ALIEN/Aliens paper props

retrogarde

retrogarde

Well-Known Member
I've made a few paper props from the Alien films, so i thought I'd share!



This is a reproduction of the cigarette pack seen (fleetingly) on the Nostromo in ALIEN. Tom Southwell helped me source the original woodcut over on propsummit.com a few months back. Before that I'd redrawn the whole thing by hand and was selling them on Etsy. Now these are free, so just follow the link to my Photobucket account to scroll through a few different versions as well as folding instructions. The reason for the different versions is that there was a smudge on the "Smoking Man's" headdress, so there are versions with the smudge (as in the film) and without the smudge (in case you prefer a clean version). Also I took the liberty of adding text to the bottom and top of the pack, so you choose with or without that as well.

Phew!
 
Holy smokes Mike! I'm a huge fan of your blog, in fact I was just reading your entry about the possible influence of Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch House on the chestburster scen in Alien. Great stuff!
So as you can see from my folding instructions, I hand drew the woodcut as I really didn't think anyone would ever be able to find the source for it. Boy was I wrong! Tom Southwell (the artist who designed so much of the signage in Blade Runner) has been an active user over on propsummit.com and saw my post. The woodcut rang a bell in his head and sure enough he dug up the original from his own collection of vintage clip art books. Another member named Replicant 13 cleaned up the clip art a bit so he deserves credit as well.

The original woodcut is actually narrower. The artist who created the prop duplicated the leftside of the background and added it to the right to widen the image to go on the pack. I've done the same, trying to keep the added shading as close to the original as possible.

It should also be noted that this is not a standard American cigarette pack size. This is made to fit over a pack of Dunhill's, which are the same shape (and cigarette count) as the pack of Gitanes they were using in the original film.

I made this prop for the miniseries I'm working on: Last Flight of the Freya 7: http://www.therpf.com/f9/last-flight-freya-7-props-sets-models-miniseries-191376/

It's just background detail, but I'm happy it's there. You can see the prop next to the Aspen Beer can and the Emergency Helmet in the photos.
 
Ah - that Tom Southwell - I remember him from the featurette on the BR five disc set. It's so awesome that he's an active member over there! And that he actually appreciates our hobby. I've tried to contact others in the past with little-to-no success.

I did notice your Aspen beer can in your thread. Nice job on your emergency helmet as well. I noticed you replicated some of the circular detailing of the originals.

I'm a big fan of the Alien aesthetic - and IIRC I have some nice HD screencaps on my blog. Glad you like my blog. I don't think I've ever met a fan of me before :) I'm sorry it's not as busy as it could be. It really is just odds and ends. If there's anything you want to see more of, just let me know.


-Mike J.
 
So as long as you're making the packaging, you might as well make the cigarettes too! At the bottom of this thread my friend Moosh89 made cigarette papers that give the look of the original gypsy corn papers:

The Aliens Legacy ? View topic - What do Space Truckers (and Marines) smoke?

And here's one more: a comic book cover newt and her brother (or Hudson!) might have had:



This one needs some explaining though. Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, the author of the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual had a lot of extra material that was cut from the final published book. One bit was an illustration of "Moose Harker: Greek Cowboy" and a note saying he was a popular syndicated cartoon character. This caught my imagination, and since we saw magazines in Ripley's apartment I figured paper comic books weren't out of the question. The image of Moose on the cover is the original art, I simply colorized it and added the rest, including a few references to other objects in the Aliens universe (front loading logic card, Big Wheels, etc.). This file is large enough that you can print it out to wrap around a standard size comic book. Maybe someday I'll make some interior pages for it!
 
Thanks FensteR!

I'd like to take a crack at Ripley's People magazine cover or Parker's "gentleman's magazine" to make them be 22nd century objects instead of 20th century ones, but of course Parker's magazine is a little too risque to be posted here...
 
You can still find copies of Parker's Mag.
I did my own cover featuring Lt Ellis from UFO. :D

Here's my revised Aspen Beer label.
link
 
My spelling is correct.
Weyland is from Camron's film A2.

Weylan and Yutani where Ridley's neighbors.
 
Last edited:
It's on the computer screens and the beer cans in Alien.
 

Attachments

  • shot0035.jpg
    shot0035.jpg
    286.7 KB · Views: 136
Nice work on these! Really appreciate the attention to detail. The comic book is really a good find.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Palantirion
Giger Harkonnen Capo Chair (and Alien egg) 1/6 replica repaint
Replies
9
Views
1,951
Palantirion
Palantirion
Indiana Holt
B prop Grail diary
Replies
11
Views
1,208
RaPtahMeryt99
RaPtahMeryt99
Indiana Holt
The true replica of the Grail diary Hero prop
2 3 4
Replies
62
Views
8,775
Darthbauer
Darthbauer
Vandalia
The Thing (1982) Costume and Prop Research
2
Replies
23
Views
2,730
TheWolfhound
TheWolfhound
Dean O
ALIENS “functional hero” aluminum M40 Grenades(New run August 2024)
2 3 4
Replies
69
Views
7,217
Dean O
Dean O
Back
Top