DarksaberFTE – Exit light….Inspired by the Mandalorian Darksaber

Hello Everybody. today I have a saber that has been a long time coming although I only just built it! Last week I had an interesting afternoon where I got stuck in a lift (or elevator for American viewers) for over five hours and I had time to think some things over…and I realised I hadn’t built a Darksaber yet. Many long time visitors may recall when I first started using Blender that I made a hilt with a “Flat Blade” but I never got round to building a version of the hilt that inspired my Acrylic Blade model seen below.

And of course it comes in Green!

Well, as I was a little shook up by my little emergency (which did result in the Fire Brigade getting me out) I needed a few days to unwind and I decided to shut off and just play with Blender. And in less than 24hrs I had built a Darksaber variant. Now other people and companies make replicas of the hilt…

On the left is Ultrasabers’ new “inspired by” replica and on the right is Hasbro/Lucasfilm’s “Official” Black Series hilt. I figured mine was just as good, but I’ll let you decide….here is Gallery One of DarksaberFTE (aka Exitlight)….

The original Darksaber was first seen in animated form in the Star Wars cartoon The Clone Wars, and was a basic object model that was “squared off” or blocky to assist animating it in the show. It later appeared in live action TV and The Mandalorian show where it had been “reworked” to be more svelte and rounded. So I modelled mine somewhere between the two. It still features a sloped emitter port with a slim vertical opening, the emitter is then separated by a distinctive Tsuba handguard. The Tsuba is positioned diagonally and is bent into an offset “L” shape, but what I am pleased with is the panelling and rounded bevelling on it’s edges. Beneath the lip of the Tsuba you can see three windows cut into the emitter that have become iconic on this lightsaber.

The first image shows off those emitter windows quite nicely along with the silver Hex-head bolt. In the show this bolt is sort of decorative but in a real ilfe replica this could be used to secure the blade into the hilt emitter socket. I just noticed the sloped face of the emitter looks a little plain so I may return to this and add a bit of detail – maybe an etch or ridge around the blade opening. Next behind the Tsuba is the activation switch with white illumination to match the borders of the famous black core blade. There is also a sliding ridged oblong control used to set the blades’ power. The rest of the handgrip is basic but has nice ridged detailing that runs along the length of the hilt before looping around to “saddle” the grip. I omitted the series of rings seen on the original props as those took away from the sweep of the horizontal ridging. The pommel has a basic opening but has a special feature that I haven’t seen used in any other “Darksaber” and that is a staff connector. The connector is a mechanism to connect two hilts together to form a battle staff with double blades! And when two DarksaberFTE hilts are linked they look a bit like this…

Connecting two hilts give the staff a distinctive asymmetrical look…and as I mentioned I don’t think anyone has linked two Darksaber hilts in this way before! Finally if you take a close look at the dark core section of the blades you will see there is actually a faint “lightning” pattern etched into the surface to replicate the “crackled” appearance of the original.

And that just about wraps up this design and I hope you liked it, it was relaxing to model it (and boy did I need to relax after last week!). I am getting old and as some of you may know this time of year is when I celebrate(?) my “Level Up Day” and become a year older so I am going to take a break for a week or two between now and New Years’ . I do this every year but I will still post a “Holidays Greetings” card and while I relax I’ll work on a review of 2021 to post ready for New Year (that should be fun considering the past year we’ve had…).

So for now I’ll end here and thank you all for checking out DarksaberFTE and all of the support you have shown me and my site. I am still working on the Star Wars “Visions” hilts, I hope to have some more costuming news and maybe, just maybe a new saber purchase or two in the New Year so I hope you will join me for those future posts. I shall chat again when I post my “Greeting Card” so….Till Next Time….

“DarksaberFTE – aka “Exitlight” Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design and model inspired by Disney/Lucasfilm’s The Darksaber seen in The Clone Wars animation and The Mandalorian live action TV show. My model and renders are original workings and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2021. “The Darksaber” and all Star Wars related materials are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm. The “Ultrasabers Darksaber” image is owned by Ultrasabers and Hasbro Toys/Disney/Lucasfilm own the rights to the Black Series replica image. (Phew!)

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.

