“Blissfull Sabers” for Zorii Bliss

Hello Everybody, today I bring toy you not one but TWO new hilts, well a matching pair of sabers for a mysterious female character who will appear in the new Star Wars film The Rise of Skywalker in about 2 week’s time! (Wow time has flown!) A while ago Vanity Fair released some promo teaser images and one was of a mysterious woman dressed in a burgundy and gold bodysuit and helmet. The outfit immediately reminded me of a few things…first was Daft Punk because of the helmet but I also remembered a movie and tv show with rocket/jet pack wearing characters. The TV show was an old Saturday morning cinema style serial called “King of the Rocket Men” from 1949. The movie came out around 1991 and was called “The Rocketeer” made by ….Disney! Both lead hero characters wore rocket packs and distinctive helmets. Here is the poster for the Disney film…

Image Copyright Disney Studios

The movie set around the 20’s/30’s has a distinct Art Deco style and look to it, but it is that helmet just look at it! Now take a look at the Vanity Fair image of Zorii Bliss and her helmet…look familiar?…..

Image Copyright Vanity Fair/Disney/LucasFilm

Ok, it is a little bit more futuristic with the paneling and air vents/radiator parts on the back but that looks spookily like the Rocketeer. Zorii also has what looks like art deco styled patterns on her belt and bicep bands. I saw this and just knew I needed to create a hilt for this character. So I set to work and came up with this hilt…

Blissfull Saber 1

Blissfull Saber Emitter

Blissfull Saber Switches

Blissfull Saber Pommel and Belt Clip

Blissfull Saber full length

I really went to town with this design and used the burgundy of the suit as the handgrip and added the antique gold and gloss black accents. The emitter is modeled on Zorii’s helmet viewed side on. The switches I made to look like the old rotary dial controls found on 1930’s/40’s radios to fit the art deco look. The pommel looks like the decorations found on pillars and columns of art deco buildings with the geometric carvings. I was pretty stoked and happy how these turned out but I had only seen a picture of Zorii from the waist up and a new image was released (the one above) that revealed Zorii had two curved handled blasters. I liked those blasters and thought “How would this saber look if it was curved?” So you know me….I bent the saber! Here are the pictures of the update…

Blissfull Bend Saber Emitter

Blissfull Bend Saber Switches

Blissfull Bend Saber Pommel

Blissfull Bend Saber full length

I used the same function in Blender 3D that I used to bend my Aquaman Bend Lightsaber hilt. I had to create “cuts” in the hilt then draw a curved line which the software then maps the model onto and bends the shape to the line drawn. Anyhoo, you may have noticed that in the last picture there are TWO hilts and you would be correct. I modeled a matching saber to form a pair (and I mirrored the second hilt so each one can hang off Zorii’s belt like a pair of pistols). Oh yes and did I mention that the mysterious Zorii is portrayed by Kerri Russell? That is why you can see the actress in the title image above! And as these hilts were for such an intriguing character I decided to add one final  touch, an embossed pattern to replicate the mysterious geometric art deco designs on the handgrips too! Here is a final batch of images of the matching pair…

Blissfull Saber pair 1

Blissfull Saber pair 2

Blissfull Bend Saber pair 1

Blissfull Bend Saber pair 2

I forgot to mention that I added a yellow “Darksaber” style flat blade to match the flat rounded rectangular shape of the hilts’ cross-section. Phew! That was a lot of images again but I think I have covered everything now. Not a lot is known about Zorii except for the facts she is a human from the planet Kijimi and was the leader of a gang known as The Kijimi Spice Runners….and has a past connection to Poe Dameron! We will find out more when Rise of Skywalker hits cinemas on the 20th of December (UK date).

I am nearing the end of this post, but before I go I need to say a big thank you to evrybody who has visited and supported me these past three and a bit years, I have now passed the 15,000 views mark. So thank you all, new viewers and all my regulars you are fantastic and much appreciated. I hope you enjoyed these hilts and really hope you will return for future posts as I have my final Master Series hilt coming up along with a whole batch of new original designs and I’ll be chatting about the new film. Till next time…..

“Blissfull Saber” and “Blissfull Bend Saber” are For Tyeth Edition designs and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. “Zorii Bliss”, “The Rise of Skywalker” and all other Star Wars related names, images and material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm. Promo image Copyright of Vanity Fair.

The Mandalawrian Saber – He’s here to take you in!

