FT’s Traveller Trading Ship – Built in Blender 3D

Hello Everybody, wow I swear this year is disappearing fast – we are already nearly halfway through November! Maybe it’s because a lot of things have been happening for me recently. I bought a new lightsaber, I won an online draw and received a Babu Frik plush talking toy….and I may have another exciting bit of news I’ll let you in on at the end of this post…in the meantime I’d like to reveal a new starship I have built! This time I modelled the vessel in Blender 3D and not in LEGO and I kinda like this new ship in a hulking sort of way! Here are a few images of what I built….this is FT’s Traveller….

This is my new workhorse vehicle for wandering the galaxy and obtaining parts for my saber building exploits. It is nothing fancy but was once a bulk transport ship that has had “a few modifications” installed by it’s previous owners. They were involved in the Slave trade and used the ship to transport their unwilling passengers to various planets. I was sent by the Jedi Council to investigate and ended up liberating the slaves and the ship. As the ship was large and could carry my usual ship, my Jedi Interceptor, onboard the grateful and now free citizens bestowed the ship to me to use. And it is quite nice now I have cleaned it out and made it comfortable. It has a Hyperdrive, automatic navigation and piloting systems so I can fly single handed….and it has workspaces and storage for my saber building. Everything I could need….oh and a few laser cannons on the dorsal roof section – just enough for line defence.

Well that’s the backstory/history I am giving to this ship. In reality I modelled this in Blender 3D using an Add-On plug-in created by Michael Davies (find a link here: https://www.blendernation.com/2016/06/23/spaceship-generator/ ) that allows users to create randomly generated ship hulls. You can specify options such as making sections symmetrical or not, the number of sections used and the dimensions (how many sections in length, width and height). The Add-On then generates a ship from a library of “blocks” unique to your numbers. This ship appeared from the values I put in and the only “tweak” I made was to rotate the forward fuselage cube with the “flight deck” windows by 90 degrees so the windows were horizontally aligned. I think it turned out quite nice and looks useable for the story I have given it. I may flip the two forward swept protrusions near the engines so they sweep backwards later but it is on a mission at the moment in America. Anyhoo the images in space are always a little hard to see so I visited Portland Oregon to test out their landing pad! Here are a few more in-atmosphere daytime pictures…onto Gallery Two….

I think the scale is a little off but it is difficult to work with the background images within Blender. The image is pasted “inside” of a virtual globe and wraps 360degrees around so the model sits in the center surrounded by the picture. When you look through the camera viewport you can see the “environment” but if you try to scale the environment image it warps out of shape! But I think you get an impression of what my new ship looks like. And it is carrying a package for me….I have another new toy coming! I am currently checking my ship’s Tracking and it has just departed Miami Florida with a new saber. It should reach me within the next week hopefully….I may have to wait for the local parcel delivery company to bring it to my door when it enters the UK. But I should have an unboxing to show you soon.

On this exciting news I will bring this post to a close, I hope you liked my new ship, I will try my hand at making a few more and will post them in future articles. I sincerely hope you will call back to see those and the new lightsaber designs I am working on, the LEGO building fun I’m having and just maybe some more cosplay stuff. Thank you so much for your visit to FTSabersite today and supporting me, it is much appreciated and keeps me inspired to design. So till next time…..

“FT’s Traveller Trading Ship” is a For Tyeth Editions Shipyard design, built and rendered in Blender 3D, It is Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. The “Spaceship Generator Script” was created by Michael Davies for Blender 3D and is Copyright to him.

“Racer Saber” inspired by Star Wars Resistance

Hello Everybody and welcome to another new saber(?) design! We have all been living under crazy conditions for the past year or so and we have found ways to occupy our time and entertain ourselves. Well I took the extra time to binge watch the cartoon series Star Wars: Rebels which I was hesitant about at first but I really got invested in the great story and characters. It inspired a range of new designs for sabers so after finishing Rebels I decided to watch the next series Disney/Lucasfilm produced and that was Star Wars: Resistance. It centred around the character of Kazudo Xiono or Kaz, a young man that was a bit of a “flyer” in his own opinion (though he did have skills) and he somehow gets recruited by Poe Dameron the Resistance hero to do some spying on the First Order.

Kazudo Xiono front and centre, Poe Dameron on the right and Neeku Vozo on the left!

