Aliens M56 Smartgun
- Thread starter Ultimate Badass
- Start date
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the screen caps, bud!
Mike J.
Master Member
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Hey guys,
Well, I just got back from the Aliens 30th Anniversary cast reunion at Comicpalooza in Houston Texas. It was an incredible weekend...definitely the top con experience for me ever and it will be impossible to top. Here's an abbreviated recollection of the weekend...
We head to the convention on Friday after we checked into the hotel because I wanted to get as many autographs on that day as I possibly could in order to avoid the hassle of trying to do so on Saturday when Sigourney Weaver and Bill Paxton would be there. The convention was dead that day...it was great. We decided to check the autograph section first and William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman) had nobody waiting, so I snagged his autograph first.
'Who's firing? **********!'
Mr. Hope was a very nice guy and I was very happy to have met him. He is not a common con guest by any means and I doubt many people have his autograph. While Gorman is easy to dislike, I enjoy the character and especially appreciate his redemption in attempting to save Vasquez. We talked briefly about his flight in from the UK, shook hands, and then it was on to the next marine.
Next up was Mark Rolston (Pvt. Drake). We also got to him before anyone else really had made their way to line up.
'Adam, you look just like I feel.' (I had to...)
He was also very cool and we discussed the smartgun a bit. He reminisced about how the steadicam vest continued to unhitch and open, so they had to duct-tape both he and Jenette Goldstein into the harness to keep it shut. He then also recalled how the wooden blanks from the gun would often fly up, hitting them in the face. And, as expected, he confirmed what we all know - they were heavy as F@CK.
Next up was my favorite, Jenette Goldstein (PFC Vasquez), who obviously needs no introduction. I was sporting one of my Vasquez shirts (how could I not), and she liked it a lot and actually took my picture, which was an honor (and I hate pictures).
'Let's ROCK!' (Duh...of course I had to get that quote.)
I could have easily been that awkward nerd fan who talks too much and breathes a bit heavily while sweating, but I moved on...
Next up was Daniel Kash (Pvt. Spunkmeyer). I will admit, I wasn't too excited about this one at first, but Daniel was very cool. He also had a killer photo:
'What's this crap supposed to be?'
Sitting right next to him was Ricco Ross (Pvt. Frost). Ricco is a super cool dude.
'What the hell are we supposed to use, harsh language?'
The last signature I snagged that day was from Cynthia Scott (Cpl. Dietrich). She was also very cool and more than happy to write out a long quote for me...
'Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all...'
We then walked around for a bit and I ended up purchasing an incredible painting...which I will share with my next update, as it was a big highlight of day #2. We ended up heading out and getting burritos at this really good Mexican restaurant, and then we hit up House of Pies for key lime pie. If you are ever in Houston or Los Angeles you MUST go to House of Pies and get the key lime pie...trust me.
The story gets more interesting with the next post, trust me!
- Adam
Well, I just got back from the Aliens 30th Anniversary cast reunion at Comicpalooza in Houston Texas. It was an incredible weekend...definitely the top con experience for me ever and it will be impossible to top. Here's an abbreviated recollection of the weekend...
We head to the convention on Friday after we checked into the hotel because I wanted to get as many autographs on that day as I possibly could in order to avoid the hassle of trying to do so on Saturday when Sigourney Weaver and Bill Paxton would be there. The convention was dead that day...it was great. We decided to check the autograph section first and William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman) had nobody waiting, so I snagged his autograph first.
'Who's firing? **********!'
Mr. Hope was a very nice guy and I was very happy to have met him. He is not a common con guest by any means and I doubt many people have his autograph. While Gorman is easy to dislike, I enjoy the character and especially appreciate his redemption in attempting to save Vasquez. We talked briefly about his flight in from the UK, shook hands, and then it was on to the next marine.
Next up was Mark Rolston (Pvt. Drake). We also got to him before anyone else really had made their way to line up.
'Adam, you look just like I feel.' (I had to...)
He was also very cool and we discussed the smartgun a bit. He reminisced about how the steadicam vest continued to unhitch and open, so they had to duct-tape both he and Jenette Goldstein into the harness to keep it shut. He then also recalled how the wooden blanks from the gun would often fly up, hitting them in the face. And, as expected, he confirmed what we all know - they were heavy as F@CK.
Next up was my favorite, Jenette Goldstein (PFC Vasquez), who obviously needs no introduction. I was sporting one of my Vasquez shirts (how could I not), and she liked it a lot and actually took my picture, which was an honor (and I hate pictures).
'Let's ROCK!' (Duh...of course I had to get that quote.)
I could have easily been that awkward nerd fan who talks too much and breathes a bit heavily while sweating, but I moved on...
