Original Stormtrooper / Shepperton Design Studios Portfolio

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STARWARS
1976

REBEL FLEET

Made for “A New Hope” 1977

STARWARS
1976

IMPERIAL GUNNER

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

REBEL DEFENDER

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

TIE PILOT

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

X-WING PILOT

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

TIE PILOTS READY TO GO

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

CHEESEGRATOR PROTOTYPE

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

THE ICON

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

THE PILOT FULL TORSO

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

X-WINGS READY TO FLY

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

STARWARS
1976

THE FIRST BATCH - DESTINATION TUNISIA

Made for 'A New Hope' 1977

ALIEN
1978

GIEGERS CONCEPT

Giger`s concept of a monster that was translucent, showing all internal organisms,was a tall order for Andrew. To develop a material and invent a moulding process in the space of the time scale of a film shoot, was always going to be challenging. A very tall Massai Warrior from Kenya was the actor engaged to be inside the Alien costume. Alas,the tear strength of the material was not adequate in time for the shoot. Ridley Scott said OK, let`s go without the monster, it might even add to the suspense. ndeed it did, because you never saw the monster in the original Alien film.

ALIEN
1978

CLAW-LIKE-FINGERS

Andrew developed a translucent flexible material that he also used for the 'Face Hugger' He built a large rotisserie oven with a rail tracking system to wheel in the monster. Even the making of this monster was a weird 'Frankinstein' like experience.

ALIEN
1978

HEADS ABOVE THE REST

Andrew's production of Aliens head was very successful. Made by pushing the boudaries of vacuum forming on one oif Andrews self built bespoke vacuum forming machines.

ALIEN
1978

A SNAKE IN THE GRASS

The “Face Hugger” was made with articulating fingers and a body filched from an animal skeleton. This mated to tail made from a snake skin and produced a really spectacular monster.The resulting 'Face Hugger' could walk in a crabbing style and clamp onto any unsuspecting being, inserting its eggs into whatever orifice it could find... gruesome.

ALIEN
1978

IT'S A WRAP!

Running out of time, Andrew did actually solve the tear strength issue. At a dramatic showdown with the production team Andrew playfully slapped the head accountant with the new marial. It shattered, he picked up the wrong piece. 'Its a Wrap' was Ridley Scott's exlamation let’s go without it.

ALIEN
1978

THE LEGACY

Both Andrew and Giger were disappointed with no monster in the film. But it was a sterling effort that did not quite come off, and so Giger gave Andrew the copy of his book that was used as reference for all work on the film. The book is signed... “For Andrew....H R Giger 78 ” with a little doodle from Giger`s friend Salvador Dali.

FLASH GORDON
1979

THE STAR OF THE SHOW

Brian Blessed played a main character as Prince Vultan, dressed in a spectacular costume with enormous wings and feathers made by Andrew and his crew.

FLASH GORDON
1979

THE SILVER SCREEN

The silver shimmering backdrop on this set was made from 9,000 vacuum formed plastic panels strung together. There waS no end to Andrew's capacity for production in very short timescales.

FLASH GORDON
1979

FEATHERS...AND MORE FEATHERS

Andrew and his team made thousands of individual feathers, all cut out by hand and painted.

FLASH GORDON
1979

WOOD BEAST

This large eyed cyclop with long spindly legs was only seen hiding in a tree trunk. Dino de Laurentis claimed that he never used it and so would not pay! However, before the film was finished the lads in the editing rooms at Shepperton spilled the beans to Andrew who was able to force the production company to pay up. Dino, surrounded by his Italian bopdyguards, thretened Andrew with the suggestion that he would never work in films again... Heard that one before!

SUPERMAN
1977

WHISPERING WIND

Up until then, to create wind for a film shoot, productions used an areo engine on a dolly. This was so noisy that it was impossible to shoot sound at the same time. Andrew built foam filled plastic fan blades around a steel spaceframe and powered it with quiet electric motors. Wally Vivas, an expert in front projection, approached Andrew to see if it was possible to use a real man to play Superman. The concept was to suspend Superman in the air on a wire in front of a front projection screen and use lightweight fans to create the background wind and the movement of the cloak.An exiting proposition and Andrew built a thermplastic front projection screen.Christopher Reed, playing Superman was up for anything...so the prospect of life on the wire with a fan in front of his face didn’t phase him.

SUPERMAN
1977

AN ENGINEERING FATE "FAN-TASTIC"

Before ART School, Andrew spent 3 years studying Engineering at Kingston Poly and so the chalenge of designing the large 15 ft diameter wind machines was an exciting prospect.

SUPERMAN
1977

CRYSTALS

Andrew and his team made hundreds of crystals that made up the birthplace of Superman. Each one was individually sculpted from Acrylic and polished to perfection.

EXCALIBUR
1980

BLOOD & GORE

A John Boorman film, shot in Ireland at Ardmore Studios with Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson in starring roles. The battle scenes depicted in this film were truly spectacular, with much use of watered down tomato ketchup.

EXCALIBUR
1980

SERIOUS WEAPONS

The lads employed as film extras in Ireland really gave value for money, and their enthusiasm for accurate battle re-enactment was second to none. To avoid them actually killing themselves, Andrew created flexible battle weapons from elastomeric polyurethames that allowed the armies to beat the sh*! out of each other.

EXCALIBUR
1980

THE FORCES OF EVIL

It always seemed more fun to create helmets and armour that were unknown. These helmets for the ancient Britons gave Andrew a chance to express some imagination and create a meaningful character.

EXCALIBUR
1980

THE GOOD GUYS

Traditional medieval armour is well documented and so to reproduce these designs in aluminium was a relatively easy task.

