“Tyeth’s Original” – Finally I design a saber for my own character!

Hello Everybody, today I have a treat for you all and for myself for a change. I have been designing lightsabers since 2015 and publishing this site since 2016 but in all that time I never got round to designing a saber for myself until now. If I recall I was chatting with Resa of Graffiti Lux Art & More (see her site here: https://graffitiluxandmurals.com/ ) and I mentioned I hadn’t built a saber for myself and she suggested I should…so I did, And it turned out quite stylish I have to say – most times when I attempted this project I was never satisfied how “my saber” looked but this one I did like. So now it’s time to reveal “Tyeth’s Original”….

Strangely this saber has (in my mind) an art deco style to it, almost as if I had used an old table lamp and recycled it’s stem to form a hilt. It features a sleek elegant handgrip which is accented with delicate brushed gold effect piping. This piping I imagined was conduit tubing that wiring ran through (to prevent wires being exposed as it ran through the different parts of the hilt body. The hilt emitter has windows to show off the blade as it forms before exiting the mouth of the emitter. This section looks like the socket where a light bulb would screw into a lampstand. Again this post is going to have be shorter than normal so I had best open Gallery Two for you to look at some close up details….

I think you can clearly see why I thought this looked like a candlestick style lamp! I purposely kept the colour scheme simple with a kind of brown with brushed gold making it look antique (despite being new and hi-tech). The colours also make the blade stand out too. The blade is activated by a no-nonsense illuminated on/off switch. The third image shows the mouth of the emitter with it’s “bulb socket” connector where the blade projects from. Finally, the pommel is a simple vented design consisting of twin concentric rings edged in gold.

Now I apologise once more but this post will have to be cut shorter than usual as I am here, there and everywhere trying to avoid the Dark forces out to hinder my mission (or am I sat at Tyeth Towers relaxing? Who knows? I’m afraid I have to keep you all guessing for security reasons).. But I can reveal that next week we will be revisiting my Shipyards division with a design for a new starfighter that is armed to the teeth and has it’s own Hyperdrive unit (which for a Snub Fighter is rare!).

I’d like to finish by saying thanks to Resa for cajoling me into designing “Tyeth’s Original” – maybe one day I could have it manufactured for real. And I need to say thanks to all of you, my readers and friends for checking this post out. Your continued viewing and support of me and my site is phenomenal – every little like, comment and subscription helps. Till next time….

“Tyeth’s Original” is a For Tyeth Editions design created by For Tyeth/FTSabersite. The design, 3D models, animation and renders were created using Blender 3D and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2023.

Happy Holidays From For Tyeth

Yes hello and HAPPY HOLIDAYS Everybody! To all who celebrate at this time of year I’d like to wish you all a happy and peaceful few days with your family and loved ones. I’d like to say a BIG thank you to all of you that read and visit/support my little site for your continuing gift of that support – be it in comments, likes or subscribing – it means a lot to me and does encourage me to keep producing new stuff for you to see. For the SIXTH consecutive year it looks as though I will have surpassed my previous years’ figures so thank you so much.

Now I need to show you how I created my little “Electronic Holidays Card” It isn’t just “cut and pasted images” oh no…..this card is 3D!

This image shows the card from a different angle so you can see that I actually created a 360 degree “environment” using a festive wallpaper, then I arranged my buddy D-Roy-D with a few sabers and the Delta Four Interceptor into camera shot. A little tweaking of positions and size – then the lighting – and I snapped a photo of the ensemble. And to finish this Christmas card post I will leave you with a couple of pics without the sentiment text. I hope you like them.

Now it’s time for me to turn out the lights and pull the shutters down at “Tyeth Towers” as I too take a small break for some festive fun. But fear not I am working on an “End of Year” extravaganza to look back on another 12 months of activity at FTSabersite.

So thank you once more and now go enjoy yourselves (but as always be careful ok!)and I ask that you call back for the extravaganza next week. Happy Holidays and May the For be with you!

For Tyeth’s 2022 Holidays card was created from a collection of 3D models built using Blender 3D. The models and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2022. The background Christmas image comes from Wallpapercave.

“Horizons” an Obi-Wan Kenobi inspired prop model

Hello There, hi everybody. That intro should hint that I am returning to the Star Wars universe and the the new Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” for this week’s offering. I have been struggling for new inspiration in relation to lightsabers I’d like to model so I thought I would scour the universe for something just a little different to make. And there was an object which a lot of people made a fuss about because they saw it in the trailer for the new show. That object was a pair of “Macros” or as we would call them a pair of electronic binoculars! Kenobi is seen using a pair to watch a certain character in the show, but he wasn’t the first person to use a set in Star Wars history. You may recall that Luke Skywalker also had a pair of binoculars that he used twice in his search for Artoo Detoo who had escaped into the desert of Tatooine on his “mission” . Using the binoculars led to a famous scene in the movie when a Tusken Raider attacked Luke while he was looking through the Macros….famous clip where the creature screeches and raises his rifle above his head.

“Tuskens travel in pairs….I see one of them…but….”

