Nerf Havok-Fire EBF 25: For Tyeth’s Foam Flinging Machine

Hello Everybody and welcome. Today I have something completely different than I normally post and in this one I will be showing you my “fully operational battle blaster” the Nerf Havok-Fire EBF 25 foam dart firing minigun. Now Obi-Wan Kenobi famously disliked blasters and was quoted as saying, “Blasters….(ugh) So uncivilised!” as he used one to finish off General Grievous in the film Revenge of the Sith. But….I recently got into Nerfing and foam dart shooting and it’s great fun. I have always enjoyed doing target practise and as a youngling had an ancient “weapon” called a Bow and Arrow that I used to fire at tin cans and targets hung on trees, then I got projectile firing toys and eventually progressed to firing an air powered gun now and then. And I got pretty good. But as I got older and moved to a high rise tower block I didn’t have anywhere to practise. But now I have gotten into foam dart flinging fun!

Last year I did obtain some Nerf blasters that I intended to modify and turn into Cosplay props but I haven’t gotten round to doing any modifications as I couldn’t get spray paints and supplies etc due to lockdowns….unfortunately in that time I have sort of gotten attached to how the blasters look as they are and kinda want to collect them normally. So back to today I want give you all a full look at my latest acquisition the Nerf Havok-Fire EBF 25. This was a gift from Mrs Tyeth, who found it in a Salvation Army Charity shop (aka a Thrift Store in the US) in the village where her mother lives. Mrs T thought it was complete but it did have it’s ammunition box missing (fortunately I found a reasonably priced replacement one online). It was otherwise in immaculate condition and awesome. SO enough talk here are a few pictures…

This thing is a BEAST of a blaster, based on a chain/belt fed heavy machine gun. The foam darts are stored and loaded via a flexible chain link belt that has 25 cylinders which each hold a dart (hence the abbreviation EBF 25 – which stands for Electronic Belt Feed 25). And once loaded and blaster primed it is FULLY AUTOMATIC. It keeps firing and reloading for as long as you pull the trigger and have ammunition to fire. Here are a few close up pictures and images of the blaster and it’s ammo box…

In the first pics you can see the handgrip section with the trigger and if you look above where the trigger is you will see what looks like a switch – well this is the fire mode selector. In the OFF position the blaster is idle but you can load a dart one at a time by pulling back on a lever bolt then pull the trigger to fire one dart – then repeat the process. This mode doesn’t require batteries (it takes a whopping SIX D-Cell size batteries which weigh a ton)….BUT flick the mode switch and it will….hang on I have something to show you later! The last pictures show the ammunition box and ammo belt that clips onto the side of the blaster, and there are two orange handles (the cone shaped bits) that are the loading/cocking levers. OKAY….OKAY….Enough talk….what happens if you load this blaster with 25 darts, pull the lever back, aim and fire?….THIS IS A FIRING TEST!>>>

That my friends was the Havok-Fire shooting 25 foam darts in 9 secs or at a rate of 3 darts a second! It is an amazing bit of fun and bear in mind this blaster was produced and released in 2008 so it is 14 years old and still functioning! Some Havok-Fire owners modify their blasters by installing more powerful batteries so it fires even faster and connect 2,3,4 and even more ammo belts together to feed more darts. If you were to face this in a Nerf Foam War it would be intimidating! As you can tell I kinda love this blaster, and you can even take the tripod off and attach a sling belt so you can carry the blaster just like Rambo or Dutch in Predator…and spray your opponents with foam darts!

FOR TYETH FUN FACT: NERF is an acronym which stands for Non Expandable Recreational Foam which describes the material that the blaster’s darts are made from! Nerf and Nerfing later became the terms used to identify the hobby as a whole and not just to describe Hasbro Toys products.

So basically I have been bitten by the Nerf Bug (well I suppose it’s better than catching COVID). I still plan on modifying some of the blasters I have because now lockdown restrictions in the UK have been relaxed I can get out and obtain the parts/supplies I need. This particular blaster though I am keeping original…though if I can find another one cheap on Ebay then I might be tempted to give it a “Sci-Fi look” makeover. You will have noticed that just in front of the blaster I had a lightsaber on display too….just so you don’t think I have been turned to the Nerf Side of the Force ok! That lightsaber will feature in a post here very soon as it is extremely precious to me.

