This thread comes back to life like a zombie!
The original saucer was based on the drawings in "The Saucer Fleet" and they were a bit off. After some discussion on Hobbytalk, I redid the saucer to make them screen accurate. I tried to replicate the scene that I used as a reference as well:
Much of the movie (at least the exteriors) were shot at the Hyperion water treatment plant near the coast (south of LAX) and at the now old, then new UCLA hospital. The area around the hospital has been built up considerably, and the building in the scene above (it was probably part of the physical plant) is long gone. I took some pictures of the brick walls around the hospital and drew the building in Rhino 3D. I tried making a paper model of the building, but I just suck badly at paper modeling:
Since I had the building in Rhino 3D, why not print it at Shapeways? I used the cheapest material they had (White strong and flexible):
I gave it a few coats of primer then painted it in a base cream color. The bricks are a decal I printed, based on the pictures I took. The brick & mortar details are not clearly visible on the decal. I also printed backing materials for the vents and doors. I coated the paper with CA glue and applied them to the building. For the base, using the screen cap as a reference, I looked through Google Maps for a surface similar to the one in the movie. I found something close in the VA grounds, near campus. I added some trees from a train diorama set and placed the figures and building.
Other than the front of the building, everything else is made up. The back of the building is based on the old Engineering I building (demolished a few years ago) on campus.
Aliens examining the building. The saucer looks really scratched up in this picture. It looks fine in real life:
Flash doesn't help, but it does show the aliens:
Thanks for looking!
