TIE Defender Elite version two – “SkyStrike”

Hello Everybody and welcome. Can you believe we are nearly a third of the way through 2023? I guess I can’t waste much time so had best showcase this week’s offering. This time I have the TIE Defender Elite that I brought to you a while back but this time it is in the colours of the Skystrike Academy. The Skystrike Academy was sort of like the Empire’s version of “TopGun” where the best of the best new pilots went to train. The facility was commanded by Commander Vult Skerris, who I introduced you to in the original post in which I debuted the Defender. (You can view it using this link: https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/2023/03/04/tie-defender-elite-skerris-a-recreation-of-the-galactic-empires-new-tie-fighter/) Skerris’ was given command of the academy and he flew a Defender with red markings to denote his superiority whilst his cadets had yellow trimmed ships. This yellow banded version also became the colours adopted by Defender Squadron One when the cadets passed their resting and entered service. So this offering is really a repaint of my “Skerris” red version, but I thought you might like to see it, plus I have more of my travel pics for later, so here is Gallery One…

The changes are subtle, but when in space the yellow actually shows up more than the red paint on Skerris’ personal ship so these ships were easier to spot. Skerris was ruthless and hated the Rebellion, so used whatever tactics he could to achieve victory – unfortunately this was accompanied by an arrogant and rule-breaking attitude. Skerris would even fire on damaged or unarmed vehicles if it meant another victim for his logbook. His student pilots weren’t so aggressive and regularly incurred Skerris’ wrath in dressing downs when they failed missions. Anyhoo, I had best show you the close up detail pictures and bring you the Glamour Shot gallery, enjoy…

In the end Skerris came to a sticky ending whilst pursuing some Rebel targets when he was hit by friendly fire launched from Grand Admiral Thrawn’s ship. Thrawn attempted to stop Hera Syndula from escaping but Skerris wanted the kill for himself and wouldn’t retreat. His ship was caught in the crossfire and partially disabled but Syndula’s was less so and Hera was able to fire upon the unshielded Skerris and make her escape to hyperspace. Skerris and his ship were destroyed but Defender Squadron One continued.

And talking of things continuing it’s time to showcase my next batch of travel pics from my mission down under! Last week I posted pics of Mt Ruapeha and the SkyWaka gondola and I mentioned some other nearby landmarks that I visited. First I went underground when I visited the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. These caves were mesmerising – to get into the main caverns you had to travel through a cave corridor formed by the flowing water passing through over thousands of years (Wai in Maori translates as “water” whilst Tomo translates to “hole” hence Waitomo is called “Waterhole”). The corridor was made of a limestone like rock and there were rock formations known as Stalagmites and Stalactites, making the the corridors look like the catacombs of Geonosis (seriously). Sadly though I couldn’t get photos because the caves have some creatures living in them that were sensitive to bright lights (so photography was banned) …Glow Worms! The worms lived by dangling on the ends of the roof formations and emitting a neon-like blue glow to attract food which they catch on a sticky silk line they extend . The worms pupate and the “insect” that hatches give birth to the next generation. We passed through these caves in boats powered by our guide pulling on ropes. The views were out of this world, especially when a large batch of worms were gathered – it looked like a starfield inside a cave! I did manage to get a few pics outside the cave and the chalet complex I stayed in that night…

I also mentioned last week a place named Lake Taupo which could be seen from the top of the gondola ride on Mt Ruapeha. This lake was 23km away but could still be seen easily and I took a boat trip on it….which was interesting! The boat captain gave his commentary during which he told us some disturbing news…the lake actually fills the top of an active volcano crater! And it was overdue to erupt by 1600 years…but the risk was worth going out onto the water for as there was a hidden treasure on the island in the middle of the lake….

The first pic shows the approach road to Lake Taupo which my relative described as a “small lake”….turns out that the lake is so big that the whole of Singapore could be built in it’s footprint (and remember this is an active volcanic crater!). The lake even has it’s own horizon on which you can see the curvature of the planet’s surface, it is that vast…but on that horizon was a lone island which had a surprise…massive Maori rock carvings! The carvings were beautiful and could only be seen by boat. The sculptor erected scaffolding made from tree trunks and carved representations of a face that has facial markings which told his family history. But this carving isn’t small by any means as this last picture shows with me in the foreground…

And that I’m afraid is about all the time I have for today. I really hope you liked the repainted TIE Defender (I know it was basic but I made up for that with travel pics😎). Thank you so much for calling in and checking this post out, all the support you give is much appreciated. So please call back next week when I will have a new design and more of my adventures. Till next time….

“TIE Defender Elite – SkyStrike” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the ship seen in Star Wars Rebels. The design, 3D models and renders were created by For Tyeth in Blender 3D and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2023. “Star Wars Rebels” and all other names, images, logos and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm ltd.

“Chopper V2 Saber” – Time for an upgrade!

Hello Everybody and welcome to today’s offering. Recently Star Wars Celebration, the travelling SW convention took place in London and all the big news about upcoming shows and movies etc was made public. Well there was news about the Ahsoka Tano live action series and that brought about speculation about other characters and one name popped up, that of Hera Syndula that appeared in Star Wars Rebels as the owner/captain of the ship The Ghost. I thought “hm…I haven’t done any Rebels inspired stuff for a while so how about if I did another saber or two?” The problem was I have already built a saber for Hera which you can see here> (https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/2020/09/19/syndulla-a-saber-for-hera/) and I have built hilts for Zeb, Kanan and Ezra too. I even built a lightsaber inspired by Chopper, Hera’s Astromech…then I realised that his saber was done many years ago using the old software and looked like this:

Realising how old this design is now (and that Saberforge who offered the old software and ASP system no longer support it) I felt I had to redesign and build a new saber for ol’ Chopper! So I have….here is the new updated “Chopper V2″…

This saber I designed to be a “Shoto” or a saber that is held in your non dominant hand as a defensive weapon, alongside your main regular sized hilt in your main hand. Because Chopper is er, slightly shorter than most Astromechs he kinda suited the role of a Shoto! I again as with all my “droid inspired” builds tried to include as many little details as possible. From the chromed eye socket parts, to the LED bargraph lights on the side of his dome (which also has the antenna dish on top which is removable to allow the blade to extend), all the way down to the panelling and access doors. I even 3D modelled his spanner shaped arm appendage (which I then curved to fit his shape). I did however leave a couple of panels out that were situated at the lower half of his bodywork so I could fit in the handgrip portion of the hilt Anyhoo, enough chatting…here is Gallery Two featuring the glamour shots and details…

I feel this updated “Chopper Saber” looks even more like it’s inspiration, I’m just apologising that it took me so long to realise the fact it needed refreshing. Hopefully this is a worthy inclusion into my Astromech collection. And now….onto other news and more from my trip to Mordor…I mean New Zealand! Last week I posted an image of me with a Skywaka…no, not Luke Skywalker but the Mt Ruapehu Skywaka gondola ride! Early on in my trip I got to visit this attraction and it was stunning, even at the start of New Zealand’s autumn/fall (meaning there was less snow). But how could you not be impressed by a cable-car ride upto 2020m and which has a length of over 1.8km! The ride takes 12 minutes to reach the summit and the views are incredible and for good reason…Mt Ruapehu is an ACTIVE volcano (having erupted in 2006 and 07)! Though my Kiwi relative didn’t tell me that beforehand 🤨. From the summit you could see all the other peaks in the area. To get to the site however requires a drive down (or is that up?) State Highway 48 and what a drive that is too. Here are a few pics…

The first two pics show just how BIG Mt Ruapehu is (well it is the largest volcano in the Tongariro National Park) and a building that looks like a Swiss chalet style house, which is in fact an exclusive hotel. The gondola ride itself is as stated 1.8km long and carries you up to the Knoll Ridge Chalet (a restaurant and viewing point) in one of 48 carriages. On a day like I visited on you can see to the horizons. You can even see another fascinating landmark called Lake Taupo which is 23km away but I’ll chat about Taupo in an upcoming post. Oh yes…I mentioned Mordor? Well, Mt Ruapehu is sorta part of Middle Earth as Peter Jackson filmed bits of the Rings trilogy films on it’s slopes (namely scenes for Mordor and Mount Doom).

And sadly that is all the time I have and I need to end this post. I hope you enjoyed Chopper’s upgrades…they were well overdue, And I hope you enjoy what you see on FTSabersite in general. I want to thank you all for visiting and supporting me and the site, it means a great deal to me that folks like what I do and keeps me inspired to create more. So whether you are a regular caller here or this is your first trip to FTSabersite, please call back for future posts a I have much more to come. Till next time….

“Chopper V2 Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the droid character “Chopper” seen in Star Wars Rebels. The 3D design, models and renders were created by For Tyeth in Blender 3D and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2023. “Star Wars Rebels”, ” Chopper”and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm ltd.

“The Last of the Lasat” Saber – inspired by Zeb Orrelius

Hello Everybody, today we return to my series of Star Wars Rebels inspired hilts and I have a saber for another member of the crew of the starship The Ghost. I have built sabers for Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, Sabine Wren, Chopper the droid and I present a hilt for the final member of the Spectres…Zeb Orrelius. Zeb is a member of the Lasat species and was a member of the Lasan Honour Guard, protecting the Lasat royal family. Then the Empire arrived on the planet of Lasan and using a new devastating laser weapon wiped out all of the natives save for a handful of Lasan including Zeb. He believed he was the sole survivor and developed a deep seated hatred of the Empire, inspiring him to join the fight against the galactic tyranny. With his Bo-Rifle (a powerful folding weapon synonymous with the Lasan Honour Guard) he caused problems for the Imperials until he crossed paths with the rest of the crew of the Ghost. Zeb became the “muscle” for the rebel Ghost crew…not surprising when you see how imposing he is. Here’s a picture of him…

©Disney/Lucasfilm

So if I was to design a hilt for this big guy…it has to be powerful and impressive. Well I was tinkering as I do and had started to build a hilt – I had a handgrip and switch – it was going well. Then I came to build the emitter and let’s say I had a “happy little accident” and adjusted the shape of the emitter forgetting that it was still connected to the rest of the handle. In Blender you can either build the saber as if carving it on a woodworking lathe – you have a cylinder and “work” it into the shape you want by using loops and adjusting their size or using the second method, you break the handle into sections and then connect the parts to form one solid hilt. I forgot which method I was using and when I attempted to ”thicken” the outer shell of the emitter the “Solidify” function affected the handgrip too. However it created an interesting effect and combined with the texture colours made this saber look very much as if it belonged to Zeb. So here is my new saber, “The Last of the Lasat”….

The saber features some very organic looking ridges which are the result of the Solidify function I used. I had modelled some angled finger grips with rings but when I added “thickness” to the model it duplicated the rings causing them to form the ridges. They looked just like the dark markings on Zeb’s head and body whilst the emitter sorta reminded me of the tufted beard he sports. The blade is a pleasing yellow colour – similar to the colour of the nebula that surrounded a strange planet Zeb visited after the conflicts ended (more on this later). The pommel is made from a regular cog shaped part which I thickened again with the Solidify tool. I added the blade and an activation switch to finish the saber. I was interested to see how the saber performed so I took it to a local cave where I do my testing, here are a few Glamour Shots…

The saber was powerful enough to cut through rocks and boulders, matching Zeb’s strength so I think he’ll be able to handle it. I mentioned earlier a strange planet Zeb visited after the Empire was defeated, well that planet turned out to be the sanctuary where the fellow survivors of the Lasat race fled to. Zeb discovered he wasn’t the last of his kind as he had believed for so long and he found this out because of another person we have met recently. That person was Agent Kallus or Fulcrum as he had become. Agent Kallus was the Imperial agent that led the devastating attack on Lasan, he then had an encounter with Zeb on an Ice planet where each began to rely on the other to escape. A bond was formed and when Kallus learnt of the survivors he visited and earned the trust of group when they realised he had redeemed himself. Kallus then delivered Zeb to the new home world of the Lasat race. A happy ending….

That just about wraps up this hilt for Zeb…not the last of his kind…Orrelius. I hope you liked it. I was amazed how it turned out considering the way it came from a mishap! However I still have over half a dozen new hilts and starship designs to bring you and maybe a few bits of artwork. Please call back for future posts and check out what’s in store, but for now thank you so much for the support and for visiting today. All of your views, likes and comments make it worthwhile me creating and I much appreciate you all. Till next time….

“The Last of the Lasat” saber is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by Zeb Orrelius, featured in Star Wars Rebels. The lightsaber 3D model and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2020. “Zeb Orrelius”, “Star Wars:Rebels” and all other names, images, logos and related material are Trademark/’©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

“Dume” Saber – Inspired by Lothal’s Wolf

Hello Everybody hope you’re all doing well. Today we are returning to Star Wars Rebels and the naval shipbuilding planet of Lothal for a new saber. This saber is not based on the ships that are built on the planet but on one of it’s creatures, the Lothwolf. These mystical animals appear throughout later episodes of Rebels and are a sort of “Force Guide” or “Force Spirits” – and one has a connection to the former Jedi Kanaan Jarrus. Whenever Ezra Bridger, Kanaan’s padawan or the crew of The Ghost get into difficulties the wolves seem to appear and lend a paw to help the heroes out – and usually in a spectacular way. The Lothwolf, though rarely seen looks like this…

They are canine in appearance but are MUCH larger in size being large enough for Ezra, Hera Syndula, Sabine and Zeb to actually ride on their backs. And in one episode the heroes were stranded on one side of Lothal but needed to get to the opposite side of the planet quickly. The wolves appeared and indicated that the heroes should climb on and ride to their friend’s location. However, as the wolves began to run and gather speed, their surroundings blurred and warped causing the heroes to partially lose their senses. When they came back to full consciousness the group discovered they were in fact on the far side of the planet….apparently the wolves had carried the heroes THROUGH the planet! That is some serious Force ability! So knowing this I set to work on a saber inspired by these creatures…

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These studio wireframe images show some very complex modelling on the handgrip – this was to replicate a very distinct feature of the Lothwolf. The feature was most visible on one special wolf, the leader of the pack which was named DUME and here is a gallery of images showing DUME and the saber…

The saber is a monochrome white and black to resemble Dume and the emitter shrouds are almost like “ears”, though unintentional. But I did make an effort to replicate the ridges on the bridge of his nose and his eyebrow area. These are the black oval nodules on the handgrip. To model them I created several Torus knots (a 3D knot similar to a Pretzel that forms an endless loop) and stacked them to make an object that looked like a rope. I then sized the “rope” so that it was inside the handgrip but just big enough so small lumps appeared on the outside surface. This created the ridges!

