Blogversary Celebration!

Hello Everybody and thank you for joining me on this special day. Today FTSabersite celebrates it’s 1 year Blogversary. I cannot believe that I have reached this milestone. I will be honest, as I have said elsewhere I didn’t set any targets when I began. I just wanted a place where I could display my designs how I wanted to and try to inspire other folks to get into the Saber hobby and community. So having reached 4000 hits and over 1000 individual visitors in one year is mind-blowing to me but very much appreciated. It is even more surprising as I am unable to use social media like most people to publicise my site (I have to be careful not to get caught up in any Imperial Entanglements! 😀 ).

Anyway back to more positive subjects, today I am going to look back at the most popular/viewed post, a post where I got out and about to meet some great folks and a quick look back at a few of my favourite highlights.

• Page 1) Most popular/viewed post
• Page 2) For Tyeth out and about!
• Page 3) The Highlights and Shout-Outs

There will also be some shout-outs to folks who have helped me along the way, behind the scenes and as contributors. It’s going to be busy but please stick with me!

The most popular/viewed post

I had the pleasure of meeting some great people at a Comic-Con that I was able to travel to. Imagine my surprise when while at this convention I bumped into a member of the charity fund raising Cosplay group and it turned out to be someone I knew from a forum I am a member of! Well we had a funny moment where we “introduced” ourselves officially and shared a few photo opportunities. I will speak more about this encounter later in my next setion but the Cosplay Group impressed me so much I decided to design a hilt for them based on their antics and fabulous charity work. The group are called the Sentinel Squad UK and this is the saber:

Sentinel Squad UK Title Plate

SENTINEL SQUAD UK hilt

Just some of the Squad!

The Sentinel Squad UK Logo

I was honoured by the group as the founder of the Squad posted my design in the members area of the Squad’s Facebook page for everyone to see and a lot of the members visited FTSabersite to view the full gallery. So many Squad members visited I was worried my hit counter would break under the volume of traffic!

The Sentinel Squad UK are a terrific group of people and please take a few moments to check out their sites and give them a bit of well deserved support. I have included links in the original post found here, and in the sidebar>

Ok folks that concludes part one, please click the button below to go to Page 2) For Tyeth Out and About (where I get to meet some Celebs!)

Pages: 1 2 3

DK44ASP – Debut design from DK44 Designs

Hello Everybody, today I have a surprise new Guest Designer to introduce to you! It will also be a surprise for the designer himself as he thought I was going to post this after my Blogversary post scheduled for the 17th! (I have to admit I mis-read my calendar and I realised I had a gap for another post before then…oops!).

So may I introduce a young man I know from the forum I take part in, his name is DK44. DK had posted a few comments on the forum mentioning that he had ordered parts for a saber but never uploaded any pictures of what he was purchasing. When DK finally received his parts and assembled the saber he posted a great review of it with a ton of pictures….all I could say was WOW! You could see immediately great care and effort had gone into the design, rather than just selecting a random bunch of bits. And I am proud to say that when asked if I could share the design with you all here, he readily agreed. So here is the newest “Designer on the Block” and his saber DK44ASP…