SPACE 1999
1976

THE ALIEN

Keith Wilson gave his sketch to Andrew of a Alien creature for the television series " Space 1999". A pretty good sketch to work from...

SPACE 1999
1976

A MESSY BUSINESS

Making monsters is usually a messy business. Andrew used plaster and clay to form the basic shape. Latex rubber coagulates with plaster and so the skin of the Alien was strong and flexible enough to support more detailed components like the “Cyclops eye”, the pumping blood, strobing light inside the translucent skin and not least oil & "slime" completing the effect.

SPACE 1999
1976

THE ALIEN

The Aliens were about 8ft high with an actor inside supporting the weight on a yoke placed on his shoulders. Not being the fastest movers, the Aliens soon made the command centre overcrowded

SPACE 1999
1976

MONSTERS

Plaster, Clay and Latex rubber are very versatile materials for the making of monsters. The toughness and durability of Latexlends itself to challenging action shots and so Andrew's monsters were seen in several of the episodes.

KRULL
1981

SCIENCE FICTION FROM A VICTORIAN CELLAR

Having vacated Shepperton Studios, Andrew sculpted the moulds to make the 'Beast' in his basement at Twickenham. The “Beas” and his warrieors had invaded and ransacked the planet. Fighting battle scenes on horseback, the costumes had to be tough yet light enough for action. A combination of Latex skin and PU foamed backing created the costume that worked well.

KRULL
1981

THE PALACE GUARDS

An athletic character with exaggerated chest, shoulders. The torso and bicepts were all held together with glass fibre cloth laminted with latex. The body parts were attatched to a flexible undersuit so that the actors could dress easily.

KRULL
1981

A TRICKY PROCESS

Impression from the clay sculpt were made into vacuum forming tools. Andrew vac formed a clear acrylic surface, coloured from behind to retain the high gloss.

BANANA PAUL
1980

THE BERLIN CREW

C & H Film from Berlin contacted Andrew to make this rather comical bear. The bear is the symbol for 'Berlin' so to get it right was a touchy subject. A glassfibre head was made from a plaster mould. The articulating jaw and roving eyes were radio controlled and even tears were all realistic features of the bear. Various types of fur skins were used to simulate a real bear - fine otter fur was used for the face.

BANANA PAUL
1980

OTTO

Otto a very tall and fit lad, drew the short straw for being inside the costume. A rough size was carved out of expanded Polystyrene before the build was decided upon. Although light hearted, the bear had to respect the history of the city.

BANANA PAUL
1980

PRETTY HOT!

Pretty hot in there - Otto taking a breather.

BANANA PAUL
1980

CLEVER BEAR

'Bana Paul" was not such a stupid bear. Not many bears can ride a motorbike.

REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER
1977

PRETTY POLLY

Peter Sellers/ Edwards production at Shepperton Studios. Without a doubt, this outfit was the funniest and most professional production company we ever encountered. This stupid parrot would not stand up straight no matter how hard we tried, but on the shoulders of Peter Sellers, who cares...

REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER
1977

SILVER HORNET

Andrew was experienced in building cars, but this was something else - it had to explode! The scene shows inspector Clueso offering a ride in the Silver Hornet to his lady love... “Step into my limousine” Obviously Inspector Clueso is very proud of his wonderful automobile.

QUINCY'S QUEST
1979

CLOCKWORK ROBOT

The clockwork robot was actually 10ft high with an actor inside. Andrew vacuum formed all the components from silver ABS, chemically welded together. A strong structure that rocked and rolled like a real clockwork toy.

QUINCY'S QUEST
1979

SPINNING INTO ACTION

Produced at Thames Television in 1979 staring Tommy Steele as Quincy and Roy Kinnear as the spinning top. The robots hand was made even larger, controled by pneumatics that actually closed the fingers on Tommy Steele.

CAROUSEL HORSES
1980

ROUND EM UP!

These were copies of Victorian, rather grotesque, Carouseel Horses for a production filmed at Shepperton Studios. The models were sculpted in clay over a wire framework. Head details were made using several split fibreglass moulds.

OUTLAND
1981

CREDIBLE

This was a futuristic film with a credible plot on a mining outpost in deep space. Sean Connery played O`Niel, the local lawman, sent to investigate a murder that no one will talk about. Quite apart from being convincing, the helmets had to ventilate efficiently to avoid misting up. Andrew devised a system, using a Martindale filter unit, to vent and recirculate the air in the helmet through the back pack.

OUTLAND
1981

HELMET PRODUCTION

Production of the vacuum formed ABS helmet shells had to be mated up to the clear acrylic visors,with ducting fittings and neck clamping rings. Bernadette was on Helmet assembly, but she never complained, even after 70 units.

OUTLAND
1981

BACKPACK PRODUCTION

The functionality of the air circulating system more or less determined the overall shape of the Back Pack. It had to house the Martindale filter and incorporate a feed from the back of the helmet. The rest of the design of the Back Pack was covered in `Greeblies`.. Odds and ends of embellishments to satisfy the imagination of what the item would possibly look like. This always was a fun part of creating film props, especially as it often relied on whatever was lying around on the shop floor.

OUTLAND
1981

TESTING

Before the Back Pack & Helmet units were delivered, the filter and ventilation performance were tested. The ducting on the outside of the helmet was functional and necessary for ventilation, but the addition of all sorts of `Greeblies` which were incorporated into the vacuum formed helmet shells, really transformed the appearance. It was now a sophisticated piece of space technology and even the addition of a couple of bicycle lights at the ends of the ducts, did not detract from the illusion. Helmet clamping rings that locked into the rest of the space suite were made from rigid polyurethane incorporating metal locking clasps.