vadersculptor

Don’t worry we have plenty more flyers

It’s perfect bound and laminated - the same format as In the Shadow of Vader. They make a perfect pair

*Update * The books have arrived. We’re busy signing and posting them out. All orders up to 10 th July will have been shipped by Monday 27th July. The book has proven to be so popular that we have ordered another print

Hot off the press this week! The true story of how the iconic Stormtroopers were created , which subsequently led to a high profile multimillion pound court case. With the endless controversy and conflicting stories reported in the media and on the internet, this book reveals the facts from the crew on the production in 1976 Hit the link for your signed preorder https://www.brianmuirvadersculptor.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

Thought you guys might be interested in my latest interview. Chatting about Star Wars and the Stormtrooper armour. Hope you enjoy it https://youtu.be/NjRzpeb2qn0

Thanks for asking me to join your photoshoot with the FISD, Tom. I would be honoured to be part of it. Looking forward to meeting you all.

Sorry Damian but I have to leave you to research this for yourself - all the answers are there for you to find.

The reason they did not dwell on the colour of the clay issue was because it was proven that Ainsworth didn't sculpt the clay. Even if they had a photo of Liz sculpting the clay helmet it would have made no difference to the verdict. Ainsworth lost 243 out of 245 points - the only reason he and any other prop maker in the world (other than USA) can produce the Stormtrooper is because the Judge went with the fact that the Stormtrooper is industrial and not art - copyright was then lost. All the info it out there Damian. No more photo evidence available as yet. It is your choice who you believe going by the facts, reputations and capabilities. BUT one major point that you seem to have overlooked when buying the suit is the suit itself. Look carefully at the details on the suit and judge for yourself if it comes from original moulds. The point of reference for that would be screencaps. Here are some more points of reference https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Original-Stormtrooper/308958205795601#!/groups/367062635069/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Original-Stormtrooper/308958205795601?ref=hl Brian Muir

Happy Birthday - hope it's a good one!!

Oh well you can't win 'em all!

Ainsworth is now showing a new and improved 'sculpted mould' on his Facebook site - stating it's the one he made for the dvd produced as evidence. Looks like someone's been busy putting plasticine on it New 'sculpt' left (the one produced for the dvd but now with a smooth coat of what looks to be plasticine on one side) Finished 'sculpt' on dvd right Quote from Ainsworth :This is the exact helmet mould that was made infront of the camera for our DVD,, It is continous, without editing and was made over the 7 hour period it took to make the mould to this state Well I must have missed some of it because I saw the one on the right side as the finished version on the dvd when he'd finished with his fine sculpting with his grinder He now states the mouth pieces (wood) were embedded in the resin when in the dvd he clearly mixes up car body filler - (the tin of U-Pol is in shot) and shoves a whole load in the cavity The final version is about 6 minutes in - the first 6 minutes are quite painful to watch

I think the word you're looking for is 'disorder' . Along with all his other fabrications he invents supporters .

I think Ainsworth has a couple of cousins - Colin Turner and Paul Dazely

Yes this would be his self professed 'fine sculpting' stage using a grinder I feel you're not taking this seriously now John

As tempting as it is to face him with the facts I think he's lost the plot. When being faced with the photo comparison of the chest plates on the original and his 'original' he's trying to divert the attention to the ammo belt, knee belt and shoulder straps (and parts for other characters ) His arguement for the differences in the armour is that some moulds were made of wood. No-one has ever suggested the additions to the armour were sculpted in clay (as he states Lucas claimed ) - I had no part in them - they were probably made by the carpenters at Elstree Studios. What has that got to do with the line of the chest plate? Or has he got another dvd showing him carving the chest plate mould in wood ? This is the suit I sculpted - it didn't have the additions (just a large knee belt added but not sculpted by me)

