My Pred Thread
- Thread starter xander2323
- Start date
AirborneHunter
New Member
Amazing work on the cannon!
Can't wait to see the finished build
Can't wait to see the finished build
xander2323
Active Member
Here is WIP of the disc. I still haven't attached the cog / ring mechanism.
First pic is the disc with primer - >basecoat of tinbitz - > oversprayed with dwarf bronze - > washed with brown wash -> resprayed with bronze
Second pic has the same but now includes shining gold line highlights - think they make it come alive.
Will post more when finished. This is just one side done and even that needs a bit more work.
First pic is the disc with primer - >basecoat of tinbitz - > oversprayed with dwarf bronze - > washed with brown wash -> resprayed with bronze
Second pic has the same but now includes shining gold line highlights - think they make it come alive.
Will post more when finished. This is just one side done and even that needs a bit more work.
xander2323
Active Member
Ok here are disc pictures. This was really rewarding to paint and I think the end result was definitely a success. I am thinking that this will be hanging from some kind of leather thong from the belt. It's only a piece of resin so needs to be handled gentle. I think I'll buy some matt varnish when I get a chance and give it a few coats to try and prevent it getting chipped when being handled.
xander2323
Active Member
So I enlisted the help of my ageing father (he's 66 and has a workshop at his house which I don't). He used a fibreglass kit and some bolts to add handles and a strap to the mysteria alien head. It's now ready for painting. I shall be starting on the weekend. Here are a couple of pics - the first is WIP and the last is the final look. The strap allows it to be hung from the mannequin and the handle and upper arm strap allow it to be wielded by a person!
xander2323
Active Member
Well the bits I feel confident doing are painting and modelling, but don't really have any experience sculpting and casting so I'm kind of looking to others to help me with this. That's what I was so impressed about in your thread is doing all that casting. I was just thinking of buying some feet on the lair when the time comes. What's your way?
xander2323
Active Member
I am about to start painting the alien head shield and thought I'd do some 'Before' pics of it on the mannequin (still in his tiger suit whilst I continue to await my mask and torso from Termokk - although Mannowar has sent me tracking info for gauntlets and backpack today). I really like the way the strap has worked out - it's robust and looks good to display and really isn't too heavy to carry around. It looks great on my arm too just as a shield.
I have ordered some Alclad Chrome paint and gloss black base coat so I can spray the teeth of the alien a proper chrome rather than just silver. I'll be using this on the gauntlet blades too.
I also just received another parcel today, a Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt - basically a T-Shirt with a speaker in it and you can easily play back any noise you like - going to wear it under the torso and project my pred sound from it...pics to come at some point.
I have ordered some Alclad Chrome paint and gloss black base coat so I can spray the teeth of the alien a proper chrome rather than just silver. I'll be using this on the gauntlet blades too.
I also just received another parcel today, a Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt - basically a T-Shirt with a speaker in it and you can easily play back any noise you like - going to wear it under the torso and project my pred sound from it...pics to come at some point.
Double H
Sr Member
Nice that alien head looks sweet. Nice touch. Starting an Alien head sculpt myself and hoping to make a arm sheild from it or put the head on a spear or something like that.
Like the idea you got going with the T-shirt speaker but will the sound be masked underneath your suit? or have you figured out a way to amplify the sound?
Where did you order the Alclad Chrome Paint and gloss base coat from?
Like the idea you got going with the T-shirt speaker but will the sound be masked underneath your suit? or have you figured out a way to amplify the sound?
Where did you order the Alclad Chrome Paint and gloss base coat from?
xander2323
Active Member
I'm in the UK remember but I ordered the Alclad from here:
http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/alclad-ii-120ml-airbrush-cleaner/?utm_source=Froogle&utm_medium=PriceComparison&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping - airbrush cleaner
http://www.wonderlan...lack-base-coat/ - base coat - need gloss black alclad to paint metals
http://www.wonderlan...h-shine-finish/ - chrome paint
I have just been setting up the T-Shirt:
http://www.thinkgeek...teractive/a5bf/
and it's awesome. I have put 2 mp3 files of different pred clicking sounds on there corresponding to the first 2 buttons of the slender remote control panel that you can unclip from inside the T-Shirt. I'm thinking a holster for this on the hip of the costume. I have set it up so the sounds loop but have some silence recorded too so it's not a constant sound - more realistic. The T-Shirt has a volume control and goes really loud - I don't think being muffled will be a problem but if so I will cannbalise the speaker and build it into the suit - after all the bit I bought it for are the clever electronics - not the T-Shirt.