Hello Everybody, today I have a special saber based on the new Disney/LucasFilm TV series which has just debuted on Disney’s new streaming service Disney+….The Mandalorian. Now I don’r have access to Disney+ as it hasn’t launched in the UK (boo!) and I can’t afford the subscription even if it was available here. However from the trailers I have been able to see on YouTube and pictures seen online I gathered this show centers around a mysterious character known as The Mandalorian, who is a bounty hunter during the time between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. He seems to be a modernised version of Boba Fett the famous bounty hunter that eventually captured Han Solo for Jabba the Hutt. The Mandalorian has similar gadgets, body armour and iconic Mando style helmet as seen here…

Copyright Disney/LucasFilm 2019

The Mando is armed with an imposing blaster rifle but I felt a character like this needed a saber….well you know me, I built one for him! And here are a few images of that saber. I call it the MandaLAWrian!…

Mandalawrian Blue 1

Mandalawrian Blue 2

Mandalawrian Blue 3

The hilt is modeled to represent the Mamdalorian’s body armour and helmet and is a pale blue and silver in colour (the images look dark blue but that is the environment image casting coloured light onto my model- look closely on these models and you can even make out reflections of the scenery sometimes). The emitter has ribbed panels that mimic a rifle barrel both inside the emitter and on the outside while below that on the hand grip is a symbol called the Kyr’bes, the logo of the Mandalorian clans. The symbol depicts a skull of a Mythosaur. The pommel is quite interesting, I don’t know if this particular Mandalorian has one but Boba Fett was famous for having a jet pack, so I modeled the pommel to represent the exhaust nozzle of such a backpack…

Bounty Hunter Jetpack

Mandalawrian Pommel (jet nozzle!)

And the “crowning glory” of this hilt is the activation switch that I modeled to be a touch sensor shaped to look like the Mandalorian’s helmet and visor details. The black “visor” segment is a touch panel like those on your smart phones…just swipe your thumb up the “visor” to activate and sweep down to switch off! I even modeled the little lugs found over the “ears” of the helmet. Boba Fett’s helmet actually had a radio transmitter built into these parts. I’m not sure if the Mando has radios in his but here are a few closeups of the helmet/switch section and one final full length glamour shot….

Mandalawrian Blue helmet details 1

Is this the Mandalawrian?

Mandalawrian Blue full length look.

As I say I haven’t seen the new show but I think I have created something suitable for the biggest baddest bounty hunter this side of Black Spire! Now he is fully equipped to round up the rogues of the galaxy and bring them to justice.

That just about wraps up the Mandalawrian Saber, thank you so much for checking it out. I really appreciate all the support and kind words you leave in the comments section, so whether you are a first time visitor or one of my loyal long time followers, thank you so much. Please remember to click to follow if you haven’t already so you will know when my next sabers are posted, you won’t want to miss them…I have My Master Series hilts to come, another Mando saber for Boba, a few new Obi-Wan Kenobi inspired sabers, one for a mystery lady in The Rise of Skywalker…..and one for Rey! That’s a lot of hardware!….Till next time…..

“Mandalawrian Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. “The Mandalorian” name and image along with all other Star Wars related material is Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm 2019. “The Mandalorian” is available now on Disney’s new streaming service Disney+

 

“Spidey Saber” a lightsaber in a Halloween costume

Hellooooo Everybodies! Today I am looking back to a Halloween when I got dressed up as my favourite superhero…Spider-Man! I was a youngling at school and one year we had a Halloween Fancy Dress Disco. I got my dark blue jogging suit, a pair of bright red football socks, an old red T-shirt, a red balaclava, some sunglasses and a big black marker pen then set to work making my costume. I cut out different shapes from the t-shirt which I stitched onto the jogging suit to represent the torso pieces of Spidey’s outfit and I drew a web pattern on them with the marker pen. I did the same to the socks and balaclava. I used to wear spectacles as a kid and had clip-on sunglasses so I used those to make the mask lenses. I even had paper party streamers to recreate Spidey’s web shooting trick! I came second in the competition! But Spidey has always stuck with me and this Halloween I figured I’d brush the cobwebs off a saber dedicated to our favourite wall climber and here it is…

Spidey Saber work in progress

Spidey Saber added switch

Spidey Saber added Web Shroud

Spidey Saber pommel wed detail

Spidey Saber darkened background

Ooh what’s that living in the emitter?…SPIDER!

I have attempted a Spider-Man themed hilt before when I used the old software I had access to but I always felt I could do better and hopefully with this hilt I have. I modeled it in the classic Spidey red and blue colour scheme with nice silver accents and webbing. And the webbing is particularly interesting on this model as it isn’t just a graphic representation, it is actually 3D modeled! If you zoom in on the pictures you will see the web is actually raised ribs. This I achieved by making a wireframe as you can see with the emitter shroud then I thickened the wires that made up the frame. This made the wires look solid. I also added a few webs located in the pommel and the emitter. Both the pommel and the protective Blade Plug decoration have a web with a Spidey logo seated in the middle, again all 3D modeled. I wasn’t sure which looked better, the hilt with the emitter shroud or without so I posted both as the saber without the shroud was part of the development of the design (but could be a stand-alone design). And you may recall I mentioned I was a fan of things being balanced? Light and Dark, day and night, Good and Evil? Well Spidey had a run in with an evil “clone” of himself in the form of a parasitic alien that enveloped him. Peter Parker managed to escape from the alien but the creature found a new host in a guy named Eddie Brock and became known as “VENOM”! Well…as it’s Halloween here is a taste of Venom!….