These Macrobinoculars seem a little bit large and cumbersome but Obi-Wan had a pair of Jedi issue binoculars which were much more sleek and compact…and it was the Jedi model that I used for inspiration. I made mine similar but not exact…I’ll let you “scope them out” and see what you think….Gallery One….

These are my “For Tyeth Field View Macrobinoculars” which are based on the Jedi model of binoculars. They are small, compact and curve to the shape of your face so the optics are perfectly placed. The control knobs on the upper surface are conveniently positioned to be operated by your fingertips as you hold the binoculars, you just have to stretch a finger and the control rests beneath it. One control increases/decreases the range and the second knob controls the focus. Pressing down on the knobs can also activate low light/night-vision modes along with a function to detect sensor arrays. I mention I made my binoculars similar well, they were actually more similar than I thought…lets play spot the difference….

Not bad huh? You will notice that I added the shield to cover the Objective Lenses which I didn’t have in the first batch of pictures. The shield looks a bit like this…

You can see the curved plate on the front of the binoculars and the hex screws holding it in place. I was in the process of putting it in position so a few screws are missing (it is hard work trying to tighten and loosen them so I can adjust the shield!). Anyhoo joking aside, I didn’t want this to be just a loose copy of the binoculars – I wanted a little extra detail in my model and the “double vision” of the two Kenobi images above gave me the idea to make these look like they were functional. So I tinkered with the model and added a few things inside….wanna take a look?

I added two images onto a pair of panels which I placed inside the model so when you move the 3D model around and peek through the eyepieces you can actually see the “real world” that the binoculars are focused on! To achieve this I edited the environment image texture that I use for the background and made two copies of the area I wanted to “zoom in on” and used these two images as the textures for the picture you see inside.

To finish this post off I have a few little bits of trivia… I said that Luke used his binoculars twice, well he actually used them three times but one scene was cut from the movie. The scene showed a conversation between Luke and his friend Biggs Darklighter at Tosche Station, where they talked about getting off Tatooine and Luke uses the Macros to look to the stars where he see’s Princess Leia’s ship being pursued by Darth Vader in the Imperial Star Destroyer from the opening shot of the movie. The second bit of trivia regards a Sound Bite. When the Tusken Raider attacks Luke in the wastelands the Raider shrieks as he raises and lowers it’s rifle above it’s head….well that shriek could be the sound of a donkey! In fact the donkey that can be seen in Laurel and Hardy’s movie “Way Out West”. The donkey is used by the comedy duo to haul themselves up onto a balcony of their hotel but of course they fail and fall to the ground and the donkey brays as if laughing. I think that sound clip was used to create the Tusken screech.

And that I’m afraid brings me to the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed expanding your horizons with something different! I enjoyed making an object other than a lightsaber. I have another set of Macrobinoculars seen in Empire Strikes Back to show you in a future post along with more sabers including some inspired by an 80’s classic movie from Australia! I hope you will call back to check those out but for now I’d like to thank you for supporting me and my site today. Whether you are a regular viewer or a newcomer you’re very much appreciated. Till next time….keep your eyes open!

“Horizons – Macrobinoculars” are a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the movie props seen in Star Wars and the Disney+ TV show “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. The design was created by For Tyeth and the 3D model and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. Star Wars and “Obi-Wan Kenobi”along with all names, images and related material, are Trademarks/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm ltd.

Happy May The Fourth Be With You Day – A Big Shout-out to Kaiser Sosay

Hello Everybody and Happy May the Fourth to you all! I hope you all have a great day and if you’re lucky enough to have Disney+ then you’ll hopefully get to see the new show “Kenobi” soon. I have to apologise however that this post is a little bit rushed as things in For Tyeth Towers hasn’t run smoothly this past week or so and all my plans for something big to celebrate May 4th went awry. But I took the opportunity to give a big shout out to a fantastic member of the lightsaber collecting/Star Wars community. That person is a member of the Ultrasabers fan forum and is called Kaiser Sosay. I post my designs on Saberforum.com and Kaiser is a regular viewer of my work I post and sometimes commented or offered suggestions. Well just before Thanksgiving in the USA Kaiser tried to contact me but due to technical issues couldn’t reach me but eventually I managed to log onto the forum and received his message. That message was that he had admired my designs a long time but didn’t comment as much as he thought he should and wanted to make up for it. He had read my comments on the forum saying I liked Qui-Gon Jinn’s saber and I hoped one day to own one from Ultrasabers. To make up for his lack of support he wanted to gift me an Ultrasaber Qui-Gon Jinn replica he owned (he actually had two). I was speechless, as here are a few product pictures of the hilt from Ultrasabers’ website….

This is an awesome saber and of course is modelled on the hilt of my favourite character Qui-Gon….and Kaiser wanted to give me his spare one as thanks for all the effort and contributions I make to the community. I was hesitant at first to accept his gift but he was insistant that I take it as he had no use for it and it needed a good home. So I gratefully accepted his offer and he arranged to have it sent to me. And when it arrived I couldn’t have been happier…as you can see here….

