Don't want to discuss TV spoilers, so instead let's go through another issue of Bantha Tracks! #BanthaTracks22 came out November 1983, and features an interview with modelmakers Lorne Peterson and Steve Gawley, as well as proof that Fett's Vette was actually a Porsche. Read on!
The model shop's job for RotJ was bigger than for either of the two previous movies. Those tunnels the Falcon flies through at the end were built in sections that totaled over three hundred feet!
They achieved that feat using plumbing fixtures and a whooole lot of cardboard tubes. I marked with an arrow where I think you can see the spiral pattern in the cardboard. I love "Don't tell me — you're from Lucasfilm, right?"
The advanced material that Steve says they used for the Executor, Lorne explains here, is aluminum honeycomb, developed for use in airplane wings (and still used for them today).
I love learning how models are made, and there's a lot of it in this interview. The Death Star reactor chamber was constructed largely from bamboo fishing poles. Here's a shot of Steve sitting in the mini-set, and a still from the finished film.
Lorne Peterson, champion of math education. Math! They used photos of the sets to calculate measurements for the models, and these days nerdy audiences use measurements of the models to calculate the size of other things in the movie. It's like poetry, it rhymes.
Shoutout to Wesley Seeds and Sean Casey and their brittle wax technique that lets TIE fighters get blown up real good.
The shot of Artoo and Threepio being rescued after the sail barge explosion was a pickup that required a quick model job to create the magnets. Enter those things that hold the umbrellas for the ILM patio tables!
Once you know they used plastic cups for the Endor shield generator, you can't not see it. I don't know if they specifically used Solo cups, but I hope so.
Peterson here repeats (originates?) the urban legend about Slave I being based on street lamps. @PhilSzostak debunked this a while ago, based on the concept artist's own words: it was based on this Stanford radio antenna, and was originally round.
The engine side of Slave I was constructed in part from a 1:12 Porsche model kit (the Entex Porsche Carrera RSR), which was a car Peterson himself owned. I've marked where the fenders are hidden on Slave I, and added a shot of Peterson working on his favorite ship.
I love reading about the love they have for their job. When I was young ILM modelmaker was my dream job.
Wee Y-wing!
Moving on! Temple of Doom has just wrapped principal photography. Here fans get a rundown of the shooting locations.
The rest of the issue is dedicated to winners of the Creativity Contest, which tugs a different set of heartstrings. Nicole Courtney was the grand prize winner for her audio drama, "The Dark Lords of the Sith", starring Fayber Solo and Professor Tumbleweed. She gets Star Wars!
Laura Harvey (15) won the 2-D art category for her portrait of Jabba and Leia, "Beauty and the Beast"; Hiroshi Otsubo (16) won models for a darn fine skiff; and Andrea Bugash (14) came in first with her excellent stick figures!
Second place in models went to Colin Armitage (18) and P.G. Adams (16) for their cool TIE fighter design. I mention it now because, 35 years later, Colin Armitage went on to build the sandcrawler for the end of Episode IX! (I see some Ghost in the design.)
Erik Mann, age 9, of Greenfield, MA, won first place in 3-D Art with his "Imperial Slime," which needs to become canon in the very near future.
John Richardson's (age 18) "Vader Knows Best", 1st place in Film, really should be available on YouTube. I desperately want to look through the eye holes of Jason Pawlowsky's (age 10) 2nd-place diorama. And Barbara Wroblewski's (age 14) Jabba the Stamp Dispenser is genius.
Eric Bailey, age 4, hats off to your audacity in submitting your new idea, Star Wars vitamins.
The issue closes with Ralph McQuarrie's "Santa Yoda" from the 1981 Lucasfilm Christmas card. But I'll give Ong Joe Jr. of the Philippines, who tied for 15th in Miscellaneous, the last word.
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