That I think just about wraps this post up I have run out of darts of information to share with you about it. I hope you enjoyed the slight change of pace and subject matter, but I wanted to show lightsabers and blasters can exist and live together nicely…Thanks so much for checking this post out and for all of your support. New viewers or regular visitors you are all appreciated. Please call back for more saber designs, Lego creations and now Foam Flinging Frolics in future!….Till next time…..

Blaster and lightsaber happily co-existing!

“Nerf Havok-Fire EBF 25: For Tyeth’s Foam Flinging machine” is a For Tyeth/FTSabersite article and all images/video were created by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. “NERF” and “Havok-Fire EBF 25” are Trademarks of HASBRO Toys.

Y-Wing Saber – A For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the BTL-A4 Y-Wing Fighter

Hello Everybody, today I have a saber based on a famous starfighter that was a multi-role spacecraft and very durable. This space ship was the equivalent of the famous A-10 Warthog fighter/bomber aircraft of the American military – both could take a beating. Anakin Skywalker had a Y-Wing fighter during the Clone Wars but his was brand new and looked much more streamlined due to the panelling and armour plating – whilst the Y-Wings we usually think of look much more skeletal as most of the bodywork was scavenged or lost. You will have seen Y-Wings during the original trilogy movies, especially during the two Death Star battles.

You can clearly see that this version of the Y-Wing has seen some action…and you can easily see how the ship got it’s name. The fuselage and cockpit forming the stem of a letter “Y” whilst the engines stretch out to form the arms. Now I can’t remember what I was doing that inspired me to model this as a saber but I did and I think it’s about time I revealed my Y-Wing Saber….Gallery Time…..

I started at the front with the cockpit section – seemed a good idea. As this was going to be a saber I didn’t add the two small laser canons in the nose as they would get snagged up as you tried to handle the blade. The rest of the cockpit is there and looks fairly close, including a small laser turret at the rear (the gun barrells being able to be folded down out of the way). There is “Greebling” details on the side to try and replicate bits of mechanical parts where panels are missing. The long thin neck section is the handgrip and is adorned with some pipework and brackets to again represent possibly fuel lines etc (these are a little more flush with the fuselage so don’t get in the way and provide a bit of grip). Following further down the hilt we get to the main structure which acts as the switch section for the hilt. I added a lit activation switch disguised as part of the pipework (the junction fixture). If you zoom in REALLY close you can even see the bolts that I modelled to hold the plumbing in place! The main blade’s emitter is situated at the rear of this fuselage section and is flanked by the engine outriggers that house the secondary blades. There is more Greebling details on the main fuselage and on the outriggers. A close-up of the panels can be seen in the last image,.

Now this saber is based on a spaceship so I should really show you how it looks in space, so here are a handful of “in flight” images!

Well, it sorta looks like a Y-Wing and I like the engines and the side blades. With the elongated neck section the Y-Wing takes on a sort of Trident shape but I feel it is still recognisable.

Now that just about wraps up this homage to a workhorse spaceship that helped save the galaxy more than once. But it isn’t quite the end of this post…I have some news of new arrivals! This week I received a present or two, first I got a few new NERF blasters so I can keep practising my sharpshooting (Safely)….and if you look closely at the picture….you might see a saber…

Yes I have succumbed and got some blasters or two, the Nerf Havok Fire EBF-25 and the Volt SD-1. The Volt is a single shot pistol that you load a dart, pull the orange drawbar to cock it then pull the trigger to fire, Simple. The Havok Fire…well that’s a beast! It is loaded by using a belt of cartridges – each with a dart in – and when in full automatic mode it fires all 25 darts in about 3-4 seconds! The rest of the blasters you may have seen in my previous posts. And the lightsaber? That is absolutely amazing… a gift from a member of the saber forum I use who liked my designs so much and thought I contributed to the community that he wanted to give me the saber. He read comments that I hoped to pick one up and he had a spare so gave me it . It is a Qui-Gon Jinn replica made by Ultrasabers but the member upgraded it a bit. I will do a full article showing the new blasters and saber very soon.