The first image was the picture I posted on the forum and the second shows the saber lit up in all it’s glory, because I forgot mention above that this saber was fully installed with light and sound…worth over £200! Kaiser had even “made some modifications” himself adding the beautiful red activation switch just like it has in the Phantom Menace and inside he swapped the electronics so this saber had sound AND could change blade colours! Obviously I will keep it in green to match Qui-Gon but I have the option if I want to swap colours for display purposes. I took a few images of the hilt for you to take a closer look but as I said above things haven’t run smoothly this week and after transferring the images they seem to have become distorted but hopefully they will still show how great this hilt is….

Now you may have noticed that the end cap of this saber is different than the pictures above off the manufacturer’s website because Kaiser swapped it for the slightly longer chromed pommel so again I will at some point buy an original pommel so I can swap between this look and the canon version. And I can do this because the hilt is modular and breaks down into pieces – even the shiny silver shroud comes off so the saber is plain black!…

As this is a special Star Wars day, this generous act is also very special and actually resembles an event in Star Wars history involving Mace Windu. In-between the events of “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones” there was a battle and Mace Windu and another Jedi named E’eth Koth were involved. During the battle both were caught up in an explosion and lost their lightsabers, however in the confusion they each picked up the other Jedi’s saber but instead of swapping back they used their comrade’s weapon until it was safe for them to swap back. This was a sign of utmost friendship, trust and respect known as The Concordance of Fealty. And by Kaiser gifting me this saber I feel I have performed the act of Fealty with him. He is a great member of the Star Wars community and has my heartfelt thanks. This saber has a good home forever here.

That just about wraps this post up, again sorry it is slightly rushed and not as polished but my original plans fell through….however I feel this story is important enough to be told on May 4th. I hope you will return on Saturday the 14th to see my next post (I’m gonna take this weekend off as I posted this article early) to see what else I have in store. I have more Katanas, more starfighters, and more blasters and hopefully some costuming stuff. So thanks for checking this post out and Till next time…

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU AND TO KAISER SOSAY!

This post is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. The Ultrasabers Consular and it’s images are Trademark/©Copyright of Ultrasabers LLC based in Texas, USA.

“The Drac-onian” for LordDraconical

Hello Everybody and welcome back to a something different design today. In the past month I mentioned my Cosplay costume that I am working on and the prop building I am planning to do using Nerf blasters. Well I obviously did my research and looked for the best Nerf blaster for the job and so I went to YouTube to watch reviews and modding tutorials and whilst doing this I was introduced to a person named LordDraconical (or Drac for short) who is considered a Nerf Master. He not only actively takes part in Nerfing events, he also mods his weaponry and runs a business making and selling Third Party add-ons for the community. I will admit most of the tech stuff he mentioned went over my head at first but I’m slowly catching up with my knowledge but there was something lurking in one of his videos that caught my eye…Here is Drac and the YouTube video – watch closely and see if you can find the hidden object!

Did you see it? Well…there was a cylindrical object made of aluminium with black accent pieces and what appeared to be an activation switch…could it be….a LIGHTSABER? Here take a look at some screenshots and you can decide…

• 

  Can you see it now?

• 

  Zoomed in – a saber?

It certainly looks like a lightsaber and Drac does have an “alter ego” character of a Vampire Ninja soo…I think he dabbles in the fine art of saber combat which is much more civilised than blasters 😁 However I couldn’t work out what model of saber it was and I decided to attempt to rebuild it in 3D so here is my version of this possible saber I call mine the Drac-onian Saber…

I didn’t have much in the way of reference images to work from (hence why I couldn’t identify the hilt) but I took artistic license and built it how I imagined it would work if I designed it. It still has the sleek aluminium handgrip with the black accent parts and recessed panels. One panel houses a Power Level Indicator and adjustment bolt to tune the blade length and power. The activation switch has a little bit of bling with a gold coating otherwise the hilt is a sleek functional duelling saber. But I mentioned Drac has an alter ego and he has built a brand for himself and has his own “Corporate House Colours” scheme. I discovered this colour scheme and I thought, “Hang on! Drac is a modder and I design custom sabers…let’s bling this saber in his colours!”….So I did and here it is the Drac LE version…

So this is Drac’s “Corporate House Colour” scheme of deep red and black which looks pretty spicy (he says that a lot about things he likes or thinks are cool). And you will notice that I added another little embellishment near the activation switch…and that is a little logo similar to Drac’s fang logo which I made using Blender’s Extruded Text feature (so the logo is actually a 3D part too!).

