Drake ! We are leaving - M577 APC from Aliens by Halcyon

[Buzzbomb]

Thanks to seeing a great large scale scratch build on Starship Modeler of the Aliens APC, I got the nudge I needed to actually do something.
So time to give back a bit,  so I dug out a long in the stash kit of the 1/35ish Halcyon Aliens APC.

Been done many times before and the kit is ok, just. The known biggest weakness being the mythical wheels.
It is a simplified kit with not a lot of parts, but does the job to my eye, while we wait for a better kit :roll:

So where am I at ?
Basic construction with some replacement of missing bits, it was a second hand kit at some stage.


So other than an interior.. too hard, I decided to gimmick up with lights
Lighting rig under build/test


Mounted in Hull


Miracle !!!! they still work


Now onto the pesky wheels. As suggested by the SSM builder, I did find a quite fine render on thingiverse of a rather large APC 3d print.
All I needed was the wheels. To my great surprise, I found that 3d Builder, standard in Windows 10 gave even a doofus like me the ability to slice the render up bit by bit to get only the wheels, then scale back to the size I needed.
Raw print with the kit wheel for reference. These wheels maybe not super accurate but a Kessel run closer than the kit wheels


After Clean up and bit of detail fix up


These are now awaiting casting by someone much better at it than me. Sadly it may take a few weeks, so i sits forlornly waiting for me to take a picture of the completed hull. See how we go
Thanks

[LemonJello]

Will be following this with great interest!  I have this kit in the stash, I plan to make an interior for mine, though it won't be as Tardis-like as the movie version.

I'll also need to convert some figures to Colonial Marines.

[Kerick]

Those wheels are a great improvement! If I had that kit I would be asking you to cast four for me.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this build!

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Replacement wheels are available from ModelsMiniatures in Portland Oregon.  Link to topic on the wheels: http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=6558.0

[Madhatter]

Awesome! My favourite armored vehicle ever - and with lights!!
I've been pondering whether to take my built one apart and add some details to it but I have too many m=other projects to do I doubt I'll find time
Can't wait to see what you do with it!

[tankmodeler]

Anyone on the forum have access to a reasonable 1/35 scale drawing of this beastie? Or even a dimensioned non-scale drawing? I've checked all over the interweebs and can't find much that's directly usable for scratchbuilding.

Paul

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Anyone on the forum have access to a reasonable 1/35 scale drawing of this beastie? Or even a dimensioned non-scale drawing? I've checked all over the interweebs and can't find much that's directly usable for scratchbuilding.

Have you seen these?:
AVP Fandom Wiki > Ground vehicles > USCM weapons > USCM vehicles > Aliens (film) vehicles > M577 Armored Personnel Carrier

Alien Anthology Fandom Wiki > Technology > Aliens > USCM M577 Armored Personnel Carrier

Bing.com search results for Aliens USCM M577 APC

[tankmodeler]

Anyone on the forum have access to a reasonable 1/35 scale drawing of this beastie? Or even a dimensioned non-scale drawing? I've checked all over the interweebs and can't find much that's directly usable for scratchbuilding.

Have you seen these?:
AVP Fandom Wiki > Ground vehicles > USCM weapons > USCM vehicles > Aliens (film) vehicles > M577 Armored Personnel Carrier

Alien Anthology Fandom Wiki > Technology > Aliens > USCM M577 Armored Personnel Carrier

Bing.com search results for Aliens USCM M577 APC

Thanks, but the first two sites don't have anything like a scaled drawing, just a couple of schematics and the beautiful drawing in the third reference I  have the depicted "lo-rez" version and can't find out how to get the high rez version, which would probably be just what I'm looking for.  The site refers to a PX Board, but, even after registering I can't seem to see the PX.

Bollocks! 

[Frank3k]

What about using the paper model as a reference? Scale it to match the Halcyon kit's dimensions.

[strikehawk]

Wow, I didn't think any of these were available anymore. The last time I had one on my workbench was around 2000-01. A not too bright friend of mine bought one for a lot of money only to try and build it himself using super glue. Needless to say, he f***ed it up to the point it was beyond hope.  All that money and a waste of a rare kit because he wanted something 'different' to transport his WH40K Imperial Guard.

Every time, every single time I see this or the dropship I kick myself for not getting at least a couple because at the time I used to think they cost too much. If I only knew then what I know now. When this kit came out I was living in Los Angeles and there was a hobby shop that catered to the Sci-Fi/Anime crowd along with a few of the comic book nerds, mostly those that read the Americanized versions of Japanese manga. I remember then carrying the full line of 1/35 scale resin figures that went with the M577.

