The Twickenham Connection
In 1976, Nick Pemberton, a successful scenic artist and Andrew Ainsworth, an established Industrial Designer qualified from Ealing School of Art, lived and operated from a couple of buildings apart on Twickenham Green, England.
A New Hope First Contact
Nick was approached by the Star Wars 'buyer' to make various helmets and ancillary items for the film. As Nick recalls, ‘ The film was just another no-hoper ‘ Nevertheless, he took the job on, with the intention of convincing Andrew to produce the characters.
John Mollo (Costume designer) states. “ It was obvious that the film was to be made on a shoestring, It was a live fashion show and George said, "I don't like that" or "I don't like this”. So anyway, there was very little drawing done - it was really more of a practical make do and mend.”
Ralph McQuarrie (ANH Concept Artist) in an interview referring to the challenges of making the film, said that 'they would have the biggest problems making the Stormtroopers.' This sets the scene for Lucas' uphill battle to fulfil his dream...a fantastic achievement given the circumstances and lack of resources.
The Prop Makers Brief
On 6 Jan 1976, Nick had a meeting with George Lucas to discuss the Stormtrooper helmet and other characters. John Mollo came on board about the same time. Mollo’s notebook (page 213, 12 Jan 1976) states discussing with Nick, the Stormtrooper helmet, gun & holster, Jawa mask and Tuscan raider.
Mollo had placed his hopes in Nick to produce the various helmets and ancillary items.
Lucas Chooses
By the 20 Jan 1976, Nick had his third meeting with Lucas at the Studios. He'd prepared a red clay mock-up of a Stormtrooper head plus ideas for the Tuscan Raider and Jawa mask, belts and holsters. At this meeting Nick was given a guided tour of the Art Department and John Barry (Production Designer) told Nick that they were at a bit of loss as to how to make the Stormtrooper armour. Nick suggested that he knew someone who might be able to help...Andrew Ainsworth at Shepperton Design Studios.
The photo shows Lucas inspecting a grey helmet, as sculpted by Liz Moore at the Studios and beside it, the one Nick had presented in red clay. (Nick always used red clay as it was cheaper; the Studios' Art Department always demanded the best fine grey clay. Lucas chose the direction of Nick's effort and the Studios effort was abandoned).
Nick returned home with the go-ahead from Lucas, and even though he had no form of contract or order. Nick could now approach Andrew to turn the Stormtrooper helmet into reality...
Describing his approach to sculpting the Stormtrooper moulds
Andrew’s initial task was to take Nick's clay helmet mock up (which unfortunately was left in the car overnight, where it froze and dsintrigated) along with Ralph McQuarrie's concept drawings to sculpt the moulds which were used to form the iconic white plastic helmets worn by the Stormtroopers.
I sculpted the production moulds using my own blends of resins, fillers and metal dust. The production moulds were the sculptures. They incorporated undercuts and tumblehomes - I used them to Vacuum Form a slick plastic finish that caught the highlights and shadows of an organically formed being. It wrapped around the body as if it had grown that way.
Andrew recalls - "The concept drawings suggested that the Stormtrooper was a futuristic being that had evolved through continuous genetic modification, and perhaps able to operate in adverse pungent climatic conditions. The helmet would therefore be able to filter noxious gases and the armour be so flexible that it could have actually grown on the character that way - much the same as an armadillo has natural armour.
It was obvious to Andrew that no joins or fabricated parts should be seen, the character should be homogeneous and so the head must flow into the body and be undercut to disguise any suggestion of an actor inside the costume. The surface of the character was to be hard and protective, but flexible with a smooth, slick finish. McQuarrie’s concept suggested a silver, metallic look, but given the non-paying & speculative nature of the job, Andrew just used what materials he already had.
The Original Helmet Mould
Andrew’s first effort was to incorporate a flexible split hose around the neck of the helmet, suck the hot plastic over it to form an undercut, leaving the hose back in the job every time. This worked okay but it was slow and required complicated tooling.
At that time, Andrew was using various sheet plastic materials, one being a khaki stone coloured HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) material. This material is very tough and flexible, although difficult to mould without severe shrinkage and impossible to paint. Andrew decided that the Stormtrooper helmet could be made of of HDPE thus allowing the plastic to spring off undercuts to form the complete back of the helmet, instead of using the lost hose method.
Through experimentation, Andrew achieved a smooth surface on the moulds and incorporated all the facial details required including a forehead location for assembly. The two halves of the helmet fitted reasonably well together although the symmetry had wandered somewhat due to the trial and error element of making the moulds.
A rubber trim leftover from Andrew's car production fitted the forehead joint perfectly and another one finished off the bottom skirt of the helmet.
Blister Eyes
It occurred to Andrew that "a 'fly' type of eye with more than just unidirectional vision would suit the bill". By sucking cast acrylic sheet through a frame the shape of the Stormtrooper's eyes - a menacing eye could be achieved albeit with distorted vision.
As the film production progressed, several modifications were made. With the distorted vision through the acrylic eyes, the stunt actors kept falling over and bumping into things, and so a plain sheet of green acetate was used instead. The mic tips were initially quite a crude moulding but later replaced with the tap part called a Swirlerator marked with the part number "Hovi Mix Pa 2" found in a shop in Hounslow.