I also learnt recently how to create glowing wireframe renders so I have a final gallery of two wireframe renders and a twin shot of the regular and LE version of the Drac-onian…

Hopefully Lord Drac will like this saber if he sees it. I will try and let him know about it however, I am not great with Social Media etc but I’ll leave a message on his YouTube Channel, speaking of which if you are interested in Nerf blasters and “Foam Dart Flinging” then you can check out LordDraconical’s YT Channel with this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5IY3wtFVRFBI7bCFv_U-5w

And I suspect that Drac is really a big Star Wars fan because I also spotted a Luke Skywalker replica propped up against the back wall of his studio set up! Anyhoo I have done my bit to rebalance the Force in designing a hilt for him and just so it is truly balanced I have just bought a motorised blaster called a Nerf N-Strike Stryfe which is one of his favourites (it’s only fair I get some blasters too 😎)

That just about wraps this design so this means it’s Thank You time. Whether you are a first time viewer or one of the growing family of regular visitors, thank you so much for supporting me and my blog – you are all very much appreciated and please if you like what you see here then spread the word about FTSabersite if you can. I am continuously working on new stuff so please call back for future posts. Till next time…

“The Drac-onian” saber is a For Tyeth Editions saber and was modelled and rendered in Blender 3D by For Tyeth. The model and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. The images, nickname and YouTube video of LordDraconical are ©Copyright of Lord Draconical.

Happy New Year! FT’s review of 2019

Hello Everybody and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Yes we have entered a new year and a new decade…we are in 2020! But before we dive into the new adventures ahead I thought I’d take a 20/20 hindsight review of 2019 (< See what I did there? 2020 hindsight? 😀 ) And boy was I busy during the past 12 months!

I counted my posts and the designs I had shared and I have posted over 45 sabers plus variations in the space of 52 weeks …so lets jump back to January and take a look at what I posted….

January started with a saber inspired from a Star Wars computer game known as Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic (SW KOTOR) and the first saber you build in the game. I also posted the first in a series of hilts inspired by Ralph McQuarrie’s Stormtrooper concept art, even a saber based on the 80’s TV show Charlie’s Angels. Finally I posted a lightsaber staff for Satele Shan, another character from SWTOR the sequel to SW KOTOR.

Padawan One Saber

Angelic Saber inspired by Charlie’s Angels

Satele-ite Saber inspired by SWTOR

Trooper Saber inspired by Ralph McQuarrie

February featured designs from Resident Evil, Lord of the Rings, a saber for Superman and a hilt for Padme Amidala. I particularly liked the Superman hilt I built for my friend TheVintageToyAdvertiser as part of a series of challenges, and the Lord of the Rings hilt because I had to make sure I did a good job and pleased both Star Wars fans and LOTR fans – Not Easy!

Alice Saber inspired by Resident Evil

Barad-Dur Saber inspired by LOTR

Supermobile Saber for Superman

Aggressive Negotiator for Padme Amidala.

Again I really liked the LOTR hilt as I got creative, making the pommel resemble the Eye of Sauron! However, even Padme’s hilt had custom etching and an activation swith made to look like her pendant given to her by little Ani!

Marching on in March,I presented my crossover hilt designs for another Sci-Fi franchise – Star Trek (yes I said it!). I created a hilt for the Klingon warriors and one particular half Klingon named B’Elanna Torres from the show Voyager. A new character appeared in the movie SOLO called Enfys Nest so I posted a design in her honour and back on earth I had another challenge from TVTA. He wanted a saber based on Starsky and Hutch and the famous red car, the Gran Torino!….

B’Elanna’s Blade for the Klingon Lady

Gre’Thor Blade for the Klingon Warriors

Swoop Saber for Enfys Nest

Starsky and Hutch Saber says it all!

The Swoop Saber had a hidden Crystal Chamber built into it, while the Starsky and Hutch hilt had a blue police light as the on/off switch and even had working headlights buried in all the chrome bodywork!

OK folks, that covers the first three months! To continue our journey through 2019 please click the link to go to page two where we will discover what April brought!…see you on page two…..

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For Tyeth’s Fine Art Gallery – Lightsaber Art

Hello Everybody, and welcome to the Grand Opening of my new virtual gallery of saber designs. It was suggested to me a few posts back that I compile a collection of some of my saber “Glamour Shots” to post and this weekend seemed a good time to do so. I have been very busy working on some animations and videos which ties up my laptop because when I render animations it takes all the processing power my laptop has. But I have a few pictures lying around my workshop and so will post those here today and there is a few new bits to show you all. So please follow me and enter the gallery….

First up is an early Blender 3D design and one I am surprised turned out so well as I must have made many mistakes building it. I call this hilt “Aquaman Bend”

“Aquaman Bend” a weapon for a watery warrior

I was really pleased that this design worked because I had a hard time working out how to achieve the “Bend” in the hilt, while making sure all the parts lined up after I had bent them! It also has a nice perforated handgrip shroud which when viewed from different angles looks like either Aquaman/Jason Momoa’s tattoos or the new scaly wetsuit seen in the sequel movie. Maybe Marvel liked the look of my saber and incorporated the pattern into the costume.

Next up is a design I made for my friend Lady Revan a member of SaberForum.com. Lady Revan cosplays as Revan from the Knights of the Old Republic computer game and also as Bastilla Shan another in game character. Lady Revan has been petitioning Ultrasabers to add a Bastilla hilt to their product line and so I built this 3D model to show them how it could look…and here it is…

Bastilla Shan staff for Lady Revan

Now the focus point of the Star Wars saga was of course Anakin Skywalker, the young boy from Tatooine who was freed from slavery but would later become one of the greatest evils in the galaxy, Darth Vader. He later redeemed himself in Return of the Jedi as he saved his son, Luke Skywalker, but Anakin had some dark times in his life and used a couple of sabers. I built renditions of those sabers and here is one of the lightside sabers he owned….