I'll pencil this in for Version 5

I have explained the full process of sculpting, moulding and casting both Vader and the Stormtrooper armour previously but I think whatever was shown it would make no difference to the fans who chose to believe Ainsworth. If his dvd is not damning enough then there's nothing I could do to persuade anyone. That said there's always someone who is unaware of the events over the last few years and as I'd posted this on another forum for the benefit of a 'newbie' I thought I may as well document it here :- The creation of the Armour　 1. I was employed in January 1976 and my initial project was to sculpt the Stormtrooper armour (in clay)– it took me approximately 4 weeks and it was under the supervision of John Barry, production designer with George Lucas’s ultimate approval. 2. The armour was moulded and cast in plaster – details sharpened by me – moulded and cast in fibreglass for the tools to use for vacuum forming. 3. There was a vacuum forming machine at Elstree Studios and suits were pulled – I saw them and it has been confirmed by 2 other plasterers on the production. 4. There appears to have been a problem with the machine and it was outsourced to Shepperton Design Studios (Ainsworth) 　 The creation of the Helmet 1. About mid February 1976 I saw a clay helmet outside the Art Department and was unaware at the time who had sculpted it but as Ainsworth had laid claim to sculpting it in recent years and I knew nothing about him I had no reason to doubt his word. 2. After being made aware of the court case (and Ainsworth’s dubious version of events) I talked to people involved in the production and then found out that Liz Moore had sculpted the clay Stormtrooper helmet – but not in the Studios. She was a very talented sculptress and John Barry had worked with her on previous productions and trusted her work. 3. Again the helmet would have been moulded and cast in fibreglass to make the tools for vacuum forming by the Studio plasterers. 　 Ainsworth’s version of events for the Court Case 1. Ainsworth produced 5 revised statements for the court case and was even changing his ‘story’ during the court case. 2. There was never any mention of a clay helmet by him until I notified Lucas’s lawyer of its existence and then photographic evidence was found. 3. The reason he made no mention of it was because he NEVER saw it – he was given the fibreglass tools to pull on. 4. Pemberton (a firm friend of Ainsworth's) then stated he sculpted the clay helmet – he has no sculpting portfolio and with the details he gave of adding a Morris Minor ashtray his contribution (or that of his ex partner Ms Nicola Howard-Jones) was the grey/blue painted ‘Stormtrooper’ made up of a canoe helmet and component parts. 5. Pemberton’s very sketchy diary, written by his PA, was used for a timeline. Ainsworth still tried to change the timeline to suit his story. 6. To make his ‘story’ at all credible, Ainsworth had to discredit Liz, John Mollo, the plasterers, John Richardson and myself. 7. He says he discarded the helmet and armour that had taken weeks of work and been approved by John Barry and George Lucas, as they were of no use to him. 8. He then says he made up his own design with no consultation with John Barry or Lucas and it was accepted. His method was to ‘sculpt’ the moulds directly – with only the Ralph McQuarrie paintings to go by – if you look at his dvd on Youtube where he had a year to produce a believable ‘sculpt’ of the Stormtrooper faceplate for a multi million pound court case I would hope you would realise he is lying. 　 Ainsworth’s version of events for his new website www.originalstormtrooper.com His new ‘story’ is that he consulted John Barry over time regarding the ‘sculpting’ of the armour ( he is using information I gave in my statements to make his ‘story’ viable as it was proven in court that he was lying and the judge said his sequence of events were ‘faintly absurd’). 　 What he is producing now as ‘original’ helmet and armour from the original moulds is another saga. If you look on his Facebook page Original Stormtrooper you will see that he will not answer direct questions regarding very obvious differences in the armour to the original. When asked about the difference in the line of the chest plate ( his has an arc and the original has an ogee) he tries to fudge the issue and will not answer the question. I hope this helps to give you an idea of what has happened over the past few years. These are Ainsworth's ever changing versions of events appearing in magazines, Rebelscum, his SDS site and court statement :- Version 1. 2005 Article featured in Model and Collectors Mart – February 2005 (linked on SDS website) I used to give friends of mine a hand to paint scenery and one of them was a friend of John Mollo (costume designer on Star Wars). John asked him if he could make something 3 dimensional which he didn’t know how to do , but he knew a man who could…. and I’m the man who could! He brought over some images and colour plates from John Mollo and said ‘Can you make this?’. So I knocked him up something very quickly. I thought it was for his kids or something………………… I think what happened next was that George Lucas took them back to America. Got the film funded. (the film had been in production several months before Ainsworth's involvement!! It was the script and Ralph McQuarries incredible paintings that got the film the green light in 1975) Version 2. Feature – Collectible Stormtrooper Helmets Rebelscum.com: Rebelscum Home Page (linked on SDS website) At the beginning of January in 1976 Mollo approached Shepperton Design Studios with a vague brief – to produce a plastic helmet – and a copy of one of McQuarrie’s final proofs. Working from scratch Ainsworth built a clay sculpt of the helmet, broke it up into castable parts and pulled sheets of heated acrrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) plastic using a vacuum pump Version 3 2007 Ainsworth’s final statement for court case 52. Nick said that a customer of his had asked him to produce a helmet as a prop for an actor to wear. Nick said that his customer had given him 2 pictures to guide him and he showed me the helmet made out of clay which he said he had produced. 69. My recollection is that I had an accident with Nick’s helmet early on in which the helmet was destroyed. It was the result of the rush involved in producing the helmets. Nick’s helmet was impossible to cast from because it had collapsed. (The clay helmet was solid clay over an armature - how could it collapse? - but then he has no understanding of the sculpting, moulding and casting processes) Version 4. Ainsworth's Interview with ‘Street Carnage’ STREET CARNAGE: That’s insane that you designed the Stormtrooper helmet. How did you come up with the design? ANDREW AINSWORTH: I was given a small painting by Ralph McQuarrie, which had a sort of a trooper depicted in it, about two inches high. That was enough for me. I made my interpretation of it to help a mate out. I didn’t know that it was for a movie. When George Lucas saw it, he ordered 50 helmets and asked me if I could make armour to go with it. I said no problem. I knocked together 50 sets of armour in about four weeks. After that, I continued working and made about 200 characters. It was fun! They took anything I threw at them and just wrote them into the script. So what’s up these days? They are now trying to enforce a US default judgement for the $20 million on me. (U.K. law makes this void.) The case is going well; I am on my home-ground with all the evidence I saved from 1976. Chapter and Verse, as far as I can see. They know jack **** about the subject.