Zyggerian Gold Sting Saber

Hello Everybody, I have been hard at work in my new “Ship Building Studio” as a friend of mine has asked if I could model a very large spacecraft for a story he is writing. It is going well and I kinda like the ship I have built so far, but as I send proof of concept images to the gentleman he keeps coming up with modifications he’d like me to make. So I haven’t had much time to dedicate to sabers, however I do have the limited edition version of my recent Zyggerian Sting Saber I can show you. As you’ll recall the Zyggerians were a species that specialised in Slave Trading until the Jedi and Republic outlawed the practise. However I imagined “what would a high profile, wealthy Zyggerian buy as a gift to either themselves or other Zyggerians?” This is what I came up with…a limited edition Zyggerian Sting Saber….

The whole saber has been coated in “Phryyk” a golden material that can be found on Lord Sidious’ lightsaber (The Emperor). Phryyk is very rare, valuable and found in only a few places around the galaxy. The saber still has the special dual crystal set up to allow it to be used as an “Electro Light Whip” or as a standard lightsaber bladed weapon. While I was animating the Bronze Zyggerian Sting saber I thought I should do the same for this limited edition….

I filmed this from a different angle to get some different lighting and reflections. One day I may make a full movie! But I’m still waiting for updates to my laptop so until then I’ll have to stick with short animations and images. Speaking of which, how about another gallery? Ok here are some more pictures….

I can see an egotistical, rich Zyggerian using this but I can assure you this hilt as with the Bronze version I built are safely stored away from mis-use in my vaults (aka as Cloud Storage – see I’m getting tech savvy!).

Now as I mentioned above I have been busy building other objects aside from sabers. This includes four starfighter models and a very large military ship all of which I’ll be bringing to FTSabersite in future posts. I will also be posting about my new costume which I’m in the process of making alterations too….but slowly it is coming together so I hope you can join me back here for that. In the meantime, thank you so much for your continued support of me and my site, each visitor that comes here means I will keep creating and posting. You are all fantastic friends, please stay safe….Till Next Time….

p.s. Don’t worry I still have around 6 or 7 sabers to show off too!

“Zyggerian Gold Sting Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon. The design, 3D model and imagery are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2020. “Star Wars The Clone Wars” and all other names, logos, images and related material are ©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

Zygerrian Sting Saber

Hello Everybody, on this site I have brought you the A to Z of saber designs and a few dROYDs along the way. Well nearly A to Z but today I have a Zygerrian Sting Saber to show you. The Zygerrians were a species of humanoid/feline appearance that were infamous for being involved in slave trading. Many years ago during the Old Republic era, Zygerria was the hub for slave labour and the Zygerrians made vast fortunes on the misfortunes of many species that were enslaved. Eventually the Jedi outlawed slavery and ended Zygerria’s exploits. However during The Clone Wars conflict the Zygerrians saw an opportunity to restart their slave empire. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano and Anakin Skywalker were sent to Kadavo in an attempt to end the trade once and for all.

It was in this story that we see a rare weapon used by the Zygerrians to control their slaves and it was an Electro-Whip which looked similar to a regular lightsaber. However the Electro-Whip was a non-lethal weapon as the Zygerrians didn’t want to “damage their merchandise” but it did still pack a “Sting”. I recently saw this whip in the Clone Wars cartoon and it reminded me that I confiscated one off a Zygerrian and I thought you might like to see one I designed based on it. Here are a few pictures of the Zygerrian Sting ..

In spite of the fact this was a cruel weapon to control helpless slaves it actually looked rather elegant. The hilt features an ornate emitter that almost resembled a standard lamp as found on luxury cruise space yachts. In the emitter are little nodes from which metal cables extended then the electricity was projected from the crystal diode. So this isn’t a Light Whip but is a regular but electrified whip. The emitter is shrouded with four gold generator coils which gives it that lamp like look. The handgrip has geometric “Greek Key” like markings which are raised ribs to aid grip.