“Vengeance Saber” Anakin’s last lightside hilt

This hilt is the one he owned and used to slay the Tusken Raider clan that kidnapped his mother, Shmi Skywalker. Her treatment in captivity led to her dying and Anakin in a fit of rage killed the Tuskens, including the women and children. This act led Anakin down the path to the darkside of the Force and to his transition into Darth Vader. And Darth Vader had a new saber to represent his new darkside character and so i built one of Vader’s hilts (he had three versions, one in each film of the original trilogy)…

Darth Vader’s hilt

Ok, I am at the halfway point of my first collection and next up is the latest “New” lightsaber staff that we saw in the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker which hits cinemas in December (2019). The hilt belongs to a character that looks like a darkside version of the heroine of the sequel trilogy, Rey. In the trailer we see a short glimpse of “Rey” holding a double bladed hilt which then hinges open and forms a double ended staff weapon..may I present Rey’s saberstaff…

“Rey of Darkness” Staff lightsaber

The Rey staff is the latest canon saber in the Star Wars saga but I also have a new thing to show you all and that is a new technique I have learnt and been playing with. Now I don’t know where it will come in useful but I have learnt to replicate cloth in Blender. There is a function that modifies a flat plate and deforms it so that it bends and folds like a sheet of cloth. If that plate has an image pasted onto it  you get something that appears like a draped sheet (maybe a flag)….

 

“Temple” Saber on cloth plinth

New Steampunk inspired hilt on plinth

The two sabers above are resting on an “L” shaped block which I have draped with a “cloth plate” to make it look like a sheet. And of course I pasted my website’s logo onto it. Maybe I could get some towels or flags printed with that design to sell! You may recognise the gold “Temple” saber but the silver hilt is a model of a modified Ultrasabers Aeon. I modeled the Aeon so the members on SaberForum.com could see how that hilt would look in different colours and with different custom parts.

So I have been busy designing while I have been animating and here is a teaser for an upcoming hilt for a mysterious new character that will appear in The Rise of Skywalker. There are clues in the Art Deco inspired text, the colours used on the cube and the textures so you might be able to guess who it is if you search the Internet for images of new characters. And this mystery character will get two hilts in a matching pair. Here is the teaser…

I am nearly at the end of this post but as you can see I still have a lot more to come in future posts. There are the sabers for this new Mystery Character, my upcoming adventures in animation, more from my friend PsychoSith and his Saber Doodle artwork and if that wasn’t enough…there are the remaining “Master Series” hilts and more new original designs. I hope you will all return and see what I have in store – it’s going to be busy. But for now thank you for visiting my new gallery, whether this is your first visit to FTSabersite or you are a regular, you are all much appreciated. Till next time…

All designs and renders shown above are “For Tyeth Editions” or “Inpsired By” designs built and rendered by For Tyeth. They are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. “Rey”, “The Rise of Skywalker” and all other Star Wars related names, logos, images and other material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

“Rey of Darkness” Saber – For Tyeth’s Edition

Hello Everybody, now technically as I type this it is 03:30 Friday morning in the UK, so it is the beginning of the weekend (sort of) but I am so excited I felt I had to post this now.

I have over the past 2-3 days been working on a 3D model of “Darkside” Rey’s new double lightsaber switchblade staff. I started off with a screengrab from the new trailer which was very blurry and didn’t show much detail, however I interpreted it as best I could and came up with this “windowed” version with a very poor looking hinge (that semi-circular black thing on the pommels)…

Blurry screen grab

My first build attempt

I thought it was OK as a base model to later modify and so I went crazy and spent most of the day “tinkering” to make it better and more accurate. I found a much sharper image of the saber and found that I had obviously made mistakes, the four windows were in fact part of a “Slotted” emitter with a circular “Glass Eye” window. A Glass Eye window is the round lens that is found near the emitter of a Graflex lightsaber which allows the light from the blade to shine through (In reality it was the lens for the light measuring mechanism of the Graflex camera flashgun handle). I realised I needed to tweak the proportions and thickness of the coloured bands, I also needed to add a few detail parts and REALLY needed to do something with the hinge. I believe that some film trickery helped how the saber looked in the trailer as it extends but I haven’t got that good to do an animation like that…yet! So here was my second build with a hinge I made based on a Universal Ball joint seen on drive shafts of cars…As you can see I added a Universal Ball joint hinge, which is the two spherical pommels connected by a curved plate. The plate pivots 90degs at both ends so that the saber handles straighten out to point in opposite directions and form the staff. I also installed a couple of activation switches to match the blades, but I still knew I could do better so I worked on a more accurate hinge mechanism that looked like the one on screen (even if the bracket seen on screen can’t hinge!). I built the new hinge and that brings me to my final version which I present here. I am sure I have still gotten parts wrong but if I try and make more fixes then I might ruin what I have already (maybe when better footage/images are released I might revisit this hilt) Now onto the “Glamour Shots”…

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 1

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 2

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 3

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 4

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 5

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 6

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded (note the hinge!)

