Imperial pilot (TIE) chest

Description

Now’s your chance to own your own piece of Movie history with the most accurate production of the screen-used Imperial Pilot’s chest armour. Cast from the original 1976 moulds, the chest is a unique collectible that doesn’t get more accurate than this!

• Personally signed by the creator, Andrew Ainsworth
• Supplied with mannequin
• Front chest and rear moulded from Acrylic capped black ABS.
• Shoulder straps fixed with velcro, large plate washers, and 8mm nylon bolts with black nut cover.
• Chest Box made from black ABS with acrylic hand made switchgear.
• Hand made greeblies from aluminium.
• PVC wire reinforced flexible breathing pipe from the original 1976 supplier.
• Breathing pipe fixed in the chest box and loose to be easily fixed in the helmet. (available separately)
• Armour can be taken off the display stand to wear.

Authentic

Original piece, made and signed by the original prop maker

In 1976 Andrew Ainsworth sculpted, fabricated and produced the original helmets and armour used in the first Star Wars movie.Thirty years on, Andrew resumed production.

The Imperial Pilot's chest armour is the most accurate replica of the screen-used outfit ever produced. Each chest is hand-made by the original prop-makers using the original 1976 movie moulds. Many of the same materials have been used although, where necessary, more modern plastics have been used which weren’t available in the days of ANH.

Andrew explains “One day George Lucas showed me a drawing. It showed a black helmet from the rear view. He asked me to re-create this. Knowing how they worked, I went home, and instead of giving him a plastic back I sculpted up a TIE pilot with a whole new character. I went back the next day and said, ‘What about this?’ and he loved it. The Imperial Pilot chest armour followed on.”

How it all started

Andrew Ainsworth at Shepperton Design Studios created a dozen or so characters for ANH. After Star Wars his reputation as a movie prop maker grew.

Watch DVDAndrew smiles as he remembers "We threw out the armour moulds in the early eighties but kept the protective mouldings. I have bags and bags full of these from all different films - they are just part of our prop store. I used the mouldings as reference and re-sculpted the rest. The real information is still in my head and like a computer I can download from my hard drive any time! I am quite satisfied that what I've achieved is as near as possible to the originals. In fact they are probably better!"

Find out more

gallery_tie_pilot

Original photo gallery: click to see larger version