But I am now nearing the end of this post and I’d like to say a big thank you for checking this Y-Wing inspired saber out. I have much more coming up in future posts (as you can see^) so I hope you will return to see those posts too. Whether this is your first visit to FTSabersite or you are a regular thanks so much. I am now going to practice my target shooting at some cardboard cutouts! Till next time….

“Y-Wing Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the BTL A4 Y-Wing Starfighter seen in Star Wars Clone Wars and movies. The saber is designed and modelled by For Tyeth in Blender 3D and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. “Y-Wing”, Star Wars and all other names, logos, images and related materials are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

“The X-Saviour” Saber – A K26 Saber for Captain Xavier

Hello Everybody and welcome to another exciting episode of For Tyeth Editions where I take an idea for a lightsaber and see if I can build it and if not, I discover what I can build. This isn’t quite my usual intro but a slight parody of the intro to a series of videos I have watched on YouTube since getting interested in NERF blasters. The YouTuber and NERF fanatic is named Captain Xavier and he is both informative and very funny and he has a series of videos where he takes various foam dart blasters and dismantles them to see if they can be “upgraded” with more powerful springs. The springs that come in dart blasters can sometimes be inefficient and so the NERF community discovered a variant of spring called K26. This replacement spring gives varying results and sometimes the spring won’t fit inside the blaster being tested/upgraded but Captain Xavier tries anyway and makes it fun to watch. You can check out the Captain’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/CaptainXavier

Or check his Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/CaptainXavier

Captain Xavier also posted a video showing his NERF battle shield and a melee sword but…it had an Obi-Wan Kenobi handle! He’d converted a Hasbro lightsaber, sooo I thought what if I designed a saber for him and fitted a K26 spring? How would it look?….Maybe a bit like this….

Captain Xavier is well known at NERF wars and get togethers for his black and orange colour scheme so it seemed fitting to replicate that on this saber. Also as his current melee sword is a Thin Neck Kenobi style hilt I came up with a similar configuration. Now I had come up with a saber and in the pics above you can see a length of coiled spring – in fact a piece of K26 (which some don’t know refers to Kyber 26 😎) but where could I use the spring on a saber? Well, if you have sharp eyesight you might just have seen part of a spring on the thin neck between the handgrip and the emitter! I think the Captain would be pleased I incorporated K26 but I can do better as this hilt has a few “surprises”….here is an inside view of the saber and it’s workings….

Upon removing the upper handgrip shroud you discover the K26 spring extends through the hilt and helps contain the power of the blinding white blade! The Kyber spring helps focus the energy of the blade by coiling round it like a snake forming a containment cage. But it gets better still as, when you unscrew and slide the lower hand grip and pommel downward, a crystal chamber is revealed – pretty neat. I think this is an impressive saber, but I know the Captain likes to have a pair of whichever weapon he is using (he has two NERF Stryfe blasters like me!) so I made a second matching hilt. In this final batch of pictures you’ll see a few detailed close ups and I know if I ever got to build this people would try stealing it so to personalise it I added a Captain Xavier logo to the pommel…fully 3D modelled! Here’s the last gallery…

The first picture shows the hilt in both open and closed configuration, whilst picture two reveals the crystal chamber arrangement with the two tone metallic finish – you can also see the cut-out windows that allow the crystal to shine out when the hilt is closed. Then finally, the last two images show off an ever so slightly simplified Captain Xavier logo attached to the pommel cap. And this logo is again a fully formed 3D part. The pommels should clearly identify who these were designed for if the colours don’t.