I added a ring of Hexhead Wrench screws around the switch section along with a pair of switched (I am still not certain where the real switch position is so this could be changed later) Also added are the black rectangular blocks with the thumbscrews. The hinge, I suspect is an end cap for scaffolding poles used for mounting Amateur Radio enthusiasts’ antennae (this piece encloses/connects the bottom of the mounting scaffold pole and the bottom of the aerial tube itself). I think it looks like the one seen in the pictures and video. And now you want to see the staff version right? OK, here are the extended staff “Glamour Shots”…

“Rey of Darkness” Extended 1

“Rey of Darkness” Extended 2

“Rey of Darkness” Wireframe

Hopefully I have done a good job overall. This is the most intensive project I have done, both in detail and timeframe…a lot of detail in a very short amount of time to build. And I think I may have beaten the big names in custom saber manufacturers in displaying a version of this hilt!

Well that just about wraps up this post, except to say I am really looking forward to seeing “The Rise of Skywalker” in December (20th) and find out for certain whether Rey has turned to the Darkside or if this is a “Clone” of her, or even just a Force vision flashback/premonition (hard to see the future is, always in motion it is!). So as is my tradition, I’d like to thank you all for looking in on this design and for your support of me and my site. Whether you are a new visitor (and there have been a few recently) or a regular caller, you are all very much appreciated. If you liked what you saw please spread the word about FTSabersite to friends and be sure to call back to see many more new hilts and designs in future posts. Till next time…..

p.s. I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to have a rest over a long weekend now (Phew!) Back to work on Monday….

“Rey of Darkness” saber is a For Tyeth Editions rendition and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. The Rey “Switchblade” saber staff, and all Star Wars names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm ltd 2019.

Mystery Blogger Award 2019 – I’m Honoured.

Hello everybody, today I have had to change my plans once again because, as you can see from the title, I have been nominated for another blogging award! And again I have the nice young lady named Annlyel of annlyelonline to thank as she nominated me for the “Mystery Blogger Award”. (I think Annlyel may be spying for the First Order who are hunting me…she keeps asking me questions – maybe to gather intel on me?) Anyway thank you Annlyel, I do appreciate my nomination and to qualify for the award there are the usual rules and procedures to follow. As always I am going to struggle to name 5 or more blogs that I haven’t already mentioned as recommendations but I will do my best with the other segments.

The “rules” are as follows:

1.Put the award logo/image on your blog

2.List the rules

3.Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog

4.Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well

5.Tell your readers 3 things about yourself

6.Nominate 10 – 20 bloggers (if possible)

7.Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog

8.Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question (specify)

9.Share a link to your best post(s)

I have sort of put the logo image on my page because I thought I had to make my own version of it at first so used it for my title header image above ^^…but it kinda looks a bit “X-Files”. I didn’t know where to get the official image from then I thought “maybe the person who created and started this award has it on her site” so I visited the site and there it was! Rule 4 states I need to mention the creator so I will. Her name is Okoto Enigma, and her blog is Okoto Enigma’s Blog which can be found at: Okoto Enigma’s Blog

The Official Award Logo

Now here are the three facts about For!

1) I have only been designing seriously since 2015 after I bought my first lightsaber. The company I bought my hilt from offered a product called “Adaptive Saber Parts (ASP)” where you could use an online virtual builder to “design your dream saber” . You choose different pieces to make your own design from a selection of handgrips, switches, blade holders and pommels. You could then buy the corresponding parts to assemble the saber at home. I spent way too much time using that website designing hilts like this..

This saber won a design contest.

The company then held a saber design contest on their forum which I entered and was fortunate enough to win. This convinced me I could probably design sabers as a hobby…I designed over 300 using that website.

But around a year ago the company updated their website and my laptop wasn’t able to access it any more so I had to learn how to use 3D modelling software to continue designing. The good news is that I can now design my own bespoke lightsabers from scratch and make them look like this…(this is just a few!)

2) I am a pianist/keyboard player and used to be part of a cabaret act! I had to sing, dance and play keyboards in bars and clubs around the UK. We also had a full stage show with lighting and costumes. One of the highlights of the job came when I got to perform at a club, on a stage, that my favourite band had played on. That band was Queen – Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon! And I got to play Bohemian Rhapsody – LIVE – on the very stage they had performed on! I got rather emotional that night.

3) As a youngling I had a very unusual claim to fame. I was one of only three people in my town who could operate the film projector in my local cinema! My father knew the chief projectionist as they talked to each other on “Citizen’s Band” radio. I was invited to check out the projection room lots of times and learnt how the projector worked. I knew how to load the machine and swap reels (which were approximately 1m/3ft in diameter, not the small decorative film canisters you can get for your home décor!) and even got to run a “show” for a paying audience while the official projectionist watched on!

I think I have to answer 5 questions including one “Weird” one….

(Weird) 1. What strange food combination have you ever experimented with and realized it was actually kind of delicious?