DK44ASP Hilt

DK44ASP Emitter

DK44ASP Emitter 2

DK44ASP Switch

DK44ASP Switch and Body reverse

DK44ASP Pommel

DK44ASP Pommel 2

DK44ASP Vertical Up

His saber begins with a vibrant Sith red blade which extends from one of my favourite emitters. The emitter has a wonderful asymmetrical shroud which shows of the body of the saber through the cutaways highlighting the black anodising. Next is the switch section which is positioned 90 degrees clockwise from the position most folks would set it. This gives the saber an interesting detail and allows the cutaways to line up with the detail on the emitter, creating flow (however I might ask DK if he was inspired by my design for Benicio Del Toro’s “DJ” as I placed the switch for that hilt 90 degrees off centre!). The body section has a fabulous grip with the raised blocks (and again this part is carefully lined up) and has a neat pommel with matching squared detailing to finish the hilt off. Overall a stunning design…”How stunning?”  I hear you ask, well take a look at the pictures kindly supplied by DK44 and see what you think of the REAL THING!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I think you’ll agree this is a phenomenal saber that looks so much better than the design pictures! There are a few “minor cosmetic” changes to the hilt, the ribs in the cutaway section near the switch are now silver rather than black, and one of the red Greeblie buttons is black, but that is due to Saberforge (who make and sell  the parts) changing the parts. They didn’t update the Virtual ASP builder to reflect the changes.

I am sadly running out of time here (even with the extra time I got from my scheduling mistake) and will have to end this post. But I have to thank DK44 for allowing me to enjoy and share this amazing saber with you all. I hope DK44 will come up with more designs! Next up is my Blogversary post (honest!) so I will thank you my viewers and followers for looking in and hope you’ll be back for the celebrations. I have to go finish the preparations so….Till next time!

OH and DK44, I realised the “floor tiles” are actually your crafting cutting board LOL!

“DK44ASP” is a Guest Designer design and is ©Copyright of DK44 Designs used here with permission. All works contained within FTSabersite (including the site, images and content material) are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite.

Forearmed Darkside – Pong Krell’s second staff

Hello Everybody, I am back to my normal schedule today and would like to bring you the second saberstaff for the fallen Jedi General, Pong Krell. You will remember from two weeks ago I introduced this character as a Jedi Master and military General who foresaw the outcome of the Clone Wars and tried to better his chances of surviving. This action however would lead to suffering, which lead to misery which lead to the Darkside. Krell sent his troops on suicide missions to carry out stupid plans and tactics, in the hopes that the Imperials/Empire would win the war and he could join their ranks. Sending these men to their demise fuelled Krell’s lust for power until his scheme was discovered. Krell by this time hadn’t fully turned to the Darkside, but if he had he may have updated his weapons and they may have looked like this…Forearmed Darkside…

Forearmed Darkside Staff

Forearmed Darkside Emitter 1A

Forearmed Darkside Emitter 1B

Forearmed Darkside Hilt 1

Forearmed Darkside Mid Grip

Forearmed Darkside Hilt 2

Forearmed Darkside Emitter 2A

Forearmed Darkside Emitter 2B

Forearmed Darkside Horizontal

This saberstaff has the trademark black finish associated with Sith and Darkside users. It does however have touches of decoration to make it stand out, with red adjustment knobs and the two silver accent rings. I felt that this staff would have the decorative bits as Krell was arrogant and believed his plan would work, and this decoration reflected his “flashy” attitude. Krell didn’t bargain on his troopers being aware of the strange orders they were being given and becoming suspicious. These troopers confronted Krell and the Jedi General cut down several soldiers before he was shot and stunned. Now a prisoner of the Republic, Krell was found guilty of trying to undermine the effort to defeat the Imperials/Empire and was executed. This weapon still retains the acid green blades of the Lightside version to reflect that Krell failed to join forces with Count Dooku and so the blades’ crystals weren’t corrupted to produce Sith red blades.

That was the “What if..?” design for Pong Krell, I hope you liked it. Sadly I have nearly run of time this year and will need to bring my post to an end. Yes, I did say the year has nearly ended as next week is the “Blogversary” of this site! FTSabersite will be one year old and I will have a post to look back at the best bits, the popular hilts, some shout outs and lots of “thank yous”. There will also be a look forward to the next twelve months of FTSabersite, and who knows I may try and send some invites to the big names in the saber community and see if they would like to be associated with me now I have completed my first year. So thank you for looking in today, it is much appreciated and I hope you return for the “Blogversary”! Till next time.

Pong Krell, The Clone Wars and all names, images, logos and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilms.

Thank You Everybody! A Milestone Reached.

