1st ship concepts - I submitted these to George in 1974

These are the first Star Wars ship designs ever made (to my knowledge). I drew them to cheer up George, who still didn't have a studio and was starting to feel like the project may not get off the ground. It took me 4 days to draw the first one (X-Wing). After that, the Star Destroyer, opening scene, and Sith fighter all flowed out of my imagination rather quickly.

I honestly believe that each ship has its own personality and that these personalities helped to create the others. I would go on to model them all - including the Death Star - and made sure that everything down to the movements of the ships during filming was in-tune with their personalities.

 

Where are the pics at?

 

I'll continue to insist, that Mr. Cantwell also contributed the essential Super Star Destroyer design. Although the above concept art appears to suggest that we are looking at the bow (to the left side), it features the essential shape of the Executor and others.

And also note the artillery emplacements on the top and bottom fin (before the parabolic dishes).



Looks to me as if the ship designers of the Profundity in Rogue One equally relied on Mr. Cantwell for "inspiration".

 

Having a hard time getting the pictures back up, but here is the X-Wing concept. Hope you all will friend me on Facebook and come out to shake hands at conventions!
Autographed copies of the 1st Star Wars concept art is available from my website www.cantwellcollection.com

 

Certainly inspired work. We're indebted to your contributions, sir.

 

Wow. I want to see ships like that some time in the ST or Anthology movies! Very cool design inspired by the space opera shows George Lucas has expressed enjoying as a kid

 

Mr Cantwell i have been a Star Wars Fan since the late 90's and can i just say i think your work on those ship designs was brilliant. I know the credit must go to all the people at the studio that made all those ships possible but those designs of yours still leave a lasting impression on me.I thank you for your work and may the force be with you.

 

Those fighters at the bottom right have to be the inspiration for the Naboo N1, again just the front and weapon fire now being the N1's tail. They are almost identical outlines.




Tyber Zann's Consortium ships from Empire at War: Forces of Coruption are also inspired by Colin's designs I believe.

 

Colin Cantwell, is this one of yours? I always liked it as an earlier era Star Destroyer. The tall superstructure at the stern gives it the aura of a galleon with an ornate poop deck at the stern. Kind of a retro SW ship, IMO.

 

^ One of the things in the above prototype design for the Imperial Star Destroyer is that the lateral big guns do make practical sense, because they cover a range of 180°+.
This was (unfortunately) limited in the VFX model built for the film (and I shall say nothing about the ridiculous gun gerformance / range visualized in Rogue One).

But I do have one question for Mr. Cantwell: The black markings on the main hull - did you consider these to be solar panels or (abstract) ship markings?

 

Although it seems a bit archaic now, they were originally intended to be unique identifiers visible over long distances. They would serve as a redundant method of identifying and tracking ships within the fleet during live tactical situations.

 

Colin Cantwell wrote

Although it seems a bit archaic now, they were originally intended to be unique identifiers visible over long distances.

Wow! That's rather fascinating (IMHO) considering that it wasn't before June 26, 1974 that a pack of chewing gum with the Universal Product Code ("Barcode") was scanned for the first time in Ohio, and that was just the prototype test. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code

It appears you were ahead of your time, as these Star Destroyer identifiers do resemble a UPC, and there wasn't a widespread commercial implementation until the early 1980's (I vividly remember that my ROJ novelization from 1983 was one of the first items were I noticed the UPC on the back cover).

 

I think it's more than obvious, that the "new" Imperial arrestor cruiser, supposed to show up in the upcoming Solo anthology film is just slightly altered from Mr. Cantwell's original design:



I can only hope that the cast and crew credits will at least show Mr. Cantwell's name.

@Colin Cantwell

 

I'm sure they will give him credit. The Arrestor cruiser is almost an exact recreation of @Colin Cantwell 's design in this picture. Only the forward hull and rear bridge section are wider now, and the two hangers smaller, relative to the size of the ship.

 

Upping this as Mr. Cantwell has passed away aged 90.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61547986

 

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that!
Rest in peace, dear Colin

 

Damn, I had no idea that Mr. Cantwell had actually posted here. His impact on the franchise was massive and I was sorry to hear about his passing.

 

I miss the dreamers in Mr. Cantwell's generation.

 

Same here.

 

Wow , it is in good condition . Must admit I'm curious how much they paid for it.

there's a new doc on ILM coming up on Disney+ I believe.

Did George keep his archive of models or did Disney get those too?