Well after finishing a tiring week at work on a particularly exacting piece of sculpture, it's really uplifting to read this post - thank you Damian and so many of the other supportive members of this forum. I think at last that most true fans who have followed this seemingly endless saga are now seeing the true side of events rather than fabrications. One person who very often is forgotten in the team of artists is the late John Barry, Production Designer. He was the person who had most input in my sculpting of the main characters and was always a pleasure to work with.

Thanks for posting the link - you beat me to it The Darkside of SDS aka www.originalstormtrooper.com on Facebook is administrated by Lindsay (my wife ) and it's to show the true facts and is a source for reference. There are also relevant parts from the judgement cut and pasted that Ainsworth continues to lie about as there is so much to wade through in the judgement Ainsworth relies on fans not reading it. Ainsworth now seems to have written his mission statement(original stormtrooper Facebook discussion page -Fans with hidden agenda):- "I am trying to encourage fans to have a go at prop building, as an Industrial Designer and someone who makes things every day for a living, I see the desperate lack of 3 dimensional talent and dexterity in our kids. Yet I`m sure it is there and just need nuturing. This interest in fantasy costumes etc is a fasinating bridge that encourage the making of things and hence the progression into design and manufacturing. I do hope that fans are not intimidated and ask whatever they wish...the simplest things are often quite difficult to achieve." Needless to say Matt's rebuttal to that was deleted

Yes his name is Arthur or Mr Whippy - a name you don't forget It was a shame he had to rush off as it was great to see him after 34 years - perhaps he'll pop into Harlow again when I'm signing in May.

Thanks Paul - it's good to be able to share any knowledge I have with the members here

\ Thanks Damian - yep I've been here since December 2008 - how time flies

Yes it is a shame - the fact he did vacuum form the helmets and suits for the film should have been enough for him as a selling point(although 'original' is another story). He chose not to stop when he received the 'cease and desist' and spun a web of lies and in the process had to discredit virtually all involved in creating the Stormtrooper to try to claim IP rights. He has his own spin on things and I think he actually enjoys all the controversy. He kids himself he won when although the legal loophole has allowed him to carry on, his lies and reputation have been exposed for all to see - his word is not as important to him as $$$$$$$$$$ We shall see what the Supreme Court decides............

Brilliant saying - I'll keep that for another day Another 501st member posted an appropriate saying on my Facebook page " Some people live the lie..... until they run into the wrong person"