No, I'm not opening up another debate regarding the color of the TIE fighter - that was an long thread associated with the preview of the eFX TIE at SCDD this past summer (go here for a recap - http://www.therpf.com/f10/efx-tie-fi...ml#post1304457)
This is something different, kinda trivial, but sorta cool. A few years ago, one of the SW model guys mentioned that the initial color of the TIE fighter was a shade of maroon. I thought this was an interesting choice as everything in the movie appears to be a different shade of gray or off white. Technically, it was an interesting choice as well since a maroon model probably wouldn't be as prone to bluespill as a gray model. Ultimately, he said, they jettisoned the idea because after some comp tests, they discovered that the smaller the TIE got on screen, the more it blended into the black starfield. OK, makes sense. But where are the pictures of this thing? Would have been neat to see.
The Rinzler "Making of Star Wars" had a small photo that actually shows some hulls painted up with the maroon paint (page 79) -
Closer -
Well, just this week, I came across some old wedges (short pieces of film that test various exposures or lighting configurations and aren't meant for projection) and lo and behold, some clear shots of the two-tone TIE emerged.
Looks like it was a simple push-in to see what it looks like with motion blur -
What's also interesting is that though the model is using the bottom mount, it's mounted upside down (the little square blocky thing under the cockpit window is actually on top of the hull). Also, there does not appear to be an interior or a rear cover in place - you can see right through the hull.
One thing I like about wedges is that they usually scribe in some info, since they may reference it at a later date. This one has a date of "3/6" (1976).
So there you go - the more we look, the more crazy trivia stuff seems to pop up.
Enjoy,
Gene
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