Kazudo after meeting Poe and being recruited finds himself on an ocean planet aboard a large ship refuelling platform named The Colossus. There here spies on the ever increasing presence of First Order troops arriving on the station. He also becomes part of the Aces Squadron – a group of “Air Racers” that take part in high speed pylon/gate racing. The “Aces” also double as the Colssus’ air defence squad protecting it from pirate activity. The Colossus looks like this..

Very exposed and at risk from attack I would say! I can’t divulge too much of the story here as a pleasant young lady named Tina I met recently (and also publishes a Star Wars blog you can check out here: https://mystarwarsthoughts.com/ – it has great articles such as Top 5 lists and thoughts on the SW universe and community) is currently in the middle of binge watching Resistance herself so I don’t want to spoil anything! But I can say that there is a particular Air Racer ship that caught my eye and it is called the Fireball and it is that ship which has inspired this next design, I call this “Racer Saber”…

The reason I love this ship and built a saber based on it is because the Fireball looks like a cross between a World War 2 Vought CorsairF4U fighter plane and a competition aerobatic race plane like those seen in the “Red Bull Air Race” series from a few years ago. It also looked as if it was a crossguard medieval sword hilt…perfect I thought for a saber! The cockpit windshield acts as an activation switch and power level indicator, otherwise this hilt is a very basic recreation of the Fireball (though much smaller so it can hang off your belt 😁! I mentioned this ship was primarily used for pylon aerobatic races so here is a second gallery showing “Racer Saber” going through it’s paces…

The last two images I just added so you can judge how close I got to recreating the Fireball and my little attempt to recreate a Resistance show logo for my post title image! I will say I struggled a little bit with the colouring of this hilt and the renders seem a bit “washed out”. I used regular background images and not Environmental Images which are spherical background images that provide lighting for your models and they didn’t render as well. But hopefully the slightly faded colours give the impression that my model is actually part of the animation screenshots!

That just about brings this post to the finish line, but as always I have my usual sign off and thanks to convey. Please if you have time go and check out Tina’s blog – https://mystarwarsthoughts.com/ and if you like what you see leave a comment and likes. And talking of comments, likes and support, thank you to each of you who have checked out this post and my site, whether a new visitor to FTSabersite (and I know there have been a few) or if you regularly check in you’re all much appreciated. I still have many new designs upcoming including sabers based on famous blasters, The High Republic, more Resistance saber designs, Star Trek (yes that franchise) AND long awaited news on my costume. All this and more in future posts so I hope you can call back and check it all out. Till next time…

“Racer Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the ship “Fireball” seen in Star Wars; Resistance. The 3D model and renders were created by For Tyeth and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. “The Fireball”, “Kazudo Xiono”, “Star Wars: Resistance” and all other names, logos, pictures and related materials are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

Tyeth Industries Experimentals FTX-MG – A new Tie Fighter

Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed last week’s offering the Ahsoka sabers. Luckily I haven’t been contacted by any big companies so I guess they liked my hilt and bit of artwork. Today though I have another spaceship from my sister design bureau and this time it is a fighter which first appeared in the cartoon “Star Wars: Rebels”. In season 2 episode 15 (titled “The Call”) the heroes were searching for fuel supplies and planned a heist to steal valuable fuel from an Imperial cargo ship. But as you can guess it didn’t quite go to plan and the Rebel crew of The Ghost came across a gas mining refinery base built in an asteroid belt….and it had large supplies of fuel on the landing platforms. The Rebels decide to space walk then free-fall onto the facility, prepare the supplies then fly The Ghost down to scoop up their bounty. Things were going well at first, that is until some unknown starfighters appeared, to defend the base and it’s fuel supplies.

Gas Refinery Asteroid Base – Star Wars Rebels ©Disney/Lucasfilm

One Rebel called out “They don’t look like Imperials!” to which his friend replied, “But they act like Imperials!!!” Anyhoo enough talk, you want to see this newly discovered fighter and so I have a few wireframe images to share…here’s Gallery 1….

As you can see this “new” starfighter is very similar to a regular Imperial TIE-Fighter…except for TWO big differences. First up the stabiliser wings have notches cut out of them to give it’s pilot better visibility from the cockpit which is very striking. And second the ship is very distinct in it’s yellow paintjob! Unfortunately though each time I see this ship from the side I can’t help but think of PAC-MAN! Can’t think why! Seriously, the wings design has advantages and disadvantages…the pilot can see more clearly which helps in combat but losing the extra solar collector panels means it has less performance and speed. However the Mining Guild did add a little extra special feature to this ship….artificial atmosphere! This means the Rodian pilots can fly these ships without needing to wear full pressurised flight suits and life support kits.