However it is at the pommel that my design differs slightly. Because I decided to make my saber a full light/plasma weapon it needed a second source of power to generate the flexible blade (or solid blade if used as a conventional saber in multi mode) and that was stored in a crystal pommel FTE. Here are a few more pictures showing the crystal features…

As you can see the crystals are very special Kyber crystals that are harnessed by wire cages. This makes the whip a weapon for a skilled Master, but this one will stay inactive in my gallery. However as a treat I will activate it for you and let you have a look at it working – animation time!…

Zygerrian Sting Saber Animation

I think that just about wraps up this design and offering, I hope you liked it. I have a second, limited edition version of this hilt to show in a future post and I also have many more new designs inspired by Star Wars The Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons which I’m currently binge watching.

I also have news of a parcel I received on my doorstep recently and big news that thanks to you, my friends and followers I have cracked the 20,000 views milestone! Thanks so much for all the support you have shown me (especially recently during my technical issues!) and FTSabersite. Whether a first time viewer or one of my regulars you really do keep me posting and you’re much appreciated. So please stay safe in these crazy times and call back to see what else I have in store. Till next time…

“Zygerrian Sting Saber” is a For Tyeth Edition design inspired by the Star Wars The Clone Wars cartoon. The model and animation are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2020. “Star Wars -The Clone Wars”, “Zygerria” and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm and starwars.com.

Mauled Staff CW7 – Inspired by Maul in The Clone Wars (season 7)

Hello Everybody, today I have sort of good news and we return to the galaxy far, far away with a Star Wars themed design. Now firstly the good(ish) news….after spending over TWO days trying to revive my laptop I gave up sort of. I had followed the instructions on Microsoft’s site and watched YT videos (cautiously) and all my attempts failed. I left the machine alone and used a borrowed laptop to make my Brian May tribute hilt/guitar last week but I got bored. So Mrs T convinced me to try once more to try and fix it and I went through the same procedure with the Recovery USB Drive and….it WORKED sort of. I managed to install Windows again to the point where I have installed all the most recent updates (even in the short time my machine was Kaput MS released MORE updates!). This means I can tentatively use my new laptop again and I have managed to build a new staff design. It is the new double bladed weapon owned by…Darth Maul who features heavily in the new The Clone Wars season 7 cartoon. I haven’t seen the new season of cartoons so can’t give any details, I just know he is back and using a newly repaired staff lightsaber and here are a couple of WIP MatCap renders of my version of it named, Mauled CW7….

Mauled CW7 MatCap Studio 1

Mauled CW7 MatCap Studio 2

Some eagle eyed viewers/readers may recognise one end of the staff as it belonged to Maul’s lightsaber staff which was damaged in his duel with Ob-Wan and Qui-Gon in Phantom Menace. The second half of this rebuilt weapon is a lightsaber formerly owned by Aurra Sing the bounty hunter and failed Sith apprentice.

Again how Maul got this I don’t know as I haven’t been able to keep up with all the cartoons and novels that Disney have released (these fill in all the gaping holes in the plots of the films!) because I can’t afford Disney+ and all the books etc. But enough chat as always you like to see nice pictures and hopefully these new renders are back to my high levels! Here are the Glamour Shots…

Mauled CW7 Staff picture 1

Mauled CW7 Staff picture 2

Mauled CW7 Staff picture 3

Mauled CW7 Staff picture 4

Mauled CW7 Staff picture 5

Mauled CW7 Staff picture 6

Mauled CW7 Staff picture 7

Mauled CW7 Staff picture 8

Well I hope these are better! I felt bad that I had to resort to using my old setup and my output suffered but I also felt I wanted to keep active. As a result I may return to my Brian May design and re-render the images and get some proper Glamour Shots of “The Lady”. Back to this hilt, it has the half of Maul’s saber we all know and remember but the Aurra Sing half is very different! It was also very interesting to model….those holes took a lot of work. A closer look also reveals that I placed a For Tyeth Crystal Chamber inside! I am not sure how comfortable this staff would be to use with all those holes and sharp control box switch section – it would be like holding a cheese grater! But Aurra Sing and Maul seem to manage with it. However, with all that said I think I kinda like the staff, it is the first I have been able to build since my computer hiccups!

