“The Twin Saber” – Inspired by Kare from Star Wars Visions episode “The Twins”

Hello Everybody, today we visit the Anime adventures set in the Star Wars universe and the “Visions” animated series. This time I focus on the episode titled “The Twins” which revolves around a brother and sister who were conceived by a group of Darkside/Sith Acolytes with the intention that the pair gain control of the galaxy using a super weapon. That super weapon is a massive double hulled Star Destroyer that carries an even bigger hyper cannon between the ship’s two fuselages…and that cannon is powered by a Kyber Crystal. The episode begins with Master An, the sister, making final preparations before using the super cannon and she talks with her protocol droid, explaining how she and her brother were created to carry out the mission to dominate the galaxy. The droid is concerned about An’s safety as the armour that she wears is powered by Sith energy and it seems it is consuming her beyond what was intended. An however dismisses the droid’s concerns and ploughs on with the plan. BUT…just as the weapon was about to fully charge…the Kyber Crystal is stolen – and only two people had physical access to the crystal….Master An and her brother, Kare.

It turns out that Kare, who was also created by Sith alchemy isn’t as corrupted by the Darkside as his sister is and he feels a twinge of consciousness that compels him to stop his sister before it is too late. This leads to an inevitable clash between the two siblings. Kare manages to partially escape with the crystal in his X-Wing but his sister uses the Force to pull his spaceship back to the super destroyer. A battle of wits and lightsabers ensues as Kare tries to convince An to “do the right thing”. Anyhoo…too much talking you need to see some pictures and I was able to screengrab these pics as reference…

The saber is quite distinctive and has a “Darth Vader-esque” appearance but has a blue blade – unusual for a Sith. The hilt also has a large unique black emitter shroud and large red activation switch and belt hanger loop. These images are from the animated show, so shall we see how close I got to modelling this lightsaber? OK here you are, Gallery One of The Twin…

Considering I only had two good reference images to work from, I came pretty close to replicating Kare’s lightsaber! And I am really happy how this turned out as I think I got most of the details. The emitter has a neat detail with a strip of light that edges the shroud matching the blade. During the battle the Kyber Crystal is destroyed but An is still intent on domination and resorts to using her battle armours’ full power to harness the Darkside. Kare needs to stop her but how? Well he realises that he can use a shard of the Kyber Crystal in his saber to supercharge it. Which he does. Now here is Gallery Two showing a few closeups and the main feature of this hilt…

I managed to model the very unusually shaped emitter, I added a few bits of exposed wiring, I even fitted the belt hanger loop….but again the star of this hilt is the Crystal Chamber. This time the chamber is located under the hinged activation switch box, which can swivel open to expose the chamber housing and cradle. This saber has a piece of the blue Kyber that was destroyed…but it still had a bit of power in it. Was it still powerful enough to defeat Master An and her Master Plan? You’ll have to watch the show if you haven’t already!

All I can say is that Kare came up with a very “out of the box” solution to his predicament. I hope you enjoyed this offering because I really had fun building this one. My designs/models are getting to the point that they are looking more real than ever which I am proud of. Anyhoo, I still have much more to offer and show you all, so I hope you’ll all return to see that in future posts. Till then thank you so much for your visit today and the continued support I receive – it is awesome and keeps me designing and posting. Till next time….

“The Twin Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design based on the hilt seen in Star Wars Visions episode “The Twins”. It was modelled and rendered in Blender 3D by For Tyeth/FTSabersite. All models and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. “Star Wars Visions”, “Master An and Master Kare” and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm ltd.

“Mando Super Commando Saber” – Inspired by Maul’s Mando Mercs

Hello Everybody, I have been extremely busy this past week both with designing and with making preparations for a BIG secret mission for me next year that requires a lot of planning so I am a little tired but I do have a nice saber to show you today. The saber is another of my “Trooper Phase Two” themed hilts but one with a twist. It is inspired by the group of soldiers from the planet Mandalore known as “Death Watch”. This group were a fierce bunch that caused trouble during the latter stages of the Clone Wars and was led by a man named Pre Vizla. Pre Vizsla was a member of Clan Vizsla, a once highly respected family but which became more mercenary during a civil war on Mandalor.e This turmoil eventually led to the group being taken over by Darth Maul (who had survived the encounter with Qui-Gon Jinn and had formed his own crime syndicate called the Shadow Collective). The Death Watch soldiers were similar in appearance to Jango Fett, Boba Fett and the Mandalorian Din Djarin (from the Disney+ show) however when Maul became their leader they changed their colours, literally. Here is how they looked:

The Death Watch painted their armour to match the colours of Darth Maul’s famous tribal tattoo pattern, red and black. Some members also added horn decorations to their helmets in Maul’s image. Ok, I have chatted enough, you want to see the saber I’m betting so here is Gallery One….