“Venom Saber” without shroud

“Venom Saber” with shroud

Venom had the look of Spider-Man but was black and silver in colour and had big eyes and sharp pointed teeth, he was also sort of elastic and could stretch and change shape as if made of liquid rubber. So I gave the Venom version of this hilt a glossy black base colour and silver webbing accents. To really make the “Venom”stand out from the “Spidey” version I gave it a toxic green blade.

Now, you remember I mentioned “brushing off the cobwebs” above? I wasn’t kidding, take a peek at this image I made and have a look at the cobwebs clinging to the backdrop and the saber…I modeled those too!

Those webs get everywhere, are very sticky and took me forever to sweep them away 😀 ! But I think I have tidied this design up nicely and that just about brings me to the end of this Halloween special. I’d like to thank you all for checking out this design and for supporting me and my site. And especially to the kind viewers from Spain who have dropped in recently (I noticed your visits!) Thank you so much it’s much appreciated, whether this is your first visit or if you are a regular visitor. Till next…….WAIT! This is Halloween and you really need a fright so I ‘ll leave you with an old picture I posted three years ago….It’s ME!…Happy Halloween Nightmares!….

P.S. As I am posting this earlier than normal I think I will have a rest over a long weekend so there won’t be a post this Saturday but rest assured I’ll be back next weekend for more saber shenanigans. Till next time….

“Spidey-Saber” and “Venom-Saber” are For Tyeth Editions creations inspired by Marvel Comic’s and Stan Lee’s characters. The sabers are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. Spider-Man, Venom and all other related names, images, logos and material are Trademark/©Copyright of Marvel and Sony Studios.

The Rise of Skywalker final trailer has dropped – For’s first thoughts

Hello Everybody, well we are less than 58 days out from The Rise of Skywalker’s big release and today the final trailer for the final installment of the saga debuted! I watched it and er, well it looks big, it looks interesting but I am worried there is a lot to of issues to cover in a short time. There was also news of problems and re-shoots, I’m really not sure “how this is going to end”. So if the link works and doesn’t get taken down let’s take a look at the trailer shall we?….Lights!…..Popcorn!…..ACTION!

This trailer has all the usual cryptic teachings from a wise whispering Master (no, not me – they never asked me to) and we see Rey showing her agility in two locations…or is it really two Rey’s? Hmm! We see our heroes looking down onto the tent city we saw on the desert planet in the first trailer. There looks to be a massive space battle with Lando back in “his” pilot’s seat right in the middle of it. Rey is feeling lonely. Then Kylo turns up out of the spray. There is wildlife…in the form of space horses. And there is that evil cackle of a voice “Your coming together…..will be your undoing!” oh er! I won’t mention the Iron Throne as that’s from a different franchise, but I will say whoever that is sat in it “has the high ground” so things may not turn out great for the good guys and gals! (But at least the John Williams music sounds epic)

I’m not much of a film or trailer critic but I thought as this is possibly the final chapter of the saga that has accompanied me since I was a youngling I had to write this post. So thanks for looking in on it. Are any of you my loyal viewers planning on seeing the film and if so what do you think will happen? I plan to get my VIP tickets as soon as I can (well they are a belated birthday present) and who knows I might even see if I can take my saber with me for a final salute.

Again thanks for visiting and please call back this weekend for my scheduled post. Till next time…..

“The Rise of Skywalker” is the final installment of the Skywalker saga and is Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm. The video clip is provided via StarWars,com UK on YouTube. Tickets are on sale now and the film releases on the 19th December for UK cinemas and the 20th in the US.

Bionic Battle Saber – Inspired by the Six Million Dollar Man and toys

Hello Everybody, today I am taking on another “The Vintage Toy Advertiser Challenge” and it will take us back to the 1970’s TV show starring Lee Majors…The Six Million Dollar Man. The show which was loosely based on a novel titled “Cyborg” written by Martin Caidin tells the story of an Airforce Test Pilot – Colonel Steve Austin. Steve Austin was testing a new vehicle called a “Lifting Body” known as the M2-F2, but suffered a near fatal crash. He survived but suffered massive injury resulting in him losing his right arm, both legs and his eye. During the opening intro sequence of the show you see a real life crash of an M2-F2 piloted by Bruce Peterson which took place on May 10th 1967. Peterson survived the horrific crash with just(?) a broken wrist and severe damage to the skin of his face (he did later lose his eye due to an infection that got into the injury), but in the TV show Steve Austin needed to be rebuilt…and you hear a government official state “we can rebuild him….faster, stronger….better! We have the technology!” And they did just that, giving Austin new bionic legs, an arm and a bionic eye. During the intro sequence there were lots of data screens and wireframe images of the medical operations so I had best show you the wireframe “techy” image I have of this new saber before I explain everything about it….