Next up was Daniel Kash (Pvt. Spunkmeyer). I will admit, I wasn't too excited about this one at first, but Daniel was very cool. He also had a killer photo:
'What's this crap supposed to be?'
Sitting right next to him was Ricco Ross (Pvt. Frost). Ricco is a super cool dude.
'What the hell are we supposed to use, harsh language?'
The last signature I snagged that day was from Cynthia Scott (Cpl. Dietrich). She was also very cool and more than happy to write out a long quote for me...
'Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all...'
We then walked around for a bit and I ended up purchasing an incredible painting...which I will share with my next update, as it was a big highlight of day #2. We ended up heading out and getting burritos at this really good Mexican restaurant, and then we hit up House of Pies for key lime pie. If you are ever in Houston or Los Angeles you MUST go to House of Pies and get the key lime pie...trust me.
The story gets more interesting with the next post, trust me!
- Adam
I love that you got them sign with a quote! Very cool! Can't wait to hear more.
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Sorry for the delay guys...it's been a very busy week!
So day #2 at the convention turned out to be more epic than day #1 because it started with briefly meeting Sigourney Weaver and snagging her autograph. Initially, I was planning on having her sign an 8x10 photo of the Queen pulling her leg after she opens the airduct in the Sulaco drop bay. Well, that was until I walked around the artist dealer section and found an incredible painting that I couldn't pass up. The artist gave his blessings to have her autograph it and even offered to look after the painting for the rest of the weekend for me and to ship it (what a great guy). Here it is:
She did not have time to personalize any autographs, but I would not have had her do that on this painting anyway. I LOVE IT. I was a little bummed out because Celebrity Authentics required that all signatures also have a small hologram sticker applied on the front of the piece being signed, so that is now below the real artist's signature, but I'm over that...I guess it's a good thing!
Anyway, my next matter of business was to get an autograph of Paul Reiser. He had been late, but I managed to catch him right as he was about to wrap up his first autograph session:
'These marines are very tough hombres.'
We then made our way to get some lunch and get to the Aliens cast reunion panel a few hours early to wait. It paid off...
My friend and I literally got the very front row in the very center. It was AMAZING and so much fun. You can find videos of the entire panel on the internet, but being there was truly special. I wish it had been about another 30 minutes because the cast was just getting warmed up, but they had so many photos and autographs still left to fulfill. Speaking of photographs, the next stop was one of the most exciting moments of my life:
I am still excited about this one. Ricco caught me off guard right before they took the photo by giving me a semi-choke-hold, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We then made our way over to the line for Bill Paxton, which was very busy all day. The convention had some really bad photos of Hudson available for signing, but I had to do one better:
'Game over.'
Bill was really, really cool. My buddy and I joked about reenacting this specific scene and the pompous lackey behind him said: "Not while I'm here, bub." We totally could have overpowered that guy, but we opted to move on.
After this, I had enough money left for this:
I opted for that over a Michael Biehn autograph (which I already have)...you all know how much I love the smartgunners...
Day #2 ended with some good food and plans to meet a very special guy the next day (to be continued)...
So day #2 at the convention turned out to be more epic than day #1 because it started with briefly meeting Sigourney Weaver and snagging her autograph. Initially, I was planning on having her sign an 8x10 photo of the Queen pulling her leg after she opens the airduct in the Sulaco drop bay. Well, that was until I walked around the artist dealer section and found an incredible painting that I couldn't pass up. The artist gave his blessings to have her autograph it and even offered to look after the painting for the rest of the weekend for me and to ship it (what a great guy). Here it is:
She did not have time to personalize any autographs, but I would not have had her do that on this painting anyway. I LOVE IT. I was a little bummed out because Celebrity Authentics required that all signatures also have a small hologram sticker applied on the front of the piece being signed, so that is now below the real artist's signature, but I'm over that...I guess it's a good thing!
Anyway, my next matter of business was to get an autograph of Paul Reiser. He had been late, but I managed to catch him right as he was about to wrap up his first autograph session:
'These marines are very tough hombres.'
We then made our way to get some lunch and get to the Aliens cast reunion panel a few hours early to wait. It paid off...
My friend and I literally got the very front row in the very center. It was AMAZING and so much fun. You can find videos of the entire panel on the internet, but being there was truly special. I wish it had been about another 30 minutes because the cast was just getting warmed up, but they had so many photos and autographs still left to fulfill. Speaking of photographs, the next stop was one of the most exciting moments of my life:
I am still excited about this one. Ricco caught me off guard right before they took the photo by giving me a semi-choke-hold, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We then made our way over to the line for Bill Paxton, which was very busy all day. The convention had some really bad photos of Hudson available for signing, but I had to do one better:
'Game over.'