A) I did try Portion Bread with Peanut Butter spread once (Portion Bread is the green bread roll, or biscuits as they are known in the USA, that you might have seen Rey eat in The Force Awakens). But a strange real world food combination I used to eat was Sugar Sandwiches. As it sounds it was just two slices of buttered bread with a sprinkling of sugar as the filling. I suffered from bad health as a child and when I was ill I’d get so poorly I couldn’t eat proper food so I was given these sandwiches to keep up my energy. It was a “recipe” my grandfather used to make along with his “magic” Whisked Egg Milkshakes.

2. If there was any ancient civilization you could visit what would it be?

A) I think I’d like to visit ancient Egypt to see how the pyramids were built and compare them to the Jedi Temples like those on Yavin 4 and the Sith Fortresses like the one on the moon named Dxun.

3. What’s your favourite holiday movie?

A) I don’t really have a favourite holiday movie as I watch films all year round if I have the time. But I do like the National Lampoons vacation films!

4. What’s your idea of a dream vacation?

A) I like to get in my Naboo Star Skiff and fly out to Bal’ Demnic. It has mixed emotions for me as it is on Bal’Demnic that I was seriously injured in a battle trying to stop the Confederation of Independent Systems (CIS) from taking control of a Cortosis mine but the planet has some seriously beautiful ocean and forests away from the civilised/industrial areas. They also have great big Hawk-Bats swooping around in the misty atmosphere all along the coastlines. But I’ll be spending most of my time in future in my new apartment…nice huh?

5. Reality, drama, or comedy; what’s your favorite television show genre?

A) Tough one this as I like both drama (mainly sci-fi) and comedy. It depends on my mood but maybe comedy – just. I like crazy comedy like the British shows Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, Dad’s Army, Allo’Allo’ and Only Fools and Horses.

Star Wars Trivia!…..Bruce Boa starred in an episode of Fawlty Towers titled “The Americans” as a tourist who stays at the Fawlty Towers hotel and tries to order a Waldorf Salad and a Screwdriver to drink. It is probably the most popular episode of the show. Well….Bruce Boa also played the part of General Carlist Rieeken, the Rebel Alliance commander on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back!

Finally I need to direct you to my favourite post or posts. I have a few posts I am proud of and would like to share them with you:

First up is “For Tyeth Tries Blender 3D!” where I began my real journey into designing using dedicated 3D design software and not have to rely on Third Party websites. It was where “The For Awakened” you could say! Here is the LINK

My second post is a post that caused me a lot of anguish as I had a design I was extremely proud of…but it was lost to a computer glitch as I attempted to save the files. I had to rebuild the saber from scratch using my memory. To see how I managed you can check out “New Asguard” – Inspired by Marvel’s Thor” by clicking HERE.

And lastly, I have “Furious – inspired by the Red Fury Stormtroopers” which I posted a few months ago. It shows how good my Force premonition is as Disney/Lucasfilm recently announced some new Troopers (and toy merchandise) namely the “Sith Trooper” and guess what? They wear red and black armour…just like my saber! To see how similar they are you can click HERE.

I still have many more sabers and designs to bring to you all and as a treat here is a sneak peek of the Master Series collection of hilts I announced last week. There is a Rey Graflex from the new Episode 9 film, Anakin’s saber from Episode 2, a hilt for Darth Vader….plus a saber for THE master…Luke Skywalker!

Thanks once more to Annlyel, I hope this post meets approval. I also hope you will all return to view future posts…as you have seen there is plenty more to come. Thanks for all the support. Till next time….

FTSabersite and all it’s content (including all saber designs and imaging)  is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. Star Wars related material is Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

 

I have been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award 2019!

Hello Everybody, today I am honoured to say I have been nominated for the “Sunshine Blogger Award” by a very kind young lady named Annlyel from Annlyel Online. Annlyel has an awesome site covering a whole plethora of pop culture subjects. Whether you like blockbuster movies, artwork or fashion you will find articles written covering it and there are even Star Wars posts too. Longtime regular readers of my blog may remember Annlyel from a post where I designed a lightsaber for her named after her favourite lipstick….Moondust.

To follow the guidelines of the Sunshine Blogger Award I need to thank and acknowledge Annlyel and provide a link to her site (done^) and answer the 11 questions posed by her. Next I will need to nominate and link to 11 further bloggers and ask them 11 questions in return. However as I will explain below I might not be able to do that, instead I will make some recommendations of some other great sites. So I had best get on and answer some questions…Ok Annlyel first question please…

A: If you can, which movie is your favourite of all time?

FT: Well apart from my life story which I’m working on, I guess it would have to be the Star Wars saga. Technically I know that the question asks which movie is my all time favourite but I see the story in SW as a whole and it covers more than just the one film.

A: Have you been to Disney World? If so, what’s your favourite park?

FT: No sadly not, since Disney bought out Lucasfilm there are a lot of Stormtroopers and even Kylo Ren sneaking around the parks and they don’t like Jedi types like me much!

A: Who’s your favourite Star Wars character?

FT: It probably doesn’t come as big surprise if you know me but my favourite is Qui-Gon Jinn. He was a great Jedi who didn’t always stick vehemently to the rules but he always bent them for the best reasons.