As the story continued it became known that the pack leader was named after a former Jedi known as Caleb Dume….who after the events of Order 66 and the Jedi Order’s downfall, became known as Kanaan Jarrus. This hints to the fact these creatures may be some form of Guardian Canine that appears when their “subject of care” is in danger. All very mysterious.

I hope you liked DUME and his saber, I loved how the handgrip and the “rope trick” worked out. It worked so well that it inspired a few more variants which I’ll post in upcoming articles. Yes I still have more new sabers to come as well as working on ships and containers of Coaxium! Hopefully you will return to see those and find out what I am using Coaxium for. But for now I want to thank you all for visiting and supporting me and my site, whether this is your first visit or you are a regular caller thanks so much. So Till next time….

“DUME” Saber is a For Tyeth Editions design and the 3D models and renderings are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2020. “Dume”, “Lothwolf” and all other Star Wars related names, images, logos and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd.

“The Artisan Staff” Inspired by Sabine Wren

Hello Everybody, today I have a colourful offering from the Star Wars cartoon Rebels, and it is a colourful weapon for a colourful character. You may have seen me mention the Rebel ship called “The Ghost” which is the heroes’ ship in Rebels. It’s crew consists of the captain, Hera Syndula who is a Twi’Lek with superb flying skills. Next there is Kanan Jarrus, a former Jedi Knight who teaches a young human named Ezra Bridger the ways of the Force. There is also Zeb Orrellios the Lasat warrior I mentioned in the Callous Saber post. Finally there is a young Mandalorian woman named Sabine Wren, who hailed from the political family Clan Wren of House Vizsla. This family was steeped in Mandalorian culture with one ancestor building the famous black bladed lightsaber called the Darksaber. But Sabine was enrolled at the Imperial Academy and progressed through the Empire and developed highly dangerous weapons (which she deeply regretted later). Sabine eventually became a rebel and became infamous for her “artwork” which included repainting Imperial Tie Fighters and buildings (she also blew a few up too!). So, enough chat for now here are a few pictures of Sabine and you’ll see why she is so colourful…

Sabine wears Mandalorian Beskar armour which she forged as part of her rights of passage and culture, but she had a much more colourful flair than most Mandoes. From the abstract and Impressionistic illustrations on her armour to her various shades of hair colour Sabine stood out. She even earned the nickname “The Artist” – given to her by the local Stormtroopers because of her paintings she left behind as her calling card.

Now Mandalorians are famous for using bladed weapons – the most famous of which I have mentioned above, the Darksaber. So I felt Sabine needed a saber of her own, something that fit her style and flair….so I built a double bladed staff weapon for her. Here is a wire frame to show my progress as I built it…

If you look closely you will see this staff has shrouds on the emitters, thin neck sections and a central body shell with a handgrip similar to a Graflex. You might also have seen the little black and white checkered ball on the right hand panel of the screen? Well that is one of the materials/textures I added to this staff. But you can’t see textures in a wireframe image so you’ll want to see some Glamour Shots….OK here they are…

Yes I think this is colourful enough! The emitters have Cal Kestis styled shrouds (as seen in the Star Wars game Jedi Fallen Order) but then there are twin choke point sections that are coated in a shattered multi coloured pattern. These choke points have tactical grips to aid spinning the weapon with out losing hold of it. The central body section has the famous handgrip ribs similar to those found on Anakin and Rey’s lightsaber – a classic design cue. And the saber has twin golden yellow blades to represent the rising sun of a new day….another day for Sabine to create her art. Speaking of creating art I did experiment a little with this design and tried out a few functions of Blender. I created a couple of images using 2D and 3D compositing techniques.

The two “poster” images show off Sabine’s colourful look and my attempt to match it, while the third image in front of a building has a special visual effect applied to it to make it look like a cartoon with heavy outlines. All three use a mix of 2D and 3D elements layered together.

Anyhoo, I am afraid I am near the end of this post. I apologise that there wasn’t as many images this time out but I am being careful not to overtax my laptop. But I can promise I have a TON of images for next week as I will be launching the battleship cruiser I built for a friend’s Fan Fiction story over the past month or two. It is ready for it’s trials! I hope you will join me for that new design and for more future posts. Thank you all for checking out The Artisan Staff today, whether it is your first visit or you are a regular caller to this site – as always you’re much appreciated. And if you like what you have seen don’t forget to leave a comment or click to follow Ftsabersite – I left a Follow Me button at the top of the sidebar menu! Stay safe….Till next time…..