Hello Everybody, and today I mean each and every person who has visited this site in the past eleven and a half months. Yes I have great news, as I mentioned in my last post FTSabersite was nearing 4000 hits and now the site has passed that barrier. I want to say a great big thank you to you all, as it is you my viewers and followers who keep me coming up with new designs and make producing this site all worthwhile.

I set this site up as a bit of therapy, as I had gone through a rough patch and a nasty uncalled for experience. So I removed myself from the situation and wanted to prove myself, I decided to  set up FTSabersite. I didn’t set any targets, I just wanted to design and display my hilts so other folks might get inspired to try their hand at creating a saber for themselves. Little did I know I would get this far.

And being as I have been publishing this site for eleven and a half months that means my one year “Blogversary” is coming up (on the 17th) so I will probably do a retrospective post of my year and look forward to maybe another twelve months?

If you visited FTSabersite on the 29th of July then you may have been Number 4000 so thank you again. I would ask that all of you keep calling back to see what new stuff I have in store including my “1 Year Looking Back, Now onto the Future” post. I will post my next design, the Darkside version of Pong Krell’s Forearmed saberstaff tomorrow (6th Aug). Till tomorrow…

FTSabersite, and all it’s content including the names  FTSabersite , For Tyeth and all the designs of myself and my Guest Designers are © For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2017. Guest Designs are used with permission and belong to their respective creators.

Onyx Saber – For “DJ” the Man In Black

Hello Everybody, I am slightly excited today as I am approaching my 1 year Blogversary (I think that’s a word, if not I have just invented it!) and I may break the barrier of 4000 hits soon! Hopefully I will reach the milestone in time for my anniversary, but in the meantime to keep you entertained I have a new design. Recently there has been quite a bit of chatter around the galaxy regarding Benicio Del Toro’s character in The Last Jedi. Who is he? What’s his name? Who is he related to, where does he come from? Well, we still don’t know much more than we did before but Vanity Fair produced an article showing backstage images and a photoshoot, which included the Man In Black, or DJ as he is now known. We see that he has quite a large ship (possibly a cargo vessel?) and a distinctive jacket. I thought maybe he was a smuggler, like Han Solo or some type of mercenary. If so, he would need a suitable weapon, so here is my saber design for the Man In Black…I call it the Onyx Saber…

Onyx Saber Hilt

Onyx Saber Emitter

Onyx Saber Emitter 2

Onyx Saber Switch

Onyx Saber Body

Onyx Saber Pommel

Onyx Saber Horizontal

Onyx Saber Vertical Up

With so little information to go on, I decided to create a hilt that might suit DJ based on his looks in the Vanity Fair photos. A mercenary would have a distinctive weapon to make a statement and I think this hilt looks good. It has a Graflex style emitter (similar to Anakin’s, Luke’s and now Rey’s saber) which always looks stylish and gives a nod to the history of lightsabers. The blade is purple (I know it looks a little pinkish but it is the graphics used in the saber builder package causing that!) which indicates DJ so far has no allegiance to the Dark or Light side of the Force. The switch, body and pommel are functional with a nice brown leather grip on the body, and a loop to hang the saber attached to the pommel. The parts used are a nice gloss black making them appear much cleaner and new, showing the saber is cared for.

Copyrigh Vanity Fair/Disney/LucasFilm

My edited version.

So this has been my design for the mysterious Man In Black, DJ. It is hard to design for somebody with so little information to base it on…oh! the name….yes I nearly forgot to mention that. The name is taken from the black gemstones found on planet Earth, the Onyx!

I am now approaching the end of this post and will have to bring it to a close, but as always before I go I want to say thank you to all my followers and viewers (including a nice young lady called Jamie, who has recently started following…thank you!) Your support has carried me to 304 posts and (nearly) 4000 hits. Please spread the word about FTSabersite to your friends and do call back soon to see what I have coming up in future posts. Till next time.