A: Who’s your favourite Marvel superhero?

FT: Spider-man. Peter Parker and Spidey have been my favourite since I was a youngling wall crawler.

A: Who’s your favourite DC Comics superhero?

FT: That title goes to Batman for this question. I was fortunate enough to get to read quite a few of the original comic books where Batman was much grittier and relied on his martial arts skill and brains rather than gadgets. The characters were also very complex especially if you look at the personal lives of people like Commissioner Gordon etc….far from clean cut.

A: What’s your favourite guilty pleasure, pertaining to food?

FT: I quite like 1/4 pounder beef burgers with cheese and relish (and of course side salad) but I have read that they may not be the healthiest food on this planet. However they do taste so much better than the food capsules the Jedi quartermasters issue and I only have burgers now and then, not every day!

A: What city is on your bucket list to visit?

FT: I need to visit New York/Gotham City…..I know Batman quite well and he lives in New York/Gotham and does a great job running his YouTube channel.

A: What’s your favourite pastime activity?

FT: Some people may know that I am a keyboard player and have performed live on stage. I toured around the UK and even travelled to Poland to perform I also helped teach music technology to younglings in my neighbourhood.

A: Wakanda, Coruscant, or Hogwarts; which of these fictional worlds would you love to visit?

FT: Well, I have been to Coruscant so between Hogwarts and Wakanda, hmm, probably Wakanda. I am a fan of technology but at the same time I like the natural environment too so seeing all the desert, dunes and landscapes merging as one with the tech would be an experience.

A: What’s your favourite novel of all time?

FT: I read “Sherlock Holmes – Hound of the Baskervilles” when I was young and it has stuck with me.

A: What’s your favourite sporting event?

FT: I really love watching MotoGP motorcycling, how people like Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso can control a 200mph motorbike without the benefit of the Force is amazing to me.

Now I have to nominate 11 fellow bloggers for the award, however I know from past experience that most of the people I would nominate have been voted for already or would be too busy to participate. So to get round this problem I will just post a few recommendations for sites you might like to visit.

I have a couple of artistic themed recommendations for two sites, the first is a blog that highlights the world of street art and is run/produced by a young lady named Resa. The site is named Graffiti Lux Art and More. There you will find an explosion of colourful street art photography and Resa has recently started to post fictional writing inspired by the artwork on the streets of Canada.

The second is Darksider Confessions and a young chap named Xen. Now normally I wouldn’t recommend folks visit a Sith minded individual but Xen has just taken his first steps into the larger world of graphic design and started studying an online course. It would be great if you could go and give him some encouragement. He edits images and makes animated versions of the originals (including Jedi character pictures hence why I  am adding his site!).

And as I have been nominated by Annlyel…I should also give a shout out to her extremely talented sister Uzuri who also has a blog, named Uzuri Art. Uzuri has recently posted a series of Star Wars inspired images and her Princess Leia portrait is shear perfection. So please go check Uzuri’s fantastic site too.

If you are a fan of reading then you may like to visit the The Beachy Reader which is a book review site that is run by my longest blogging friend Gigi (though to me Gigi will always be a Princess 🙂 ) Gigi reviews a range of genres so there should be a book recommendation for you somewhere on her site.

And now I will introduce you to my good friend and collaborator TheVintageToyAdvertiser and his sidekick Wooof! TVTA and Wooof! run a blog dedicated to all things advertising, be it adverts for Scandinavian kitchen suites, LEGO sets, action figures all the way through to comic book covers and movie poster artwork. All meticulously scanned and presented with a great sense of humour. I also have to mention this duo as it is TVTA and Wooof! who challenge me to come up with lightsaber designs based on various pop culture themes such as Charlie’s Angels, Starsky and Hutch and have provided me with fantastic feedback and crticism to help me improve my designing. Thanks guys!

My final two recommendations are for two young ladies who are big Star Wars fans. They are Kiri and Mei-Mei, who both write great articles about the “Galaxy Far Far Away” and they also have a long running art project where each lady colours in a Star Wars Mandala image and compare their results with each other.

Kiri can be found at starwarsanon.com

Mei-Mei can be found at JediByKnight

Oh, and I very nearly forgot two more ladies I know of who have a great site dedicated to graphic novels. Nancy and Kathleen run the site Graphic Novelty2 and as you may have guessed write articles reviewing comic books and graphic novels. They range from Marvel and DC Comic favourites all the way through to more obscure independent artists and writers such as Jeff Lemire. Nancy and Kathleen are also fully fledged librarians so they know their stuff!

Again I apologise that this post doesn’t adhere to the Sunshine Blogger guidelines but I hope you enjoyed my answers and have fun checking out my recommendations. As a treat I did add a few never before seen images from my virtual saber collection that I have been working on recently. Thanks again to Annlyel for my nomination and don’t forget to visit her site. Now I have to get ready for this weekends’ post and will have to leave you….busy, busy, busy! Thanks for checking this post out. Till next time….

FTSabersite and all it’s content including all images and “For Tyeth Editions” designs are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.