I managed to acquire one of these fighters in a game of chance so how would you like to join me taking this for a test spin? Animation time….

In among the rocks!

The ship flies surprisingly well considering the modifications the Mining Guild made. I did like the fact I can fly one of these without a flight suit because I can wear my Jedi robes comfortably sat in the cockpit. So after testing the ship in space I needed to do an atmospheric condition test flight so I flew to the planet of Lothal where a lot of TIE Fighters were built. I found some nice canyons and had some fun. Here are the pictures, oh and another video!….

I managed to avoid any “Imperial Entanglements” for Low Flying over Lothal and set about heading home where I could hangar my new ship, then relax and get back to designing…here’s my journey home….

So in conclusion, even if this ship looks like a character from an 80’s arcade game it isn’t one to mess with, it is still deadly flown by the wrong hands. And I think I’m kinda beginning to like PAC-MAN, that yellow is so striking it sort of surprises your enemies seeing such a bright ship! And it does brighten up my hangar bay….

Back home and in my hangar…my little TIE-Fighter FTX-MG!

That just about wraps up this design, I hope you liked it as much as I liked building and flying about in it! Just before I go back to work though I’d like to finish with my regular thank you message. To all my viewers/readers/friends thanks as always for supporting me and my site you are all appreciated and I welcome you to call back for future posts as I have much more to share including a multicoloured double bladed staff, more Clone Wars and Rebels inspired designs and more ships…a new “Rapier” style hilt….too much to list. Till next time…

“Tyeth Industries Experimentals FTX-MG” is a For Tyeth Editions 3D model inspired by the TIE-MG Tie Fighter in Star Wars Rebels. The model, renders and videos were produced by For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2020 and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth?FTSabersite 2020. “Star Wars: Rebels”, “Mining Guild TIE Fighter” and all other related names, images and material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

FTX-1 TIE Fighter – Tyeth Industries Experimental

Hello everybody and today we blast back into space with another iconic starfighter and if I were to type this shape

I-O-I

You might just recognise which stafighter without me saying anything else! Yes today I turn my attention to the Empire’s most feared fighter. That fighter is the Sienar Fleet Systems’ TIE Fighter. The name some may not know is an acronym representing the ship’s type designation. T.I.E. stands for Twin Ion Engine Fighter as it features twin Ion powered engines which are a bit like compressors but without any moving parts! The engines aren’t the only unique feature as the ship has distinct hexagonal “solar panel” wings and an “eyeball” cockpit section. The cockpit was a dangerous place to be for Imperial pilots as the ships didn’t have an atmospheric system meaning they had to wear sealed flight suits…but worse, they didn’t have a Hyperdrive and they didn’t carry shield generators making them vulnerable. TIE Pilots were considered expendable and the Empire relied on overwhelming numbers rather than smaller quantities of quality piloted ships. So on this sad note I decided I would try and improve this design and build a new fighter I call the T.I.E. Fighter or Tyeth Industries Experimental fighter!

Sharp eyed readers may have also spotted the Bladerunner “Spinner” Police Flying Cars in the background of these pics…I have no idea where they came from but I think Han Solo was piloting one of them 🙂

As you can see I started with a basic model to begin with as I was working from memory and wanted to tweak the wings but I wasn’t happy with what I came up with. The wings were too stubby/boxy if you know what I mean, they didn’t look right at all. I did get the fuselage and cockpit sort of OK, it has twin laser cannons under the front windshield and there are the two engines – but as always I wanted to do better. So I wheeled the model back into the workshop and came up with this upgrade…

These wireframes clearly show I modified those blocky winglets from my first version and the segments have checkered solar panels! I also elongated the wing mount pylons, making the ship slightly wider but more sleek. This reduces the cross section and makes the ship hard to hit with lasers – though the wings are still large targets. More importantly I added a few more bits of panelling to allow installation of a Hyperdrive and shields! This revised version needed testing so I took it for a spin…

The flights took place within the atmosphere just so I could evaluate the handling and characteristics, which I’m pleased to say were quite nice and responsive. The ship had a good roll rate so you can spin, cos “Spinning….that’s a good move, WHOOAAA!” Sorry I came over a bit Anakin there! But having passed the in atmosphere tests I needed to get this out into orbit and stretch it’s legs, here are a few images from my extended range flight tests! Another gallery…

