Meanwhile: Sexy Stormtrooper Cosplay
The Imperial
Stormtroopers are fictional soldiers from George Lucas' Star Wars universe.
Stormtroopers are foot-soldiers for the Empire, under the leadership of the
evil Sith Lord and Emperor Palpatine and his commanders, most notably Darth
Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin.
They are shown in
collective groups of varying organizational sizes ranging from squads to
legions, and for some, their armor and training is modified for special
operations and environments.
In Star Wars Episode
II: Attack of the Clones, the first troopers were cloned from bounty hunter
Jango Fett, to be the Army of the Republic in the Clone Wars. In Star Wars
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the Clone troopers executed the Order 66
under command of Chancellor Palpatine, slaying their Jedi generals.
Initially, the
stormtroopers serve as the army of the Galactic Empire, putting down revolts
and establishing Imperial authority. They are the back bone of the Empire.[1]
The Stormtrooper Corps swell in size after Palpatine allows the addition of
recruits and conscripts alongside the clones, though the replacement of clones
by natural beings lowered the effectiveness of the Empire's famed soldiers.
When the Empire is
firmly stabilized and an Imperial Army/Imperial Navy established, the
stormtroopers become Palpatine's personal army and are stationed on Imperial
bases and cruisers, as well as on the Death Star. After Palpatine's initial
defeat, the storm troopers continued to serve under the factions that broke
apart from the Empire after Palpatine's death.
The troopers' most
distinctive equipment is their white battle armor, inherited from their time as
clone troopers. The complete armor set completely encases the body and
typically has no individually distinguishing marking (in contrast to the clone
trooper armor, which typically had various colorings to denote rank or unit,
stormtrooper armor has no rank affiliation).
Liz Moore and Nick
Pemberton sculpted designs for the helmet. Their designs were based on
conceptual drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. The armor pieces of the costume were
also designed from conceptual drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. Brian Muir, who was
also responsible for sculpting Darth Vader, sculpted armor pieces for the
stormtrooper costume in the Art Department at Elstree Studios. The suit was
moulded and initially cast in plaster. Then Brian sharpened the detail at the
plaster stage. The plaster casts were then remoulded and cast in fibreglass to
use as the "tools" for vacuum forming process. Suits were produced in
house by Tashy Baines, the resident vacuum former, but then a problem developed
with the machine.
As Shepperton Design
Studios had already been used to vacuum form the helmets, the fibreglass moulds
for the armour were then sent to them for vacuum forming the suits.
By the end of
production, two different helmets were produced; one for the common stunt
trooper and a second design for close-ups. Fifty stunt helmets were produced in
white-painted HDPE and six hero helmets were produced in white ABS plastic.
Besides the material used, the two designs can be differentiated by differences
in the eyes, the ears, and the mouth area.
The armor has also
been the subject of light humor for years regarding its functionality. This is
due to it making its wearer easy to see, restricting his movement and range of
vision, and seeming to offer no real protection from blaster fire.
The copyright status
of the armour has undergone legal challenges.[2] In the US it has been ruled to
be under copyright; however, recent UK court decisions considered it to be
industrial design, which is only protected for 15 years, and thus the armour is
now in in the public domain, but only in the UK.
Stormtrooper Armor
has several similarieties with German World War II military equipment. The
distinctive helmet has a similar shape as the German Stahlhelm (also used
during the latter half of World War I). The waist gear in some ways represents
the ammunition pouches of German soldiers. Another similarity is the small
cylindrical shaped case resting on the lower back of the wearer. The German gas
mask canisters of World War II had the same cylindrical shape and also rested
on the lower back.