“DJ”, The Last Jedi and all other names, logos and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm. The Benicio Del Toro publicity photo is owned by Vanity Fair magazines and was edited by me to include the lightsaber.

Forearmed – A Saberstaff for Pong Krell

Hello Everybody, and a big hello and thank you to ALL of the Sentinel Squad UK cosplay troop who came and checked out my design for them. You Guys and Gals are truly amazing and I think you may have broken the hit counter on my stats page! I was honoured by the post displayed in the Squad’s “Briefing Room” on their Facebook page and want to thank their founder for doing that. I again ask you, my viewers and followers, that if you haven’t already please go and check this group out at their Facebook and Twitter pages…I have placed links in the sidebar on the right to take you there!

And today’s business involves a Saberstaff for a Besalisk Jedi General. This character was for a while a revered Jedi warrior and master tactician but after he foresaw the demise of the Jedi Order and the Republic, he decided to better his chances of surviving and turned allegiance. He began to sabotage the campaigns against the Empire and sent troops on suicide no-win missions, while he became more immersed in the Darkside. This character is Pong Krell from the Clone Wars era. He was a reptilian humanoid who had FOUR arms! And during battle he wielded two lightsaber staffs. This is my interpretation of a weapon General Krell may have considered using….this is called Forearmed….

Forearmed Saberstaff

Forearmed Emitter 1A

Forearmed Emitter 1B

Forearmed Hilt 1

Forearmed Mid Grip

Forearmed Hilt 2

Forearmed Emitter 2A

Forearmed Emitter 2B

Forearmed Horizontal

I wanted a tough durable design for this staff and I think it works well. The emitters have protrusions (nicknamed Bunny Ears in real life) which I thought looked like the horns on Krell’s forehead. The emitters screw into a pair of Couplers which have Grenade Grip style ridges, which give the staff a non-slip grip..useful if you have large hands. The mid grip or shaft has twin activation buttons, so should the staff be damaged as Darth Maul’s was in The Phantom Menace, then it can still function as two separate hilts (which would mean four sabers, if Krell had two staffs!). The blades are a reptilian Lime Green colour, neither Jedi or Sith but shows Krell’s journey to the Darkside has begun.

Fortunately Pong Krell’s deception and plans were discovered by the famous 501st Legion of troopers and he was defeated when, whilst trying to slay a group of soldiers who confronted him, was shot and stunned by a Clone Trooper called Tup. Krell was later executed for his crimes…which kind of makes my design defunct, oh well someone else may like one of these staffs!

EDIT: I would like to thank Experience Film for reminding me I had forgotten to mention Besalisks hail from the planet Ojom, and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s friend in the diner called Dexter Jettster, is of the same species as Pong Krell!

I am running short of time and will have to end soon, but I have a few quick notes on what’s coming soon. I do have a “Darkside” version of this weapon for an upcoming post and a new weapon for a “War Orphan”, along with an update of my first attempt at 3d modelling! So I hope you will all return to see these posts, I appreciate each and every one of you for supporting me and this site. Till next time.

Pong Krell, The Clone Wars and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/© Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

Sentinel Squad UK Lightsaber – Tribute for a special Cosplay Troop

Hello Everybody, and first before I go any further I offer my sincere apologies this post is WAY overdue. However it is not overdue because I got distracted, but rather my health has taken a bit of a turn for the worse. I have been hit by some form of infection which left me in excruciating agony and almost delirious. I have since been referred to specialists at my local medical center for batches of tests. I am still not 100% but am trooping on, which is apt as I want to push on and present this design I came up with for a fantastic group of folks I met at For Tyeth’s First Comic Con I attended recently. The group are called the SENTINEL SQUAD UK, a non profit organisation who create the most fabulous Star Wars themed costumes and make public appearances for charitable causes. You have already “met” one of their members, my friend Takamatsu, or as he is known in the Squad, BOSSK BH-5700. So in honour of their great efforts to support deserving local charities all over the UK here is my gift to them the SENTINEL SQUAD LIGHTSABER….