Now observant viewers may recognise this as looking a little bit like a rocket ship…and you would be sort of correct! The SMDM tv show was such a success that the toy company Kenner Toys brought out a range of toys and action figures. There was a Steve Austin figure with “bionic features” such as a spring loaded arm that lifted a model car engine. There was also an “Oscar Goldman” figure, Oscar being Austin’s boss after his recovery. Then there was this, the Bionic Transport and Repair Station (BTRS)…

The Bionic Transport and Repair Station

The Bionic Transport and Repair Station 2

The BTRS was Steve Austin’s special transport rocket which also opened up and doubled as an operating theatre/repair station for his bionic parts. There was an operating theatre light cluster in the base, an X-ray unit (with glow in the dark images to represent the different body parts) and a myriad of tubes and cables to run “diagnostics” on Austin. So my challenge was to replicate this toy in saber form. Not my greatest challenge to be fair as it is already tubular in shape and looks Sci-Fi, but I had a lot of details to add to make it pop. To start with I built the booster rocket base (which formed the theatre light cluster) and then worked my way up…so here are the pictures as it took shape…

Bionic Battle Saber base 1

Bionic Battle Saber base and body

Bionic Battle Saber base, body and nosecone

The complete Bionic Battle Saber/BTRS

Work in progress on the cockpit

Cockpit details.

So, as I mentioned I didn’t have much to do technically with this build but there were a lot of tiny details that I needed to add to solidify the look and leave you in no doubt what inspired it. The booster base acts as a pommel, featuring the four side pod booster engines as well as the main central booster and all the panelling. The main body of the hilt represents the main-stage body of the BTRS and houses the cockpit (more on this below), and the “stars and stripes” flag on the front. This flag is a 3D part, not just a graphic applied onto the model and I planned to use this flag as the activation switch for the hilt. The whole hilt body has little details like oxygen cylinders on the underside and various vents and panels. Two of the panels feature the name Kenner etched into them as TVTA asked that I incorporated their logo into the design somehow. The saber is topped off with a blue nose cone that acts as the emitter. However…beneath this nosecone you will have noticed the glass window and maybe you will have picked out the figure of Steve Austin himself! I actually modelled a cockpit section and then pasted a picture of Austin inside that section. But I didn’t just leave it like that, I divided the panel the image was on and manipulated it so that it formed the contours of Austin’s face, head and shoulders…so he is actually 3D too! The saber wouldn’t be a saber with out a blade of course and this hilt has a red blade, not because Steve is a Sith Darksider but because it matches with his famous red athletics “tracksuit”! You can see it in the images below, one is the real Kenner toy, one is my 3D model…

The Bionic Transport and Repair Station and Steve Austin figure

Bionic Battle Saber

The Kenner Bionic Transport and Repair Station toy

The Six Million Dollar Man show spawned numerous made for TV films and the show ran from 1973 to 1978 and the films ran into the 1980’s. And it seems the toys have lasted even longer! So I’d like to thank TVTA once more for giving me the challenge of recreating this piece of nostalgia and I hope you all like it. (BTW I did actually own the Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman figures and I had a Bionic Transport Repair Station, so this one brought back memories for me).

I think that just about wraps up this design and as I said above I hope you enjoyed. I will be returning to the galaxy far, far, away next week as I have some staff weapons I need to show you all and I think you may recognise at least one of the owners. I’d like to thank all of you, my viewers and followers for again taking time to visit today and I hope you will return for my upcoming posts. Your support has been fantastic and much appreciated. Till next time…….I have the technology!

“Bionic Battle Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. The design was inspired by The Six Million Dollar Man tv show and the toys produced by Kenner Toys inc.  Respective Trademarks and ©Copyrights belong to Harve Bennett, Kenneth Johnson, ABC Television and NBC Universal Television Distribution and Kenner Toys/Hasbro.

New Asguard “Phoenix” inspired by Marvel’s Thor

Hello Everybody, I have had a few pleasant surprises this week, one involving my design known as “New Asguard Saber”and a personal accolade that I have been honoured with. I will tell you more about the personal accolade later but first I have a funny story about my Asguard hilts. As many of you will know I had a design inspired by Thor which I was going to post back in January but “lost” the files when my laptop glitched whilst saving them to a backup drive. It wiped ALL the files and folders associated with the saber so I had to rebuild it from memory as the screenshots I took of the hilt were also deleted. However you will also be aware that I did rebuild the hilt and it triggered a few new variants including “Asguard One” the single bladed shoto version. Then whilst remodelling the design I imagined that I was pulling the saber out of the “fire of destruction” and wondered how it would look if charred and scorched. This led to me modifying the hilt so it had a dark grey coating to create a dark version hilt. And this is that dark version and I named it New Asguard Phoenix”…

