“Data Viewpad” with some secret plans!

Hello Everybody and welcome to this week’s post. Can you believe we are already at the end of January? Well after the excitement of seeing Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last week we return to the Star Wars universe for a new non saber prop build. As you know I might be carrying out a “Jedi Mission” as we speak (or am I?…Hm?) and I realised I needed a device of some sort to store my travel documents and mission briefing files on. I wanted something portable and secure and it was whilst watching an episode of The Clone Wars cartoon that I saw what I needed….a Data Viewpad!

Detective Tan Divo with a police issue Data Viewpad

The Data Viewpad was in an episode telling the story of a murder in the Senate which was investigated by Coruscant Detective Tan Divo. He was a sort of cross between Peter Lorrrreee and  Lieutenant Columbo. Now these devices are much like tablet computers found on Earth but these compact computers have many more uses and larger data storage capacity. But where to get one from? I had to look online for an Intergalactic Refurbishment Store. I checked what stock they had and found a reasonably priced Viewpad with one previous owner, so I bought it! This is what it looked like….

Unfortunately as you can see this Viewpad didn’t seem to have been wiped before I purchased it! What’s that on the display? Is it the plans for the….No it can’t be, can it? Only kidding this is actually the 3D model I made of a Viewpad, complete with screen and multiple control knobs plus a Trackball mouse controller. The device has two cylindrical handgrips, one either side that also incorporates the memory modules and can be removed and fitted with larger data storage capacity drives. The viewer also has a Data-Term connector on the top edge, similar to a Ribbon cable to connect this to any computer terminal to access it. This is a seriously powerful piece of equipment! Ok, I just have time to show you a few more pictures, so onto Gallery Two….

As I mentioned before this Viewpad has many functions apart from just storing and viewing data files. You can use it as a Comms device that sends/receives voice and data such as the Death Star plans… or it can be an entertainment media player so you can travel and watch your favourite Star Wars content over the Galactic Communication Grid (bit like the internet). The last picture shows a scene from last week’s episode of “The Bad Batch” and shows Tech using a similar Viewpad to analyse data from a Podrace to help him try and win a race.

Tech with a Viewpad (© Disney/LucasFilm)

So, as you can see this is a very trick piece of kit! I might even see if I can use Blender 3D on it….you never know it might work! Unfortunately what I can’t get this device to do is give me more time to type up longer posts! Yes as you might guess I am running short of time but before I go I’d like to give you an update on what I have in store for future posts. I have more Star Wars inspired builds including FOUR new starships, …there are new sabers too (one of which I designed for myself and a second that will pay tribute to the secret location of my mission). There are even some cartoon and animated movie tie-ins all coming very soon.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and my Data Viewpad , it was a fun build. I also want to say thank you for visiting today and giving me your support. Whether a first time viewer or regular visitor to FTSabersite you all motivate me to keep creating and it means a lot. Now I have to say bye and disappear so I can continue my Jedi duties…..Till next time…….

“Data Viewpad” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the portable datapads seen in the Star Wars franchise movies and cartoons. The original 3D model and renders were created in Blender 3D by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2023. “Star Wars”, “The Bad Batch”, “The Clone Wars” and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

“Speedster – Ronin” Edition – Inspired by Star Wars Visions

Hello Everybody and welcome to today’s post. I have another of my BARC Speederbike inspired models today and this time it has some custom artwork on it! I watched the Star Wars anime inspired show “Visions” and one of the best episodes was titled “Ronin” which centered around a lone, mysterious warrior with a red bladed katana lightsaber. He travelled the lands and stopped off at a village to have repairs done to his droid. However, the remnants of the evil Empire (?) arrived and attacked the village whilst demanding “rent monies”. The locals resisted and a skirmish broke out forcing the lone warrior to step in and defend the locals. That warrior was Ronin, for whom I recreated his saber in a previous post (you can view that post using this link: https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/2022/10/22/ronin-katana-inspired-by-the-traveller-warrior-in-star-wars-visions/). Ronin was a mix of a traditional Japanese Samurai and a Jedi but with a dark Sith looking set of robes (so we don’t truly know his status, either light side or dark side following). Ronin was very iconic and popular, featuring on the advert posters.

Ronin is the dark character at the bottom of this image and I thought he would feature higher up and more prominently. So I decided I would “promote” him and feature him on a Speedster…so here is the first of a set of custom speeder-bikes, this is Speedster-Ronin….

I had recently seen some examples of “Cameo” styled jewellery pendants that feature an oval panel with a carving of a facial portrait in the middle. I realised that those “Cameos” were a similar shape to some of the panels on my Speedster so I wondered, “Could I add Ronin’s image onto my bike on those elliptical parts?”. The answer was yes and I found Ronin’s image on the poster and felt that might look good applied as a custom hotrod style paint-job. The process involved selecting the areas I wanted to paint and creating a “secondary material” which was the poster image that I could position on top of the selected areas and paste the image on. Early on in my 3D modelling efforts I did use this technique to add logos and details (such as nameplates on my Knight Rider and Red Dwarf inspired sabers) but I never thought about using the trick to create hot-rod style decoration like this. I think it worked well. Anyhoo, too much chat…here is Gallery Two…..