I am nearly at the end of this post and I hope you all enjoyed it. It was a bit stop start for me typing it out as I kept having to save the draft every 5-10 minutes! But I managed. You could say I FORced it to work….I’m sorry, bad joke but I have been stressed and I’m just relieved I could present this to you all. So thank you so much for checking this design out and for supporting me and FTSabersite in these difficult times. Whether you are a new visitor or one of my regular reader/viewers you are all much appreciated and in my thoughts. Hopefully you will all return for future posts which will feature new designs I have come up with inspired by Obi-Wan Kenobi….along with some other “salvaged” designs I managed to save. Till next time, stay safe and well…..

“Mauled CW7 Staff” is a For Tyeth Editions model and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2020. It is inspired by the weapon seen in Star Wars – The Clone Wars (s7) which is Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm ltd 2020. All Star Wars names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.

“Mandalawrian Beskar Special Edition” Saber

Hello Everybody, welcome back. Yesterday I posted a quick announcement of a new project I am working on based on the new upcoming The Clone Wars Season 7 show, so I only have a short post today showing something I have been working on. Recently I have been in “negotiations” with the banking clans on Earth and I have decided to enter the world of stocks and shares, commodities and ForEx! But first I would need an investment or collateral sooo I went and had a rummage around my workshop to see if I had anything of value to trade. Well low and behold something appeared in an episode of the TV show “The Mandalorian” that reminded me of some objects I picked up many many years ago and those objects looked like one of these….

This is an ingot made of Mandalorian steel which is also known as Beskar! Beskar is a very valuable (and treasured by Mandalorians) metal used to create battle armour. It is resistant to blaster fire and can even deflect lightsabers so it can be very useful making it valuable. Guess what? I found a crate FULL of these ingots buried under some boxes of lightsaber parts and I have these….

I have quite a stash and more than enough to start investing in financial endeavours….however, I have kept a few in reserve and done something special with those bars of Beskar…..I have forged a Mandalawrian Saber in solid Beskar! This very limited edition of my saber looks like this….

“Mandalawrian Beskar Special Edition” 1

“Mandalawrian Beskar Special Edition” 2

“Mandalawrian Beskar Special Edition” 3

“Mandalawrian Beskar Special Edition” 4

“Mandalawrian Beskar Special Edition” 5

As you can see this hilt has the same texture as the bars/ingots of Beskar! And the pattern of wavey lines is known as a “Damascus pattern”. It is seen in metalworking found on Earth but has been a feature of Mandalorian metalwork for thousands of years. The metal is very versatile and can be forged, melted down to form a foam, hammered into plates, used in machinery and architecture….just about anything. So this saber has a very big advantage against other sabers….because of the properties of Beskar, it can as I mention above deflect lightsaber blades and momentarily disrupt that blade so the saber temporarily malfunctions. Imagine you have this Beskar hilt and your opponent makes contact with their blade on your hilt…their blade would shut down giving you a short time to counter attack. Your saber would also be less likely to get chopped in half! I kinda like this saber but I have other new stuff lined up so I will give you all a bit of a sneak peek.

As I posted yesterday I have modeled the new saberstaff seen in the trailer for The Clone Wars and one half of the staff is the remaining half of Darth Maul’s famous double bladed weapon, and the second half is made up of a saber owned by a former Sith named Asajj Ventress! You may have seen her in the Clone Wars cartoon as she was an apprentice of Count Dooku. She used twin red curved hilts but she also used a yellow regular saber hilt too. And I have modeled that to construct the new Maul staff I posted yesterday. Here is a pre-render preview of my progress on this Ventress hilt so far…

There are a few tweaks I need to make but I feel this is a solid basis to improve on. I will feature this and an article on Ventress in a future post complete with Glamour Shots and maybe an animation! So that just about wraps up this post and my Beskar build, I hope you liked it, I think it is quite distinctive.

Thank you all for looking in on this design and for supporting me and my site. As always you are much appreciated and I am proud to say my viewing stats are rising meaning word of my efforts is spreading so thanks if you have told friends and family or social media about FTSabersite. I have more new designs to bring you including a couple of curved hilts, a saber that nods to Obi-Wan Kenobi and I may have a tribute to an upcoming movie with a beautiful sword! I sincerely hope you’ll call back to see those. Till next time…..

