One of my favorite movie franchises takes place in the "Alien" universe.
I enjoy the creeping horror of the original Alien, and mil sci fi action of Aliens. The tech of that second film was given a "Vietnam" look and feel, both familiar and futuristic. While the popularity of the franchise endures, no major model manufacturer has ever place any of the second movie's tech into production. Fans have had to rely on short run toys and boutique vinyl and resin kits. With the much delayed release of GaleForce Nine's "Another Glorious Day in the Corps" miniatures game, gamers finally had an opportunity to get a set of their favorite Colonial Marines, Ripley, Newt, and the rascally Company Man, Burke (along with a small horde of the namesake Aliens!).
Still absent from this 30mm universe were any 3d representatives of the USCM hardware, the Dropship or the APC. Until very recently. In the spring, GF9 announced they would be producing a limited run of the APC, producing only as many as were preordered.
So I naturally had to have one. I sent them my CC# and waited...
A week ago, I received a FEDEX notice announcing a pending delivery.
The packaging quickly disposed of revealed the chunky APC body, a clamshell package of resin bits, and a small ziploc with some vinyl bits. The resin was all in dark gray, the vinyl in light gray.
The resin cast was fairly clean, as you eould hope for a new mold, but some file and sandpaper cleanup of edges was still beneficial. The cast-on grabirons on the body and turret had a filled in "web" that needed to be cleaned out. I ended up breaking one on the turret, choosing to replace with wire rather than fiddle with brittle resin. Assembly was straightforward, although I chose to complicate it as I wanted to have the ability to rotate the turrets and Not have them fall off when tilted. I drilled and pinned each in place with pins made from straight pins.
The barrels of the laser turret were both cleanly broken off in shipping (a not uncommon occurrence from what I am hearing) but a bit of ACC had them back on.
The only other problem of note was the ladder that attaches to the rear of the vehicle. A vinyl part, it was soft and badly deformed. I chose to fab my own ladder from wire.
The kit provides slotted vinyl rails to allow the turret to be moved aft and down out of the way as on the movie vehicle. I used ACC to glue the tops in place, install the turret, and use it to maintain correct spacing at the other two attachment points.
The DIY ladder:
There had apparently been provision for the two towing lugs on the front of the vehicle, but not included with the kit, so I fabricated them.
Everything was washed with a Dawn detergent solution, rinsed, and let dry.
Everything was primed, dried, and then sprayed in Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab.
A slab of Marine Green, it needs some detail work to really pop. I used some black panel wash to shadow recesses, panel edges, grills, etc. and then lightly highlighted wear area edges in silver.
The tires were painted in black, and then a dark grey drybrushed on treads and sidewalls to give it wear and depth.
In the movie, there is also stenciling on the nose of the vehicle, so I salvaged a "2" and a "D" in my decal stash to replicate the large marking.I don't have the ability to print out the rest in white myself - maybe the aftermarket will come up with some? I also hit the headlights and side marker lights with silver. To give more depth to the tiny windshield, I cut small pieces of clear plastic and backpainted them in black before gluing in place.
Finally, an overall coat of Vallejo Clear Matt finish was applied. Now lets get her up to LV426...