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