Sahare Studios
Member
This has been discussed to death for decades (I know). I also know that the general consensus is that they were Brown Bess.
The reason often remarked being that: "the blue lighting made the Brown Bess look Olive Drab"
I'm not claiming to be an expert, there are for sure heaps of people who know more about this than me.
I'd always gone along with the Brown Bess explanation, but had never ran tests until today. Now admittedly these pictures below are not scientific tests by any means. They're just a couple of photographs taken while changing ambient lighting conditions.
In any case I'm actually of the opinion they were olive green now for the following reason.
Below is the Snow Wolf M41-A Pulse Rifle (Airsoft AEG, 900rpm, Olive Drab color). Helmet in the background is for reference. Pictures taken using iPhone 15 Pro Max.
6000k (White light)
3200k (Warm white light)
Pink/Purple light (to get Olive drab to look Brown Bess)
What I am getting at is this. In the last image the entire light source needs to change to change the color. My hand in the same picture would have looked purple. Everything has a purple shade.
In these stills the predominant light falling on the shot is tungsten white light with a tiny bit of cyan. It's very dimly lit, which will darken the green. Notice the skin tones are not dramatically shifted. The entire scene would have had to have been blue light, with blue skin, to change the color from Brown Bess to what we see here.
Admittedly it's the latest rerelease which has been color graded so that may influence the color, but I don't believe dramatically.
This is a recreation of mine of the lighting of the screen used set (Ripley and Hicks). The olive drab matches very well to what is seen on screen.
Interestingly, recently Adam Savage had the Prop Store on his channel, reviewing a screen used Aliens welder. Both Adam and Brandon Alinger noted that Adam's Brown Bess Pulse Rifle replica did not match the green of the screen used welder prop. They did not show a clear shot of both colors side by side.
So then I found pictures of screen used Pulse Rifles. All seem to indicate that they are the same color as the welder from Adam's recent video:
The bottom of the magazine of one seems to indicate (or looks kind of like) it was sprayed brown bess and then sprayed olive drab during production.
Now again, I am far from being an expert on this. I think the majority of people here know more about this stuff than I do, so I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all. Apologies if that's how it comes across. I just decided to do some research and came across results that goes against the common belief about these props that I can't explain, and wanted to share.
I believe that Simon Atherton (the armorer on Aliens) left Bapty & Co and works (worked?) at Zorg Ltd. I have reached out to them in the hope that I may be able to get a response and perhaps an explanation.
PS: Perhaps some were brown bess and some olive drab?
The reason often remarked being that: "the blue lighting made the Brown Bess look Olive Drab"
I'm not claiming to be an expert, there are for sure heaps of people who know more about this than me.
I'd always gone along with the Brown Bess explanation, but had never ran tests until today. Now admittedly these pictures below are not scientific tests by any means. They're just a couple of photographs taken while changing ambient lighting conditions.
In any case I'm actually of the opinion they were olive green now for the following reason.
Below is the Snow Wolf M41-A Pulse Rifle (Airsoft AEG, 900rpm, Olive Drab color). Helmet in the background is for reference. Pictures taken using iPhone 15 Pro Max.
6000k (White light)
3200k (Warm white light)
Pink/Purple light (to get Olive drab to look Brown Bess)
What I am getting at is this. In the last image the entire light source needs to change to change the color. My hand in the same picture would have looked purple. Everything has a purple shade.
In these stills the predominant light falling on the shot is tungsten white light with a tiny bit of cyan. It's very dimly lit, which will darken the green. Notice the skin tones are not dramatically shifted. The entire scene would have had to have been blue light, with blue skin, to change the color from Brown Bess to what we see here.
Admittedly it's the latest rerelease which has been color graded so that may influence the color, but I don't believe dramatically.
This is a recreation of mine of the lighting of the screen used set (Ripley and Hicks). The olive drab matches very well to what is seen on screen.
Interestingly, recently Adam Savage had the Prop Store on his channel, reviewing a screen used Aliens welder. Both Adam and Brandon Alinger noted that Adam's Brown Bess Pulse Rifle replica did not match the green of the screen used welder prop. They did not show a clear shot of both colors side by side.
So then I found pictures of screen used Pulse Rifles. All seem to indicate that they are the same color as the welder from Adam's recent video:
The bottom of the magazine of one seems to indicate (or looks kind of like) it was sprayed brown bess and then sprayed olive drab during production.
Now again, I am far from being an expert on this. I think the majority of people here know more about this stuff than I do, so I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all. Apologies if that's how it comes across. I just decided to do some research and came across results that goes against the common belief about these props that I can't explain, and wanted to share.
I believe that Simon Atherton (the armorer on Aliens) left Bapty & Co and works (worked?) at Zorg Ltd. I have reached out to them in the hope that I may be able to get a response and perhaps an explanation.
PS: Perhaps some were brown bess and some olive drab?
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