The Order of Knighthood Rapier lightsaber by PsychoSith

Hello Everybody….yes I am still here! As some may know last Saturday I had another “Technical Issue” but I was able to re-install Windows (4th time since February) and I seem to have the latest build available and it is now updated. This means I have the privilege of bring a long awaited new saber from my friend PsychoSith from the lightsaber forum I frequent.

As some may remember PsychoSith is a fantastic artist (though he doesn’t think so due to being very modest) and creates fabulous pencil and ink pictures of lightsabers. He designs hilts for characters in his own Fan Fiction stories he writes and for other members of the forum. (You can see his work here: http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=41788.0 and here: https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/tag/psychosith-sabers/) He even drew a gorgeous version of my Thor inspired “Asguard” saber. Well his latest design is called “The Order of Knighthood” and has a ceremonial look and feel to it and rightly so, it attracted a lot of compliments and then the requests for me to make a 3D render of it flowed in. So I didn’t want to disappoint and set to work. Here is the first gallery showing Psycho’s awesome drawing and my wireframe tests…

The artwork is again beautiful but I had a bit of difficulty interpreting what the handgrip actually consisted of, it looked like it had lots of “octopus style” suction cups but I decided to go with a “Grenade Grip” with raised blocks. I did manage to recreate the pommel fairly closely and the crystal fixture looked pretty good. However I had a BIG challenge in replicating the guards over the handgrip. Unfortunately I only had one sideways on image to work from so I couldn’t tell that the guard was meant to be a curved plate and it looked like two curved rods. So I modelled the guards as two sweeping bars that form a sort of cage or “whiskers”. I was fairly pleased so far so I sent Psycho a few test renders, here they are in gallery two…

I was so pleased when Psycho replied and said he liked the guards – they were something he hadn’t considered and they made the hilt less bulky. He also asked if I could add a bit more colour in the form of a few gold accents and so I worked on the tweaks. Here are a few more pictures with the added bling, switch and blades….

Again, I felt this hilt was coming together nicely so I saved copies of the files up to my cloud storage (luckily!) and sent the new renders for approval. Psycho once more liked the updates and we sort of ended the conversation there but I still felt there was a few things I could add. So I placed an etch above the switch, modified the crystal feature and worked on a second colour scheme. I will be honest, the etch in the following pictures isn’t the original image I carved into the hilt. Sadly I lost that image file when my laptop glitched on Saturday and so I have had to quickly add a new graphic and render these over the past 2-3 days. I think it still works ok, here are more pics!…..

You may notice that the crystal feature “disappeared” but don’t worry it is just the modification I made so that the crystal is housed safely in the handgrip during use but can spring open to have it displayed (or make alterations to it’s settings). The etch sort of works still but could be sharper but I was pushed for time.

Have you had enough pictures? Of course not! I mentioned I made a second colour scheme so here is a final gallery of the Sith variant for the Dark Side followers…

I am seriously thinking of making a third version of this hilt in black and gold but with a Jedi green blade for myself! I really like this hilt, so much so I wish I had come up with the design. Thankfully PsychoSith sort of lets me share!

Well that just about brings this post to an end and I hope you like this rather elegant offering. I’d like to thank PsychoSith for allowing me to share his talents with you all. It very nearly didn’t happen but I am determined to keep blogging and posting no matter what “issues” I suffer. I will say I have lost some of my files that I was in the process of uploading to the “cloud” once again but have enough I saved to last a few weeks. Hopefully you will call back to check out what I have left to display while I work on building more new sabers.

So thank you for checking out this awesome PsychoSith saber and for supporting me and my site. Whether this is your first visit or if you are a regular caller, you’re all very much appreciated. Till next time…..

“The Order of Knighthood” saber is a PsychoSith Sabers design, modelled in 3D by For Tyeth. All the artwork here including the sketches, design, 3D model and renders are ©Copyright of PsychoSith Sabers and For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2020.

