Making the mould
We produced the originals for the first Star Wars ANH film back in 1976 and are still producing fantastic products more than 30 years later. Read our story below!
In 1976, Andrew Ainsworth and his friend Nick Pemberton were living in Twickenham, London. Nick, a successful scenic artist, had been given the go ahead by George Lucas to produce the Stormtrooper helmets for ANH. Now it was down to Andrew to create the helmet prototype.
"I made no sketches, no models, no engineering drawings.I sculpted the production moulds directly, using my own blends of resins, fillers and metal dusts. The production moulds were the sculptures - they were positives,negatives and reverse engineered. They incorporated undercuts and tumblehomes and produced a moulded finished article that caught the highlights and shadows of an organically formed being. It wrapped around the body as if it had grown." Andrew Ainsworth describing his approach to sculpting the Stormtrooper helmet mould in 1976.
Andrew's task was to take his friend Nick's clay model and Ralph McQuarrie's concept drawings and sculpt the moulds which would form the iconic white plastic helmets worn by the Stormtroopers in ANH. Andrew recalls "The concept drawings from Ralph McQuarrie 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. The drawing suggested a silver, metallic look. Producing a prototype with all these features would be a challenge, given the non-paying, speculative nature of the job.
Vacuum forming
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Andrew had established himself as an Industrial Designer, designing and manufacturing his own products. The use of plastics and composite materials was relatively new in 1976 and so Andrew built his own plastic moulding machinery (see right) to suit the size and type of products he designed.
His large 15ft long vacuum forming machine punched out plastic kayaks and fish ponds on a regular basis, and surprisingly enough it was located in the front of his Victorian sweet shop on the Green at Twickenham. The premises were tight for this sort of plant, and so finished mouldings were often stacked in front of the shop before shipping (see below).
Ingenuity
Prototype helmet incorporating split hose
Andrew's plastic kayaks incorporate a cunning feature that formed an undercut for the cockpit combing by leaving behind in the moulded part a pre-made insert. Nick was impressed with this feature and was confident that Andrew could come up with something that would satisfy Lucas.
Andrew’s first effort was to incorporate a flexible split hose around the neck of the helmet, suck the hot plastic over to form an undercut, leaving the hose back in the job every time (see left). This worked okay but it was slow and required complicated tooling.
By chance, at that time, Andrew was producing a line of fish ponds and rock cascades (see below), which were made of a khaki stone coloured HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) sheet material. This material is very tough and flexible, although difficult to mould without severe shrinkage and impossible to paint. Everything is a compromise in manufacturing and so Andrew decided that the characteristics of HDPE that would allow the mouldings to spring off undercuts would outweigh the shrinkage and painting problems - after all, it was only a prototype.
HDPE fishponds and rock cascades made by Andrew in 1976
In an ideal world the finished product should be manufactured without any seams or joins, and so rotational moulding process would probably be most suited. As this was restrictive on time and money, Andrew decided instead to sculpt an initial mould in two parts with the intention of producing the prototype with vacuum formed plastic mouldings joined together.
He could not use Nick`s mock-up in any way as it had no features such as surface,eyes or face. In any case, to achieve a complete plastic prototype, several separate moulds were required to produce parts that could be joined together to make a complete helmet. However, with the concept drawings, Andrew had enough information to sculpt a set of moulds, hued from a metal dust filled resin system that he had developed for producing moulds for previous products.
The Original Mould
The two moulds had to produce finished plastic mouldings that could overlap to facilitate a fixing of the complete helmet. To achieve this they had to be sculpted independently of each other. The trick was to get them to a near state of fitting and continually vacuum form material over them, adjusting the sculpt each time until a satisfactory fit was achieved. Trial and error was the order of the day, a process that was also used to achieve the maximum undercut with the HDPE plastic sheet.
Through much experimentation, Andrew achieved a smooth surface on the moulds, (see pictures) and incorporated all the facial details required including a forehead location for assembly. The two halves of the helmet finally fitted reasonably well together although the symmetry had wandered somewhat due to the trial and error element of making the moulds.
A rubber trim, left over from Andrew's car production, fitted the forehead joint perfectly and another one finished off the bottom skirt of the helmet.
Blister eyes
Tool for forming the blister eyes
The eyes were next. Surely any futuristic, finely tuned, military character would have significantly enhanced vision. It occurred to Andrew that "a 'fly' type of eye with more than just unidirectional vision would suit the bill". His first attempt was to make 'blister' eyes, by sucking cast acrylic sheet through a frame the shape of the Stormtrooper's eyes, resulting in a menacing eye that could also - just about - be seen through by the actors.
As helmet production progressed, several modifications were made. With the disorientated vision through the acrylic eyes, the 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 and so these were tweaked a little too.
Ear moulding
The helmet was beginning to come together...
The helmet was beginning to come together now (see picture) but it looked unbalanced and the join at the side was ugly. The character now had 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.
The die was cast
Andrew's Victorian sweet shop was not always large enough...
As Andrew reflects "There are many stages and processes along the way to make a movie. Many people’s efforts are edited out as the only thing that matters is the visual impact of the final piece and its 'fitness for purpose'." Andrew achieved this by his unconventional 'trial and error' method of sculpting and manufacturing which was ultimately successful in creating a helmet that Lucas preferred over any other. The die was cast! Now it was time to move from prototype to production...