Ear Moulding
As the design of the helmet progressed, it looked unbalanced and the join at the side was ugly. The character now had a super multidirectional vision, the ability to function in noxious atmospheres, a super slick appearance. It was calling out for some sort of audio communication system.
Andrew constructed an ear moulding that not only suggested a radio-type communication facility but also covered the nasty joint and enhanced the balance of the helmet by increasing the overall bulk of it. Similar to the effect of a lion's mane, the helmet had now become more menacing and suitable for the threatening, military position the concept drawings had depicted.
Rebel and Imperial Brief
Andrew showed Nick the prototype Stormtrooper helmet on the morning of 23 Jan 1976 when John Mollo visited Nick to view the result. Nick then introduced Andrew to Mollo, who was obviously impressed with the work as he asked Andrew if he could also make a new helmet, one based upon a helicopter pilot helmets - this became the X Wing Pilot Helmet.
Mollo then phoned Andrew and asked could he make two black and three white helmets.
Nick's diary records that on 29 Jan 1976 - less than a week later - Mollo was back again to check over the work so far. At this meeting Andrew showed Mollo prototypes of Rebel Troops, Rebel Pilots and Imperial Troops, naming them Cheese Grater and Jawbone, as they had no identification at that point.
February 1976 - A Key Month
- 17 Feb 1976: Nick visits Elstree to show Lucas the final prototype Stormtrooper helmet made by Andrew. Nick's diary also records 'Budgeting with Andrew in the afternoon' and so the presentation must have been successful.
- Nick was also told that the studios were having problems with the armour - Nick recommended Andrew to solve the problem.
- There was no official order and Andrew had already created the prototype helmet on a speculative basis, so if it all went ‘pear-shaped', Andrew would not have a leg to stand on.
Stormtrooper helmet production
The first batch of Stormtrooper helmets that went to Tunisia for the desert scenes were all shapes and sizes, as they were made from HDPE plastic. The Studios were in a hurry to get anything and were quite happy to get helmets that were just the same as the prototype. Andrew made about 27 of the helmets in HDPE, but had to shot blast and spray them to get them white. Mollo agreed on white as no silver plastic was available at that time. Andrew's plan was to make them in a better quality white ABS plastic at a later stage.
The better quality “Stunt and Hero” helmets came on stream later along with the white ABS used for the armour. While these did not suffer from shrinkage and conformed to the mould shape more accurately, the ABS was more fragile so most of these did not survive. The helmets we make today are from an ABS material that accurately conforms to the original moulds and in addition, has an Acrylic high gloss surface that protects the ABS from UV degradation.
PANIC! Stormtrooper armour production
This was the entry in Nick’s diary from 25 February 1976.
Nick was away and Mollo called a rush meeting with Andrew at Nick`s place asking him to attend a meeting the next day at Elstree Studios to discuss the production of the armour.
Andrew met with the production crew headed by John Barry (Production Designer ) and Norman Reynolds ( Art Director), who explained to Andrew ‘We have been working on this film for three months and all we have to show for it is this’.... as he held out one of C3PO's eyes.
Andrew saw no evidence of any armour being made but Nick said that he had seen some armour being worked on, probably in the same style as the grey clay helmet from Liz Moore.
In any event, John Barry gave Andrew a further sketch which portrayed a Stormtrooper with canvas type ammo pouches as per a soldier from the Vietnam war. He asked Andrew if he could make the armour in time for the first shoot in Tunisia, less than a month away. Andrew said he could and the Art Dept at the Studios abandoned any further work on the armour and moved on to Darth Vader.
Sculpting the armour moulds
Andrew set about making the moulds in a completely different way to that of clay sculpting. The moulds were hewed out of the resin and metal composite that Andrew had developed for just that purpose.
Andrew sculpted the moulds to take into consideration the post trimming and assembly. The chemical welding process used for assembly required the parts to be substantial enough in thickness, so Andrew used a double step technique in the mould to stop the material from thinning when vacuum formed.
Lucas approves
The 40 mouldings that go to make up the armour were developed over a period of time, with visits to the studios where Lucas vetted the latest developments. Some items, such as the legs, were in fact re-tooled three times to satisfy ease of leg movement
Andrew stylised the ammo belt which had originally been conceived as canvas pouches. Lucas being a pragmatic director, accepted the new style as it enhanced the overall slick futuristic appearance of the Stormtrooper and supported the flexible armour when used by the stunt men.
Producing the Armour
Andrew’s large vacuum forming machine had a 15 ft x 3 ft bed that could accommodate all the moulds in one hit. However, the old Sweet Shop in which it was housed was a bit tight for space to say the least. As it was also very hot, moulded sheets of plastic were turfed out on the front pavement to cool down.
Once a set of moulds had been developed it did not take long to mould all the armour needed to meet the shoot date in Tunisia. The initial 'Sandtroopers' were cleaned up a little before the crew came back to shoot the rest of the film hence later Stormtroopers, showed slight variations from the first batch.
Andrew made 50 sets of armour all in all - and as they were quite versatile in fit, they were used over and over again for not only ANH but also the sequels.
