper overlocked stitching, that gorgeous textured material, the absolute perfect fit (and I only stated my height regards fitting yet it felt made to measure!)…and I had to try it on. I looked terrible due to lockdown in the UK meaning I hadn’t been to the barbers’ shop so I won’t show the pics of me trying it for the first time but here is the Glamour Gallery of how all the parts come together….
May I introduce myself…I am Master For Tyeth…now a properly attired Jedi! And before I go any further I have to say thank you to Mrs Tyeth for her camera work which wasn’t easy using a mobile phone in my flat’s hallway, and I did photo edit the mess that was my hair a little but you get the picture of how I look. And even though I have the skills to make the saber look “real” the images’ blades have not been altered…the camera just makes it look like this.
So finally I want to thank all the companies and craftspeople that I bought my parts from for making my dream a reality. I’ll leave links to each vendor’s websites and stores but don’t worry I am not being paid or rewarded in any way for this if you click to check them out, I am just a grateful Jedi passing on my knowledge.
I haven’t added the link to ASOS designer fashion store as it sold out of the top I bought so I didn’t forget them. But again I want to say a big thanks to all that contributed to my costume. I just need a few accessories now like belt pouches and food capsules but I will collect those in the next couple of months hopefully – all ready for when Star Wars get-togethers can safely resume.
Now that brings me to the end of this bumper costume reveal, I hope you enjoyed it and are enjoying May The Fourth Be With You day (ok and Revenge of the Fifth for the Sith Star Wars fans!) Thank you for visiting today and I sincerely hope you’ll call back for future posts where I’ll get back to saber designs…and maybe soon some Convention appearances! Till next time, here’s the best dressed Jedi Master….
Hello Everybody, today I have my second Nerf inspired saber colour scheme and it is based on the next generation of blasters that followed the N-Strike range that I recreated in my first mod. The N-Strike was (and still is) well regarded for having solid performing blasters, both the spring powered models and especially the motorised blaster known as the Stryfe. This blaster runs on 4 AA sized batteries that run two motors with flywheels that first grip then project the foam dart. So the Stryfe originally came in dark blue, white, black and with safety regulation orange parts…but when Hasbro/Nerf upgraded the performance they upgraded the colourscheme to reflect it. Here is a comparison, Elite Stryfe vs Elite XD Stryfe…
As you can see the Stryfe was distinctive but the Stryfe Elite XD turns the colours up to 11! There is no doubt that this is a toy and not a real steel replica or heaven forbid a real live firing weapon…but the bright orange is going to make modifying this into a movie type prop like I planned difficult. But…I can turn the colourscheme into a saber! And that is what I’ve done, so enough talk from me here is the gallery of Glamour Shots…
The orange looks slightly different than that found on a real Nerf Orange Juice…sorry I mean Nerf Elite XD series blaster (Orange Juice was the affectionate nickname Nerfers gave to this colour scheme…or “O.J.” for short). However the white black and grey/silver are present. Because of the way I divided the handgrip to create the ridged rings I was able to recreate the “go faster stripe” seen on the blaster’s sides.
AGAIN AS WITH MY FIRST MOD DESIGN THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL HASBRO/NERF PRODUCT!!!
So now I have two sabers inspired by Nerf’s blaster colour schemes and I now own 5 Nerf blasters…yes five blasters. I have two Firestrike pistols in classic N-Strike colours (and as used in Red Dwarf!) and I have 2 Elite XD Stryfe blasters….which I am naming as the “Troubleland Stryfes” 😎 The fifth blaster I’ll tell you about in a Fortnite (<slight hint).
That just about wraps up this design and post…but I can’t end without mentioning the upcoming “May The Fouth Be With You Day” this Tuesday and I may have a bit of an exclusive as a new Knight emerges from the shadows and greets his friends and followers to bring hope to the Galaxy (well I hope he does). It depends on how well some photos turn out but hopefully I can tick off one of my “Things to do” on my Star Wars Bucket List…
I hope you will join me for future upcoming posts (including this Tuesday’s, fingers crossed) as I have many more designs and bits of Star Wars stuff to bring you. But for now thank you so much for supporting me and my site by visiting today. I have noticed an upturn in new viewers especially from links on Facebook so hello to you. If you like what you found here then please comment, like and if you really liked FTSabersite you can also subscribe. I would be honoured if you would join me! Till next time….
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