ALIENS - Motion Tracker build

Melanie

Hi RPFers !

For my first prop building, i choose something easy to assemble but something i instantly wanted when I saw ALIENS recently for the first time.

To start, you'll have to pick up all the parts needed for the assembly, and it will be the most difficult thing since the Motion Tracker was made with 80's parts.

The motion trackers were made by Terry Reed. The basic shell of the tracker is a power drill casing, dressed with mostly photographic accessories.
(The Harry Harris Aliens Collection & Archive: Hudson)



Here is a list of what you will need :

- A KANGO 426 drill



- A HAMA slide viewer



- A Power Unit Transformer from the brand "Matchbox"



- A JoBo minilight darkroomlamp



- A HAMA large flag mechanical self timer 5401 with its box



- A VIVITAR 2500 THYRISTOR Flash unit



- A HAMA remote control for pentax



- An OLYMPUS T28 calculation panel (I could only find a T32 )



- A CASIO SL-80 series, calculator panel

I couldn't find one unfortunately, but you could find a nice replacement option in the Aliens Legacy forum, made by a member there :



http://forum.alienslegacy.com/downlo...hp?id=5014&t=1

- A sphygmomanometer inner casing, from the brand ASSESS

I could'nt find it too...

Here is a picture posted by the member "Dacrates", in the Aliens legacy forum



- Humbrol Brown Bess, ref 170 (Or if you want it O.D : ref 155)




- Two metal swivels




- Multiple AV cables from different diameter

- A male and a female jack wires of 1.8"

- 4 screws (that could pick up from the drill, after disassembling it)

- A metal disc of 5,3mm diameter and 2mm of thickness

Melanie

I also wanted to give you some advices about how to search the parts...

It was a good chase, but through all the web, and in foreign languages...
I have found the main parts in Germany and in england.

So, you will have to use google translate, and search on the different ebay websites..
For instance, "remote control" is called "Fernauslöser" in german...
Or a "slide viewer" is called "Diabetrachter" in german too !

(Good luck for your chase )

Nobby

great finds!
Thanks for sharing the info. I've been wanting to build one of these myself.

I'll be watching your build with interest

chuckysdream

Let me help a little bit. It's "Fernausloeser". Usually with the umlaut ö (Fernauslöser).

Melanie

Now, the construction part :
(Sorry if some pictures are missing... I have lost a lot of pictures due to an iCloud pb... )

Once you will found the Kango drill, you will have to dissasemble it... and it is really painful !

First, remove all the screws and the inner parts, but be careful of the amount of greese inside...























Then, you will have to cut the drill extension with a Dremel





And sand the rest



You will also have to, using a dremel tool, cut this part, following the lines :





Then, insert a thin grid inside (I took the front grid of an old speaker) :





Then, you will have to fix the metal disc on the front of the drill case, with a hole drilled in the middle and four holes, forming a square...
Then, you will have to mark the holes with a pencil on the drill, and drill them. Here is the final result :



After this step, you would have to widen the upper hole, on the previous picture, with a drill, in order to insert the AV cables

Then, you will have to focus on the bottom of the drill, in order to insert a rotative switch :



After my researches, I discovered on this board that it could be a release valve, from the sphygmomanometer... Since I don't found the correct one, I used a guitar switch !





Then, you will have to fix the swivels on the handle of the drill :





Here is the final result with the sling, after painting :



To finish, you will have to drill a hole on the right side of the lower part of the drill, in order to insert the female jack wire in which you will connect the male jack wire located on the HAMA slide viewer :



The female jack wire I used was really thin, but if you use an other method, you will have to cut some parts inside the drill.

And you will be done with the Drill case !!!

Then, it's up to you concerning the order... But I started with the HAMA slide viewer and the vivitar flash, Its parts will go up and down the HAMA slide viewer :

First, remove all the screws :















Then cutting the rest :















Then, remove the electronics inside, in order to keep only the buttons and the leds :







Then, keep this sheet of paper and glue it on the top of the HAMA viewer, then, glue the vivitar part on it :





Here is the final result on the two sides :





Then, on the the HAMA slide viewer, insert your male Jack wire, on the upper side of the viewer :



You will have to find a piece of plastic that you will placed above the jack, in order to create a straight edge. If you don't do this, when you will insert your viewer on the Drill, it will bend.





