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Colonial Marine DropShip from ALIENS movie...


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Hi guys,

Seen this kit a few years back in my local hobby shop. Never purchased it but would be interested in doing one in the future. Are there kit(s) of this DropShip available still? What scale? Has there been any builds posted, have searched on here but not seen anything?

Cheers

Glen

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The 1/72 Halcyon/Tsukuda kit is probably the one you remember, but unfortunately it can be tough (and/or pricey) to find. The kit is pretty basic, but there's a lot of opportunity for detailing. A company called Gonzoid did a resin garage kit of the APC to go along with the Dropship. JBOT does aftermarket decals for both the Dropship and the APC.

A few years ago Aoshima did a die-cast model (fully assembled) in 1/72 that's got comparable detail to the Halcyon kit ("from the box"). Die-cast APCs were also issued, but unfortunately all of the above are OOP.

http://www.hlj.com/product/AOS09067

If you're eager to build the ship and don't mind "scaling down," Fantastic Plastic offers a Dropship and APC kit in 1/144:

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/ColonialM...taloguePage.htm

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If you're eager to build the ship and don't mind "scaling down," Fantastic Plastic offers a Dropship and APC kit in 1/144:

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/ColonialM...taloguePage.htm

To be honest the FP 1:144 kit is not the greatest hunk of resin I've seen. While Alfred Wong generally receives accolades for his pattern work, I haven't found much of it to my satisfaction. The Dropship, for example, has many symmetry and shape issues, and actually seems off-scale (though I can't remember whether it's too big or small). The APC is most certainly too small for 1:144 and itself is bereft of fine detail.

That said, I have the thing in my stash, and I will eventually build it when I have the energy to do justice to the subject.

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Hi all,

Thanks for the interest and pointers. Would definately be interested in the 1/72 rendering. 1/144 would be too small for my tastes but thanks for the heads up on it. Will keep an eye out for it on Ebay, and check the links provided. Anyone actually built up the kit, be nice to see some pics of a finished model?

Cheers

Glen

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Hi all,

Thanks for the interest and pointers. Would definately be interested in the 1/72 rendering. 1/144 would be too small for my tastes but thanks for the heads up on it. Will keep an eye out for it on Ebay, and check the links provided. Anyone actually built up the kit, be nice to see some pics of a finished model?

Cheers

Glen

No pix, but I built it years (decades?) ago. The parts are molded in thick green plastic. Panel lines are thick and exterior detail is so-so. IIRC, there's no placement guide (mark, notch, etc) on the side of the fuselage for the vectored thrust nozzles (which even on the studio model look like they were borrowed from a first gen Harrier). Cockpit detail is non-existent (tho it's a great opportunity for some custom detailing). It includes decals to build one of two UD-4L Cheyennes from the USS Sulaco featured in the movie. You can build the model with wings open or closed, landing gear up or town. There's a plate for the APC ramp, but only parts for displaying it closed (however, if you want to, you could cut open the fuselage to scratch build bay detail as the top of the ramp has treadplate detail.)

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Leading Edge Games also issued gaming miniatures of the Dropship and APC to tie in with their Aliens RPG. These were about 1/72 or so and the company also did several sets miniatures for the Marines, aliens, the Queen and the powerloader and even some of the ill-fated Archeron colonists cocooned in the walls. The drop ship was big and HEAVY given that is was made out of a lead alloy. A buddy of mine at the time built one for another acquaintance of ours and one of the shortcomings of the "miniature" (mini in name only given how big it was) was the landing gear struts were somewhat fragile. As such, when the mini suffered a fall a couple years later, the gear struts got completely trashed. There was no cockpit interior either and the windows were plated over. The price tag on this puppy was also EXPENSIVE, so if one ever pops up on eBay, I expect it will go for high dollars given how scarce the thing is.