SENTINEL SQUAD UK hilt

SENTINEL SQUAD UK Emitter

SENTINEL SQUAD UK emitter 2

SENTINEL SQUAD UK Switch

SENTINEL SQUAD UK Body

SENTINEL SQUAD UK Pommel

SENTINEL SQUAD UK Pommel 2

SENTINEL SQUAD UK Vertical Up

This design is not based on any particular member or character but rather on one the props they have built and use for publicity photos with members of the public at events. That prop is the Imperial Tripod Turbolaser Cannon used by the SnowTroopers on Hoth to shoot the Millennium Falcon. I don’t think the Squad’s cannon actually fires but it was impressive looking. This hilt is meant to look a little like the upper part of the cannon (barrel, breach, stock etc) The only thing missing is the little Tie-Fighter style winglets mounted either side to cool the weapon.

These Guys and Girls do a phenomenal job and have a total love of what they do. Nothing ever seems too much trouble for them, whether it is a local children’s nursery they are visiting, or a big city convention they are always approachable. So please use the links I will provide below to go and check out what great work they do, and if you are based in the UK you may either want to book them for an event or just go and support them and the charities they are trooping for….please do.

Sentinel Squad UK Facebook page can be found HERE 

Sentinel Squad UK Twiiter page can be found HERE

To finish today’s post I want to thank the Sentinel Squad UK for all they do (and hello Takamatsu!) and will post a few images I have of the group from around the net and from my encounter. I hope you my followers and viewers enjoyed this post and I do have at least one more post left in me (don’t worry I’m working on more but I do have to be mindful of  my health now so they may be late). Please call back to see these upcoming posts.

Thank You from For Tyeth.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sentinel Squad UK is a non-profit organisation raising funds for charity in and around the UK. The name SENTINEL SQUAD UK is copyrighted as are all the images and related logos and other material. All other Trademarks/© Copyrights belong to their respective owners.

Wildcat Lightsaber – Kentucky’s ferocious felines

Hello Everybody, I have a saber I promised to design for a friend of mine jonnys95s10, who is a fan of college basketball and in particular the University of Kentucky Wildcats! Now having researched the team it’s not surprising they have a big following of fans. The team boasts the best overall win/loss record in NCAA history, winning 76% of their games (.765 for my American statistician fans!). One of the guys responsible for such performance is Coach Cal, John Calipari. He is the latest coach of the team which began way, way back in 1903 so having a .765 rating over that length of time is phenomenal and deserves a Lightsaber, and here it is, this is Wildcat Lightsaber….

Wildcats Hilt

Wildcats Emitter

Wildcats Emitter 2

Wildcats Switch

Wildcats Body

Wildcats Pommel

Wildcats Horizontal

I hope jonnys95s10 approves of this design, I think it captures the essence of the team! The hilt is clad in the Kentucky Blue and White of the Wildcats’ franchise colours. It even looks as if it is wearing a team jersey with the checkered design on the grenade grip section, just like the pattern found down the sides of the team vests. The saber has a powerful look to match the percentage record and the emitter has two white accent rings, representing the hoops at either end of Rupp Arena. These hoops get used quite a lot with the amount of points the team scores (not to mention the monster dunks!) And to finish the hilt off there is a golden amber blade which projects from the fang-like emitter to reinforce the image of the team’s mascot Wildcat.

Wildcats! Wildcats!

University of Kentucky Campus

I am approaching the end of the fourth quarter and will soon have to bring this post to an end. Hopefully this saber will count as another win for the Wildcats. I am still working on new designs (though I am having difficulty with SketchUp, but I will sort that out soon) and I hope you will return to see those and more from my friends in upcoming posts. Thank you so much for looking in on today’s post and for supporting me and FTSabersite, it is greatly appreciated. Till next time.