They were okay but had loads of flash around each of the figures. As I look back now I can remember aside from the flashing the figures weren't all that bad. It was just at the time resin was a whole new arena for me and I had no idea as to how I would use them. The figures themselves were actually done okay and they made quite good troops and would've looked good in a diorama. I wish I had the experience and bravery I have now to actually tackle the M577 and resin figures. If I remember right they came from a place in Colorado that also produced the weapons as separate items. I guess it was so that they could be used with Tamiya figures, most likely the Vietnam or Cold War Era Nato troops as Modern era, Desert Storm and later, had not become available yet.

I am so planning- to follow the progress of this build as I have to enjoy it vicariously through builds like this. Hope to see more pictures of the build soon. 

[tankmodeler]

What about using the paper model as a reference? Scale it to match the Halcyon kit's dimensions.

Had not seen this before! Thanks a bunch. If nothing else the body panel shapes will get me a long way towards a scratchbuild.

Beauty!

Paul

[jcf]

FWIW the 3-view is from the Colonial Marines Technical Manual and as printed in the book it's
on a 4mm grid and scales roughly to 1/60.

[tankmodeler]

FWIW the 3-view is from the Colonial Marines Technical Manual and as printed in the book it's
on a 4mm grid and scales roughly to 1/60.

Beauty! Thanks. That helps a lot. I can scale it to 1/35 from there easily enough.

As has been said elsewhere and as is common with most movie sets and props, the shown insides are bigger than the outsides of the APC. Once I make the drawings and see how badly squished things are, I may stretch a dimension here and there a tad to get a more reasonable amount of space for the various crew positions. The driver looks particularly tightly placed as do the rifle section in the rear, but I base a lot of the rational spacings on real vehicles like the M113 ands M2-3 Bradley.

Paul

[taiidantomcat]

Wow!! 


Very cool to see this being built, great job with the lights and the wheels---21st century modeling!

[Buzzbomb]

Thanks guys, coming along slowly at the moment.
A quick update after a prelim coat of olive drab. Mostly ok, but the photos do
Demonstrate a few cleanups needed



But at least the lights still work and the drivers position appears as I hoped

Wheel casts are underway.

Adding to the “tardis” discussion, being pragmatic about getting the troops in is a key point. I cannot see how The LT control station could really work outside of a dedicated ACV and would be largely not needed. Squishing in the power plant can be easily explained as individual power pods on each wheel and a weapons power plant forward. Take an APC out of the Aliens movie setting and the whole thing changes.

[GTX_Admin]

Looking good.  For some reason, one of these in desert camouflage scheme works for me...

[Brian da Basher]

That's looking every bit the business!

Brian da Basher

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Looking good!  The lights and the driver station image makes it look so much better. 

[Madhatter]

Looking good.  For some reason, one of these in desert camouflage scheme works for me...

Ha, I was just thinking the same thing - except in a jungle scheme or arctic - not that I think it would do well in either situation

Brian, where did you get the driver figure from?

[Buzzbomb]

Brian, where did you get the driver figure from?

Nothing special, just a stock 1/35 tamiya figure, we’ll some of it.

Frustratingly somewhere in my spares/stash/junk is an actual top half of a 1/35 Bishop figure but finding it eluded me, so just bunged the generic figure in.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Brian, where did you get the driver figure from?

Nothing special, just a stock 1/35 tamiya figure, we’ll some of it.

Frustratingly somewhere in my spares/stash/junk is an actual top half of a 1/35 Bishop figure but finding it eluded me, so just bunged the generic figure in.

I thought at first you had taken an image and scaled it to fit behind the clear parts.  Then after looking at it some more, I started to think you had managed to create a Joker figure from the Batman franchise as your vehicle driver. 

[Buzzbomb]

Guys, sorry for the delay.. extended vacation time.

So calling this done
The 3d Printed wheels after Resin casting

On the base. The battery pack fitted internally, so there is a small switch amongst the side panel greeblies

Frost. Your drivin' Somewhere in the alternate universe that is my bench.. are the actual decals. They will turn up. Maybe.

Wheel detail once on the APC, reasonably happy the way they came out. Went the soft "I already have a blue LED" option on the tail lights.
It fitted snugly and was able to cable in nicely. I will live with not being rectangular

[Old Wombat]

Nice one, BT!

[LemonJello]

Inspirational! Really well done.

[elmayerle]

Beautiful!!  It really looks the part.