Beskar Breaker Saber – A PsychoSith design

Hello Everybody and welcome to today’s post. As I was rummaging round my warehouse last week I also discovered another fantastic design from my friend PsychoSith of the Ultrasaber’s forum. On this forum he posts what he calls his “Saber Doodles” – some fantastic pencil and charcoal sketches of lightsabers. Psycho is very modest about his art but he has great talent (as you can see from this post HERE ) and this saber I am about to show you is another example of his imagination. Psycho designed this as a a Zweihander or two handed sword as used in Europe, but Psycho envisaged this as a saber that could destroy objects and sabers made of Beskar! It is a large powerful weapon…..here are a few pictures…

PsychoSith’s Saber Doodle

A short “Shoto” version

These pictures show Psycho’s picture he posted on the forum and immediately you can see the hilt is a beast with a crossguard design and a second crossguard below the main blades. The word Zweihander translates as “Two-hander” and you’d need both hands to wield this weapon. The second picture is a test design of a slightly smaller version of the hilt for people that would struggle with the full size Beskar Breaker. But you want to see some Glamour Shots right? OK here you go I just happen to have a few….

PsychoSith’s Beskar Breaker 1

PsychoSith’s Beskar Breaker 2

PsychoSith’s Beskar Breaker 3

PsychoSith’s Beskar Breaker 4

PsychoSith’s Beskar Breaker 5

PsychoSith’s Beskar Breaker 6

In these pictures you really get to see all the little details that PsychoSith included in his design that made such a big difference! The aggressively knurled handgrip with trigger activation switch bar, the heavyweight pommel, the imposing crossguards and finally the menacing blazing red blades. Now I always think that a picture is good but a video is better, right? Alright here is a small animation I produced (and because this thing is so huge I just managed a few rotations before I tired myself out trying to swing it about!)….

Hopefully this video will have given you an indication of just how big this saber is…it is a beautiful big beast! i want to thank PsychoSith for sharing this design and allowing me to post it here. I hope to add a couple more of his designs in future (and I already have a Shoto version lined up to show you). But this just about wraps up this post.

I have been busy looking for inspiration and I have a few new sabers to post in the upcoming weeks including a few curved hilts with a regal feel and a couple of sabers inspired by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s classic saber from A New Hope. And I hope you will all return to see those. I will now thank you all as I always do, you’re support for me and my site is amazing and keeps me designing and posting. Whether you are a first time visitor or a regular reader/viewer then thank you very much, you are appreciated. Till next time…..

“Beskar Breaker Saber” is a PsychoSith Sabers design and is used here with permission. “Beskar Breaker Saber” and “PsychoSith Sabers” are Copyright of PsychoSith (member of the Ultrasaber’s forum – SaberForum.com ). The Blender 3D model and animation were created by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2020. 

PsychoSith Saber’s “Asgardr” – Art inspired by one of my designs!

Hello Everybody to a rare midweek post! And it is for very good reason I am sharing this with you all as I have been honoured with a magnificent accolade. My friend and fellow saber designer PsychoSith has produced some artwork inspired by my Thor crossguard lightsaber “Asguard”. You will recall I 3D modeled PsychoSith’s fantastic drawing called “The Durasteel Dove” and Psycho decided to return the honour and drew a set of sketches of my “New Asguard Saber” hilt. So here is the set of images Psycho sent to me….

PsychoSith’s “Asgardr” hilt

PyschoSith’s full artworl

PychoSith’s Guardian warrior 1

PychoSith’s Guardian warrior 2

I was absolutely speechless when I saw the finished product. Psycho had sent me a sneak peek when he asked if I minded him attempting to recreate one of my hilts but it was just an initial pencil sketch….I had no idea he would go to town and produce a full Bayeux Tapestry style artwork! His attention to detail is phenomenal, from the gold accents around the emitters and pommel, to the Celtic Knot activation switch and then the most difficult part…the scroll work etching! I found it difficult to replicate etching and I used a computer design package but Psycho drew the pattern on the handgrip by HAND! The Guardian warrior on the right of the image even has the hilt in his hands and the saber is complete with the Electric Lightning blue blades. As if all of this wasn’t enough take a look at those robes….and as a final finishing touch Psycho even mimicked the typeface font lettering I use for my labels and watermark!

I would have been honoured just by this token of appreciation but it goes much deeper than that as the “Asguard” hilt design (click HEREto see the original post) is the very same one I modeled but my laptop crashed and wiped the files so I lost it. I had one single image of the hilt that I later discovered had backed up to another file hosting site I use. That image is here:

Original Asguard Saber

So in a way Psycho has gifted me with my most treasured design that I partially lost. I intend to get this art transferred onto a canvas frame when I can afford it so I can hang it in my flat.