The APC was nice, although we managed to acquire one of the Gonzoid APCs for gaming use instead and that built into a very nice model IMHO. I did the entire squad of Colonial Marines for our gaming group and these also were well designed. If you can find any, they work great for diorama use alongside the Halcyon dropship kit as the scales are close enough.

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The Halcyon kit came out in '90. I remember it well, as I picked up 2 of them in London, and they weren't available in the States yet.

I've been working on one on and off one one for about 15 years. I got a serious case of AMS on this kit and tried to replicate the movie ships. I got a bunch of stills of the movie miniatures and also the big full-size forward fuselage they made for the Sulaco bay scenes. As usual, the miniatures and mockup all differ in some details.

Everything Tigger says about the kit is accurate. It is crude. It has a good shape, however, and if you build it with everything closed up, it looks pretty good. If you want it gear down, with everything hanging out, be prepared for a lot of work, however. It's missing a lot of detail. There was a company in the UK that made some white-metal rockets for the big rocket pods, but they're long OOP.

Couple of other detailing suggestions. Fujimi 1/72 F-4 ejection seats look a lot like the ones in the movie. The missiles in the lower pods will benefit from replacement- I used some modified 1/48th Hellfires and some Sidewinders. And MV railroad lenses are great for the landing and position lights. The gear is missing a lot of detail, so be prepared to scratchbuild.

I'm kicking myself for not getting the SMT 1/48th resin kit when it was available. The last one on evil-Bay went for crazy money (over $600!)

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The seats in the actual fullsize mockup are out of an Avro Vulcan bomber as is the control grip that Ferro uses to fly the ship.

The VTOL nozzles are from a GR1 Harrier but were only ever on the LH side of the fullsize mockup. The main undercarriage struts are actually Vulcan parts as well, the landing skids are flare trays from a Canberra as I understand.

The Halcyon 1/72 kit is reasonable in outline but has some detail errors in the small parts like the number of rockets in the fold out rocket pods. I do not like either the SMT 1/48 or the FP 1/144 Dropships as neither has a convincing shape and the sculptor does not appear to have captured the feel of the Dropship.

I have this in my collection, must get back onto it one day.

Thirdcut01.jpg

Thirdcut02.jpg

1/36 scale Dropship cast off the wooden maquette that Halcyon used to create the 1/72 scale kit. Typically the kit manufacturers used to do a twice size mockup then pantograph it down to cut the tools, this "kit" was created off that mockup.

The Aoshima diecast 1/72 scale APC's are the best avilable ones to use with the Halcyon model, if you see one, try to grab it.

EDWMatt you are absolutely correct, the fullscale mockup of the dropship is quite a bit different from the 1/12 scale models built for the film, but like most sci-fi you just have to reconcile them both to what you are building. I have four of the original construction blueprints for the fullsize mockup cockpit and they definitely are an eye opener compared to available models.

Cheers

Tony

Edited by spellbinder99
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Hmm...let's rephrase Mark's question a bit. Are there any available scale drawings of the dropship online or in books?

And what happened to the original filming models/molds and the full scale mockup?

Edited by AnthonyWan
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Hmm...let's rephrase Mark's question a bit. Are there any available scale drawings of the dropship online or in books?

And what happened to the original filming models/molds and the full scale mockup?

The book "Aliens:Colonial Marines Technical Manual" has a smallish 3 view line drawing, and a 2 page cutaway, of the dropship, not to mention a complete run down of all the other USCM equipment, operations and history. The after action report of the events in Alien and Aliens is also an interesting read. This is done as a true to life tech manual, and not an explanation of how the effects in the moview were achieved, or what props were used in the filming. Very cool book to have for Aliens and USCM fans.

Edited by JasonB
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The fullsize Dropship mockup was destroyed after filming though the two pilot seats still exist in a prop enthusiasts collection.

Sci Fi collector Bob Burns has one of the 1/12 scale models in his collection in LA, it is in pretty good condition and is one of the folded up versions without working weapon arms and pods. I have a bunch of pictures that were taken when the model was given to him by the studio back in the 80's.

