Accurizing Kane & Dallas: a full list of fixes required

[Devil_666]

^^^Your sig is messed up man.

 

[Anthrapoid]

Nice work Space Jockey, it beats Freddy by far. However, if I had to give some criticism it would be around the eyes- something strange there. Maybe the eyeballs are set in too deeply, accentuating the rims of the lower eyelids too much. Otherwise, looks very good.

 

[Devil_666]

BTW Anthrapoid, nice work on all the mods you've done so far. And sorry for all the off-topic posts. But c'mon.. my Freddie Mercury pic is GOLDEN! lol.

 

[a-dev]

Yeah, the dissappearing headcover has been mentioned before; I just assumed that the facehugger somehow managed to get it's fingers under it. There's also one or two behind the scenes shots of John Hurt on set minus the helmet but with the headcover on, and the chinstrap is left undone. Maybe that's how it fell off and Ash & Dallas retrieved it when cutting off the rest of Kane's suit in the infirmary. Either that or it was just a plain error.

That reminds me of Batman. In either Burtons films or Nolans you never see him wiping off his black eye makeup when he takes off his cowl. Check out the scene in Batman Returns where he tries to persuade Catwoman from killing Max Shreck near the end. He's in full Batman garb, shrouded eyes 'n all - he rips off the cowl and by magic - no trace of eyeliner. Sorry to go off topic.

 

[Devil_666]

That reminds me of Batman. In either Burtons films or Nolans you never see him wiping off his black eye makeup when he takes off his cowl. Check out the scene in Batman Returns where he tries to persuade Catwoman from killing Max Shreck near the end. He's in full Batman garb, shrouded eyes 'n all - he rips off the cowl and by magic - no trace of eyeliner. Sorry to go off topic.

This is gonna sound weird but it's the truth: it's not supposed to be eye make-up WITHIN the movie. That black part (which WE know IS eye make-up) within the movie is supposed to be the mask. That's why when the mask is removed you don't see Bruce with some raccoon eyes.

 

[a-dev]

The mask is supposed to cover and move with his eyelids??

 

[CelticPredator]

I think Nolan should have a scene where Bruce outs on eye makeup before he puts on the mask. Thats realistic, and it makes sense.

 

[a-dev]

And not in a girly way, in Arnie or Sly donning the warpaint way!

 

[P@CK@R@CK]

13. On backpack, the correct order of the colored lights from top to bottom should be: green - blue - yellow - red... (The order as they are now, is: blue - yellow - green - red)

I strongly suggest only attempting this mod if you are extremely comfortable around a soldering iron. The pack comes apart really easily unfortunately that's the only easy part of this mod.

First off the board the LEDs are on is very small and solder points really close together. I attempted to remove the existing LEDs and re solder them in the proper order but they're so fragile and the leads so short, I broke 2 out of 4 of them.

I then decided to replace them with identical ones I had on hand. Unfortunately mine were all white. After a few eye straining hours I got it all together and painted the LEDs the correct colors. I think I'll touch them up some more before calling it done.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Well done, P@CK@R@CK!

But it sounds like a small nightmare for those of us without a soldering gun.

Are the LED's actually colored or are they all white with colored gel to make the colors? Sounds like they may be colored lights inside the pack.

As much as I crave accuracy, this might be one change I do not attempt. Considering how few times I will actually have the pack lights on once the figure is in the display case, I think I might have to let this inaccuracy remain (although it will always drive me nuts when I turn them on).

 

[P@CK@R@CK]

Well done, P@CK@R@CK!

But it sounds like a small nightmare for those of us without a soldering gun.

Are the LED's actually colored or are they all white with colored gel to make the colors? Sounds like they may be colored lights inside the pack.

As much as I crave accuracy, this might be one change I do not attempt. Considering how few times I will actually have the pack lights on once the figure is in the display case, I think I might have to let this inaccuracy remain (although it will always drive me nuts when I turn them on).

The LEDs are indeed colored, no gels.

Thanks Wor-Gar. Honestly after I got into the thick of it I questioned myself the importance of this mod. Nice to have accuracy but at what cost. It's definately a bugger.

 

[Anthrapoid]

You're a brave man, P@CK@R@CK... I was waiting for my Kane to arrive before attempting this one, so I could do them both at the same time.

I knew the wires would be tricky, but I had no idea it was that bad.
One possible way around this might be: Cut the leads from each LED, so each light has as much wire on it as possible. Then get some extra-fine electrical wire, and just splice them together by hand first, then solder over each connection.
I still haven't looked inside the backpack yet, so I don't know if that can be done...

This mod isn't number THIRTEEN for nothing!

 

[P@CK@R@CK]

That's just the thing. The LEDs are all mounted to a circuit board with in line resistors. You have to physically remove them from the board and re solder them to the board. Should have gotten pix of the internals.

The good news is HT did not use too much glue when assembling the backpack so other adventurous souls can at least check out the electronics before going for it. For the most part the screw that holds the battery cover on keeps the pack together.

Anthrapoid, I want to try to do the helmet next. I do not see any real reference on the location of the additional LEDs. Are they the colored rectangles at the base of the rear of the helmet? Also, do you know if the lights on the actual helmet were rectangular or not? Need as much reference as I can get as this could screw up the whole figure if done wrong. Thanks

 

[ukwookie]

Take a look on the RPF, there's a thread following the building of a very accurate replica of the spacesuits... which also contains some fantastic reference pics of the original props e.g https://therpf.com/showthread.php?t=34659&page=15 and
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41111968@N00/sets/72157603574286453/

Tony

 

[Reinhardt]

Take a look on the RPF, there's a thread following the building of a very accurate replica of the spacesuits... which also contains some fantastic reference pics of the original props e.g https://therpf.com/showthread.php?t=34659&page=15 and
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41111968@N00/sets/72157603574286453/

Tony

great link!!! what an awesome thread. some serious talent there. thanks for posting bro.

 

[ukwookie]

...And yet more pics at:
https://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=410252102

 

[Anthrapoid]

Wow- there is some good reference material coming together in this thread!
Thank you ukwookie for the great links.

P@CK@R@CK, as you can see in the photos given by ukwookie, the lower three lights are the colored rectangles, as you asked. On the HT helmet the one in the middle is a different shape than the other two, but they are all supposed to be the same size and shape.
Luckily that will be easy to correct when you cut out the holes and replace them.

I am forced to wait a while before I can do many of the more involved fixes;
I have a friend coming at the start of November to California from England to visit, and we're taking a two week trip up the California coast.

Even though it's a much needed vacation, it's still frustrating that I can't have the boots and Kane head ready until after I return.
I'm really glad to see some active interest around here- I can't wait to see your final light mod, P@CK, and your final painted Kane sculpt, Space Jockey.

 

[Space Jockey]

Agreed, it's a good thread. I don;t think I'll attempt changing the lights though, it seems a little scary! I have some silicone rubber and resin on order so should have a cast of Kane to paint soon.

 

[Dr Daystrom]

Very useful thread. I probably won't dig into accurizing my pair until I decide if the issues bother me that much, but nice to have such a good reference when/if I do reach that point.

 

[Anthrapoid]

I'm starting to think about making the gloves film-accurate; I could make them from scratch, but I think I'll modify the existing ones.

The HT gloves out of the box have ribs over the back of the hands which are too rounded and smoothly contoured, like some kind of skiing gloves. The back of the glove is rounded from side to side also, instead of laying flat.
Note the photos below;The shape of the pads on the back of the gloves are much more blocky and thick, and they lay upon the gloves as seperate 3-dimensional features. The pads across the back of the gloves lay flat, instead of curving from side to side.
Also, the gloves are supposed to be a little bit larger and 'clumsy' looking (like hockey gloves would be) so the addition of thicker pads on the back of the hands and fingers would give the gloves a larger appearance overall.
The thumbs should be wider, with a broad tongue-like shape, and they should have a well defined seam at the half point. The finger pads should have double seams at the center knuckle.

Here's my plan:
First, I'll mix the right colors, and sculpt new pads out of Sculpey SuperFlex clay directly onto the gloves. A bit of spit-polishing will form a smooth surface.
Then I will cover the underside of the gloves (and all areas where there is no Sculpey) with several layers of alluminum foil. The thick foil will act as insulation, and ensure the shape of the gloves won't distort during baking.
This may sound risky, but it's not. I always use an oven thermometer so I can be positive I get the oven to the perfect temperature; The baking tempurature is only 275-F, and for only 15 minutes. The exposed clay will cure, while the foil-covered areas will be protected for the short duration.
I've done similar things with PVC in the oven, and it takes a much higher temperature to melt it.

After baking, I'll let the pieces cool, remove the foil, and I'll carefully peel the new flexible pads off, and glue them back on with superglue.

Sculpey SuperFlex is like any other baking clay, except it bakes to a flexible rubber-like product; VERY cool stuff. In fact, I made the whole suit of armor for my LOTR troll with it.
The cured Sculpey SuperFlex looks great, but it's not as resistant to surface damage as the original pvc of the gloves. So, at some point when I have time, I'll make molds from these modified gloves and cast them in hard a rubber, maybe pvc.

About the final coloring: The existing HT gloves have a very clean two-tone color scheme to them. However, from what I can see in the film and from photos of the original prop suits, the gloves are slightly tinted to match the red-yellow-blue color codes for Dallas-Kane-Lambert. These colors are very muted and VERY dirty. More than anything, they look like a combination of the crew color code, mixed with natural leather color.

Here are the best pictures I could find to show the kind of Hockey gloves that were used in ALIEN.
By far, the ones which most closely resemble those in the movie are the 1974 COOPER 30 Armadillo Thumb, the first picture at the left.

This mod is now listed as number 26.