“The Mandalawrian – Beskar Special Edition” saber is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2020. It is inspired by Disney/LucasFilm’s “The Mandalorian” TV series. The names “Beskar” and “Mandalorian” along with all other images, logos and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

Coming Soon! CW7 and “CW7-AM7 Staff”

Hello Everybody! Well a new trailer for The Clone Wars Season 7 dropped recently (yesterday I think) and in it was an exciting new something! Guess what? I have already built that shiny new red double bladed object!

A full article with full colour Glamour Shot gallery (and just maybe an animation) will be posted here on FTSabersite very soon!

However this weekend I enter the world of commodities, stock exchanges and ForEx as I have found a few ingots of a very valuable material in the back of my workshop and decided to do something special to my “Mandalawrian” saber….you won’t want to miss it!

Thanks for looking in on this announcement and I hope you’ll return for my “Mandalawrian – Beskar Special Edition”.

“CW7-AM7 Staff” is a For Tyeth Edition model, built in Blender 3D and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2020. It is inspired by “The Clone Wars” animated series which is Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm. Background image is ©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

Sharkaradon Saber -Inspired by Riff Tamson

Hello Everybody, today we have another watery weapon, but this time it doesn’t belong to Aquaman or even Admiral Ackbar….it belong’s to an adversary of the great admiral and a character named Riff Tamson! Riff Tamson was an aquatic being from the planet Karkaris and his species were known as Karkaradons. The Karkaradons were involved in the Battle of Mon Cala that took place on Ackbar’s home world of Mon Cala. On Mon Cala there were two species (the Mon Calamari and the Quarren) that lived in peace but the war brought tensions and the friendship between both species was strained. The Confederacy of Independent Systems led by the infamous Count Dooku sensed an opportunity to benefit and gain control of the watery planet of Mon Cala by triggering a civil war…then sending their own forces in to take over the two weakened native species. And to accomplish this Dooku sent Riff Tamson to lead an aquatic army to seize the planet.

Riff Tamson – Copyright Disney/LucasFilm

Tamson as you can see was a humanoid shark and when I built my Altenweg Shoto and Darkshoto hilts I realised the emitters reminded me of something….and it BIT me. The emitter openings looked like a shark’s mouth so I decided to create a colour scheme based on Riff Tamson to decorate this saber. I just have “Glamour Shots” for this hilt but I have more than usual and I have an animation so I will show you the first batch of pictures….

Sharkaradon Saber 1

Sharkaradon Saber ignited

Sharkaradon Saber pommel

Sharkaradon Saber side view

As you can see this is quite a colourful hilt and has a scaly texture to it. And I know botanical experts will point out that sharks (and Riff for that matter) don’t have scales like a fish. But I do know sharks have a special textured skin that has very small scale like plaques. Speedo the swimming costume manufacturer made a swimsuit for Olympic athletes that had a special “scaled” texture inspired by sharkskin, to make the swimmer more streamlined. Giving the saber this scaly pattern allowed me to add the light and dark blue colours along with the white you can see on Riff’s outfit. The pommel has a flared “tail-like” shroud and at the opposite end of the hilt is the “Shark’s Mouth” emitter that triggered my imagination. Here is the next batch of pictures including the shark mouth….

It’s a Sharkaradon Saber!

Sharkaradon Saber scale texture.

Sharkaradon Saber crystal chamber

Keep still and it will swim away!

The emitter with the upper and lower curve just reminded me so much of a shark it was a no-brainer to make this version. The texture is a modified version of the material I used to create a rock like texture for my LOTR Barad-Dûr saber but I added three colours to the surface. The saber blade, activation switch and Opee Sea Creature crystal all have an aquatic sea blue cyan glow. I now think it is time to see how good this saber is and take it for a swim…here it is with the other fishies…

I think it looks good and works quite well underwater!

BUT HERE IS A SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT! DO NOT PUT ANY LIGHTSABER INTO WATER! WHETHER IT IS A TOY VERSION FROM A STORE LIKE WALMART OR AMAZON, OR A LIGHTSABER FROM A CUSTOM SABER COMPANY…..ELECTRONICS AND WATER DO NOT MIX! THE SHARKARADON SABER IS FICTIONAL AND YOU SHOULDN’T PUT YOUR SABERS INTO WATER OK?! STAY SAFE!