Alien head being painted. Just undercoat so far.
http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/alclad-ii-120ml-airbrush-cleaner/?utm_source=Froogle&utm_medium=PriceComparison&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping - airbrush cleaner
http://www.wonderlan...lack-base-coat/ - base coat - need gloss black alclad to paint metals
http://www.wonderlan...h-shine-finish/ - chrome paint
I have just been setting up the T-Shirt:
http://www.thinkgeek...teractive/a5bf/
and it's awesome. I have put 2 mp3 files of different pred clicking sounds on there corresponding to the first 2 buttons of the slender remote control panel that you can unclip from inside the T-Shirt. I'm thinking a holster for this on the hip of the costume. I have set it up so the sounds loop but have some silence recorded too so it's not a constant sound - more realistic. The T-Shirt has a volume control and goes really loud - I don't think being muffled will be a problem but if so I will cannbalise the speaker and build it into the suit - after all the bit I bought it for are the clever electronics - not the T-Shirt.
Alien head being painted. Just undercoat so far.
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xander2323
Active Member
I wanted to mention that after playing around with the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt I discovered the speaker in the centre is just on velcro and can be easily taken off. This basically leaves you with a small round attachable, discreet, almost flat speaker and a very small black box attached to it with slender remote control. I have downloaded 20 pred sounds from http://www.zedge.net/ringtones/0-6-2-predator/ which I have added to a zip file for easy download (instead of spending 4 hours like I did listening to over 150 samples to get the good ones) for anyone who wants them here: http://www.mediafire.com/?z3oqe3uoo27ly5s
The components lifted from the T-shirt has a small remote with 20 buttons and a speaker that in theory can be attached discreetly to any part of the costume, I'm thinking under the loincloth on my P1 somewhere. It is the size and weight of the lid from a Pringles packet. The 20 buttons are linked to each of my 20 sound effects. I have looped all the clicking noises so they come at 3 second intervals from the pred suit. If other sounds are wanted whilst in costume the remote is easy to use and can easily blend in as part of the suit. The way I currently have it setup means you can use anything from the P1 laughing, the Pred vision / scanning noise with the heartbeat, plasma caster sounds, the 'over here' voice imitation old preddy does as well as some roars. I even inlcuded the predalien roar, the countdown for the bomb and just for fun the Pred drumming theme and Arnee saying 'Do IT NOW!'
I think the integration of these authentic sounds into a really top costume will bring it to life. For me it was the pred's sounds that really characterised the creature from the first film. After all we only got to see it properly in the last 5 mins of the movie. It was these noises and the first person perspective through the creature's eyes that introduced us to him. I am really looking forward to having people come up to me in costume and be able to reply with the actual pred sounds!
I hope the download is useful for anyone else who wants to use my idea of the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt as you can literally unzip the file straight onto the SD card that comes with it and you're away. That's got to be one of the cheapest and easiest way to do pred sounds there is.
The components lifted from the T-shirt has a small remote with 20 buttons and a speaker that in theory can be attached discreetly to any part of the costume, I'm thinking under the loincloth on my P1 somewhere. It is the size and weight of the lid from a Pringles packet. The 20 buttons are linked to each of my 20 sound effects. I have looped all the clicking noises so they come at 3 second intervals from the pred suit. If other sounds are wanted whilst in costume the remote is easy to use and can easily blend in as part of the suit. The way I currently have it setup means you can use anything from the P1 laughing, the Pred vision / scanning noise with the heartbeat, plasma caster sounds, the 'over here' voice imitation old preddy does as well as some roars. I even inlcuded the predalien roar, the countdown for the bomb and just for fun the Pred drumming theme and Arnee saying 'Do IT NOW!'