New Asguard Phoenix saber 1

New Asguard Phoenix saber 2

New Asguard Phoenix One switch 1

New Asguard Phoenix One 2

New Asguard Phoenix One 3

New Asguard Phoenix One 4

New Asguard Phoenix One 5

The hilts are the same as New Asguard but just have a new colour scheme which makes the hilt look a bit more regal in a way. I have found black and gold work well together as a lot of members of the forum I frequent have commented they like that combination too. And the blades I gave a “fire orange” colour to represent the flames of destruction the saber escaped from. I think there must really be some Force or Magic connected to this hilt so I also produced a version with the Thor lightning blue colour too and here is that version…

New Asguard Phoenix Blue

New Asguard Phoenix Blue 2

New Asguard Phoenix Blue 3

New Asguard Phoenix Blue 4

New Asguard Phoenix Blue 5

New Asguard Phoenix Blue 6

New Asguard Phoenix Blue 7

Now so far this story hasn’t been that funny, well recently I started having issues with my email notifications from WordPress, they were being deleted as trash by my email host and I decided I needed to go through some old emails and delete them to see if that helped. Now this is where the magic comes in…whilst scrolling through the emails I found a message I sent to a very good friend and there was an attachment on it. I used to send this person sneak peeks of my upcoming hilts (as he helped critique them when I first started out designing) and low and behold the attachment was a picture of …Asguard Saber the ORIGINAL! I didn’t realise my email host archived the attachments and I forgot I had sent the picture but there it was staring back at me. So now I have a treat for you all, here is the ORIGINAL version of New Asguard so you can compare and see how well I reconstructed it…

Original Asguard Saber

“New Asguard Saber” hilt 1

This was the hilt I was so sad about losing but at least I now have a picture of it to keep. As you can see the basic shapes are very similar but I did lose the original pommel as I couldn’t remember the steps I took to make it. However I kinda like both versions, and to be honest I was able to do a much better job on the scroll work etching on New Asguard.

And as if that wasn’t enough of a surprise I found a notification in my email host telling me WordPress had a private message for me that needed moderating. WordPress never sent me a notification with the little bell function in the menu above. It is a good job that I checked it out as I have discovered I have been nominated for a blogging award! So next week I hope to post an acceptance post on Wednesday and I’ll have another new saber design for the weekend….I’m going to be busy!

So I think that just about wraps up this offering, I hope you enjoyed seeing the “Original” Asguard.  Please call back to FTSabersite next week for more new sabers and as always thank you everyone for your support today. It is much appreciated, Till next time….

“New Asguard Saber” and “New Asguard Phoenix” and it’s variants are original designs by For Tyeth. They are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.

Big Red One Saber inspired by the Sci-Fi comedy Red Dwarf

Hello Everybody, I hope you all enjoyed last week’s blockbuster “New Asguard Saber” Thor inspired hilt and thank you for your patience and kind comments/likes you have left for it. Today we travel 3 million years into the future and visit the world of Dave Lister, Arnold J(udas) Rimmer, Kryten, Holly and The Cat, collectively known as the crew of the JMC mining ship Red Dwarf! It was back in 1984 however that this sci-fi comedy had it’s roots when two gentlemen, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor wrote a sketch series for a BBC Radio 4 show. The series was titled “Dave Hollins: Space Cadet” about a ragtag crew of a mining ship in the 22nd Century. Unbelievably the series was rejected at first when pitched to be made into a TV show. Thankfully though after a few creative tweaks and TV studio politicking the show was eventually filmed and broadcast on February 15th 1988. We got to learn about the mining ship Red Dwarf and the vending machine technician Dave Lister, who smuggled his pet cat aboard and as a result caused a nuclear radiation leak that wiped out the crew. Lister survived as he was protected in a stasis pod at the time of the leak, as did his cat who was hidden in the vast depths of the cargo hold. After the accident took place the ship’s artificial intelligence thought it best to leave Lister on ice until the radiation levels returned to normal. The radiation levels took 3 million years to normalise and Lister was awakened….but that was when the fun really began. OK enough chatter about the show for now. As you may have guessed I have designed a hilt and it is inspired by the ship itself and here are a few Studio Work in Progress shots….

Wireframe of Big Red One

Ooh, an asteroid!