I apologise I had to put that disclaimer and warning in but I did see a video on YouTube recently where a person put his saber into a swimming pool to see what would happen. He was lucky in that the saber just stopped working but it could have turned out worse if the battery inside it ruptured or the circuits shorted and gave him a shock. Anyhoo, that just about wraps things up for this post but before I go I have a BIG announcement of a really special PsychoSith Sabers design which I will post this Wednesday – you won’t want to miss it!

As always I will end by saying a big thank you to all of you for looking in on this post, whether this is your first visit or you are a regular viewer (such as the kind folks in India who call in) you are very much appreciated and please come back to see what else I have in store for future posts. Till next time….

“Sharkaradon Saber” is a For Tyeth Edition design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. It was inspired by “Riff Tamson” who appeared in “Star Wars- The Clone Wars” and is a Trademark/©Copyrighted property of Disney/LucasFilm Ltd.

Kaleesh Saber – A design for General Grievous.

Hello Everybody, it’s that time again…I have another design to share with you all and a person called Qymaen jai Sheelal. Now this name may not mean much to most casual fans but Qymaen jai Sheelal was a warlord of the Kaleesh species. Qymaen was badly injured in a ship crash but was rescued and his damaged body was replaced by a cybernetic exoskeleton and life support system. He became a cyborg called Grievous. He then joined forces with Count Dooku to help lead the Confederation of Independent Systems’ droid army and learnt to duel with lightsabers mastering all seven styles of combat. After Dooku’s death Grievous became the Droid Army commander and was known as General Grievous. Grevious is famous for stealing Jedi lightsabers as trophies of victory, but now he won’t need to steal any more as I have designed one just for him, this is Kaleesh Saber…

Kaleesh Saber Build 1

Kaleesh Saber Build 2

Kaleesh Saber Eye Switch

Kaleesh Saber Build 3

Kaleesh Saber Build 4

Kaleesh Saber Build 5

Kaleesh Saber Build 6

As you can see this hilt is quite complex and a little bit different! It is based on the skull of Grevious and even has a neat little trick built in. Firstly I built the main body of the hilt to look like the upper skull and using the tools in Blender carved in the two arrow like decorations on the “forehead”. I next worked on the pommel which forms the lower jaw. Being as Grievous doesn’t have a moving mouth made this a bit easier to accomplish. The lower jaw/pommel does have a few decorative items, the silver teardrop shaped nodules and four vertical grills to form the mouth as it were. If you zoomed in close enough you will see that the grills have tiny holes!

Next I proceeded to add the protrusions on the side of his head where his “ears” attach. The Kaleesh had very distinct ears that in his cyborg form look like wings. From the pictures you will see that the “ears” actually rotate 90 degrees, from being combat ready and horizontal to a vertical position. This is the little trick I mentioned as when the ears are vertical they form two feet that act as a saber display stand. The saber rests on the ears and the Covertech Belt Clip Knob! To switch the saber on/off I created a pair of eyes which double as the activation switch and sound FX buttons (using micro switches called Tactiles) Just press the eyeballs! I have a few studio/glamour shots so here you go…

Kaleesh Saber Test Build 1

Kaleesh Saber Build 7

Kaleesh Saber Test Build 2

Kaleesh Saber Test Build 3

Kaleesh Saber Build 8

Kaleesh Saber Glamour Shot

Qymaen jai Sheelal as I mention was a Kaleesh warlord but that was in the discarded material Disney rejected in their buyout of LucasFilm, however Disney LucasFilm rewrote Grievous’ backstory then included him in two cartoon shows (“The Clone Wars” series and the later computer animated “Star Wars – The Clone Wars” series.) In Disney’s new storyline Grievous didn’t become a cyborg because of injuries sustained in a ship crash, but because he attempted to modify himself and become a superior being than the Jedi were. Unfortunately this caused a huge strain on his remaining organs and resulted in his Cough-Cough and rasping breath. It was also these organic bits which led to his demise when he fought Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet Utapau in Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan pried open the chest plates of Grievous’ skeleton and shot the exposed heart and lungs with a blaster…how uncivilised!