So for a final time (here at least) I wish to say an enormous thank you to Psycho, my friend, you are a true gentleman…and truly a talented artist!

Thank you also to all of you, my viewers, for checking this awesome artwork out and for all the support you have shown me and PsychoSith, whether you are a first time visitor or one of my regulars you’re all very much appreciated. I hope you will return this weekend for my usual weekly post, I think I might post my Kenobi tribute design. And it has a few surprising variants! Till next time….

“Asgardr” is an artwork produced by PsychoSith/PsychoSith Sabers and is a ©Copyrighted work of PsychoSith 2019. “Asgardr” is used here with permission. All content including original designs, images and material are covered by ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.

Altenweg II Saber -a PsychoSith Sabers design

Hello Everybody, today as promised last week, I am pleased to welcome back my friend PsychoSith with his second saber design. This amazing saber was the inspiration for my Altenweg Shoto hilts I posted last week. PsychoSith as you may know is a fantastic artist with a great eye for details when designing hilts and this one is no exception. He posted this image on the Ultrasabers’ forum and it caught everybody’s attention…

The members of the forum were very impressed and one member commented they’d be interested to see how it looked as a full model and hinted that I build a 3D model of it. To be honest I was already working on doing just that so I could present some renders to PsychoSith as a gift so he could see his creation in three dimensions. Now, PsychoSith’s image is a flat side on view so there was a lot of  details absent (such as how thick certain parts were or was the hilt symmetrical or asymmetric) so I had to use some artistic license and make assumptions based on other designs. But I came up with a model and created some basic “studio shots” of it. Here they are…

Altenweg II studio picture 1

Altenweg II studio picture 2

Altenweg II studio picture 3

Altenweg II studio picture 4

Not too bad from one image! I had just learnt a new 3D modeling technique called “Face Poking”, yes that is it’s name, which allows a model part to be subdivided into smaller surfaces or “faces” and each face is assigned a “vertex point”. This point can be moved in virtual space so that the flat surface is then stretched up to form a pyramid shape. I divided the lower handgrip in this way and “face poked” the smaller surfaces and when those surfaces where stretched they formed the textured grip! However, it was the foregrip that I really liked and it had a beautiful scalloped cutaway to reveal the lightsaber blade within it. In PsychoSith’s sketch you can make out what appears to be some etching or panels embossed into the grip so I used the same trick I used on my Thor inspired “New Asguard Saber” to etch a tribal pattern into the underside of the hilt. it was whilst modeling this section I realised that it would make a nice saber in it’s own right. Other details include an emitter within the foregrip which is visible when the hilt is turned off and the activation switch is actually an elongated “Trigger” switch you can see on the textured lower handgrip. Now I think it’s time for a few proper “Glamour Shots” and take the hilt for a “spin”…

Altenweg II picture 1

Altenweg II picture 2

Altenweg II picture 3

Altenweg II picture 4 (Note the second emitter port)

Altenweg II picture 5 (Hm, I could make a saber from this!)

You will have noticed the saber now has a red blade and looks much more metallic! The saber had the metallic material in the studio pictures but there was nothing to reflect on it’s surface, so appeared matte, however using a background image the saber is shown in much better lighting and the metal reflects the surrounding image making it look more realistic. All in all I think PsychoSith did a fabulous job on creating this hilt.

And that I think just about covers this second offering from PsychoSith. I’d like to thank him for allowing me to share his work with you all here and I hope to post even more of his saber here in future. I will also be posting more of my own designs too of course along with my “Master Series” (inspired by fan favourite sabers). I also have that pair of hilts for the “Mysterious Character” from The Rise of Skywalker…and I may be honouring another YouTuber with a hilt! So a lot more to come in future posts. I hope you will return to see them, but for now thank you so much for visiting today, whether this is your first visit or you’re a regular, you’re very much appreciated…..Till next time……

(Phew, I nearly ran out of breath listing all of that ^^)

“Altenweg II Saber” is a PsychoSith Sabers design and is ©Copyright of PsychoSith Sabers. The Blender 3D model and animation are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.