Parts of the destroyed models used in the Hadleys Hope crash scene exist as well, at least two in Planet Hollywood restaurants over the years.

The actual molds for casting the 1/12 scale version in fibreglass were up for sale in the last few years, so they still exist.

Cheers

Tony

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The fullsize Dropship mockup was destroyed after filming though the two pilot seats still exist in a prop enthusiasts collection.

Sci Fi collector Bob Burns has one of the 1/12 scale models in his collection in LA, it is in pretty good condition and is one of the folded up versions without working weapon arms and pods. I have a bunch of pictures that were taken when the model was given to him by the studio back in the 80's.

Parts of the destroyed models used in the Hadleys Hope crash scene exist as well, at least two in Planet Hollywood restaurants over the years.

The actual molds for casting the 1/12 scale version in fibreglass were up for sale in the last few years, so they still exist.

Cheers

Tony

Hmm..maybe someone will make some new casts of them then...:whistle:

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The Halcyon kit came out in '90. <....>

I distinctly remember seeing the kit at model show in Buena Park, Ca, pre 1990 ...

I moved from California to Missouri in Jan. 1990 and had no time to go to a show in that month ...

I'm placing it in the Summer 1989 timeframe at the latest ...

Gregg

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Leading Edge Games also issued gaming miniatures of the Dropship and APC to tie in with their Aliens RPG. These were about 1/72 or so and the company also did several sets miniatures for the Marines, aliens, the Queen and the powerloader and even some of the ill-fated Archeron colonists cocooned in the walls. The drop ship was big and HEAVY given that is was made out of a lead alloy. A buddy of mine at the time built one for another acquaintance of ours and one of the shortcomings of the "miniature" (mini in name only given how big it was) was the landing gear struts were somewhat fragile. As such, when the mini suffered a fall a couple years later, the gear struts got completely trashed. There was no cockpit interior either and the windows were plated over. The price tag on this puppy was also EXPENSIVE, so if one ever pops up on eBay, I expect it will go for high dollars given how scarce the thing is.

The APC was nice, although we managed to acquire one of the Gonzoid APCs for gaming use instead and that built into a very nice model IMHO. I did the entire squad of Colonial Marines for our gaming group and these also were well designed. If you can find any, they work great for diorama use alongside the Halcyon dropship kit as the scales are close enough.

I managed to get both sets of Colonial Marines, the Power Loader, the sentry guns, the colonists, and (I think all) the aliens... but I *never* could find the APC or the Dropship set. I could live without the dropship (who wants to assemble an all-lead dropship in 1/72?), but I *really* wanted the APC for my collection.

Also as has been mentioned in this thread, if you can find the Colonial Marines technical manual, I highly reccomend picking it up (it's also semi-rare and can sometimes command a very high price on ebay) It's not an official product by Fox or the producers or anything, it's just two guys who took everything they could and extrapolated/created as much background and technical info as they could. Just in case the last sentence didn't sink in, IT'S NOT AN OFFICIAL GUIDEBOOK, Fox could come behind them and release an "official" one that is completely different if they wanted to (doubtful that they will, this one was very well done). The dropship (and it's fictional variants) are covered in relative detail, as is the APC (and a tank we never see in the movie). The weapons, history, and even tactics of the Colonial Marines are discussed, with art and diagrams included. A great piece of fan literature, and easily a centerpiece of any Alien/Alien's fans collection.

If I could find that lead APC kit and a decent (read: not so expensive it hurts) prop-sized Pulse rifle, I'd be a happy camper.

Edited by Skull Leader
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Also offered in 1/48--http://www.hobbyfanatics.com/index.php?showtopic=11241&hl=dropship

There are a few builds on HF...search for dropship and you'll hit them.

Wow, I can't believe they did this ship in 1/48. I would love to build one for myself. To bad it's oop :deadhorse1:

Mike

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