Big Red One “carrying” asteroid

Big Red One “carrying” asteroid 2

As you can see I literally took the shape of Red Dwarf and added a saber blade. Ok I did stretch the proportions a little but it does match fairly closely to the ship seen in the show (of which there were two versions because some Nanobots dismantled the ship when they stole Red Dwarf during one of the wacky stories in the series). However the design still has the hexagonal cages at the bow and stern, the bow cage I used as the emitter and the stern as the pommel housing. I also “sculpted” a bit of rock to form an asteroid to form a plinth for the hilt to rest on. For reference I used images of the ship from the show and pictures of the various die-cast toys that were made by Corgi Toys, here are a few pictures kindly supplied by my friend TheVintageToyAdvertiser…

Red Dwarf Corgi Toy 1

Red Dwarf Corgi Toy 2

Corgi Toy advert courtesy of TVTA

In the advert you can see Red Dwarf at the top and the two figures at the bottom are Dave Lister (black outfit) and Arnold J. Rimmer (blue uniform). Dave (portrayed by Craig Charles) awakes 3 million years after the accident to find he is alone aboard the ship save for a hologramatic version of his superior officer, Arnold Rimmer (played by Chris Barrie). The ship’s computer, Holly created the hologram so Lister would have some company and avoid insanity (well he was the last human being alive). Lister also discovers that his pet cat had procreated and it’s offspring had developed into a new “Feline Sapiens” species and one particular descendant called The Cat (Danny John Jules) had become a walking, talking, sharp suit wearing…not to mention all singing and dancing humanoid cat! These three individuals became the crew of Red Dwarf and had many zany adventures. But first they had to explore the ship and I think it’s time we explored the saber….Glamour Shot time….

Big Red One 1

Big Red One 2

Big Red One Emitter

Big Red One Switch

Big Red One Gravity Clamps

Big Red One engine pommel

Big Red One ignited

Big Red One with asteroid

Big Red One with asteroid 2

I think I have captured the lines of this iconic ship which adapted surprisingly well into a saber (ok it may not be most ergonomic, think of it as…industrial!) The emitter is formed as mentioned by using the cage structures and just to the aft of the emitter you can see the ships name emblazoned on the sides of the hilt. In the opening credits of the show you see one or two of the crew painting this lettering onto the ship. This lettering is however 3D modelled and embedded onto the hilt. The whole saber is covered in a texture used to replicate superstructure. On the underside are two windows to represent “Gravity Clamp” devices (similar to tractor beams) to hold mined rocks for transit. These windows also make really nice crystal chamber reveals! The activation switch is a 3D modelled insignia of the “Jupiter Mining Corporation”, the company that owned Red Dwarf. To finish the design off I incorporated a lit pommel into the pepper pot-like engine nozzle so it glows the same as the blade and crystals.

The TV show went on to achieve cult status and stretched over 12 series with a rumoured 13th set for sometime this year! The adventures included Time Travel, Faster Than Light Drives, a genetically engineered Vindaloo Curry, an Inquisitor, a talking toaster (“would you like a toasted bread product?”). We even discover that Lister was in fact his own Father in an episode titled “Ouroboros”(and Luke thought he had family issues!). Fortunately Lister also met up with a neurotic android named Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) and as a survival ploy he helped the droid to break it’s programming so it could help annoy Rimmer and keep himself sane. There is just so much to cover it is impossible in one post but I can assure you it is a good laugh.

“It’s cold outside, there’s no kind of atmosphere,
I’m all alone, more or less. Let me fly, far away from here,
Fun, fun, fun, In the sun, sun, sun.” Lyrics by Howard Goodall

That brings me to the end of this post, I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about the “Boyz from the Dwarf” and their eponymous ship, and I hope I have done it justice with my design. And by the will of the Force my enforced rescheduling of my posts due to a computer glitch means I will be posting a SPECIAL on MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU day (May 4th!). I will be showcasing my tribute saber to the Daddy of all villains, who didn’t have a Daddy but was the Daddy of the hero of Star Wars. That person is of course Darth Vader. So thank you so much for your support and visit, whether you are a first time visitor or a regular, you are very much appreciated.

“The Big Red One Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. All names, logos and related material including “Red Dwarf”, “Dave Lister, Arnold Rimmer, Kryten, The Cat and Holly” created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor and are Trademark/©Copyright of Paul Jackson Productions, Grant/Naylor Productions and Baby Cow Productions.

 

“New Asguard Saber” inspired by Marvel’s Thor

Hello Everybody, I cannot contain my excitement for todays offering… It is one of my favourite (if not the favourite) hilts I have built. And I have sort of built it twice! Twice! Let me explain…way back in January you may recall I teased a hilt for Thor, where I described it as a “crossguard” design. This first design sat on my computer system for a while as I had a backlog of other hilts I had to post first but I was straining not to post it straight away. Unfortunately I should have because whilst producing some images for this post my laptop and external memory card glitched and because the folder where the saber files were saved was open, the glitch erased that folder! All my work vanished as if it fell through the Bifrost Bridge when Thor destroyed the bridge in the movie. My original design looked a little like this as seen in the teaser images I had uploaded to WordPress…

The saber in a lump of rock.

I even made a poster featuring it.