“The Artisan Staff” saber is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the Star Wars Rebels character “Sabine Wren” and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/Ftsabersite 2016-2020. “Star Wars Rebels”, “Sabne Wren” and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

Callous Saber ISB-021. A saber for a Double Agent.

Hello everybody hope you are well. Something strange has happened recently, I noticed a spike in my viewing figures yesterday and when I investigated I found something funny. It turns out somebody that posts on the video gaming/entertainment site Polygon has linked to my site….only they linked to a picture of Padme Amidala in her Geonosis outfit I included in my “Aggressive Negotiator” post! So the people clicking to view my site are just looking at Padme. Luckily I have something for you all to see today in the shape of a new saber design.

This saber is a tribute to Agent Kallus, the Imperial Security Bureau operative famous for chasing the crew of the Rebel ship The Ghost in Star Wars Rebels. Agent Kallus came from Coruscant and attended the Empire’s top academy, graduating as top pupil. He joined the Imperial Security Bureau and earned a reputation of wanting peace – but the Empire’s view of peace. This led to crushing several outbursts of rebellion and even wiped out a whole species after using a devastating new weapon. So being that Kallus is an Imperial and he has already wiped out a society….why would I make a new saber for him? Well, his story takes an interesting change later and I’ll tell you about it after I post my first gallery. Here is Callous Saber – ISB 021….

This saber is inspired by the uniform Agent Kallus wore as an Imperial officer and I incorporated details that look like his body armour and rank insignia. The blade is a plain white colour (similar to those my Trooper inspired hilts had). It projects from the emitter which has a distinct “panelled” look to it that represents both the interior of a Star Destroyer and the chest armour of Agent Kallus’ uniform. Below the emitter is the switch bezel ring with the red and blue segments, this represents the rank insignia badges the Empire use that consist of the coloured square blocks.

Kallus ascended through the ranks despite not always having success in his missions. On one mission he was hailed by the Empire as he quashed an uprising on the planet Lasan – but at the high cost of wiping out the native species. He then spent a whole year chasing The Ghost and Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, Hera Syndula and Garazeb Orrelios (aka Zeb) In another skirmish, he and Zeb become stranded on a moon of Geonosis and the pair have to fight together to survive. This wasn’t easy as Zeb was the lone survivor of the attack on Lasan, a warrior of the species Kallus wiped out. After working out a truce both men were rescued and went their separate ways.

Ok enough talk I think it’s time for gallery two….

These pictures show that this hilt is versatile as it can be combined with a second hilt to form a staff weapon. The two hilts have a locking mechanism integrated into the pommel design. The pics also show the pommel grille looks like the Empire’s cog logo…back to the story though and things were about to change for the Imperial Agent….

Having failed to capture the rebels, this brought the situation to the attention of Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader. Vader and Tarkin arrived on Lothal and immediately clamped down in an attempt to quell the rebel activity which was affecting production of Imperial TIE-Fighters and weaponry. But in a strange turn of events the Rebels started receiving vital information from a shadowy individual codenamed “Fulcrum”, allowing the Rebels to evade the traps set by Tarkin. The Grand Moff realised that the Empire had a spy in it’s ranks and eventually uncovered and captured the traitor. That traitor turned out to be…Kallus. During another attempt by the Empire to capture the Ghost’s crew the Rebels escaped once more but also rescued Kallus. Alexandr Kallus….Agent Kallus….Fulcrum….then became a fully fledged member of the Rebellion, helping the Rebels win key engagements and defeating the Empire on Lothal and later in the Battle of Yavin resulting in the Death Star’s destruction.

Finally, Zeb took Kallus on a journey to a mysterious uncharted location and on that planet lived a group of long lost Lasat people – the Lasat being the species that Kallus thought he had wiped out (with the exception of Zeb). The Lasat had heard of Kallus’ actions helping the Rebellion and felt he had redeemed himself, and so forgave him. This is why Alexandr Kallus in my eyes sort of earned a For Tyeth designed saber.

That just about wraps up this post but before I go I mentioned the TIE-Fighters being built on Lothal….well I have built one myself and given it a For Tyeth twist! You’ll be able to see that spaceship and a whole crate load of sabers including a very colourful graffiti inspired staff. Plus I have a super special saber based on a special Force sensitive canine species! I hope you’ll call back to see those, but in the meantime it’s the thank you messages. Thank you so much for looking in on this design and for all the support you have given me (even if you just wanted to see Padme 😁). You are all very much appreciated, so stay safe and….Till next time….

