M577 Armoured personal carrier 1/72 scratch build

[Marklo]

I’ve been threatening to scratch build a Cheyenne drop ship for a long time, but just haven’t gotten around to it, so as a preamble to the drop ship I’m going to do a 1/72 APC, which I will duly put inside my drop ship when it’s done.

 

First decision which scale. My first thought was 1:48 the apc works out at anout7 inches which is a nice size however the Cheyenne would be 20 inches which is a bit big. So in 1/72 the apc is 4.7 inches and the Cheyenne 14 which although big for me works out ok. 

 

So blueprints in hand were off.
 

Thr floor pan for the M577.

[Arthur_Dent]

I'm a big fan of the Aliens movie so I'm really looking forward to seeing this build take shape. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Nice looking forward to this. You are aware there was a real M577 it is a mobile command APC. It has zero in connection with the films version though. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M577_Command_Post_Carrier

[Marklo]

2 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

You are aware there was a real M577

No but I am now  I built so many of those APCs in my youth ( it was one of those kits that was left in the shop when all the good kits were gone, but you desperately wanted to spend your pocket money, birthday money, communion money  )  if I were inventing one I’d probably name it after it too. 
 

Of course this is also an excuse to dust off my Alien DVDs ( the good ones, so that’s Alien, Aliens, Prometheus and AVP 1 ( well I liked it !)   and possibly watch AVP:requiem)

Edited May 12, 2022 by Marklo

[Marklo]

First up the intended outcome 

 

The current state of play

 

 

 

Should look a bit better when I get the sides on.

[Marklo]

That’s most of the hull plates in.
 

 

I’m now thinking that while it’ll be an M577 ( and a Cheyenne to follow) I’m not going to replicate the movie colour schemes so I can have a bit of fun with the camouflage on both. 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Marklo

[voozet]

Nice start! I will be watching this thread with interest. 

 

[Marklo]

Some paint and some filler.

[Uncle Monty]

Very nice build so far, watching this with great interest. I loved Aliens and this was one of the stars (alongside the wonderful Sigourney Weaver).

I'm interested in the colour scheme, what did you have in mind if not the original?

[Marklo]

45 minutes ago, Uncle Monty said:

I'm interested in the colour scheme, what did you have in mind if not the original?

Well I’m thinking the colonial marines would have been deployed in many environments some of which wouldn’t have been earth like. I’m thinking grey, black and purple ( my favourite camo colours) for say a rocky environment where the vegetation isn’t reliant in chlorophyll, in either an SEA or an aggressor type pattern or maybe a digital pattern. 

Phantom on the right is in SEA camouflage.

 

Agressor patterns.
 

 Colour pallet.

 

Possibly something like this in the Cheyenne.

 

I’ll use soft edges possibly even freehand and extend the pattern to the Dropship when I paint it. ( have to build it first of course) 

 

 

[sardaukar]

Cool, I have the RetroSF kit in 1/72 in the stash to get round to one day. Will watch with interest this is probably my favourite scifi AFV.

 

AvP Requiem is the only alien or predator film I haven't been able to bring myself to watch a second time 🤮. 

[Marklo]

I got halfway through AVP 2 and got fed up that I couldn’t make anything out as it was all so dark. And I haven’t gotten round to watching Requirm or covenant yet.

[sardaukar]

6 minutes ago, Marklo said:

I got halfway through AVP 2 and got fed up that I couldn’t make anything out as it was all so dark. And I haven’t gotten round to watching Requirm or covenant yet.

 

We are in agreement because AVP 2 is AvP Requiem, although it seems there is an extended uncut version. There are worse things than Covenant .

[Marklo]

 
 

After a bit of sanding and some more paint. Next up, complete the hull plating then greeblies and figuring out how to tackle the wheels.

 

I also have the third predator film on DVD and still unwatched!

[Marklo]

I’ve made a wheel blank from laminated 1mm card. I’ll add detail with .25mm  card and then make a mold and resin cast the full set.

[neil5208]

On 5/15/2022 at 8:22 PM, sardaukar said:

 There are worse things than Covenant .

Not by much. Could be bothered to watch the last 20 mins.

Lovely build though.

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by neil5208

[Marklo]

That’s the hull mostly complete, another round of filler needed. And more importantly the tread on the tyre, it needs a bit more shaping and a hub, before it’s ready to take a mold off it.

[Uncle Monty]

Looking forward to seeing how the tyre turns out cos I'd like to have a go at that myself

[Marklo]

 

The hull is just about ready for details and the wheel just needs a bit of work on the tread.

[Hunter Rose]

Cool, this is coming together nicely, great work with the wheel! 

[Marklo]

Current progress; the hull’s just about ready for details and the wheel looks about right so I’ll try taking a mold from it tomorrow.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Marklo

[Bandsaw Steve]

We seem to have very similar tastes in both modelling subjects and films. I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a dropship for years and would also give it a custom camouflage scheme.

This one is looking good!

[Marklo]

12 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a dropship for years and would also give it a custom camouflage scheme.

There’s a good paper dropship model to be found on the interweb, I actually went to the trouble of scaling it to 1/72 but can’t find it  I do have a reasonable set of plans, and I’m toying with building the dropship as part of the above the karmin line GB if it gets the go ahead for next year. There are plans out there for the shuttles and the Sulaco and Nostromo and I might even try a crack at one of those too.

 

I’m assuming you’d build the dropship  in 1/24 or 1/16 now that would be awesome. ( come to think of it so would be the Nostromo in either of those scales  )

Edited May 21, 2022 by Marklo

[Niall]

Marklo is this the site you meant -

http://aliens.humlak.cz/aliens/aliens_papirove_modely_gb.htm

 

The link seems to produce 2 pages the correct one and another missing one.

Edited May 21, 2022 by Niall
Added information

[Marklo]

Hmm not entirely sure

 

this is part of the file I have.