Real Life Inspiration for Star Wars designs?

>>34718469
He didn't? Most of the designs are based off art from Ralph McQuarrie. The way they shot the dogfights and the lasers looking like tracers were inspired by WW2 footage, and the Empire's uniforms resemble WW2 German uniforms but that's about it.

The spaceship models are more based on the sci-fi Lucas was familiar with growing up. It's more the whole idea of a "dogfight" being a WWI/WWII thing, and some of the fighters had characteristics similar to WWII planes, relative to their technological level of course. Like performance of the TIE fighters was heavily inspired by the Zero (cheap and highly maneuverable, but dies instantly the moment it comes under fire).

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>>34718469

I haven't heard anything about the T-65 X-Wing being inspired by anything WWII, and I'm a semi-decent star wars nerd.

However almost all of the guns are just chopped up real guns, a lot of which are from WWI/WWII era

>>34718516
I'd say the empire has more of a German/Japanese fusion going on. The hats for sure are way more reminiscent of Japanese uniforms, but the gray is of course very associated with the Germans.

>>34718469
>WW2
that myth comes from the mangling of all them surp weapons that they fucked to make starwars and the vague imperial uniforms.

>>34719428
The hats always made me think of those German field caps, though I can see what you mean.

>>34719454
tbqh the German hats are way more peaked, Empire/Japanese hats are closer to head shaped
also German hats have the top part that folds down into an ear/chin covering, the Galactic/Japanese Empires don't do that.
I would make an mspaint collage but it's probably easier just to google them all

>>34718469
He didn't base fighter designs off anything WW2, but the trench run is a direct ripoff of The Dam Busters.

>>34718469

Watch the movie Dam Busters. Lucas used the Dam attack scene as a VERY heavy infulence on the Death STar Trench run. Even some dialogue lines are the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdb03Hw18M

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>>34718469
you know even before i read your post your pic reminded me shooting star lol

>>34719586
>>34720094
Funny way of saying 633 squadron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OZq-tlJTrU

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My personal favorite, DESU.

>>34722201
So THAT'S why the clone gunship always got me hard. The prequels had shit writing, but I have to admit that I really liked a lot of the ship/weapon designs.

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>>34718469
12 parsecs...

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>>34722219
Yeah dude, the last 20 minutes of episode 2 completely made up for the previous 2 hours of the political talking and emotion sharing.

This one was originally going to be an attack helicopter, but got it's role drastically redefined thanks to the influence of an ordinary shovel.

>>34718516
>The way they shot the dogfights and the lasers looking like tracers were inspired by WW2 footage
To be more precise, it is not really based in war footage but on air combat flicks. More specifically The Dam Busters and 633 Squadron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdb03Hw18M
Also, about the Imperial uniforms, they have more elements of Imperial Germany and Imperial Russia than of Nazi germany or anything else. John Mollo, the costume designer for the original movies, is a lover of Imperial Russia uniforms and wrote some books about the subject. He also commented about the Empire uniforms:
>We agreed early on that the army should have a booted look, like the Germans in 1939, but actually their tunics look more like the 1914-18 ones. They’re cut longer. You try not to make the connection too obvious

In a movie making crew you have different teams working on various types of effects. Costume department would be working on that and nothing else. Ships and movables would to a great degree be miniature work. Guns were made by combining various old guns - available dead cheap - with parts from toy building sets and other sundry cheap stuff available, like salvaged shower part. Mind you, the industry standard is not to go through old gun collections like candy. They get one original, then make resin copies by the dozen. There were at least half a dozen resin copies of Han Solos C96 Luger alone. That way you don't have to re-film half the movie because some gluefingers ran off with the start's gun halfway through the movie and another original couldn't be located in time.

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I suspect the TIE fighter was heavily influenced by the B17's ball turret.

>>34719287
>TIE fighters was heavily inspired by the Zero
You're definitely right about the visual-distance dogfighting in space part being inspired by WWI/II stories. I don't remember them going into enough detail about ships' capanilities in the original movies to infer the TIEs are zeros/X-wings are Grummans idea. I don't remember them even being clear about which ships did or didn't have shields ( both mostly seemed to come apart with one or two hits). I suspect that was invented later to support games where the Rebel pilot player has to fight swarms of more fragile Imperial ships.