“Callous Saber ISB-021” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2020. The design is inspired by the character Agent Kallus seen in Star Wars Rebels. “Agent Kallus” and all names, images, logos and reated material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

Balance Point Sabers – new for Ahsoka Tano

Hello everybody, I seem to have a thing about pairs at the moment – Twin Ion Engines, Dyads, a new pair of boots (I’m still waiting for these but am nearly at half distance for waiting time – I hope) and today I continue the theme of two by revisiting an old idea and a fan favourite character. A long time ago I designed a hilt for “Snips” or as she is also known, Ahsoka Tano. This old design was built with the old software I had access to at the time and I felt, after watching the final season of The Clone Wars and the newer Star Wars Rebels cartoon that I needed to build a new saber for Ahsoka. I watched the final season of Clone Wars and Ahsoka, having left the Jedi Order was living a shadowy existence in the Outer Rim colonies and a planet named Thabeska. Thabeska was rife with crime syndicates but Ahsoka befriended two sisters (two again!). One of the sisters was a mechanic and Ahsoka “crash landed” her speeder bike outside her garage and needed to repair her vehicle. During one scene Ahsoka was working on her bike and I noticed one of the bike parts on the workbench and I immediately thought “Ooh that’d make a nice saber” So I set about rebuilding the shock absorber into a lightsaber! Here is the first gallery…

These three images don’t exactly represent a suspension strut but the saber was originally a shock absorber, the spring forms the ridges on the handgrip and the emitter section is the hydraulic cylinder section. You may also just be able to make out the little flanges on the emitter where it would bolt onto the bike frame and these little flanges form a rather nifty little detail that tells you this saber belongs to Tano. See if you can pick out the identifying detail in this second batch of pictures….

Ahsoka’s speeder bike was black and silver/white so that dictated the colour scheme and worked out quite nicely. The bike also had flashes of yellow which just gave the look a splash of colour. If you didn’t see or recognise the identifying detail I mentioned it was the striped pattern on the mouth of the emitter which represents a very prominent physical feature of Ahsoka – her Lekku. Lekku are the tentacle like appendages which people sometimes mistake for a head-dress. The Lekku are actually a part of her anatomy and change size and colour with age – showing the age/maturity of the individual. OK, the picture didn’t quite show the detail quite as well so I will show you my second version of the hilt which has a different colour scheme and you’ll easily see the markings then! Another batch of pictures!….

This colour scheme was inspired by the closing stages of The Clone Wars series. In particular the story of Ahsoka’s re-union with her former Master, Anakin Skywalker and her platoon of Clone Soldiers. The platoon, upon hearing of their former Padawan Jedi leader’s return, painted their helmets with a special pattern in her honour. The helmets were orange with the white tribal markings to represent those marks Ahsoka has on her face and forehead. I just thought that’d make a spectacular saber. Now the final image in this gallery really shows off that detail of Ahsoka’s Lekku in the form of the blue and white striped pattern running around the mouth of the emitter and tailing off down the body of the hilt. Finally some of you technical minded readers may be wondering “How do you switch this thing on?” and the answer is built into the geometric logo on the hilt just below the “Tribal markings”. That logo is the symbol that Ahsoka adopted as a moniker for her secret identity whilst she was working undercover for the….well I better not say who, what or why in case you still have to watch Clone Wars and Rebels but the logo and the name have significant meaning. I will say “Balance Point” is a hint at that name – so if you are a mechanical engineer you may know the technical name for a balance point! And speaking of balance if you connect two sabers together they need to be balanced and these hilts are no different and can also be connected to form a staff double bladed weapon…

Just one final thing – I was really pleased how this design turned out and I wanted to know what they would have looked like had they actually been in the cartoon so I produced a bit of “Trick Photography” and came up with this image I used as the header picture for this post – I thought you might like to see a clean version of the picture without the text…

And with that it just about wraps up this post. I hope you enjoyed it, I know I had fun watching the shows and getting inspired to build these. But the inspiration didn’t stop with a saber for Snips….I still have around 8 more hilts to show you and…I have been getting requests to build more spaceships. I have TWO more TIE Fighters and a Star Destroyer from the Unknown regions to bring to you in future posts.

As always I’d like to thank you all again for the support you show me and FTSabersite. It keeps me designing and battling to improve my skills. I appreciate all the comments and likes and I really hope you’ll call back to see the warehouse full of goodies I have to show in the near future. So stay safe and as always. Till next time…..

“Balance Point Sabers” are a pair of sabers designed by For Tyeth and the design, models and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2020. The hilts were inspired by the character Ahsoka Tano who appears in “Star Wars – The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels” both of which are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

FT’s Curved Collection Sabers

Hello everybody I have been busy modelling starships and fighters recently so I need a BIG post of sabers and I just happen to have one today. I mentioned many moons ago that I had a curved hilt design similar to Count Dooku’s, well I am posting it here now. I based this on my hilt Aquaman Bend Lightsaber – FT Blender Version 2 and my “Khaarnage” a saber for Alex Khaar – Inspired by Lady Revan’s FanFiction hilt I built for my friend. Initially I took the hand grip and the pommel of Aquaman Bend and the emitter I used on my rendition of Altenweg Shoto and Darkshoto – Inspired by PsychoSith’s Altenweg II I built and added a new claw to the emitter. This claw looks more like a fang so I named this version Bane Mamba. Bane was the Sith Lord that established the “Rule of Two” where the Sith practitioners were reduced to just two members, the Master and the Apprentice – whilst the Mamba name came from the snake and the association with venomous fangs. OK, enough chit-chat, this saber has been a long time in waiting, here is Bane Mamba Edition….