Altenweg Shoto and Darkshoto – Inspired by PsychoSith’s Altenweg II

Hello Everybody, I hope you all enjoyed my debut art collection last week. It gave me time to work on some animations for my upcoming hilts and I also managed to come up with a new design inspired by my friend PsychoSith’s “Altenweg II” saber he sketched a few months ago and posted on Ultrasabers’ SaberForum.com (I will be posting Altenweg II next week!). And this new hilt is a weapon known as a Shoto, which is a slightly smaller one handed saber used mainly for defense to block attacks while you use your main weapon to attack.

There was a section of Altenweg II that I loved and that was the handgrip with a scalloped cutout. I thought that part would make an awesome body for a hilt in itself so I set to work and built an emitter and pommel for it. Now the reason I liked the cutout was that I imagined the cutout would allow the internals of the saber to show and so I added a crystal chamber. The saber took shape nicely with sweeping lines and looked a little bit like this…

In this Wireframe image you can just make out the chamber sat within the cutout. The saber also has the “Choke Point” which is the thin neck that connects the emitter to the body. The pommel is made to mirror the emitter as I used the outer shroud of the emitter and shortened it slightly to form the part. I also added a neat three dimensional speaker/ventilation grille in the pommel. There is also some nice accenting ridges and colours on the hilt but you can’t tell that from a wireframe can you? You want to see some “Glamour Shots”…OK here are a few pictures….

Alrenweg Shoto Hilt

Alrenweg Shoto Emitter mouth

Alrenweg Shoto reverse view

Alrenweg Shoto Top view

Alrenweg Shoto Pommel with Grille

Alrenweg Shoto Crystal Chamber

I was quite pleased how this hilt turned out and I felt the lines swept nicely from the tip of the emitter to the tail of the pommel. I achieved this by using the emitter shroud as the pommel but I also shortened it slightly and rotated it 180 degrees so it was “upside down”. This created the illusion of an elongated “S” shape if drawn from the tip of the emitter to the end of the pommel. Careful inspection of the pommel also reveals my 3D grille I modeled for the speaker/cooling vent. The scalloped cutout from PsychoSith’s hilt perfectly houses my crystal chamber and switch section. And on the emitter and pommels I added raised ridges with a contrasting colour which I felt help define the sweeping lines. And as I have been tinkering with animations I thought why not produce a quick 360 degree animation of the hilt. (Again it is short as I am limited in how long these clips can be – but when I have time I am working on some special animations which are coming soon) Here is the Altenweg Shoto 360…

I also discovered that this hilt would make a good looking “Darkside” version too so I built a “DarkShoto” hilt with a reverse colour scheme and Sith red crystal and blade. And as I am an “equal opportunities” type person and believes in balance of all things I guess I had better post the “DarkShoto” pictures too…here are a few more “Glamour Shots”…

Altenweg DarkShoto hilt

Altenweg DarkShoto reverse view

Altenweg DarkShoto top view

I really think this hilt has a good balance of elegance and evil! It still manages to look good despite it’s evil intentions, plus piano black and silver is a classic colour combo. While I built this version I figured I might as well give it the 360 treatment as well so here is another quick clip, this time of Altenweg DarkShoto…

This clip shows the hilt from a slightly different angle which caught my attention to a detail that led me to produce a THIRD version of this design. But I will save that one for another post as it is inspired by and connected to a particular “watery” Star Wars character! I seem to be very busy with all these hilts.

I think that just about wraps up this post and I hope you enjoyed it. I have to thank PsychoSith for his original  saber which triggered this design. He is a great artist and I have more PS sabers coming soon (Alltenweg II of course next week). I also have a whole pipeline of sabers to show in the next few months including my KOTOR/SWToR inspired sabers, there is my “Mystery Guest” hilts which I teased last week with the “Colour Cube”, and if that isn’t enough I have my “Master Series” models to showcase! Speaking of which…

I hope you will return to see all of this and maybe more in future posts but for now thank you so much for all the support of myself and FTSabersite. You are all very much appreciated and please continue to comment, like and spread the word about the site. Till next time….

“Altenweg Shoto” and “Altenweg DarkShoto” are “For Tyeth Editions” designs inspired by PsychoSith Sabers’ “Altenweg II” copyrighted design. All “For Tyeth Editions” are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.