>>34724528
That"s a really good point about the Sperry ball turret. I never noticed it before, but it seems obvious now. I'd also point out the layout similarity between the Y-Wing and P-38.

>>34724528
/looks startled

Jesus H. Christ. All these years and I never once thought about that. Takes a genius to recognize the obvious, I guess.

>>34724659

I can see how you think about the P38. My guess was the ME 262 with the wings moved backward and a couple of extra engines mounted.

It's possible they made the whole thing from scratch though, since they built at least one full scale fighter. It would explain the poor air efficiency profile.

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>>34724528
If it was, then the credit for it would go for Joe Johnston, who polished the original design of the TIE fighter (pic) made by Colin Cantwell. Cantwell intend for the TIE design was simply that it would be easier for the spectator to differentiate between the good and bad guys of the movie. The majority of the original designs are in this camp of what we consider today generic pre-SW Sci Fi visuals.

Someone mentioned the Imperial officer caps. They look strongly inspired by Austrian mountain hunter troops caps to me, maybe with a touch of Italian Bustina. Their belts are German with a bigger belt plate.

Han Solo is wearing German general riding pants, or a faximile thereof. His shirt is a pike shirt with long arms and the vest is a stripped down BDU jacket with a few extra pockets sewn on in the back.

Luke is wearing a tae kwon do set. And in the belt, a set of Swiss ammo pouches. But so does his father in the so-called 1st movie, only a different set.

The rebel soldiers are wearing WW2 us naval helmets. So are the imperial troopers on the death star, only with a facial piece added.

Kenobi is wearing a set of Maroccoan robes, acquired on the set. They turned up again on an extra in the first Mummy movie.

Sand People and Jawas were wearing British 1903-vintage ammo belts.

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>>34718469
Lucas stated in an interview that he wanted the X-wing fighters to look like dragsters, hence the long nose, he was into hod rods as a kid.

>>34724878
>Luke is wearing a tae kwon do set

The top is perhaps, the pants were Levi's jeans dyed white with the back pockets removed.

Don't take the comparisons to different factions in the World Wars too seriously. Both sides are a mishmash of designs that people liked. Rebels and Imperials both have German guns, the Empire also has British influence as well as the typical German. Some stuff is WWI and some stuff like the laser colors looks like it came from the Cold War.

As long as it looks cool, that's all that really matters.

>>34718469
I suspect the X-Wing's reconfiguration was at least partially due to the fact that swing wing military jets became common over the ten years or so immediately before the first movie was released. It's basically the same concept - wings are in one position for high-speed travel and another for low-speed manuevering, they just swing on a different axis (not that this makes much sense in space, but that seems like it must have been a source of inspiration).

I'm more confused by the Millennium Falcon. I understand that it's meant to feel like an old self-defending bomber, but its shape is just plain strange. It makes me wonder if the BV 141 was a source of inspiration. I don't recall any other vehicles, aircraft or not, with an offset cockpit like thay, although it seem like there must be some. The horseshoe shape is strange for a vehicle as well.

>>34727155
>I'm more confused by the Millennium Falcon.
Inspired by a hamburger with an olive on the side

It's copying WW2 movies more than WW2 designs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdb03Hw18M


The throne room ceremony at the end is almost a direct copy of Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will Nazi propaganda film.

>>34727155
I remember seeing a picture somewhere on why the Millennium Falcon was the way it was. Had something to do with its origins as a freighter and it pushed along external cargo in the nook up front.

>>34728549
I've seen the "barge pusher" explanation as well, and it makes some sense of the layout (at least the offset cockpit and forks). I just also suspect that was a retconned explanation for a weird, though not at all bad, aesthetic choice (>>34727201).

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>>34728549
>>34728710
Personally I will always prefer the original idea for the Millennium Falcon, which ended originating the blockade runner. It looked like a space bomber.