The hilt handgrip is the Aquaman part but with a twist. The handgrip originally had a shroud to mimic the scales of Aquaman but this time I added the “scales” to the inner core and curved that core to produce the saber’s body. I took the emitter from Altenweg II Shoto and cut a slot into it so the emitter was forked. I then modelled the Mamba “Fang” which catches the light from the blade in a very sinister way, you could say it looked poisonous. To accentuate the snake skin look I added a Crystal Chamber and shaped it into a “scale diamond” styled window. The hilt doesn’t have an on/off switch as I envisioned a sensor inside that detects when the owner performs a gesture motion to switch it on. This means you could set the saber so when you perform the En Guard salute like Dooku does then the saber switches on automatically when pointed upward. But I didn’t stop there…oh no! I modelled TWO more versions. Here is gallery two with the Dark Mamba….

Now this design caused a bit of a problem for me. I designed it using parts from previous models and some unique twists I came up with but when I showed the gold coloured MatCap preview image to a friend on the forum I use they said “It might not be a good idea to post that on this forum as it looks like…” then named an existing design from a well known manufacturer.

However I feel my hilt is sufficiently different and so is my creation….and I’ve posted it here. Now there is a similarity to the mentioned product (they are both bent!) but my hilt has an activation switch that I added to the finger grip recesses. The product in question uses a standard switch on top of the hilt making it prone to being accidentally clicked on/off whilst duelling. With the set up I created the switch is protected and still has four indents for the users’ fingers to grip. I have shown the hilt without the crystal chamber window but one can easily be added. And the reversed colour scheme gives the hilt an even more evil look…but I took it one step further and modelled an Inquisitor version….(because nobody expects the Inquisition!)….

I modelled this again, as far back as February, I have been so backlogged, and I hadn’t watched Star Wars Rebels yet. But I had seen pictures of a character called an Inquisitor and they wore jet black outfits and helmets with bright red edging to trim the garments. I thought the look would be good on a saber and I applied a full dark black paint job and where the accents of silver and black where on the tow hilts above I changed to red. It set the hilt off perfectly and looked just like the Jedi hunting Inquisitors. Then I got to watch Rebels last month and I got a surprise.

When one of the Grand Inquisitor removed his helmet, he had red tattoos or marks on his forehead and around his eyes…and they almost matched the two little fangs on top of the emitter at the base of the slot! I have been known to be able to predict the future but that little detail was pretty spectacular to have modelled. And so to finish this collection, I just had to get a “Family Portrait” of all three together!

Phew! That’s it! Thank you so much for checking all of this out. I’m pretty pleased how they turned out. I am quickly approaching the end of this post but as always I’d like to finish by thanking you all for the support, chat and comments you have shared with me over the past 499 posts you are all very much appreciated. And if you caught that I am about to hit 500 posts next time, so I’d be honoured if you’d join me for that one. Stay safe till the big 5-0-0!

“Bane Mamba”, “Dark Mamba” and “Inquisitor Mamba” are all “For Tyeth Editions” and part of my Curved Collection of hilts. The designs and all images are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2020. Any and all Star Wars names, logos, images and related material are Trademark and ©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

Bridger Saber – I think I’m a Blender Adept!

Hello Everybody, well after bringing you such a villainous saber in the shape of Kaleesh last week I felt I had best restore the balance somewhat and bring you an “Inspired By” replica build. Now fellow blogger Neil Trinarty suggested I do some full scale modelling to really hone my skills so I decided I would try to recreate an “in universe” design and see how close to the real hilt I could get. The hilt in question belongs to a young hero from the animated show “Star Wars Rebels” called Ezra Bridger. Ezra originally had a saber that was disguised so the Imperials/Empire forces wouldn’t recognise it. Unfortunately as a result it looked like an industrial nail-gun or stapler! He had it for two whole seasons of the show but thankfully he got a new (and green!) saber in season three. This is a recreation of that new hilt and I just call it Bridger…as always, first the work in progress shots….