Bill was really, really cool. My buddy and I joked about reenacting this specific scene and the pompous lackey behind him said: "Not while I'm here, bub." We totally could have overpowered that guy, but we opted to move on.
After this, I had enough money left for this:
I opted for that over a Michael Biehn autograph (which I already have)...you all know how much I love the smartgunners...
Day #2 ended with some good food and plans to meet a very special guy the next day (to be continued)...
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
It's been way too long yet again...but here's the final part of my Houston trip story.
So day #3 was pretty epic. I was invited to come see a remarkable collection. I can't go into detail about the collector or the actual collection, but I'll share two photos that he allowed me to post on Facebook.
First up, and really the best one is as you'd figure it to be:
That is one of the two screen-used smartguns, which I believe to be Drake's, but I must put a bit of research into this once I get a good computer to analyze screen captures with other photos that I have. No, I cannot post more photos of this, and I will not share them privately out of respect for my friend. This gun is SICK. First of all, I love when people give me a hard time about taking an MG42 machine gun and 'ruining' it to make the smartgun. A lot of these people say that the MG42's in the movie were not permanently modified for the film or that they were rented. Well, take it from me: the MG42's used in the movie were permanently modified for conversion into the smartguns. The front grip mount is welded to the shroud, and the C-clamp that connects the steadicam arm to the gun is anchored by a large screw, of which a large hole is drilled into the bottom of the shroud. So there you have it, if you want an accurate smartgun and use an MG42, you DO have to weld to it and drill into it.
Now, I also will post this photo, because I love the pulse rifle a lot too:
That is not screen used, but was made for production. It was still awesome.
These two props were just two of the many, many highlights in this collection. You have NO idea how mind-blowing it was. I held some pretty insane things that day and I'm still in awe. The best part about these props (and they aren't all from Aliens) is that they are in the hands of a truly awesome guy. Seriously, he couldn't have been any nicer and hospitable to my buddy and I when we visited.
After the trip to his place, my buddy and I headed to San Antonio to celebrate the propgasms we just had with some pizza:
We couldn't eat it all, but we tried. I'd say that we put about 40% of the pizza down. We then had to suffer a 2-hour drive back to Houston with the leftover slices in the trunk of the car, which caused the entire car to smell like pizza. I could have killed my buddy for insisting we take the leftovers (he didn't want us to look like we were defeated). We ended up giving the leftover pizza to the valet guys at the hotel. The next day we headed back to Pennsylvania.
Since then, the smartgun progress has begun again...there were some personal issues on behalf of the guy who is helping with my gun that prevented him from working on it for a bit. His health is way more important than my gun, so I'm just glad he is getting back into the swing of things.
I have also begun the process of finding accurate parts to make my friend's screen-used smartgun screen-accurate again. I'm so thrilled that I know enough to be able to help him.
So day #3 was pretty epic. I was invited to come see a remarkable collection. I can't go into detail about the collector or the actual collection, but I'll share two photos that he allowed me to post on Facebook.
First up, and really the best one is as you'd figure it to be:
That is one of the two screen-used smartguns, which I believe to be Drake's, but I must put a bit of research into this once I get a good computer to analyze screen captures with other photos that I have. No, I cannot post more photos of this, and I will not share them privately out of respect for my friend. This gun is SICK. First of all, I love when people give me a hard time about taking an MG42 machine gun and 'ruining' it to make the smartgun. A lot of these people say that the MG42's in the movie were not permanently modified for the film or that they were rented. Well, take it from me: the MG42's used in the movie were permanently modified for conversion into the smartguns. The front grip mount is welded to the shroud, and the C-clamp that connects the steadicam arm to the gun is anchored by a large screw, of which a large hole is drilled into the bottom of the shroud. So there you have it, if you want an accurate smartgun and use an MG42, you DO have to weld to it and drill into it.
Now, I also will post this photo, because I love the pulse rifle a lot too:
That is not screen used, but was made for production. It was still awesome.
These two props were just two of the many, many highlights in this collection. You have NO idea how mind-blowing it was. I held some pretty insane things that day and I'm still in awe. The best part about these props (and they aren't all from Aliens) is that they are in the hands of a truly awesome guy. Seriously, he couldn't have been any nicer and hospitable to my buddy and I when we visited.
After the trip to his place, my buddy and I headed to San Antonio to celebrate the propgasms we just had with some pizza:
We couldn't eat it all, but we tried. I'd say that we put about 40% of the pizza down. We then had to suffer a 2-hour drive back to Houston with the leftover slices in the trunk of the car, which caused the entire car to smell like pizza. I could have killed my buddy for insisting we take the leftovers (he didn't want us to look like we were defeated). We ended up giving the leftover pizza to the valet guys at the hotel. The next day we headed back to Pennsylvania.