That just about wraps up this edition of For Tyeth Editions and for those of you keeping score….this saber can indeed take a K(yber) 26 spring! I hope everyone enjoyed this design and I really hope the Captain likes it – I am just sorry it isn’t a viable creation that I could build. I am grateful to him for imparting his knowledge in a fun entertaining way and I’ll finish here by adding his social media links again so you can all check out his work: The Captain Xavier YouTube channel can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/c/CaptainXavier whilst his Facebook page is located here: www.facebook.com/CaptainXavier

Thanks to everyone for your visit today and the continued support I receive for the site, you are all very much appreciated. Please comment, like and subscribe if you like what I do here and spread the word about FTSabersite. I have a whole “Batch” of new saber designs straight out of Blender this week for my upcoming posts so I hope you return to check those out too. Till next time…..

“The X-Saviour” Saber is a For Tyeth Editions design, designed, modelled and rendered in Blender 3D by For Tyeth. The design and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. All other Trademarks and Copyrighted names, logos and related material belong to their respective owners.

Not-a-Nerf Saber: The Frightener – For’s Third Mod

Hello Everybody, I hope you all enjoyed “May The Fourth Be With You” day and survived the “Revenge of the Fifth” day, I know I had fun revealing my new costume but now I have to get back to sabers. To do this I have the third of my Nerf inspired saber modifications and I was going to attempt to replicate my most recent Nerf blaster acquisition but I realised there would be an issue. The problem was my 5th blaster is the Nerf Fortnite SP-L silenced pistol but it has a yellow and black colourscheme and I thought it would look too much like my Bumblebee (Transformers) hilt. So, as we had hordes of Sith rising on the 5th May it felt like a horde of Zombies attacking…which leads me to “The Frightener“! This is my Nerf Zombiestrike range inspired design. Nerf brought out a series of blasters and crossbow arrow launchers in a Zombie theme with toxic greens, oranges and brown colours. Other details included fake circular saw blades that spun as you fired the blasters and bandage wrappings on the handgrips. They looked a little like this…

Not only have my recent hilts been Nerf inspired but I mentioned that these hilts had internal “Chassis” parts that held the electronics in place to stop them rattling and getting damaged – well the Not-A-Nerf sabers have that chassis and I thought it time to show you it….

Now a chassis is basically a cylinder that secures the LED (light bulb) into the emitter, holds the electronic circuit board that produces all the sounds and effects, the battery to power the hilt and finally the speaker is mounted near the pommel. The LED is seen in picture 1, the speaker can be seen in pic 2 and finally the complete chassis is in picture 3 which also shows the activation switch and mounting posts to which the hilt and the chassis are connected. There are various different circuit boards made by numerous companies so I didn’t model a circuit board on the chassis I built but I would cut a small rectangular recess to slot the board into – along with a battery slot for the appropriate battery. But enough chat about the insides, you want to see “The Frightener’s” outsides so here is the Ghoulish Gallery….

PLEASE NOTE THIS SABER IS NOT AN OFFICIAL NERF PRODUCT AND IS NOT AVAILABLE TO OWN…OK!

“The Frightener“! I tried to replicate the toxic acid like colours of the Nerf Zombiestrike range but again the colours turned out slightly different due to the metallic textures I used and the scenery lighting (I used a background image of a factory used in the movie Terminator – the scene where the metalworking presses are). But I still had a grimy, murky green and orange paintjob which I embellished with brown and black accents that sorta resembles the blasters I took inspiration from. I even added a white cloth “bandage wrapping” on the handgrip to imitate the pistol grips. And to make this build a bit more challenging I attempted to model the wrapping as a 3D part, so the white spiral wrap you see is actually a three dimensional piece and not just coloured graphics. I took a long thin rectangle object, then instructed Blender to divide it into multiple panels forming a bendable strip. I then created a spiral object as a guide and used a function in Blender that mapped the strip onto the spiral forming the “bandage”. As a result I can add or remove the wrapping, here is a picture of the hilt without it…

That just about “wraps” up this design but it turns out this hilt was so popular even the undead wanted to “get their hand on it”…here is a quick picture I came up with as a bit of Zombie Art…

Created with GIMP

I think it looks right at home in this spooky setting! I wonder if that is Luke’s right hand? 😁 I don’t know but I know I have reached the end of this week’s post so it’s thank you time. As always thanks to everyone who visited FTSabersite this past week. You help keep me designing and I appreciate the support you show. If you enjoy what you see here then please leave a comment, like or even better subscribe if you haven’t already. I still have so much more to show in future posts and I have managed to watch the first episode of Disney’s new Star Wars animated series “The Bad Batch” so I may post my thoughts on the show soon. I hope you’ll all return to check all of it out. Till next time….

