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.

Forearmed Darkside – Pong Krell’s second staff

Hello Everybody, I am back to my normal schedule today and would like to bring you the second saberstaff for the fallen Jedi General, Pong Krell. You will remember from two weeks ago I introduced this character as a Jedi Master and military General who foresaw the outcome of the Clone Wars and tried to better his chances of surviving. This action however would lead to suffering, which lead to misery which lead to the Darkside. Krell sent his troops on suicide missions to carry out stupid plans and tactics, in the hopes that the Imperials/Empire would win the war and he could join their ranks. Sending these men to their demise fuelled Krell’s lust for power until his scheme was discovered. Krell by this time hadn’t fully turned to the Darkside, but if he had he may have updated his weapons and they may have looked like this…Forearmed Darkside…

Forearmed Darkside Staff

Forearmed Darkside Emitter 1A

Forearmed Darkside Emitter 1B

Forearmed Darkside Hilt 1

Forearmed Darkside Mid Grip

Forearmed Darkside Hilt 2

Forearmed Darkside Emitter 2A

Forearmed Darkside Emitter 2B

Forearmed Darkside Horizontal

This saberstaff has the trademark black finish associated with Sith and Darkside users. It does however have touches of decoration to make it stand out, with red adjustment knobs and the two silver accent rings. I felt that this staff would have the decorative bits as Krell was arrogant and believed his plan would work, and this decoration reflected his “flashy” attitude. Krell didn’t bargain on his troopers being aware of the strange orders they were being given and becoming suspicious. These troopers confronted Krell and the Jedi General cut down several soldiers before he was shot and stunned. Now a prisoner of the Republic, Krell was found guilty of trying to undermine the effort to defeat the Imperials/Empire and was executed. This weapon still retains the acid green blades of the Lightside version to reflect that Krell failed to join forces with Count Dooku and so the blades’ crystals weren’t corrupted to produce Sith red blades.

That was the “What if..?” design for Pong Krell, I hope you liked it. Sadly I have nearly run of time this year and will need to bring my post to an end. Yes, I did say the year has nearly ended as next week is the “Blogversary” of this site! FTSabersite will be one year old and I will have a post to look back at the best bits, the popular hilts, some shout outs and lots of “thank yous”. There will also be a look forward to the next twelve months of FTSabersite, and who knows I may try and send some invites to the big names in the saber community and see if they would like to be associated with me now I have completed my first year. So thank you for looking in today, it is much appreciated and I hope you return for the “Blogversary”! Till next time.

Pong Krell, The Clone Wars and all names, images, logos and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilms.