ALIEN and ALIENS Thread...

[pjam]

LES AND DEKDAVE TO THE RESCUE!!!

Wow Les, that is so cool of you bro!

What a great post, and what great work you did! I think you got it nailed, what matters that is and it is MORE than enough for what I need. I am indebited to you, SIR. Or should I refer to you as "The Babe" (Inside joke there guys, sorry)

And Dave,

I Dropped my linen! Unbelievable grabs there Bro, ask and you shall receive. I am overwhelmed by the greatness of this thread and its brethren! Thank You Bro!

Hope this can help Josh out Paul...
Here is what I did with my Hudson helmet.

The 8 ball (I just paused the DVD on screen when I was painting mine, so I don't have a still of it...I think it shows up in the extended scenes with the hall guns when Hudson and Vas test fire it...look for a few frames in there somewhere...)

But here's what I saw enough to paint, it's on the lower back left of his helmet cover:

This is more contrasty than it really looks. All the written stuff on Hudson's helmet are faded looking, so it looks wrong if it's too bold.

Here is the upper left front (yeah, I got my hash marks diagonally backward. Dummy me! But once I had done one, I just went with it...what else could I do...it was paint...):

It's a grid marked into a 12 month calendar, with every month labeled and marked through, beginning with August and ending in July (When ALIENS happens in the timeline), and July is the only month not marked through yet.
"Man, four more weeks and I'm out!"

Here is a rough blowup of it from a B&W still I used for reference:

Just above and below the grid, are two longer bars, as long as the whole set, making it a box. Inside the upper bar it says, "Short Timer", and in the one below, "Game Over!". Neat that his saying is on his helmet. Note that you can barely see it, it is faded, and does have the exclamation point.

On the front right upper side, are the words "Brain Dead" and I couldn't see them, but they are reportedly there, so I just stacked them and made them look faded.

Best I can do. Maybe a set of frames can help further.

 

[dekadentdave]

Alright Sweethearts...

 

[Reinhardt]

you guys are seriously the bomb when it comes to working together and anything and everything on Aliens knowledge!

i just noticed that there is a "D" on the bottom of Hudson's rifle clip (last pic of decadent's post) didn't see that before.

 

[The ill Jedi]

Damn Dave, you are like an ALIENS databank! Good job man!!

 

[ragacin]

Did Dietrich wear USCM armor as well? I just watched Aliens last week but I wasn't paying attention. If she did, is it different than the male armor like Hudson, Hicks etc?

Les, Absolutely great stuff with Hudson's helmet, suprising that HT didn't do at least the 8 ball.

 

[Mudshark]

Those pics totally ROCK, Dek! Thanks again for coming through for us with those excellent screen grabs. I mean it! It's so much easier using these for reference rather than trying to get them off a TV or computer screen. Les did a helluva job painting his onto that helmet cover! There really isn't much space to work with there, and once you start...well, there's really no going back. It's really great to see everyone's figures coming together like this.

Btw, did you happen to notice the tat on the inside of Hudson's left arm? It's clearly visible in the fourth shot from the top. I wonder if someone could.... OK, forget I even mentioned it.

 

[dekadentdave]

With Hudson's tat, after Hudson's arm is sprayed with acid in the APC it is covered by the bandage so you have to decide if you want pre-Sublevel-3 Hudson or post. I went with post because, as Les' figure shows, it looks much better with the arm bandage and also helps to distinguish him from the rest of the marines.

I also removed the cloth helmet cover from mine. Too light. His helmet has the dark camo. I'm too afraid to paint or draw the 8-ball and the tic-tac-toe graffitti on it though which is why I was thinking if someone could make them in Illustrator we could print some wet-decals and place them on the helmet.

 

[8 Immortal Master]

That's awesome. What did you use to make the markings on the helmet?

Hope this can help Josh out Paul...
Here is what I did with my Hudson helmet.

The 8 ball (I just paused the DVD on screen when I was painting mine, so I don't have a still of it...I think it shows up in the extended scenes with the hall guns when Hudson and Vas test fire it...look for a few frames in there somewhere...)

But here's what I saw enough to paint, it's on the lower back left of his helmet cover:

This is more contrasty than it really looks. All the written stuff on Hudson's helmet are faded looking, so it looks wrong if it's too bold.

Here is the upper left front (yeah, I got my hash marks diagonally backward. Dummy me! But once I had done one, I just went with it...what else could I do...it was paint...):

It's a grid marked into a 12 month calendar, with every month labeled and marked through, beginning with August and ending in July (When ALIENS happens in the timeline), and July is the only month not marked through yet.
"Man, four more weeks and I'm out!"

Here is a rough blowup of it from a B&W still I used for reference:

Just above and below the grid, are two longer bars, as long as the whole set, making it a box. Inside the upper bar it says, "Short Timer", and in the one below, "Game Over!". Neat that his saying is on his helmet. Note that you can barely see it, it is faded, and does have the exclamation point.

On the front right upper side, are the words "Brain Dead" and I couldn't see them, but they are reportedly there, so I just stacked them and made them look faded.

Best I can do. Maybe a set of frames can help further.

 

[FACEBOX]

That's awesome. What did you use to make the markings on the helmet?

"But once I had done one, I just went with it...what else could I do...it was paint".

