Alien is one of my favourite films and the Destruction System is just one of many fantastic props that I’ve always wanted to own.
Last year a great replica of the lid was built by Mr Webber, and his article has encouraged me to have a go at building the entire unit!
As always he got some great help from the people here, notably stromo who recreated the detonation instruction graphic – beautiful piece of work, and Spike who provided some quality HD screen caps.
I’ve been in contact with Mr Webber and stromo and they’re both agreed that building the entire mechanism is the next major step. Stromo has also kindly agreed to allow me to use his artwork.
The original prop was destroyed at the end of the production, so accept for the original photo novel; there hasn’t been much to go on.
Then I got a break.
Profiles in History auctioned of the original bolts in 2010 and the catalogue gave their dimensions - so this is where I began.
Using the bolt dimensions I’ve been able to scale everything up and produce drawings of all the components.
It’s never going to be millimetre perfect but I don’t think I’m too far out!
The bolt was the obvious starting point, so after creating the drawing I produced a simple prototype which would help me to judge whether the other things I’d drawn looked correct or not.
At this stage I’m producing everything in acrylic and modelboard and then if everything is successful I may progress to metal later on.
The sudden appearance of Bill Pearson’s spare bolt and its reproduction by russrep helped greatly.
I don’t know if Russ has any of these left but they’re stunning pieces of work!
So far I’ve made the bolt and its locking collar, a small section of the case structure and one of the chrome tubes that rises up.
I’ll post more as it evolves.
Phil
Last year a great replica of the lid was built by Mr Webber, and his article has encouraged me to have a go at building the entire unit!
As always he got some great help from the people here, notably stromo who recreated the detonation instruction graphic – beautiful piece of work, and Spike who provided some quality HD screen caps.
I’ve been in contact with Mr Webber and stromo and they’re both agreed that building the entire mechanism is the next major step. Stromo has also kindly agreed to allow me to use his artwork.
The original prop was destroyed at the end of the production, so accept for the original photo novel; there hasn’t been much to go on.
Then I got a break.
Profiles in History auctioned of the original bolts in 2010 and the catalogue gave their dimensions - so this is where I began.
Using the bolt dimensions I’ve been able to scale everything up and produce drawings of all the components.
It’s never going to be millimetre perfect but I don’t think I’m too far out!
The bolt was the obvious starting point, so after creating the drawing I produced a simple prototype which would help me to judge whether the other things I’d drawn looked correct or not.
At this stage I’m producing everything in acrylic and modelboard and then if everything is successful I may progress to metal later on.
The sudden appearance of Bill Pearson’s spare bolt and its reproduction by russrep helped greatly.
I don’t know if Russ has any of these left but they’re stunning pieces of work!
So far I’ve made the bolt and its locking collar, a small section of the case structure and one of the chrome tubes that rises up.
I’ll post more as it evolves.
Phil