As you can see this is the saber I built for Clone Commander Cody which I showed you a few weeks ago but this saber has a much more aggressive red and black theme. You may have also noticed that the emitter has some appendages attached now in the shape of a set of horns! These are to mimic the horns of Maul and the ones found on the Super Commando helmets. The horns make the emitter look so much more different that I’m going to include a gallery just for the emitter, here it is…..

In the first picture you can see the emitter blade matrix where the plasma blade originates from, whilst the other pics give various angles of the “helmet” design of the emitter. The final image is one of the Super Commando’s helmets for comparison. However, I didn’t just add the horns to look pretty, I intended that these acted as controls for the saber to adjust power levels, blade length and the middle horn is a release lever/catch to open the saber’s body to reveal this….

Yes, this saber also has a crystal chamber! And I have modified the chamber from my previous version – if you look very closely you can see that the crystal is made from the same transparent material I used on the “Margrave Saber” display case lid. The material holds a glowing inner lozenge shaped crystal. The chamber has added gold accents on the silver barrels.

Back in the Star Wars storyline, the Super Commandoes broke free from Maul’s leadership when Sabine Wren and Bo Katarn returned to Mandalore and wrested the leadership position away from Maul and Vizsla. Sabine and Bo worked together to help re-unite the Mandalore people and Bo eventually adopted the mantle of the ruler of Mandalore. (You can see more about Sabine Wren here: https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/2020/08/22/the-artisan-staff-inspired-by-sabine-wren/)

Now I think that just about wraps this “Commando Trooper” saber up. I hope you liked the theme and it’s backstory inspiration. As I mention I am very busy planning my mission but fear not as luckily I still have quite a bit of material ready to post over the next few weeks/months. This includes more sabers, non saber prop objects, some custom painted vehicles and I am working on my end of year review too! So I hope you’ll return to check all that out. In the meantime, I need to thank you all for visiting today and supporting me – as always it’s much appreciated whether this is your first visit or if you are a regular viewer/reader. Please feel free to have a look around my site and if you’d like to leave a comment, like a post or two, or even subscribe to get notifications of new posts that would be great and helps a lot. Till next time……

“Mando Super Commando Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design and was modelled and rendered in Blender 3D by For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. The 3D model and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. “Star Wars”, “Mandalorian Super Commandos” and all other names, logos and related materials are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd.

“Margrave Saber” – Inspired by Star Wars Visions episode “The Ninth Jedi”

Hello Everybody and welcome back to the warmth of Tyeth Towers as I bring you a new saber design from the world of Star Wars “Visions”. “Visions” is a series of animated short stories produced by famous Anime and Manga studios. The cartoons have a very Japanese style to them and the fifth episode titled “The Ninth Jedi” centres around an individual named Margrave Juro who attempts to reform the Jedi Order many decades after it disbanded. However as always darkness lurked and the followers of the Sith had other plans. Margrave Juro was mining the Outer Rim territory planets for Kyber Crystals and he enlisted the services of a Sabersmith named Lah Zhima to build the lightsabers to put the crystals in. The Margrave then sent out a coded message to potential “lost Jedi” inviting them to meet up at a floating Jedi Temple to receive a gift of a lightsaber ready for them to restart the Jedi Order. And to reassure the recruits, the Margrave had a lightsaber ready which he gave to a Padawan named Ethan. The saber looked like this…..

This saber was crafted by Lah Zhima but the remainder of the hilts weren’t ready yet and before he could deliver them, he was taken captive by agents of the Sith Order. Zhima’s daughter however escaped with the hilts and attempted to finish her father’s mission. The daughter named Kara was Force sensitive but wasn’t fully attuned or trained to use it. Despite this she manages to escape the Sith spies and travel to the floating temple meeting place where the Jedi were waiting for the Margrave and the sabers to arrive. So I had best show you Gallery One of the saber I remodelled in Blender so you can see how close I got to replicating this beauty…I named my version “Margrave”….

As you can see I attempted to recreate this regal looking hilt as closely as I could, but with out using pasted on graphics for the details. All of the gold filigree markings, banding and logos are physically modelled in 3D which makes this saber more intricate than it looks. I had to divide the handgrip’s cylinder to create panels which I could re-arrange and colour gold to create the patterns. The Jedi logo is another “extruded” piece which I modelled then “wrapped” around the hilt.

Back to the story and Kara….she arrives at the meeting place where the 7 other Jedi were waiting but when they are handed “their” sabers to test, when ignited all the blades lit up SITH RED! The Padawans were really Sith agents in disguise…there to wipe out the Margrave and any true Jedi that turned up. It was now that the Margrave made his entrance – and unbelievably he had been present all along hidden, disguised as a droid! The Margrave, Kara and the true Padawan Ethan battled the Sith spies. So before I spoil anything I best show you Gallery Two of my tribute saber….