“Not-A-Nerf Saber: The Frightener” is a For Tyeth Editions design and the 3D model and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. “Nerf”, “Zombiestrike” and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Hasbro Toys.

Not-A-Nerf Saber – Elitist XD edition – For’s second mod

Hello Everybody, today I have my second Nerf inspired saber colour scheme and it is based on the next generation of blasters that followed the N-Strike range that I recreated in my first mod. The N-Strike was (and still is) well regarded for having solid performing blasters, both the spring powered models and especially the motorised blaster known as the Stryfe. This blaster runs on 4 AA sized batteries that run two motors with flywheels that first grip then project the foam dart. So the Stryfe originally came in dark blue, white, black and with safety regulation orange parts…but when Hasbro/Nerf upgraded the performance they upgraded the colourscheme to reflect it. Here is a comparison, Elite Stryfe vs Elite XD Stryfe…

As you can see the Stryfe was distinctive but the Stryfe Elite XD turns the colours up to 11! There is no doubt that this is a toy and not a real steel replica or heaven forbid a real live firing weapon…but the bright orange is going to make modifying this into a movie type prop like I planned difficult. But…I can turn the colourscheme into a saber! And that is what I’ve done, so enough talk from me here is the gallery of Glamour Shots…

The orange looks slightly different than that found on a real Nerf Orange Juice…sorry I mean Nerf Elite XD series blaster (Orange Juice was the affectionate nickname Nerfers gave to this colour scheme…or “O.J.” for short). However the white black and grey/silver are present. Because of the way I divided the handgrip to create the ridged rings I was able to recreate the “go faster stripe” seen on the blaster’s sides.

AGAIN AS WITH MY FIRST MOD DESIGN THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL HASBRO/NERF PRODUCT!!!

So now I have two sabers inspired by Nerf’s blaster colour schemes and I now own 5 Nerf blasters…yes five blasters. I have two Firestrike pistols in classic N-Strike colours (and as used in Red Dwarf!) and I have 2 Elite XD Stryfe blasters….which I am naming as the “Troubleland Stryfes” 😎 The fifth blaster I’ll tell you about in a Fortnite (<slight hint).

That just about wraps up this design and post…but I can’t end without mentioning the upcoming “May The Fouth Be With You Day” this Tuesday and I may have a bit of an exclusive as a new Knight emerges from the shadows and greets his friends and followers to bring hope to the Galaxy (well I hope he does). It depends on how well some photos turn out but hopefully I can tick off one of my “Things to do” on my Star Wars Bucket List…

I hope you will join me for future upcoming posts (including this Tuesday’s, fingers crossed) as I have many more designs and bits of Star Wars stuff to bring you. But for now thank you so much for supporting me and my site by visiting today. I have noticed an upturn in new viewers especially from links on Facebook so hello to you. If you like what you found here then please comment, like and if you really liked FTSabersite you can also subscribe. I would be honoured if you would join me! Till next time….

“Not-A-Nerf Elitist XD Edition” Saber is a For Tyeth Editions design and is inspired by the Nerf Elite XD colourscheme. The saber design, 3D model and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. “Nerf”, “N-Strike Elite”, “N-Strike Elite XD”, “Stryfe” and “Firestrike” plus all other names, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Hasbro/Nerf.

Not-a-Nerf Saber Firestrike Edition…A For Tyeth “Mod”

Hello everybody and before I do anything else I’d like to say a big thanks to all of you for checking out my “Sabermarionation” saber for Gerry Anderson Day AND for supporting The Atomic Mage as he launched his new site. If you haven’t seen the post from Wednesday you can find it here: https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/2021/04/14/sabermarionation-a-saber-for-gerry-anderson-day-with-the-atomic-mage/ And you can also check out The Atomic Mage’s new site with this link: https://theatomicmage.wordpress.com/ I’m sure you’ll find his posts captivating (especially his “Six Sentence Stories”).