Bridger Extrude 1

Bridger Switch

Bridger Extrude 2

Bridger taking shape

Bridger nearly done

Bridger and Reference picture

To build this hilt I employed a technique which I partly explained when I first mentioned Blender and how it works. The technique is called Extruding. Just like in metal working you have a basic lump or block which you then pull, push, stretch and squeeze it into the shape you want. As a result the model forms a bit like a tiered wedding cake with layers. You make a tube then stretch it down, when happy widen the tube by scaling the edges out then continue down either widening or narrowing each section. I then created the circular activation switch as a separate piece and positioned it. The extrude process then continued all the way to the pommel. The body has ridges at regular intervals around the grip that are pulled outward as strips. The final modelling step was to create the rounded cut-out shape and the rectangular box with the striped top. Oh and I added a little triangular ring to hang the saber from your belt! The last picture above shows the reference image I used as a guide and was created by another modeller named “CaseStudyno8 ” who displays his creations on Deviantart. (I hope he doesn’t mind as there aren’t many good images of this saber online!).

Ok enough talking of extrusions layers, bumps and lumps, I had to add textures to the model to make it nice and shiny and I tried a few things to make the images look a little more professional and sharper. I’ll let you decide here’s a few Glamour Shots…

Bridger Saber Test Textures

Bridger Saber a bit too shiny

Bridger Saber shine reduced slightly

Bridger Saber replaced control box

Bridger Saber finished Glossy

I added a texture/material to make the hilt look metallic but the way Blender displays the image made it too shiny and caused a lot of speckles to appear. This is known as Caustic Noise and is a result of light beams bouncing around off various surfaces. Modellers/Designers want people to see their models clearly so try to reduce noise and I learnt a trick that works as a filter so the light beams basically hit the model once and not reflect in all directions. In the final image is the “De-speckled” version using the filter. I think there is a bit of improvement and less unwanted dots of light. The filtering does cause the computer to take longer to produce the image but I can save time by using the quicker modelling methods!

Speaking of time…yes you know it, I am out of it and will have to end this post. I hope you like this tribute to Ezra’s saber and think I’ve earned the title of a Blender Adept! As always before I go I have to say a big thank you to all for visiting today. Your support is much appreciated and keeps me pushing my limits. Whether you are a first time visitor or long term follower I hope you will return for future posts which will include a “BIG” saber build and a hilt for a “Hot Shot” along with two blockbuster movie themed hilts! Till next time….

“Bridger Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions creation and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-18. This design is inspired by Ezra Bridger’s saber from the animated show “Star Wars Rebels” which is Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

Reference image by CaseStudyno8 on Deviantart.com

Tactician Lightsaber – For Thrawn

Hello Everybody, It is my turn to supply a design for you today after =Ottomatix=’s fabulous =HOMAGE= sabers last week. And I take you on a journey to the edges of the known galaxy, the fringes of the Outer Rim and the area called the “Unknown Regions”. There in the uncharted territory is a system which is home to a race of very distinctive individuals. They are the Chiss, and one particular Chiss became very well known in the Imperial Navy, his name? Mitt’raw’nuruodo, or as he was universally known, Grand Admiral Thrawn! Thrawn is a genius level strategist and rose through the ranks of the Imperial Navy after stowing aboard an Imperial ship and “joining up”. So here is my saber for the Grand Admiral, this is TACTICIAN…

Tactician Horizontal

Tactician Emitter

Tactician Emitter 2

Tactician Emitter “Eyes”

Tactician Switch

Tactician Body

Tactician Pommel

Tactician Pommel 2

Tactician Vertical Up

The Chiss have distinctive blue skin, dark bluish-black hair all framing deep red eyes, and I have tried to capture those features in this design. The sinister red blade projects from the clawed emitter (Thrawn served on a ship called the Blood Claw) and shines through two windows. These windows from certain angles look like the famous red eyes of the Chiss warrior himself. The switch and body sections are utilitarian, nothing fancy but look like the panels and plating found on starships from around the Imperial Navy. To finish the hilt off there is a pommel which also has a “pair of eyes” in the shape of the two painted blocks peering out from the pommel shroud…just in case you didn’t see the eyes in the emitter part  😀 !

Grand Admiral Thrawn (Copyright Timothy Zahn – Disney/LucasFilm

Thrawn and the Chiss are characters that appear in Timothy Zahn’s novel named after it’s main character. The Chiss originally appeared in early Star Wars computer games as one of the alien life-form classes. Their popularity grew and Timothy Zahn wrote a trilogy of books featuring them which were discarded at first by George Lucas etc. But the Chiss and Thrawn have now been made “canon” by appearing in the Disney cartoon, Star Wars Rebels.

Well it seems I am running out of time and will have to make a “Tactical Withdrawal” back to my workshop to create more designs! However as always I want to say thank you to all of my viewers and followers, new and old for checking this saber out. I also have a special shout-out to Andy Pines (Me, Myself and Star Wars / Imperial Wookie), who guessed that this hilt was for an Imperial Naval Officer, you were very close! I hope you will all return for future posts to see new designs from me and my friends. Till next time.

“Grand Admiral Thrawn”, the “Chiss” and all other names, images and related material are Trademark/© Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm. “Thrawn” was written by Timothy Zahn and is published in hardback by Century Books. Cover image/artwork is © Copyright of Kent Akselen.