I think the integration of these authentic sounds into a really top costume will bring it to life. For me it was the pred's sounds that really characterised the creature from the first film. After all we only got to see it properly in the last 5 mins of the movie. It was these noises and the first person perspective through the creature's eyes that introduced us to him. I am really looking forward to having people come up to me in costume and be able to reply with the actual pred sounds!
I hope the download is useful for anyone else who wants to use my idea of the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt as you can literally unzip the file straight onto the SD card that comes with it and you're away. That's got to be one of the cheapest and easiest way to do pred sounds there is.
xander2323
Active Member
Spent the afternoon doing some more painting on the alien head shield. I just need my Alclad to arrive now so I can chrome the teeth and then fix them to the head.
You can see I've gone for a very dark, not quite black head with a metallic blue / black gradient. It's gloss varnished so when the light shines on it the highlights glisten blue metallic. I drybrushed the details on the side in white but airbrushed a coat of Badab Black GW wash over them + the varnish to soften the highlights.
It's going to look sweet when the teeth are in and it's ready to use as a shield.
Bear in mind that in these photos I have my modelling light about 12 inches above the head so you can really see the blue in the photos. When it's under normal lighting it looks almost black and it's only where light reflects off the glossy finish that it shines blue, like the way the aliens look under the lighting in Cameron's Aliens.
I also received a pic of my torso from Termokk last night. He is adding quills today and then letting it dry another day then sending it. Now all I have to worry about are the sodding customs charges. I'm a little scared I'm going to get hit up with a bill of about £300 ($500)...I may not eat this month! Oh well!
It's really nice. Really really nice. Corey really is an artist. I spent ages reading through the thread where he sculpted this for the first time and at the end was like 'that's the one I want!'
Once my bank account has recharged I will be comissioning full painted legs from Mannowar who has sent me some gorgeous photos. Gotta do me a duct-tape dummy. That should be fun.
On a tangent I read this article about how George Lucas tried to sue the original creator of the Stormtrooper costume here in the UK for producing the suits for sale. He is producing them from the original moulds in the same way he did back then. Lucas lost the court case in the UK due to some technicality of UK copyright law to do with whether the Stormtrooper costume should be defined as sculpture or industrial design. The court ruled it was industrial design which only hold 15 years copyrights in the UK. That means the creator can just make and sell his own line of original trooper suits. I mention this as I found out about it last night whilst searching for mp3s for my pred suit. I took a look at his site (here: http://www.sdsprops.com/shop-online/stormtrooper/armour-a-helmet-kit.html) and what struck me as cool (apart from stormtrooper suits just being cool in themselves) was that he sells them discounted if you but them as a 'kit'. He sells you all the bits you need and you just spend a week or so putting it together. He's already done all the vacuum forming to create the pieces as he did in 1977 and gives you clear instructions on how to put it together. This appealed to me as it's a lot cheaper than other troop suits I've seen and I really like the idea of getting to build it. So not really a pred thing, but thought you guys might be interested as it's suit building and it's affordable. The only thing is you can't buy them directly if you live in the US as Lucas's copyright is in full force over the pond. You could of course always ask a friendly UK hunter to buy it and post it on to you, after all it's not illegal - it's just not available for sale from US retailers.
Xander
You can see I've gone for a very dark, not quite black head with a metallic blue / black gradient. It's gloss varnished so when the light shines on it the highlights glisten blue metallic. I drybrushed the details on the side in white but airbrushed a coat of Badab Black GW wash over them + the varnish to soften the highlights.
It's going to look sweet when the teeth are in and it's ready to use as a shield.
Bear in mind that in these photos I have my modelling light about 12 inches above the head so you can really see the blue in the photos. When it's under normal lighting it looks almost black and it's only where light reflects off the glossy finish that it shines blue, like the way the aliens look under the lighting in Cameron's Aliens.
I also received a pic of my torso from Termokk last night. He is adding quills today and then letting it dry another day then sending it. Now all I have to worry about are the sodding customs charges. I'm a little scared I'm going to get hit up with a bill of about £300 ($500)...I may not eat this month! Oh well!