I gotta say this new FT TIE Fighter can really move! It’s a good job I am not putting it into production or the Rebellion would be in BIG trouble. I managed to find some picturesque locations for my test and got some nice pictures. However I am particularly pleased how the last image turned out as the colouring made the pic look like a 1977 style poster! (I also used it as my post title image ^^)

That just about wraps up this design, I had great fun recreating a classic TIE Fighter to go with my reworked X-Wing and I hope you liked it too. Before I go I need to let you know I still have a further TIE variant that I have modelled and will feature in an upcoming post…but that’s not all I have another SEVEN hilts and my big new battle-ready starship has been approved by my friend who asked me to design it. This means I have another post for that. Phew! I think that’s all the news. Thank you so much to each and every one of you who visited FTSabersite today, whether it’s your first trip here or if you’re one of my regular readers/followers – you’re all much appreciated and please comment, like and call back for future posts. Till next TIEm….

“FTX-1 TIE Fighter – Tyeth Industries Experimental” is a For Tyeth Editions 3D model inspired by the TIE Fighter seen in the Star Wars universe. The models and renderings are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2020. The “Sienar Fleet System TIE Fighter” and all names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

FTX-Wing Fighter – Fit for my 500th!

Hello everybody and welcome to a special post for me. Way back on August 17^th 2016 I posted my first ever design here on FTSabersite – yes I’ve been around that long. Little did I expect to still be coming up with material almost four years later. I spent around a fortnight setting this site up and a friend of mine, Savannah95 helped debug it for me and make sure all my links went to the right place and I went live with my first design, which you can see here…

This was made using a third party online saber building app, and I entered it into a design contest held by the company that created the app…and I won! That gave me the confidence that I could create sabers and I must have come up with over 500 by now! Ah yes 500! That is also the number of this post, my milestone I reached today. And to celebrate I wondered “What gift would I like for my 500^th?” The answer was….an X-Wing maybe, so now I use Blender I built one and here it is…the FTX-Wing….

These work in process images and wireframes show how I progressed and complex the model is. Of course I had to have a gold plated ship too. However as nice as these studio shots are you want to see the Glamour pictures so here is gallery two…

The first three images are slight work in progress test images and you can see how I modified the cockpit and even added R2-D2. I think this is a little bit different than a lightsaber and it turned out nice for my first spaceship. I used a lot of modelling techniques and features within Blender including Mirror Modifiers to build one half of the ship while Blender automatically “mirrored” the opposite half. Then I used a new tool add-on that adds nice crisp cut-outs, recesses, grooves and slots (around the engines). I even remembered to add navigation lights!

But then I thought “Ok, I now have an X-Wing…what can I do with it? I know….take it on a mission!” So I decided I’d try to recreate a piece of movie history….the Death Star Trench Run!….

I made this little video recreating my attempt to defeat the Death Star. (I watched a documentary on how the Empire fastened the parts of the Death Star together…..it was RIVETING!)

And I have my friend Neil of https://makeroommakeroom.wordpress.com/ to thank for the Death Star trench. He told me about another Blender function that I used to recreat the panels and blocks that make up the trench walls….the Discombobulator function (yes that’s what it’s called!) I then swung the camera around 180degs and filmed the aft view of the FTX-Wing and get a close up view of the engine pods and the glow I created for them. I’m really proud of these as they look really close to the original FX in the re-released version of Star Wars (George Lucas added more ships and glowing effects). You can see much more clearly where I’m flying to…I’m flying to the end of the trench to finish my mission. Was I successful? Let’s take a look….This is Emerald Leader reporting in…..

OK, again I know I’m not going to worry Disney or Lucasfilm with my film making skills but I bet for a moment you thought it was real! And at the very end I did reach my objective – the exhaust port I aimed my torpedoes at was shaped as a 500! Success!

That just about wraps up this special 500^th edition of FTSabersite and as always I’d like to thank everyone, and I mean everyone who visited from day one to today. You have been fantastic and I have loved getting to know some of you better, I have made good friends which is priceless. Now before this sounds like some sort of retirement speech I’d better let you know I still have 7 saber designs and 3 more spaceship designs to display so I might just have enough material to get to 1000 posts….who knows? I hope you will return to find out in future posts. Till next time, stay safe and thanks once again….For Tyeth, Emerald Leader!

“FTX-Wing” is a For Tyeth Editions design insired by the Incom T-65 X-Wing seen in Star Wars. The model and animations were made by me For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2020. Star Wars, X-Wing Fighter and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.