(Originally Posted by figuremasterles)

 

[8 Immortal Master]

Thank you.. Given the fact that all paints are not the same I'll be more specific. That's awesome. What kind of paint did you use to make the markings on the helmet?

"But once I had done one, I just went with it...what else could I do...it was paint".

(Originally Posted by figuremasterles)

 

[FACEBOX]

Thank you.. Given the fact that all paints are not the same I'll be more specific. That's awesome. What kind of paint did you use to make the markings on the helmet?

Much better.

Oh, and WELCOME!

 

[8 Immortal Master]

Aah you know I try... And thanks for the welcome. Glad to be here among you freaks.

Much better.

Oh, and WELCOME!

 

[ambac]

Did Dietrich wear USCM armor as well? I just watched Aliens last week but I wasn't paying attention. If she did, is it different than the male armor like Hudson, Hicks etc?

Les, Absolutely great stuff with Hudson's helmet, suprising that HT didn't do at least the 8 ball.

Dietrich's armor is the same as the male marines.

 

[dekadentdave]

Did Dietrich wear USCM armor as well? I just watched Aliens last week but I wasn't paying attention. If she did, is it different than the male armor like Hudson, Hicks etc?

What do expect? Breast plates?

 

[BadMoon]

I am so sorry I missed this line! Now I can't find anything!

 

[Mudshark]

With Hudson's tat, after Hudson's arm is sprayed with acid in the APC it is covered by the bandage so you have to decide if you want pre-Sublevel-3 Hudson or post. I went with post because, as Les' figure shows, it looks much better with the arm bandage and also helps to distinguish him from the rest of the marines.

I also removed the cloth helmet cover from mine. Too light. His helmet has the dark camo. I'm too afraid to paint or draw the 8-ball and the tic-tac-toe graffitti on it though which is why I was thinking if someone could make them in Illustrator we could print some wet-decals and place them on the helmet.

I think having options like this helps to make these figures more interesting and will add lotsa variety when everyone's finished with their marines. I'm still not sure what look I'm going to go for with Hudson, so I'm just trying to gather as much info as I can to increase the options. I may end up doing more than one version if I can spare the time. "Wild Bill" Hudson had so many looks in the movie that the options are nearly endless. The Chronos head is excellent, but I for one would really like to have a couple of different head sculpts to choose from, like that balls-to-the-wall, go for broke bug-blasting look he had just before he bought it, and the sappy, wise-ass expression he had when he was clowning around. How cool would that be?

"Oh YEAH? F' YOU!! Oh, you want some of this too?"

As you said, Hudson's helmet cover is much lighter than in the movie. The HT camo colors aren't exactly right either, which does present problems if you want film accuracy. Would tinting only the helmet cover with some dye darken it enough to do the trick? Then the decals or heat transfers could be applied later, provided somebody could make them for us... (dBoz, are you getting this by any chance? We could use your help here, buddy!)

 

[DBoz]

Then the decals or heat transfers could be applied later, provided somebody could make them for us... (dBoz, are you getting this by any chance? We could use your help here, buddy!)

Iron-ons could be made, but you would probably be better off painting or using a sharpee to put them on yourself. The size and shape of the cover would make it extremely difficult to apply the iron-on. I used a sharpee (one of the ultra fine point ones). It's nowhere near as nice as Les' as I am by no means an artist, but I can live with it.

 

[Mudshark]

Iron-ons could be made, but you would probably be better off painting or using a sharpee to put them on yourself. The size and shape of the cover would make it extremely difficult to apply the iron-on. I used a sharpee (one of the ultra fine point ones). It's nowhere near as nice as Les' as I am by no means an artist, but I can live with it.

Yeah, I know what you mean. The curves and the seams would make it tough to use an iron-on. Dek's idea of using decals (or painting) directly on the helmet is a pretty good solution, but it means losing the helmet cover altogether.
Too bad we couldn't get some correctly colored camo cloth and find someone to (silk screen) print the details onto it flat, then we'd just have to sew the helmet covers together. That would probably yield the best possible results, but the methods most people are using now seem to be good enough. I'll probably end up drawing the stuff on too, but first I need to find a fine point laundry marker that doesn't bleed!

 

[dekadentdave]

Yeah, I know what you mean. The curves and the seams would make it tough to use an iron-on. Dek's idea of using decals (or painting) directly on the helmet is a pretty good solution, but it means losing the helmet cover altogether.
Too bad we couldn't get some correctly colored camo cloth and find someone to (silk screen) print the details onto it flat, then we'd just have to sew the helmet covers together. That would probably yield the best possible results, but the methods most people are using now seem to be good enough. I'll probably end up drawing the stuff on too, but first I need to find a fine point laundry marker that doesn't bleed!

Trust me, you guys don't want the cloth helmet cover. Looks tacky. Wet-decals would work best for the plastic helmet.

 

[Mudshark]

I'm not really married to the idea of using the cloth cover. If the color was fixed and it was glued down tight against the helmet, then it would probably look okay. But is there anyone who could make some wet decals for us?

I could do the job myself, but I just don't have the set up for anything like that at the moment. Another alternative would be to paint the grafitti directly onto the helmet, which should still be a lot easier than painting it on the cloth. Anyone have any other ideas? Any and all suggestions/offers are welcome!