From the images I was able to pick out from the show I couldn’t see an activation switch on this hilt, or see what was located in the emitter or pommel openings so I created a “dartboard-like” shaped object that I used to form both an illuminated switch as well as an insert for the emitter and pommel! I think the design pattern works with the hilt. And I almost forgot…in the image above taken from the show you can see that the first lightsaber built was presented in a display box sooo I felt I should build a case for my version…Gallery Three….

This display case is slightly different than the box used in the show as I wanted to try something out. For a while I have struggled with Blender to create transparent or glass objects that show up in my pictures (due to how Blender formats rendered images). I could model the glass but it was either completely clear so you couldn’t see it or was “blanked out” with a solid colour and not see through at all. But this time I found the correct setting and this display case has a removable glass lid!

Ok back to the Ninth Jedi and the story….Kara begins to become attuned to the Force and her lightsaber begins to change colour to reflect her connection to the mystic power. But I can’t tell you any more about what happens in case you haven’t seen it yet! I can say there are more lightsabers in this particular episode which I have worked on so you will see those (and some more from other episodes) in future posts. Star Wars Visions has been a good series and if you haven’t seen it, I recommend you search it out!

This brings me to the end of this “Visions” post – and thank you so much for checking it out, I hope you liked it. As I mention above I still have more hilts from this series to show you all, plus I have more Star Wars inspired Speedsters and vehicles for future posts so I hope you’ll return to FTSabersite to check them all out. For now, thanks again for your support, all the comments and likes keep me inspired and are appreciated. Till next time….

“Margrave Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions saber inspired by the lightsaber seen in Star Wars Visions “The Ninth Jedi” episode. The 3D model and renders were created by For Tyeth/FTSabersite in Blender 3D and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. “Star Wars Visions” and all it’s names, images, logos and related content are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd.

Speedster – Hoth Edition – a real snowmobile!

Hello Everybody, well I am still recovering from my big mission at the Comic Con I visited back on the 22nd so today I thought I’d show you my repainted Speedster bike. I liked the camouflaged paint scheme I showed you on my other bike but sometimes you’re in a much colder environment and need a vehicle that blends in a bit better. Soo, I repainted the speederbike in a nice snow camo look. Here is Gallery One showing the studio shots….

I decided to post this gallery of studio shots because when this beaty gets out into the open and speeds over the plains of Hoth you’ll find it hard to see it! However, these pictures show the speeder’s curves and lines a little better than the regular camo coloured bike did. The big front body section with the large air intake grille, laser blaster barrels and the directional control outriggers shows off the curves and recessed upper bodywork which is highlighted by the contrasting black outlining. You will notice that the engines give off a different emission colour, being blue instead of the warmer yellow of the regular model – this shows that the exhausts emit cooler air and anti-grav effect. Well we don’t want to melt the ice when travelling over frozen lakes or rivers and get wet feet! The rear bodywork displays the body panelling and access hatches much more clearly and topped off by the ridged seating pad. And so I guess it’s time to unleash this Speedster out onto the snow fields of Hoth don’t you? Time for Gallery Two….and good luck spotting it…..

It was a particularly cold day on Hoth when I took these photos so I was able to use the regular power settings hence the exhausts show yellow again. I did this as the snow/ice were much thicker and I could hover the bike higher (allowing me to get under the bike for the last two images). But you can see how well the camo blends into the scenery and combined with it’s agility and speed this bike would be a hard target to hit. Again this is just a repaint but I do have a few sorta custom colour schemes I have to showcase in a future post so stay tuned for those.

I have also managed to watch the new Star Wars animation series called “Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi” and it was quite good . I did notice that the animation style was much more 3D based with graphical techniques used to add texture to the images. This meant there was much more detail, such as life-like hairs, rough scratched metals and stonework, cloth moved and flowed realistically making the footage look almost cinematic. The stories centred on Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku’s characters and show Tano’s development as a respected Jedi whilst we see the fall of Dooku due to his growing distrust and belief in the ways of the Jedi Council. We see how events lead each Jedi to take the paths they did – and we even got to see a young Qui-Gon Jinn (whom some of you will know was the student Padawan of Count Dooku!) The series was more or less filling in the backstory so nothing too spectacular (and it only really had two new lightsaber designs in it) but it was good for an hour or two.

Anyhoo, I hope you will return to FTSabersite in future for new posts with some saber designs inspired by the other recent animation show “Visions” – I’m quite proud how they turned out. In the meantime, thank you for your visit today and all the comments and support – it really means a lot and motivates me to keep blogging. Till next time…..

“Speedster – Hoth Edition” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is inspired by the BARC Speederbikes seen in The Cone Wars animation. The design, models and renders were created by For Tyeth/FTSabersite using Blender 3D and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022.