AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: A LITTLE HAND CRAFTING!

The Freeborn workshop at Elstree not only has to come up with a variety of creatures for the first Star Wars sequel but also has to do lots of additional and rather yucky duties for the human cast, firstly doing a face cast of Harrison Ford for his carbonite visage, then a recreation of Mark Hamill's lightsaber holding hand for the moment when our hero becomes an amputee from Darth Vader's own blade.

Hamill poses for some fun shots at Stuart Freeborn's lab!

For the scene before the all-important reveal, where Luke loses his lightsaber hand, a special dummy hand was created by Stuart Freeborn. He recalled to STAR WARS INSIDER in 2008: “We made (Luke’s hand) from hardened resin holding the handle of his sword that contained a cable release. The two inner parts were painted red to give a realistic flesh colour. You always have to be prepared to make odd little things like that on film!”

A look at the finished dummy hand.