USCSS Nostromo - Alien

Alien. I am a life-long monster movie nut. There is a photograph of me with my dad, laying on the living room floor, me with a baby bottle, watching the TV (purportedly an old 50s monster flick). Dad took me to see this in the summer of 79. I went in knowing it was a monster movie, but somehow thinking the monster would be more akin to Godzilla than The Thing. Scariest movie I have ever seen, and that remains so to this day - and yes, I’ve seen The Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Shining, and Paranormal Activity. Alien bests all of those for me, not only due to it being a monster movie, but also due to the impact it had on me. Let’s just say that for the next couple of years, my sleep was often interrupted by some often very vivid nightmares.

I guess, thanks for that, Dad. :anguished_face:

When I found this 3D printed model on eBay, I didn’t even hesitate to buy it. I’d long wanted to build a Nostromo. I know Halycon did a kit, but for the price I’ve found it on eBay and its reputation (not good), I’ve never pulled that particular trigger.

Paints are from Squadron’s line of starship colors, in this case the base coat is Starship Grey #2. It might be just a tad too dark when compared to the movie, but in my eyes it is close enough. Since the Nostromo is essentially a working tug boat, I knew it should not look pristine in any way, so I went to town with the weathering. I picked out various panels with a lighter grey, Starship Grey #1, and painted the ribbed areas around the main engines AK Interactive Xtreme Metal jet exhaust. The engine nozzles themselves got a mix of Xtreme Metal colors - jet exhaust with successive light coats of burnt metal, steel, and pale burnt metal. Then came AMMO’s starship wash. I slathered that stuff on in small sections at a time and let it sit for roughly 10 minutes. I hoped to create some stains on the underlying paint (to which I never did apply a protective clear coat); I think I was successful in this. The engines also got some AMMO metal slag pigments, which I also put on a few spots across the hull.

The stand came with this model. I painted it with various Xtreme Metal colors - brass, titanium, and pale burnt metal. The name plate is simply black paint from an AK paint pen over those raised letters.

The print was not perfect. The antenna that juts out from the bridge is warped. I was unable to get it to bend back to more straight for fear of breaking it off. It also was missing the 4 antennas that come out from the underside of the hull, amid ship. I added small gauge guitar wire to replicate those antennas.

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Fantastic model Aggieman!

My dad also took me to see Alien in 1979, and it was the scariest movie I have ever seen. But my dad? When Dallas gets attacked in the air duct, he just sat there and said “Oh ha ha, the monster got him.” I was a jittery scaredy cat while watching the movie, but dad was bulletproof. And it was the only movie he took me to where he didn’t fall asleep!

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You youngsters! I took a date to see. Actually had a friend who worked the theater and my GF and I got in for free. Had ZERO Idea what it was about. Honestly living in SoCal we thought it might be some movie about illegals or something. So imagine my surprise and glee when it was SCI-FI. Have been a fan ever since building Alien garage kits. I never did a model of any ships since they were basically a shade of grey an even with some weathering they weren’t the cost in my opinion as most are huge pieces of resin.

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While Alien was a cinematic masterpiece, Aliens is one of the best sequels ever (right up there with Empire Strikes Back) and cemented the Alien franchise.

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I agree with all, but this is the kind of thing that could spark a novel length response. :grin:

The only issue I have with Aliens is that it is essentially the same movie as Alien. Yes, there are more aliens and there are guns, but that’s all window dressing. At its heart, Aliens is the same story of people caught in an environment from which there is no escape with a thing (things) that want to kill them. Pulse rifles > flamethrowers. But, the movie does feel different largely because of the way that James Cameron framed everything through an action-movie lens; that was his emphasis over Ridley Scott’s haunted house framing.

I rank Alien as my fourth favorite movie of all time. Aliens gets in to my top 10. As far as this franchise goes, it’s been largely miss. I’ve enjoyed more of the films than the first two, but there are a couple that I have an abject hatred for.

Alien
Aliens
Prometheus
Alien v Predator
Alien Romulus
Alien Covenant
Alien 3
Alien: Earth (although the one episode that essentially redid Alien was awesome)

abject hate: Alien Ressurrection, Alien v Predator Requium

edit to add - the three movies I rank ahead of Alien are, in order: The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

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Yeah, I wasn’t too thrilled with the exact same ending…

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To me, Alien was a trapped-in-a-haunted house movie. Aliens was an amusement park ride.

I initially didn’t really like Aliens because when I saw it for the first time, it was as if I wrote the screenplay - every twist, turn and jump scare was utterly predictable. But when I saw it the second time, I realized it was as Samuel Jackson said in the Kingsmen “It’s not that kind of movie”. And now it is one of my all-time favorites.

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F35bart,

If you wanted to see illegals, Aliens fit the bill! I had read that the lady that played Vasquez auditioned for the movie thinking it WAS about illegal aliens. Hudson’s joke about the same in the movie was supposedly inspired by that funny misunderstanding.

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Don’t sweat the colors. As I see it, it is Syfy, can’t really say it’s wrong. Looks great by the way…nice job.

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I think it’s safe to put Predator movies in that list now.

I think everything after the first 2 movies are just plain bad. Seems to be the case with most franchises.

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Awesome model, nice working-class finish on it. And by that I mean screen-accurate. :grin:

Alien is one of my favorite movies of all time, and really the only “horror” movie that I have ever gone back to watch a second time. The rest of the series is much more pulp-sci-fi action to me, totally different in tone. Still fun, but they feel like a different genre altogether.

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I don’t know, I really enjoyed Prey and Badlands…

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Prey was sneaky great. I went in thinking something along the lines of Cowboys & Aliens and came out thinking that was the second best Predator movie, behind the Arnie original. I have yet to find time to watch Badlands.

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I meant just adding the Predator movies to the Alien franchise list. I always looked at the AvP movies as alternate universe type of stories, like the Jason v Freddy movie. But with Badlands I guess they are just one franchise now. I haven’t seen badlands, I don’t plan to unless I can watch it free. Prey was ok for what it was.

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As an avowed Horror (real true horror, not slasher films) and Science Fiction fan, I have watched movies from the silent screen era to today – as long as it was monsters, space ships or science fiction concepts outright displayed.

I was waiting overnight to join the USAF in early June 1980. Before that I had been living out of a backpack since October of 1979. I was at the mustering station in Oakland, California and I decided I would go see a movie before I ended up in San Antonio the next day.

So I walked the fifteen or so city blocks through probably what could be considered the worst part of Oakland – at night – by myself until I found a movie theater. I had checked a phone book in a booth outside the mustering station for theaters, so I wasn’t ‘gambling’ on finding one.

Lo and behold, the ONE movie that caught my eye was Alien. I got a ticket and went in just in time for the last preview and the show started.

I, as I said, am an avowed horror movie, science fiction movie fan. It’s HARD to scare me or disgust me.

Alien was the very first movie to make me push back into my seat in an attempt to get further away from the scene. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had that particular reaction since, either. I did like Aliens, only because it carried the story a bit farther and gave us a clearer picture of the corporate owned civilization in place for this movie universe.

And it gave us some really COOL stuff to look at. You can’t fault that.

Great Job on the Nostromo, sir!