It's really nice. Really really nice. Corey really is an artist. I spent ages reading through the thread where he sculpted this for the first time and at the end was like 'that's the one I want!'
Once my bank account has recharged I will be comissioning full painted legs from Mannowar who has sent me some gorgeous photos. Gotta do me a duct-tape dummy. That should be fun.
On a tangent I read this article about how George Lucas tried to sue the original creator of the Stormtrooper costume here in the UK for producing the suits for sale. He is producing them from the original moulds in the same way he did back then. Lucas lost the court case in the UK due to some technicality of UK copyright law to do with whether the Stormtrooper costume should be defined as sculpture or industrial design. The court ruled it was industrial design which only hold 15 years copyrights in the UK. That means the creator can just make and sell his own line of original trooper suits. I mention this as I found out about it last night whilst searching for mp3s for my pred suit. I took a look at his site (here: http://www.sdsprops.com/shop-online/stormtrooper/armour-a-helmet-kit.html) and what struck me as cool (apart from stormtrooper suits just being cool in themselves) was that he sells them discounted if you but them as a 'kit'. He sells you all the bits you need and you just spend a week or so putting it together. He's already done all the vacuum forming to create the pieces as he did in 1977 and gives you clear instructions on how to put it together. This appealed to me as it's a lot cheaper than other troop suits I've seen and I really like the idea of getting to build it. So not really a pred thing, but thought you guys might be interested as it's suit building and it's affordable. The only thing is you can't buy them directly if you live in the US as Lucas's copyright is in full force over the pond. You could of course always ask a friendly UK hunter to buy it and post it on to you, after all it's not illegal - it's just not available for sale from US retailers.
Xander
xander2323
Active Member
Looking back at my post and then back at my model I thought I'd post just a couple more pics of what it looks like without the light a few inches away. I want to get across how dark it really is:
xander2323
Active Member
Still no Alclad in the post today but I bought some matt varnish to seal the cannon and the disc and did a second coat of gloss on the alien shield. Really wanna do the teeth chrome - looking forward to my Alclad.
xander2323
Active Member
We have Alclad!
xander2323
Active Member
Thanks Director, I'm really enjoying myself. Should receive gaunts & backpack later this week. They will be really fun to paint. Also received an imitation spinal cord in the post + a skull. Will be modelling that into a trophy at some point too. I'll update as soon as there are more pics to share!
xander2323
Active Member
So I got a message today from Parcelforce here in the UK saying they were holding my Mannowar Gauntlets and Backpack hostage until I paid them £20 customs charges. I am kinda broke until Friday so this sucks as it means I won't get to start working on them until next week.
In the meantime I finished off the alien head shield. I sprayed a couple of layers of Alclad black gloss primer and then painted on about 10 layers of liquid latex to mask the gums so they would stay black and shiny. I left this overnight to harden. Then I repsprayed the teeth one last coat of gloss black and let it dry.
I applied the Alclad in 3 separate layers although it dries really quickly. As soon as I could I removed the latex mask so as to reduce the tearing of the paint where it met the Alclad. It came out pretty good and there are only a couple of small areas that could do with a touch up.
The shield is finished and I'm very happy with the way it's turned out. Here are some pictures:
In the meantime I finished off the alien head shield. I sprayed a couple of layers of Alclad black gloss primer and then painted on about 10 layers of liquid latex to mask the gums so they would stay black and shiny. I left this overnight to harden. Then I repsprayed the teeth one last coat of gloss black and let it dry.
I applied the Alclad in 3 separate layers although it dries really quickly. As soon as I could I removed the latex mask so as to reduce the tearing of the paint where it met the Alclad. It came out pretty good and there are only a couple of small areas that could do with a touch up.
The shield is finished and I'm very happy with the way it's turned out. Here are some pictures:
MEANGENE83
Sr Member
Dude the Alien Skull is OFF THE HOOK AWESOME!
What a cool trophy for a wall display!
This is coming together nicely. In fact all those alien heads are bad ass!
What a cool trophy for a wall display!
This is coming together nicely. In fact all those alien heads are bad ass!
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