Since then, the smartgun progress has begun again...there were some personal issues on behalf of the guy who is helping with my gun that prevented him from working on it for a bit. His health is way more important than my gun, so I'm just glad he is getting back into the swing of things.
I have also begun the process of finding accurate parts to make my friend's screen-used smartgun screen-accurate again. I'm so thrilled that I know enough to be able to help him.
Awesome Man, I just saw and held that same smart gun this weekend. VERY cool. It actually fueled a new obsession. GREEATT... like a I really need to obsess over this one too.
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,
It's been a very long wait, but things are finally moving ahead. I had to wait for Matsuo (my smartgun enthusiast consultant) to get back on his feet. Matt is the only one who could do the work that I needed, and he is the only one I can trust to obsess over minor details as much as I do when it comes to this legendary weapon. Here are a few shots I have of him his work so far. The AR-125 pegs are not the ones that will be used on my baby but they were attached for test-fitting. As you saw earlier, I have a set of brand new old stock pegs to attach.
Also, Matt has addressed fitting the C-clamp to attach the L-bracket to so that I can attach the gun to the steadicam arm...
Still a lot of work to go, but it's happening.
Also, I never posted the boots I decided to go with for the Vasquez uniform...
If you look at various screen caps, it appears she may have worn 2 different pairs of boots throughout shooting the movie, if not more (we'll never know). The best closeup I have (from when she is pinning the xenomorph to the airduct to shoot it in the head) shows 7 lace holes and some other features I used as landmarks to ID them. These are not entirely accurate, but close enough given I still can't figure out exactly what kind of boots she wore. As you can see, they have the appropriate amount of lace holes and feature a few other landmarks I used as well. The soles are different...the search for the right boots will continue when I have the time (probably never).
Also, stay tuned for my other upcoming Aliens thread to show off my standard USCM gear as it comes together. Here's a teaser:
My buddy Gary has been working hard on this after I said I couldn't pass up a chance at snagging the accurate Kango drill from him.
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I managed to snag some official Fox production stills of some of the USCM props...they are badass.
Hopefully I'll be back soon with more updates!
It's been a very long wait, but things are finally moving ahead. I had to wait for Matsuo (my smartgun enthusiast consultant) to get back on his feet. Matt is the only one who could do the work that I needed, and he is the only one I can trust to obsess over minor details as much as I do when it comes to this legendary weapon. Here are a few shots I have of him his work so far. The AR-125 pegs are not the ones that will be used on my baby but they were attached for test-fitting. As you saw earlier, I have a set of brand new old stock pegs to attach.
Also, Matt has addressed fitting the C-clamp to attach the L-bracket to so that I can attach the gun to the steadicam arm...
Still a lot of work to go, but it's happening.
Also, I never posted the boots I decided to go with for the Vasquez uniform...
If you look at various screen caps, it appears she may have worn 2 different pairs of boots throughout shooting the movie, if not more (we'll never know). The best closeup I have (from when she is pinning the xenomorph to the airduct to shoot it in the head) shows 7 lace holes and some other features I used as landmarks to ID them. These are not entirely accurate, but close enough given I still can't figure out exactly what kind of boots she wore. As you can see, they have the appropriate amount of lace holes and feature a few other landmarks I used as well. The soles are different...the search for the right boots will continue when I have the time (probably never).
Also, stay tuned for my other upcoming Aliens thread to show off my standard USCM gear as it comes together. Here's a teaser:
My buddy Gary has been working hard on this after I said I couldn't pass up a chance at snagging the accurate Kango drill from him.
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I managed to snag some official Fox production stills of some of the USCM props...they are badass.
Hopefully I'll be back soon with more updates!
andymcleary
New Member
You know, the worst part about this thread is that I've just finished reading it all and am up to date! 
I'm blown away by your apparently compulsive obsession to detail. I've subscribed. Just got your Ecto-1 build to read now...
I'm blown away by your apparently compulsive obsession to detail. I've subscribed. Just got your Ecto-1 build to read now...
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Matt has been working on so much awesome stuff. He really is a standup guy and he will get all of his standing orders filled. I don't know how he manages to do all of it, but I am excited that he has continued to work on my gun. The front grip mount has been produced and strength-tested. He is doing a few of these and says that I get the best one (yay...haha). Then it just has to be welded on completely. Check her out:
mattrendar
Well-Known Member
I have a matsu m56 . Absolutely love it . I want to replace the front grip with a metal one to be more sturdy . Are they available ?