“UK Wildcats” and all names, logos and materials are Trademark/©Copyright of the University of Kentucky (Men’s Basketball Team). The Wildcats play in the NCAA College Championships.

Changes – For the Better!

Hello Everybody, today I have a few bits and pieces to address, a bit of bad news, a bit of good news, a few changes I need to make and a bit of expansion!

Firstly I need to address the cautionary post I wrote a few days ago, well it seems that finally my site has drawn the attention of a website that “Harvests” other people’s sites and uses the content to make wallpapers and background images etc for anybody to download. Now it is only one design and two images so far but I don’t know if any more are going to be “stolen”. I admit I made a mistake and didn’t individually mark each image with a watermark or logo but I will on all images from now on, so I hope that doesn’t spoil your enjoyment of my work. I’ll try to make them as discreet as possible but still hopefully effective in scaring off any more harvesting.

I had considered quitting this blog, if people are going to rip off my work and post it on a page that is probably generating cash for the “web company” then I was gonna finish. I make nothing authoring this site, it is a hobby to help me keep my sanity! I also don’t know what companies and sites advertise on the website responsible, so that is why I posted the caution so you didn’t click their links thinking they were mine and then finding yourself in a whole lot of Internet nastiness.

I however decided that I am going to carry on, as I cannot control what happens to my work when I post it so if someone wants to copy it etc then they will find a way to do it. I’ll add the watermarks and see how that goes, as today is a milestone for FTSabersite….this is my 300th post! I said way back in post no.200 that I couldn’t believe I had got so far, and I repeat that sentiment now. But I wouldn’t have made it without the help and support from some good friends and you my viewers and followers so a great big thank you for walking this adventure with me.

Now as a thank you present I have been hard at work learning a new skill, and I have got to a point where I can show you my efforts. I have been learning to build designs in Google’s SketchUp software and after a few struggles here are my first efforts. I “copied” a Kylo Ren style crossguard saber to learn the ropes and work out how Sketchup works, not bad for a first attempt I think…

This hilt is to scale with itself but isn’t based on real dimensions and measurements and certain details are different. But it does look like a crossguard which is what I wanted. I then practised some more and came up with a second attempt based on my own personal saber. If you’d like to see that then please click the button below and join me on Page 2…

Pages: 1 2

A Word Of Caution! – Please read for your online security

Hello Everybody, today (2nd July 2017) I have discovered something that I need to bring to your attention. Whilst browsing online and waiting for a post to be indexed by the search engines of the internet I found certain pages which have nothing to do with this site or myself but appear to imply they do. These pages have been created using Search Engine “Harvesting” or “Scraping” by bots to create Click Bait and fake Breaking News pages. I do not know if these pages contain malware, spyware or any other nasty pieces of hidden software. Another website has started linking to images on this site and allowing it’s users to download them as Wallpapers and Background images, again without my knowledge or permission.

I am not sure how I can protect my site and you from these hazards, but I am looking into the situation. I’m doing what I can do right now, and that is to inform you of these potentially hazardous webpages/sites and urge you not to click the links leading to them. This is the only site I post my blog on, however I do comment on other forums and YouTube, but any other site claiming to be or associated with me in any way are not linked officially to me.

I am sorry this situation has arisen but it is out of my control what other idiots do to mess up the Internet along with honest websites and blogs etc. I hope you all realise which is the real me (and my site here) and can all stay safe and far away from these sick scammers/con-people.

Thanks for your support and understanding,

For Tyeth/FTSabersite

ONE FINAL POINT! I REPEAT…

FOR THE IDIOTS…

THIS WEBSITE AND IT”S CONTENTS, DESIGNS, IMAGES, LOGOS AND ALL OTHER WORKS ARE OWNED BY ME, FOR TYETH, OR ARE USED WITH PERMISSION.

FOR TYETH/FTSABERSITE IS COPYRIGHT ©2016-2017.