The Durasteel Dove by PsychoSith Sabers – A new guest contributor!

Hello everybody and welcome to a big day on this site. The reason it is such a momentous day is that I have the honour and privilege of introducing a Guest Designer! As I have mentioned I belong to the Ultrasabers forum and on that website are a group of very enthusiastic and, in the case of my Guest today, talented individuals. My guest uses the forum name of PsychoSith and  he is a talented artist but PS is a wizard with pencil, paper and tons of sketching skill. PS designs and sketches lightsabers and has a real eye for designing interesting hilts with lots of neat details. He then posts his work in a gallery on the forum and always receives well deserved praise. One hilt that PsychoSith came up with was a very distinctive saber with four aggressive looking claws and spines yet the hilt was named “The Durasteel Dove” and here are the sketches that PS posted…

PsychoSith’s Durasteel Dove Sketch

The Durasteel Dove Isometric view

This saber caught the attention of the forum members and rightly so. They loved it and so do I. It was here that things started to get interesting….as both PS and I designed sabers but in different mediums, one member commented he’d be interested to see what the “Dove” would look like if I modelled it in Blender. PS kindly commented that he liked my work and would be  intrigued to see that too. So we chatted and I offered to do my best on building a Blender replica of his hilt. I was apprehensive because I had to do the design justice but was determined. At first I only had the first image to work from (the top down view) and not the Isometric/perspective view but I managed to block out a base model. And it looked a bit like this…

Durasteel Dove studio build 1

Durasteel Dove studio build 2

Durasteel Dove studio build 3

As you can see I made not just one version but three in total as I couldn’t quite work out the shape of the shroud plates that circled the emitter. At first it appeared to have four spines, but then on closer inspection the spines formed a “V” shaped cutout but that wasn’t possible as the spines were spaced too far apart. So I built new shroud plates but again it didn’t look “right”. Then PS kindly sketched the Isometric image that showed the shroud much clearer and after a quick chat I came up with the final version. This version was much closer, and here are the Glamour Shots….

Durasteel Dove final build 1

Durasteel Dove final build 2

Durasteel Dove final build 3

Durasteel Dove final build 4

Durasteel Dove final build (the top down view)

As PsychoSith sketches in pencil and ink, I had no colour or material references to work from except for his fantastic shading/shadowing. As a result I opted for a grimy silver and brass look to fit with PS’s backstory for the hilt’s history. It was well used and worn in places, having been handed down through several owners. Each person added their own touch to the hilt. I used a silver texture with a distortion pattern mixed into it to create dirt/grime effects. The material also complimented the orange blade. And the blade which has the colour of molten Durasteel  is now surrounded by four really distinct claw shrouds. The shrouds have a kinked spike and then the shroud widens with small tabs to surround the emitter cone. The shrouds also have inlaid panels stretching down their length. The large X-Guard claws have battle damage and feature chipped edges, while the handgrip/body has a broken lanyard chain that would have looped to the pommel cap. Now complete I offered it to PS to check out. In the meantime I also produced a few “arty posters” for the design…

Durasteel Dove poster 1

Durasteel Dove poster 2

I am so pleased and honoured to say that PychoSith approved of my efforts and posted the pictures on the forum and they created quite a stir with the other members, PsychoSith’s Dove had come to life off the page! It is absolutely beautiful and I kinda wish I had designed it…but I did get to build it so had a little hand in it’s conception! And so this is how the collaboration between PS and myself came about and it has been a pleasure working with him.

If you would like to see more of PsychoSith’s awesome art (and it is art in the real sense of the word) then you can visit the Ultrasabers forum and his gallery pages by clicking the link HERE . You will be amazed by his skill with a 6B pencil.

I’d like to thank PsychoSith for allowing me to display his hilt here it is an honour and I’m pleased to say that there will be more of his designs coming in future posts in the Guest Designer gallery! However this just about wraps up this offering and I just need to thank you my viewers and followers for checking this post out. Your support as always is much appreciated and I hope you will return to see future posts…there is so much more in the pipeline! Till next time…

“The Durasteel Dove” is a PychoSith Sabers design and is ©Copyright of PychoSith Sabers used here with permission, FTSabersite and all it’s content including Guest Designer contributions are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.