Well I suppose this would be a good place to end this post, I mean Grievous doesn’t really need a saber now! However it was fun building this one and challenged me to try and replicate something very identifiable but in saber form, I hope I succeeded. Before I go as always I need to say a big thank you to all of you, whether a first time viewer or one of my loyal regular followers thanks so much for checking Kaleesh out. You are greatly appreciated. I hope you will call back to see future posts as I have two big movie blockbuster inspired hilts (the films will cause a buzz and a splash when released in December) and one based on a “Fully operational battle sta…Saber!” Till next time….

“Kaleesh Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2018. “General Grievous” and all other names, logos images and related material are Trademarks/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

R2-KT Lightsaber – Inspired by Katie’s Droid

Hello Everybody, my best laid plans have been put on hold due to the fact  my friend with the hilt I hoped to showcase is having technical issues sending me the pictures. However while working those problems out I had the chance to browse WordPress and I came across an interesting post topic shared across two blogs. The two blogs are authored by two young ladies called Mei-Mei and the second is called Kiri. The topic they shared was a Star Wars Mandala Challenge, where both ladies colour in the same picture from a book of SW themed mandala pictures then compare them. Well both decided to colour in the picture of an Astromech droid and both chose to colour it as R2-D2. I commented that they had missed an opportunity and could have filled the pictures in to look like another less known droid with a beautiful and moving tale behind it called R2-KT. R2-KT is a droid that was built by the R2 Builders’ Club who heard that the daughter of the founder of the 501st Legion cosplay group was terminally ill with brain cancer. The young girl was called Katie Johnson and as her condition deteriorated and forced her to be bed bound she wished she had a droid to look over her while she slept…just like Padme Amidala had with Artoo. The R2 Builders’ Club raised funds and collected parts and made that wish come true in the shape of R2-KT a pink and white droid with a “heart of gold”.  R2-KT accompanied Katie through her final days and this design is my tribute to the brave girl and to the talented, kind hearted people who built R2-KT…

R2-KT Hilt

R2-KT Emitter

R2-KT Emitter 2

R2-KT Switch

R2-KT Body

R2-KT Pommel

R2-KT Vertical Up

R2-KT Vertical Down

R2-KT Horizontal

Of course this saber is a repaint of SensorScope Lightsaber – Inspired by R2-D2 but I still think the colour scheme fits the hilt well. The design represents the sensor array the pops up from the famous silver dome of an Astromech. The story of R2-KT doesn’t end here however, as word of Katie’s story reached George Lucas who filmed her a special message and after Katie eventually passed on to the Living Force, the droid travelled the world visiting children’s hospitals and raising funds for charity. The toy company Mattel made an R2-KT Hot Wheels car, and Dave Filoni went even further and made the droid part of official Canon by having the Astromech appear in “The Force Awakens” and the animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” series. The appearances in TFA were brief but did happen and here’s proof…

Yep that’s R2-KT looking after Poe Dameron’s X-Wing fighter at the Resistance Base! You can read more at the Star Wars Databank and on Wookiepedia-The Star Wars Wiki.

Now back to the posts that prompted me to rework this design. The two blogs are as follows:

Jedi By Knight (A Nerdy Girl’s Blog) is written by Mei-Mei, and her mandala can be seen by clicking HERE .

Star Wars Anonymous  is written by Kiri, and her mandala can be seen by clicking HERE .

And I guess it’s only fair that I share my attempt at colouring in some pictures, here are R2-KT and my Jedi Interceptor..

The “real” R2-KT

My R2-KT colouring attempt

And my Jedi Starfighter!

I hope you liked this post and my feeble colouring in efforts (I don’t do a lot of art!). Next week I may be talking about some film that’s being released on the 14th Dec (have you heard about it?  😀 ). I’m hoping my birthday present is a ticket to see The Last Jedi. And my friend’s fantastic saber will appear very soon so please call back to see these posts, but for now thanks again for your support it means a lot. Till next time.

R2-KT was built by The R2 Builder’s Club and appears in “The Force Awakens” and “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” which are Trademark/© Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd. “R2-KT Lightsaber” is a For Tyeth Edition and is © Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2017.