Then, drill a hole on the back, at the upper part of the HAMA viewer, in order to insert an AV cable there :



And drill a hole on the front lower part of the Kango drill case, approximately at this location :



You could find on the Kango drill, a sort of rubber part, located on the Kango wire, to give a nice finish :





And place the cable :



And you will be done with the VIVITAR and the HAMA viewer !!

Then, I recommend to go with the HAMA remote, the HAMA self timer box, and the JoBo minilight, located on the upper part of the Kango drill case :

Take the HAMA selftimer box, and screw it on the left side of the upper kango drill part :





Then, take the HAMA remote control, and screw it on the right side of the upper part of the drill :





(Keep the remote cable apart)

Take your minilight and disassemble it :





Then, drill a hole in the kango drill :



And use the hole already drilled in the JoBo minilight, and place it in front of the kango hole, then, screw them together :





And you will be done with this three parts and with the upper part of the drill !

Concerning the lower part of the drill, you can start with the MATCHBOX power unit :



So, remove the screws, and with a flat screwdriver, remove the plastic cap :





Then, cut the box from 2,5cm, starting from the front of the box (where you will glue the CASIO panel).





You will have to screw it later on the lower part and left side of the drill case :



(Final result with the calculator panel)




Then, you will have to fix the HAMA selftimer, on the left side and lower part of the drill



Remove the screws at the back







And fix it to the lateral panel :



And it's should be finished with the main work !

Before putting the whole thing together, you will have to primer the parts with a sandable black paint, and slightly sanding it with a wet sandpaper.

Then, you will have to airbrush the parts in Brown Bess... Concerning the amount of thinning, for five volumes of Brown Bess, don't use more than 2 volumes of thinning.






Once the paint is dry, you will have to reassemble all the parts, and gluing the Olympus panel on the front part of the handle :



Concerning the display of the Motion Tracker, it was made of a piece of MDF, aluminum strips and green hot glue.




And the final result !!!!

Melanie

Thank you Nobby !
I hope it will be understandable...

Ah thank you, I will edit it !

ONEYE

E P I C!

IMPRESSIVE!

You are very talented, detail oriented, and dedicated! OUTSTANDING!

REP given and thread rated 5 stars!

NormanF

Marry me? That is great work. Wow.

Akiriano

That was a marathon of scrolling. Love to see properly detailed builds. Great job, looks fantastic.

Gunslinger21

You say this is your first build? Beautiful work!

who45

takes me back to when i built mine last year - i located all the bits over a 2 week period which suprised me, in fact i was so good at location i had all the bits to make 2 of these. nice drill tho - the cleanest i have ever seen, my grease was solid black inside and the casing damaged to hell

gyoung2993

I love a woman who knows how to use tools and build stuff....Absolutely breathtaking work , my hats off to you......Awesome work indeed ,makes me jealous

Fuzzual

I don't even know if I have the right words, simply amazing. Thank you for sharing this with us.

T2SF

No! Marry me! Amazing build and thank you for sharing the entire process. One day I want to make the tracker.

hyperdyne

Great build! It's nice to see detailed pics also. Your finished tracker looks very nice.

I have a tutorial that has been up on my site for many years as well.

Motion Tracker Assembly Guide

That kango is nasty after you open it up!

Malphas

An absolutely gorgeous build. Not only that but the base really sets it off.

Darth Detroit

For the record, I have absolutly no desire to tackle something like this.
BUT!!
This by far is one of the best prop builds this website has seen in many years. Awsome! AWSOME!! Wonderful pics too. I just learned something new from this thread. Thanks!

Melanie

Thank you for your comments and for the rep guys !

Sorry about the size of the pictures, I thought they would be shorter

Yes it is !
But when I see all I still have to learn here, I think I will wait some times for the next one !

Melanie

You had a lot of luck, I spent almost four months to spot all the parts !
Yes, the casing was very clean, but unfortunately, the guy who sold it to me knew what it was and the value of it.

Thanks for the kind words !

I hope you will find all the part for building it !

Yeah, disassembling the Kango was the hardest part !

Thanks, the base was made with found parts... I were inspired by the scene when Hudson let fall his Tracker on the ground to rescue Newt !

Thanks for reading it, I am very honored !

vinci

Awesome! great great great job

C0mmand3rC0dy

Looking great so far! Nice job on the research!

KorrickUSCM

Ah I'm jealous! Looks great!

wilysteve

Wow clever build. And nice choice of prop too

kimncris

great job!

Womble

Truly outstanding. The depth of research is astonishing.