Model-maker Cristofer Adrian: ‘We all owe Colin a debt of gratitude’
I’ve devoted a lot of space on this website to Colin Cantwell’s Star Destroyer design that was preserved as part of Star Wars canon as the Cantwell-Class Arrestor Cruiser seen in the movie Solo and the Disney+ series Andor. That wasn’t Colin’s only take on the Star Destroyer, however.
By August or September 1975, Colin had built a physical model of a Star Destroyer that was much closer to the final version that thundered overhead when Star Wars premiered on May 25, 1977. The designers at ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) refined it from there.
“We made it look like a fortress, while [Colin’s] looked more like a naval ship or an aircraft carrier,” Joe Johnston says in J.W. Rinzler’s exhaustive tome, The Making of Star Wars.
Colin is quoted in the same book, saying of his Star Destroyer model: “Dreadnoughts were sent out [circa] 1907 by Teddy Roosevelt to announce to the rest of the world that this new country was a military power. So you have this fleet of painted white battleships going around. So the shape then came partly from the battleships — and the shape of a paper airplane.”
‘Colin’s wonderful designs with their old-school 50s flair called to me’
Even though Colin’s design changed on its way to the final version, plenty of Star Wars fans have a deep appreciation for his work, including Cristofer Adrian, who actually worked at ILM at one time. “Every model maker [at ILM] would have nothing but great things to say about Colin,” he told me. (Check out this moment at the 3:21 mark of a tour he did of ILM, where you can see Colin’s opening battle concept painting on the wall.)
In fact, Cristofer is such a fan of Colin’s work that he set out to build a physical recreation of Colin’s second Star Destroyer model. The first step was creating 3D models of the various pieces so he could print them, as shown in the video below.
Asked why he wanted to recreate that specific model, Cristofer replied: “I love recreating props and models from the movies. In the past I have recreated weapons and armor and devices from the Star Wars movies, but in recent years I’ve become more interested in creating studio-scale models, including some of Joe Johnson’s and Ralph McQuarrie’s pre-production designs. Colin’s wonderful designs with their old-school 50s flair called to me and I decided to tackle the project.”
Cristofer’s friend Ken Skiffington assembled the final ship, which you can see in the gallery below.
Sparking the imagination of Cristofer and millions of other fans
“I am old enough to have seen Star Wars in 1977 in theaters,” Cristofer said. “I would beg my mom to take me to the theater over and over that summer to see it again and again. Over the years I would collect the toys and comics and ‘making of’ books on the movies and became aware of the work of Colin and the ILM effects crew very early on.”
He added: “I don’t think Star Wars would look and feel the same without Colin’s contributions. He was the first artist to work on the designs and thus was the leader in the entire universe aesthetic. Without his creative involvement, who knows what the films would look like. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
You can check out this page on Cristofer’s website to learn more about his recreation of Colin Cantwell’s Star Destroyer model and even buy the files needed to 3D print all the pieces yourself.
Unsurprisingly, Cristofer was also a fan of the model kits that were available in the 1970s and 80s: “I absorbed everything Star Wars, including all the MPC model kits which I would build as soon as they became available. It sparked my imagination and inspired me to become an artist. The unique designs, which continue today, are very well executed and I look forward to each new project.”