rockpopandchips Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 A bit of a story behind this kit, I was out with the family on a short break wandering around a small market town call Garstang, a sleepy town in Lancashire not too far off the coast. As I was wandering about, I found a second-hand IT shop that also had a citadel 40K corner, cool I thought so popped in a picked up a few bits. A bit down the road we found an anima figure and collectables shop called only cool stuff, my kids loved it. Got talking to the owner about all sorts, how the shop was doing, anima and got on to model kits and he said he had a model kit he bought from eBay but did not have to skills to do anything with it and would I like to build and paint it for him. Nearly snapped his hand off there and then. So I’m rebuilding a slightly broken and unloved Nostromo. 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Moore Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 I remember seeing one in a LMS in Derby (long since closed), back in maybe '90 or '91. I was about 18 at the time and it was way more than I could afford, but I so wanted that kit. Really wish I'd been able to get it back then. I've still got an old issue of TMMI with a build feature on it. Very much looking forward to seeing your progress with it. Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carts Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 Garstang is just up the road from me, I need to go more often Will be pulling up a chair for this one. Like Andy above I passed on this kit back in the day, couldn't justify the price with our first kid on the way and a mortgage, did eventually get one, and paid more than I have ever paid for a model kit before or since😱 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tak5haka Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 I have one of those in the stash - still building up the courage to build it after many years ... Will be watching your progress with interest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 6 hours ago, rockpopandchips said: So I’m rebuilding a slightly broken and unloved Nostromo. Lucky you! There isn't a decent shot of the ship in the film, except for one gear leg IIRC. Nice to actually see a kit of this iconic spaceship. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 Cheers for the interest in this one, I was so happy for the opportunity to build this I didn't look at it properly. Who ever tried and failed did a really crap job of getting the parts to sit flush. I have managed to snap the glue of a few so lots of cleaning up to do, but the others I'm going to have to fill. The worst being the gap between the main hull and the top engines, and I had forgotten these are PVYuck! So some bendy parts to reshape as well. All good fun though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said: Lucky you! There isn't a decent shot of the ship in the film, except for one gear leg IIRC. Nice to actually see a kit of this iconic spaceship. Ref pics of the 12ft screen prop. 7 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spruecutter96 Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 Blimme... I never knew the "Noisy-Roamer" was so stained and generally dirty. I guess that the heavy-shadowed lighting-style of the film concealed a lot of the exterior. I remember seeing the second movie at the Prince Charles in London a few years ago - worst film print-quality I've ever seen. Very obvious film-splices throughout the print, creating loads of visual jump-cuts. I really should have asked for my money back... Thanks for sharing with us. Chris. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 Thanks for the pictures. I'm sure I've seen them before but a long time ago. It was an odd stumpy design, and, for the time, I can't see any obvious bits where they used parts from model kits. Good luck with the build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tzulscha Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 Nice to see someone build this monster. I've got one still in it's box that I haven't looked at in years and years. Never did find any good reference pix. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Baker Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 It is great to see that kit get a second chance! There are a number of fairly good references out there for this ship, including ones showing it with the original industrial yellow coloring. The thing is that the entire surface is covered in heavy paneling so even if you do not match the film miniature you can still get that authentic feel to your build. Please post more images of your progress- I never got a chance to have one of these kits and look forward to seeing one come together 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 Cool look forward to seeing this come together! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 14, 2021 Author Share Posted June 14, 2021 I was also not lucky enough to pickup one of these back in the day, I thought they were rediculess expensive back then, now they are still money. Putting this back together has been challenging mostly due due to it being made of PVC. I have had to do quite a bit of re shaping of parts. For the engine necels need I had to cut down some wood to fit the opening and then heat in water so they would keep there shape but that's done now. So is most of the filling of gaps. The next challenge is to weight down the front, I couldn't reopen the main hull for fear of really messing it up, so I will cut a hole in the bottom and fill will somthing and then all the pointy thing to fit. To save me posting loads of pictures I did this, with help from the kids. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted June 14, 2021 Share Posted June 14, 2021 Looking very cool, such a beast of a ship love the engines. And that's a snazzy presentation! 😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Indigo Posted June 14, 2021 Share Posted June 14, 2021 Thank you very much for the video/pics, it really brings back some memories. I noticed that the ship seems to sit a bit high on it's landing gear, but this is just a gut feeling. Good luck with the build! I snatched a kit from a comic shop sale ages ago and have not dared to start on it yet. Main issue is the warping of the hull parts, it might take some wood frames inside to straighten things out and prevent re-warping over time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 14, 2021 Author Share Posted June 14, 2021 Some more info, quite interesting stuff. 3 hours ago, Electric Indigo said: I noticed that the ship seems to sit a bit high on it's landing gear, but this is just a gut feeling. Good luck with the build! Hard to tell but I know what you mean the 12ft ship looks to be a little more squat but only just and from the side on shot they both look the same. Add the weights in in the form of nuts, cut a hole that could easily be replaced and fixed the nuts in place with some gorilla glue. Will need to give it a good few days to set before glueing on the censor probes and continuing. Back to the Unicorn for a few days then. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Lambess Posted June 15, 2021 Share Posted June 15, 2021 Been working on mine for a few years ....the big problem is the pvc goes out of shape every few months (I live in a humid climate ) so every time I get enthused it's gone out of shape again . Still a very rare and great kit to have 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 Man! That’s a complex bunch of shapes to model. 🤔 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 16, 2021 Author Share Posted June 16, 2021 13 hours ago, Neil Lambess said: Been working on mine for a few years ....the big problem is the pvc goes out of shape every few months (I live in a humid climate ) so every time I get enthused it's gone out of shape again . Still a very rare and great kit to have I didn't think to leave the wood inside that I used to shape it. Lack of experience with PVC builds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Indigo Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 I guess you could fill it with plaster, but the weight will probably kill the landing gear. Construction foam is an alternative, but if you overdose, you end up with a bloated ship... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-er Posted June 17, 2021 Share Posted June 17, 2021 I've got a stash of the old Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models magazines from the 90's, there's a big feature on the models of Alien spread over a couple of issues. I'll see if I can dig them out and scan them, there'll probably be some useful reference material in them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 17, 2021 Author Share Posted June 17, 2021 1 hour ago, 81-er said: I've got a stash of the old Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models magazines from the 90's, there's a big feature on the models of Alien spread over a couple of issues. I'll see if I can dig them out and scan them, there'll probably be some useful reference material in them. That would be very cool. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 17, 2021 Author Share Posted June 17, 2021 Fitted the pionty things and given it a coat of primer and starting to think about about paints. There are still one or two parts to fill and sand again but I'm not surprised by that. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted June 17, 2021 Author Share Posted June 17, 2021 Preparation and procrastination... So I'm thinking pre shate the reassess, a mid coat all over, then mask of lots and lots of pannels, go over with 3 or so grey tones, remove the mask, grey brown pannel line wash then mist on a very light grey/ off white. Or something like that. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-er Posted June 18, 2021 Share Posted June 18, 2021 Hopefully this works, I've scanned them in as PDF's and saved them in my Dropbox. Articles written by Martin Bower and originally published in Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models maagazine issues 10 (January/February 1996) and 11 (March/April 1996) https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cnuhkfx474t5ji7/AACtifsb2squrbyxa84aCZyca?dl=0 As a bonus, Web Archive has a capture of Martin's own website (sadly now defunct) with further pictures and photos from the making of Alien https://web.archive.org/web/20160912032405/http://www.martinbowersmodelworld.co.uk/alien_models.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now