Back to the galaxy of lightsabers and laser swords, I was very busy over the past week producing the “Sabermarionation” article and haven’t been able to compile a full gallery of pictures for this week’s design (my laptop is slow and can’t multi-task whilst rendering) but I do have a handful of images of a Blaster inspired saber design. The saber isn’t modelled or based off Star Wars canon weapons but rather the NERF dart blasters I have recently purchased and hope to modify into a Cosplay prop. So here is my latest design…Not-a-Nerf Saber….

The Not-a-Nerf saber is one of the hilts I mentioned earlier this month that has a removeable chassis that holds all the electronics, enabling the components to be switched between different hilts. The chassis (or core as they are sometimes called) has a powerful LED light to illuminate the polycarbonate blade and at the pommel there is a speaker for all the sound FX. There are two screw fittings next to the illuminated activation switch and the recharge socket for the battery. Unscrewing these allows the core to slide out the hilt ready to slot into another saber with matching holes for the switches and screws. The aesthetic details include a nice curved “choke point” gripping area at the emitter giving the hilt a secure location to grab hold but also allow you to do the fancy spinning tricks which require a “softer” grip. The remaining portion of handgrip features a nice set of slanted rings to assist grip and they mimic the curve detail seen in the NERF logo. And as you can see there is indeed a 3D modelled NERF logo embellishment.

DISCLAIMER! THIS SABER IS NOT A NERF PRODUCT!

Sorry ’bout that, I had to mention that this isn’t an official product or endorsed by Hasbro. But it is heavily inspired by their product, the Firestrike spring action dart blaster. I bought TWO of these blasters and they have a nice blue, orange and grey colour scheme which I replicated in the glossy paintjob on my design. I will insert a few pictures of the blaster below but first I have a funny story to tell.

A few weeks ago, my good friend Neil (from MakeroomMakeroom https://makeroommakeroom.wordpress.com/) commented that I should consider temporarily renaming my site to The Nerf Mod Workshop or something similar as I was getting more invested in Nerfing (<yes that is a word) and planning on doing customisations of blasters…well I also know Neil is a fan of the TV Sci-Fi comedy Red Dwarf and whilst watching series 11 I noticed something in the episode titled “Can of Worms”…see if you can spot what I saw…

I spy with my little eye….

In the image you can see three of the main characters(from left to right) Dave Lister, Kryten and Arnold Rimmer in what appears to be a Mexican Standoff. But they are all holding laser pistols and…look closely and you will see that they are modified Firestrike Nerf blasters…the same as mine!

As you can see from the zoomed in picture the lasers are Firestrike pistols painted black and they have what appears to be a Berol Magnum permanent marker pen attached to the top as a sort of gunsight and there is a mechanic’s ratchet socket adaptor fitted onto the barrel…but you can still see the row of “V” shaped decorations under the barrel and the roundel that has the NERF logo. It looks like I chose a good blaster to modify if the crew of Red Dwarf use them!

Anyhoo, I haven’t started modding just yet but when the shops re-open in the UK fully I will go out and get some paints and supplies/parts and set to work. This brings me to the end of this slightly different post, I should be back to a full normal offering next weekend so I hope you will all call back to see that. Thank you so much for the great support and whether a first time caller or a regular visitor to FTSabersite you’re much appreciated. Till next time….

“Not-a-Nerf Saber – Firestrike Edition” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by Hasbro/NERF’s Firestrike dart blaster. IT IS NOT endorsed by Hasbro nor is it an official product. The 3D models and renderings were created by For Tyeth and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. “NERF” and “Firestrike Elite” are Trademark/ ©Copyright of Hasbro Toys ltd. “Red Dwarf” and associated names and material are TM/©Copyright 1989-2021 BY GRANT NAYLOR PRODUCTIONS LTD.

“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.

“Coaxium Grandeur” Saber for the noble…and a new hobby?