The first was a picture of the saber embedded in a lump of rock to mirror the events of the film where Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, fell to Earth and landed in a piece of rock in  New Mexico. The saber landed in the field outside my cave workshop 😀  The second was an edit of a screenshot showing Thor holding my saber. But alas this saber died when my laptop crashed. However I wanted to test myself and see if I was a worthy saber designer and attempted to recreate it, or even dare I say make it better. Here are a few work in progress pictures..(not many as I didn’t want to risk losing these too)…

“New Asguard Saber” in the studio.

“New Asguard Saber” texture test 1

“New Asguard Saber” texture test 2

Viewers with a keen eye will spot this new saber is again a “crossguard” but it is now a little more streamlined as the first iteration was a fraction large. But Thor is big so I didn’t reduce the dimensions too much. As this was a saber for the son of a God I had to make it special so this hilt was to feature an etching to give it a regal decoration befitting his stature and position. And this etching pattern can be seen in the second and third test pictures where I tried the textures out. The pattern caused me all sorts of problems getting the design to line up with parts of the hilt. But worse was trying to find the right image to print into the handle…I spent many hours looking through wallpaper patterns on many home décor websites to find a Damask wallpaper. So much was the effort I developed Migraines for while afterwards! I then added gold accent parts around the emitters, the body of the hilt and on the pommel. These were to represent the architecture of the world of Asgard, Thor’s homeworld. A Celtic Asgardian Knot is used as the activation switch and is modelled in a matching gold. Phew! Enough talk, how about some Glamour shots? Here you go..

“New Asguard Saber” hilt 1

“New Asguard Saber” hilt 2

“New Asguard Saber” hilt 3

“New Asguard Saber” hilt ignited.

“New Asguard Saber” hilt pommel end!

“New Asguard Saber” hilt business end!

From these pictures you can see the etching covers about 85% of the hilt and my eyes really hurt when I finally finished lining all of it up, but it was worth it. But I haven’t finished yet…OH there’s more to this design yet! Being late giving a God a gift would normally be a bad thing so I needed to make up for the delay…so I didn’t just give Thor one hilt…I have a second complementary hilt to make a matching pair. And here is the matching hilt…

“New Asguard Saber Shoto”

“New Asguard Saber Shoto” 2

“New Asguard Saber Shoto” 3

“New Asguard Saber Shoto” 4

“New Asguard Saber and Shoto”

“New Asguard Saber and Shoto” ignited.

A Shoto is a smaller saber held in the warrior’s non dominant (or weaker) hand and is used primarily for defence, so you would block an attack with the Shoto while using your main weapon to attack your opponent in reply. But having two sabers mean you can have a nice pair of weapons which hopefully look beautiful. I hope I have appeased Thor and built something really beautiful. I will let Thor and you my loyal readers/viewers/followers decide.

Thor is about to star in the final instalment of the Avengers series of films, the film is called “Avengers: Endgame” and is released on the 25th April in the UK and around the globe soon after. The film also features Iron Man!

WOW! That was a very heavy,long post, sorry! But I really hope you liked the design. I learnt a lot in creating this hilt and I won’t make the same mistakes of forgetting to back up my data again. I need to thank you all for checking this hilt out and for your support, you kept me going when I was feeling down when I lost the original saber. I hope you will return to FTSabersite for future posts where I will be returning to the world of Star Wars and go space mining with Red Dwarf! Till next time…

“Tyeth! Before you go…Thank you my friend!” – Image Copyright Marvel – edit by For Tyeth

“New Asguard Saber” and “New Asguard Saber Shoto” are For Tyeth Editions and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. They were inspired by “Thor” who appears in the Marvel Comics Universe (MCU) and was created by Stan Lee, Larry Leiber and Jack Kirby. “Thor”, “Mjölnir” and all other names, logos and related material is Trademark/Copyright of Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures 2011-2019.

 

Iron Patriot Saber – Inspired by Marvel’s Iron Patriot

Hello Everybody, well this is strange posting on a Wednesday but I have BIG things lined up for this weekend with my new Thor inspired hilt I have battled to bring you. However first I have to post this third and final design inspired by Marvel’s character Iron Man, or rather in this case the War Machine variant known as Iron Patriot. In previous posts I briefly explained how Tony Stark the billionaire businessman was critically injured in the jungles of Southeast Asia and had to build an iron suit to help save his life. The suit was later modified and rebuilt in many variations and Tony even built a second suit for his close friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes, who wore the suit and became known as War Machine. In the comics and films the two histories are slightly different but in the Marvel movies War Machine was created to help Stark battle against a horde of automated drone battle suits and a villain known as “The Mandarin”. Due to circumstances Rhodes “stole” the War Machine suit and it was repainted in a rather “patriotic” red, white and blue colour scheme and renamed…”Iron Patriot”. This is my Mark For-T (40) Saber saber in Iron Patriot colours….