I reckon this looks like a suitable mean machine street cruiser, and certainly has presence (I know I can sense it’s presence!). Jokes aside though I am afraid I will have to end this post shortly as life in Tyeth Towers is getting very busy as preparations for my “mission” intensifies…I am in the process of compiling TWELVE weeks of articles because I have no idea when I am going to be called into action or for how long….I have to be prepared for action. So that means I have more Speedster variants in the works, some “classical Rapiers with Claws”, oh yes and some more Katanas with claws…more Visions hilts, some original designs, more props….I think you get the message – I still have tons of projects to show to you! So I hope you will all call back to FTSabersite to check all of this out in future posts. (And I haven’t even listed everything…plus I am watching the new season of The Bad Batch so that might inspire me too!)

So for now I will have to end here but thank you all for checking out this Speedster design and for all the support you show me. Whether you are a new reader/viewer or one of my regular friends of this site all the comments and likes mean a lot to me. If you like what you see maybe you could subscribe if you aren’t already and tell your friends about FTSabersite. Thanks again, Till next time……

“Speedster – Ronin” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the BARC Speeder-bikes seen in Star Wars movies and cartoons. The “Speedster” design was created , built and rendered by For Tyeth in Blender 3D and all models/images are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2023. “Star Wars”, “Visons” and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm Ltd

Speedster – Hoth Edition – a real snowmobile!

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Uhura Queen of Comms” Saber – A tribute to Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols

nuqneH and welcome to the other franchise of the final frontier….Star Trek. Today I present my tribute to the actress and space pioneer Nichelle Nichols who portrayed Lt Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series (and the first six movies) and sadly passed away recently. It was the news of Nichelle’s passing and a conversation with my friend Resa (from Graffiti Lux and Murals – Link: https://graffitiluxandmurals.com/ ) about Star Trek, the Emmy’s and Nichelle’s role that prompted me to create a saber in Ms Nichol’s honour.

Nichelle was (and still is) THE Lt Uhura, communications officer from the original show and canon movies. Uhura however was very nearly named Lt Sulu but this was changed to help the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry achieve a diverse cast and George Takei’s character was named Sulu instead. Whilst reading for the part of Uhura, Nichelle had a book with her titled “Uhuru” by Robert Ruark. Uhuru means “freedom” in Swahili and when this was explained to Gene he adapted the word to “Uhura”. Lt Uhura first appeared in Star Trek in the episode titled “Man Trap” and joined the crew of the Enterprise as chief communications officer. OK, I think that will do as an introduction so I had best show you the saber I designed for Ms Nichols, this is “Uhura – Queen of Comms”…

With this saber I tried to capture the physical appearance of Uhura (sort of) in a similar way that I recreated Robocop with my “Pacifier” design. The saber is the same red colour as Uhura’s Starfleet uniform and even has the same black trim around the emitter to represent the collar design, whilst there is gold trim to signify her rank insignia bands on the sleeves. The emitter has nice slotted windows to allow the blade to shine through. The emitter is also contoured to provide grip and adds a bit of curve to the handle. There are slight bulges on either side of the hilt to replicate arms and you can see the gold trim on the “sleeves”. Of course all Starfleet uniforms must have the famous Federation emblem and so too does this hilt and the emblem also doubles as the saber’s activation switch. This emblem is 3D modelled and not just a graphic pasted on. Alright, I had best quickly move on to Gallery Two as I have a special “extra” later in this post so here are some detail pictures…..

Now you can clearly see the details I mentioned already but in these shots you can see the Covertech Wheel which is used to hang the saber on your belt, but also around the bottom of the handgrip you can see further gold trim and the handgrip appears slightly misshapen. The saber isn’t misshapen, I intentionally created a flared edge to make the bottom of the handgrip look like the hemline of Uhura’s uniform skirt. Below that there are sections to represent her legs and finally her black boots form the pommel end cap with the orange/gold rings in the pommel opening. These rings reminded me of Uhura’s earrings, those classic 60’s style hooped designs.

Uhura and Nichelle herself were both great communicators and inspirational. Nichelle was one of the first African American actresses to appear as a main character and had many fans including Martin Luther King Jr, who once spoke with Nichelle when she considered leaving the show and convinced her to stay aboard the Enterprise because she was such a positive role model. Uhura travelled space but as far as I know Nichelle never made it into space but was approached by NASA to be an ambassador to try and encourage more women and ethnic minority applicants to join the Air Force and NASA. So Nichelle was sort of an honourary astronaut! And because Nichelle and Uhura were such great communicators I thought “what else can I do to make this tribute extra poignant?” The answer….I created Uhura’s iconic communications desk earpiece! Here is Gallery Three with the comlink earpiece….

The first photo shows an actual studio prop of the earpiece to compare with my recreation. I did tweak the angled earbud section slightly so it would be more sturdy and I added a small plunger button on the earbud to allow Uhura to activate it as she held the comlink in place. Otherwise I think this is fairly close to the original prop.

And that just about ends this message and post, I hope I have done both Lt Uhura and Ms Nichols justice with this design. I also hope my friend and fellow Trekkie fan Nancy enjoyed this post as she just posted an article about the 40th anniversary of Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. You might like to see that on her blog Graphic Novelty² (link: https://graphicnovelty2.com/ ).

I’d like to thank you all for checking this post out and for all the support you give me and my little site. All the kind words and comments are much appreciated, Please call back for future posts as I conclude my Katana saber series, I complete my Mad Max collection and finish off with some “new” Star Wars vehicle models. Till next time……Live long and prosper……

“Uhura Queen of Comms Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions creation inspired by Nichelle Nichols and Lt Nyota Uhura from CBS/Paramount’s Star Trek franchise. The saber design, models and renders were created by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. Star Trek and all names, logos, images and related materials are Trademark and ©Copyrights of Desiluu Productions, and Paramount Television Pictures.

“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.