Hello everyone. My name is Colin Cantwell. I conceptualized and modeled the ships for the first Star Wars film. At the behest of fans, I am letting these four decade old photos see the light of day. Most were taken in my backyard in 1975 after kitbashing the pre-production models for the the X-Wing, TIE, Death Star, and others. Kitbashing is a method of model building that myself and a few others pioneered in the early 70's. Essentially, you take pieces from cannibalized model kits (cars, planes, trains, etc...) as well as shapes from around the office and house. Look closely and you will see pill bottle engines and Easter egg fuel tanks. Most of these ships would be used with only minor modification. The exception is the Falcon, which was scrapped at the last moment due to its similarity to the recently released "Eagle" from Space 1999. My Sand Crawler design would also be replaced by Ralph's. All of these designs are original, although I did work closely with Ralph in the early days of the project (what a genius!). I hope you enjoy them. If you would like to learn more, follow me on social media or take a look at my Reddit "AMA's". You can also see higher resolution photos and descriptions on my website www.cantwellcollection.com/models.html
This thread needs more love! Excellent work sir, thank you for sharing. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Man these are amazing! I could not imagine being able to say you helped design something for Star Wars. Thank you for sharing
At least one generation was shaped in these images. A lot of people. I do not recall ever seeing that red dot on the star destroyer prototype. One has never seen everything. Thank you, sir.
Hey @Colin Cantwell Great thread and those models are awesome. I love the X-Wing fighter with the more highly angled wings. Do you know why George chose to not go with that original design?
Colin, I have a copy of the Y-Wing up in our bedroom, I met you last year in San Antonio. If I recall, you are the reason the Death Star trench exists. Your work is fantastic and it truly was a pleasure to sit with you.
That model looks more like the Space 1999 Eagle than later versions of the design do, IMO. I think it's the girder spine running along the top that makes the resemblance stand out.
This is an interesting rabbit hole from the days of @Lt. Hija... Both Mr. Cantwell and Brian Johnson worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Space: 1999 was in development in 1973 (http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/pguide/upwg.html). Space: 1999 started filming on December 3, 1973 (http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/pguide/upsched1973.html). Mr. Cantwell began to be paid in November, 1974 (Rinzler 35). Mr. Cantwell had finished the Pirate Ship model by March 28, 1975, which is the date on Ralph McQuarrie's painting that features it (Rinzler 43). Space: 1999's original air date was September 4, 1975 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakaway_(Space:_1999)). For Mr. Cantwell to have any knowledge of Brian Johnson's Eagle design, he would have had to be in communication prior to the television release of the show. Mr. Cantwell can rule out such a possibility. Aside from the logistical possibility, what is a more persuasive phenomena is that the moon transport from 2001: A Space Odyssey looms large and iconic in any accounting of that films' cultural effect. There should be no wonder that alumni of 2001: A Space Odyssey forked in different directions from a mutual context. To be even more dampening, the design of Brian Johnson's Eagle and of Mr. Cantwell's Pirate Ship are both not very far off at all from a natural distillation of a vertebrate animal in space-faring ship form. There is a head. There is a backbone. There are four limbs which support it. There are an equivalent of powerful, kicking hindquarters that naturally translate to engines. The design of Brian Johnson's Eagle and of Mr. Cantwell's Pirate Ship are so natural that it is a challenge to assign that they are as radical as, say, the Star Destroyer, X-Wing or the Y-Wing. One might say that the core vertebrate principal of the design of the Eagle and the Pirate Ship was always inevitable by some other designer in some other franchise. The design of the AT-AT is also natural in that it quotes vertebrate life. If you please, Mr. Cantwell, correct any errors of fact.