Iron Patriot Saber 1

Iron Patriot Saber 2

Iron Patriot Saber 3 Lit

Iron Patriot Saber 4 Lit

Iron Patriot Saber Faceplate

Iron Patriot Saber pommel

Iron Patriot Saber emitter and blade plug

You can definitely see this is my Iron Man hilt but the colours just make it look so much different! Luckily I didn’t have to change the colour of the switch, blade or the blade plug in the emitter as they worked quite well with the blue and white. Some folk may think this scheme is a bit gaudy and looks like a big top circus tent but it is based on the suit as you can see with this colourful picture…

I did miss out the military markings but I hadn’t learnt to use transparent textures when I built this model, however I think it resembles the big iron clad guy quite well even without the marks!

You may recall I said that Iron Man and War Machine made a formidable team, almost unstoppable? Image if all three armoured heroes got together and formed a Marvel Tag Team…it might just look a little like this….

All three in one place! Iron Man, Iron Patriot and War Machine side by side in my collection. Phew, that was a lot of metal to manhandle into position but I think I have just about covered this series of characters and hilts, I hope I have done them justice.

So…next up is my long promised Thor inspired hilt and it just happens that Marvel are releasing the last Avengers move named Avengers: Endgame on April 25th, in which Iron Man and Thor star so I couldn’t have timed it better. I hope you will return to see this new hilt as I am really excited about it. For now I have to say a big thank you again to all my viewers and followers, new and regulars for all your support. It means a lot to me. Till next time…..

“Iron Patriot Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. It is inspired by characters created by Stan Lee which appear in Marvel Studios comics and movies. “Iron Man”, “Iron Patriot”, “War Machine” and “Thor” are Marvel characters and are Trademark/©Copyright of Marvel Studios.

Mark For-T (40) Saber – Inspired by Marvel’s Iron Man (pt. 1)

Hello Everybody, I have been hearing rumours that there is a BIG blockbuster movie coming out soon that may mean the END(Game) for us all. Well I had best post these next two sabers quick before it comes out. They are inspired by the Marvel characters Iron Man and Tony Stark, the billionaire industrialist. This design also stems from my “recycling” efforts I have made recently where I try to improve on my old concepts. Now, long time followers of this blog may recall I made a design for Iron Man before using the old software I had access to. I really liked that design but always felt as nice as it was, it wasn’t really truly mine as I used pre-fabricated parts from a real life saber manufacturer. So I worked on a fully bespoke Blender 3D design and as a base for this design I thought, “Why not modify my first ever Blender build?” That hilt was basically a cylinder with a few bevel-edged accent pieces added and looked a bit like this…

Switch Section Detail

Switch Section

Activation Button

I had no idea what I was doing back then (June of 2018) but still was able to produce these shapes, which convinced me I liked Blender and could do 3D modelling. The “hilt” sort of reminded me of something but didn’t quite know what so left it undeveloped. Fast forward to March 2019 and after watching “Iron Man 2” I decided I wanted to revise my Iron Man design. It was then I thought about my first ever model and I worked out what it reminded me of. It looked a bit like a futuristic cannon barrel. So I set to work on modifying my first model using the skills I had learned to morph it into an Iron Man hilt and this is what I came up with…the Mark For-T….

Mark For-T pic 1

Mark For-T pic 2

Mark For-T ignited pic 1

Mark For-T ignited pic 2

Mark For-T pommel

Mark For-T “Arc Reactor” blade plug

Who is this? Iron Man?

Hopefully you can see the original lines of my first build in this hilt. I used the skills I have learned to add definition to the shape, making the emitter more pronounced and sharper with added ridges. The pommel cap has “turreted” blocks around it’s circumference. There are two recessed grooves running down the sides of the handgrip to prevent it slipping (though I doubt Iron Man would have difficulty holding onto this weapon). The whole saber has a new shiny metallic red and gold skin (my original model had no graphics applied to it, the green and yellow were just the basic colours used to differentiate parts in the 3D build space)  The activation button is illuminated and there are two little accent lights in the eyes of…an Iron Man mask decoration. This face plate is modelled in 3D and isn’t just an applied texture or graphic. When the saber is switched off you can see an “Arc Reactor” inspired blade plug in the emitter socket which is also lit up. Oh, and I added a Covertech Knob attachment so Iron Man can wear the hilt on his hip.

That, I think just about covers everything for the new Mark For-T hilt. I feel I can now say the design is truly mine. I also have another “repainted” version I will post next weekend for Iron Man’s compatriot, War Machine. After that will be the week Avengers: Endgame will be released so I hope to post my BIG saber, the newly rebuilt Thor crossguard hilt and shoto design. But for now the end of this post is rapidly approaching so I have to close with my usual “thank yous”. I have just passed the 11,000 views milestone so an extra big thanks goes out to all of my viewers/followers, new and regular…your support made that possible and keeps me designing and posting. It is very much appreciated. Till next time….

“Mark For-T (40)” is a For Tyeth Editions design and ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite. It is inspired by Marvel Studios character “Iron Man” created by Stan Lee. All names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Marvel Studios.