Hello Everybody, I hope you are doing well (and to my friends who contacted me recently I wish you both speedy recoveries – my Force Meditations are with you). Today I present a very heavily decorated hilt that runs on my Coaxium Capsule power source pommel which I designed for “Coaxium Saber” and “Copper Coaxium”. I posted my last hilt, the Praetor Power V2 on the Ultrasabers’ forum site and folks there kinda liked it and one member especially said “I’m a sucker for red hilts”…well this next hilt is definitely red and is powerful as well as regal looking. This is Coaxium Grandeur…

I really went all out on this hilt to make it stand out…and it is quite complex hence the reason why I only have 6 images of it for the gallery. The model and it’s texturing is so complicated it took forever to render the images to look correct. But I think the effort and wait was worth it. The hilt has a modified capsule pommel that I used as an emitter so both ends of the saber had a similar theme with the chrome and hex-head screw decoration. They both have the cut out windows to allow both the blade and Coaxium crystal helix to shine out. The handgrip is adorned with an array of chromed ridges to assist grip and give the hilt an interesting elegant visual. The ridges are created by dividing the grip using a function called “Loop Cuts” which as it sounds creates a set of loops around the hilt. These loops can then be modified and made into solid geometry just like the rest of the model. The loops are aligned with the shape of the model so when applied to a regular cylinder the loops would be lateral to the tube (matching the top and bottom edges)…but if you angle the top and bottom of the tube so they are slanted then the loop cuts are applied in a slanted orientation. I then thickened the loops to form ridges and applied the chrome to them. The ends of the hilt body were still slanted so I just reshaped them back to being perpendicular to the tube. I also added a new activation switch with a nice bezel plate to add to the regal/noble/High Republic style look. To finish I added the red and chrome coloured texturing, a purple blade to match the Coaxium Helix, a Covertech Knob belt attachment to hang the saber from and I had a finished saber. I think my friend on the forum will love this one.

And that just about wraps up…..WAIT! Incoming news! For Tyeth may not quite be feeling like his normal self! In news coming in For Tyeth may have fallen into madness as he has purchased some…blasters? Yes, I have purchased some “so uncivilised” blasters in the form of a pair of Nerf foam dart guns. But don’t worry I am not going mad, I have a plan. I have nearly finished my Jedi costume (I got a new undershirt for it recently and just need a decent belt and accessories now) and pondered on what props and accessories I could add to it. Well I have a saber so I thought “How about a blaster pistol?” With the popularity of “The Mandalorian” and bounty hunters I figured I could try my hand at modifying a foam dart gun into a movie prop! So I found an online store and managed to snag TWO Nerf Firestrike pistols which I was going to modify. If you haven’t seen them before they look a bit like this…

I only have one problem…I’ve kinda fallen in love with how cool these Nerfs are and am now hesitant to mess about with them! They are so much better quality than the old dart guns I had access to as a kid and these ones even have “red dot targeting laser beams”! I will probably buy another 1 or 2 and keep these two to play with (I’ve been shooting darts at the light switches in my flat turning them on and off! – I know I’m a BIG KID!) I will have another think about this new hobby and I’ll get some paints and parts together and if I can make something decent I may even consider selling them. I’ll keep you all posted.

And for a little more on nostalgic NERF blasters please take the chance to check out my friend TheVintageToyAdvertiser’s post…https://thevintagetoyadvertiser.org/2020/08/11/nerf-its-nerf-or-nothin/ (Myself and Mrs T are thinking of you my friend, hope you are back to full force soon).

But that does wrap up this post, thank you so much for taking time to check it out. I hope you like “Coaxium Grandeur” and it lived up to the name. I still have many more new sabers (and maybe pistols) to show you in future so please be sure to call back and see what’s in store. You are an amazing community and I appreciate all of your support. So comment, like and subscribe if you like what you see here and please call back next week. Till Nerf Time….(next time!)

“Coaxium Grandeur” is a For Tyeth Editions design, built and rendered in Blender 3D. The 3D model and renders are Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. “NERF” and Nerf Firestrike” are Trademark/Copyright of Hasbro Toys and the product image belongs to Habro.