Blaxmyth
Sr Member
Well, here goes, itÂ’s been bugging me for a while . . .
I’m part way through building a trooper backplate mould – verrrry slowly – and the notched ring has been bugging me lately. Actually, the tropper backplate has been bugging me for years and years – what did they use and why? The ring looks like a found part, rather than something that was made from scratch. Well, we now know they used all sorts of parts and that they had access to a Derwent engine.
HereÂ’s some pics of what IÂ’ve done so far.
IÂ’m not quite sure of exactly who made the original ANH armour moulds, but I gather they were connected with the crew who constructed the rest of the props, whereas AA made the helmet mould and did the vacforming of the armour. I stand to be corrected on this.
Anyway, I was checking over the Derwent pics again and I spotted this – the pic where the interconnector was outlined in red – and was struck by how the serrated ring appears to be very similar to the ANH pic of the trooper backplates (Compressed photos of the HD original attached – thanks to the person who capped and posted these).
Then I checked out the original pic I posted on the Emitter thread and was also intrigued by the apparent similarity. Then I found a few more.
Is there a chance the trooper’s backplate ring might be the locking ring (or whatever Derwent part) from the intercooler? – or has it already been identified?
I wondered why the notches would be there, then surmised it might be to allow tightening by hand (or more likely) by some sort of wrap-around spanner, like the old bike spanners. The fact that there appears to be 12 notches seems explainable by the fact that most lathes have indexing wheels with 24 or 12 notches – or at least mine does.
Please excuse the heap of pics, but the last time I posted something like this it turned out really cool.
What say you? Phil
BTW - HereÂ’s where I got some of the photos: http://www.gasturbineowners.com/derwent.htm
I’m part way through building a trooper backplate mould – verrrry slowly – and the notched ring has been bugging me lately. Actually, the tropper backplate has been bugging me for years and years – what did they use and why? The ring looks like a found part, rather than something that was made from scratch. Well, we now know they used all sorts of parts and that they had access to a Derwent engine.
HereÂ’s some pics of what IÂ’ve done so far.
IÂ’m not quite sure of exactly who made the original ANH armour moulds, but I gather they were connected with the crew who constructed the rest of the props, whereas AA made the helmet mould and did the vacforming of the armour. I stand to be corrected on this.
Anyway, I was checking over the Derwent pics again and I spotted this – the pic where the interconnector was outlined in red – and was struck by how the serrated ring appears to be very similar to the ANH pic of the trooper backplates (Compressed photos of the HD original attached – thanks to the person who capped and posted these).
Then I checked out the original pic I posted on the Emitter thread and was also intrigued by the apparent similarity. Then I found a few more.
Is there a chance the trooper’s backplate ring might be the locking ring (or whatever Derwent part) from the intercooler? – or has it already been identified?
I wondered why the notches would be there, then surmised it might be to allow tightening by hand (or more likely) by some sort of wrap-around spanner, like the old bike spanners. The fact that there appears to be 12 notches seems explainable by the fact that most lathes have indexing wheels with 24 or 12 notches – or at least mine does.
Please excuse the heap of pics, but the last time I posted something like this it turned out really cool.
What say you? Phil
BTW - HereÂ’s where I got some of the photos: http://www.gasturbineowners.com/derwent.htm
