Nostromo Emergency Destruction System. The big build

Since the first time I saw 'Alien' so many years ago I always wanted to get this device.
Sir, I am astonished for what you are doing.
How many of your enemies should I kill to get this device? :)
have you thought about selling the plans and material list?
And this instruction panel on the hatch is AWESOME...
 
Came across this analysis of the fonts in the movie, but it's got some very good close-ups you might find handy: http://typesetinthefuture.com/alien/

That's such a great blog. Anyone who doesn't know about it really ought to check it out, not just for the Alien post.

I assume you're busy doing other stuff, Pro Mod, but hope you get back onto this at some stage. I've got a more accurate updated screen image for you if you want it (though you may be content with what you've already got).

Cheers,
Stu
 
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Update.

2014 was really busy for me and as a result this project (along with others) got pushed down the list of priorities.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been looking at what’s left to do, and I was happy to discover that the majority of the pieces were either underway or had been completed - the end may be in sight!

One thing I have been putting of was the small dividers in the circular base plates.

In the original the effects crew had simply (but effectively) placed cut pieces of braided hose in the trench to form a ring, which looked okay for a few seconds on screen, but which in my opinion wouldn’t be good enough for a replica.
As a result I decided that I needed to use one piece of hose, which meant making each divider with an arch through it.
It was a real pain to do, but was definitely worth the effort in the end.
The finished pieces are now attached to the inner sidewall, allowing the one-piece floor plate and middle ring to be removed allowing me to fit the one-piece hose from underneath.

The piece itself consist of a 3mm wide acrylic arch with acrylic wedges attached either side. Once glued together the wedges were sanded to match the inner profile of the arch.
A piece of 12mm hose now fits comfortably underneath.
The hose will eventually be formed into rings using a simple jig, a lot of boiling water to soften the material and a small piece of polished acrylic rod to hold it together.





The other thing I’ve been working on is the bolt detail to the other three base plates. They now just need some filler here and there and they’ll be ready for priming.



Thanks to SigsegV and Radigast for the links to the typography of the film, there’s some great information there!

Stu, anything you have is always welcome and I eagerly look forward to your latest version of the panel!
 
It’s been a productive couple of days and I’ve managed to work on quite a few of the pieces.
Haven’t actually finished anything yet as I tend to go from piece to piece and back again - keep telling myself it’s more fun this way!

Starting back with the base plates I’ve added filler to where the large boss meets the disc to create a fillet.
To do this I simply pressed a piece of tubing the correct diameter into the wet filler and waited for it to dry. As I’d wrapped the tube with a piece of tape the filler didn’t stick to it and it came away easily leaving a perfect radius. It was then just a case of sanding away the excess filler and they were done.



I next glued all the washers in place and gave everything a light sand to soften all the sharp edges and to act as a key for the paint.

I normally spray everything with cellulose paint, but as this doesn’t stick to styrene very well I first gave everything a light coat of acrylic primer. I’m not actually using it as primer but as more of a key for the cellulose, which I much prefer.
Don’t get me wrong cellulose will cover styrene, but should you mask it, it generally lifts of in sheets when you remove the tape – disaster!
Once dry I spray over it with cellulose in the normal way with no problem of adhesion.





I wasn’t happy with one of the base layers, which I’d made a long time ago out of multiple pieces of Mdf.
A major problem was that I hadn’t left enough tolerance between it and the detonators resulting in it being difficult to fit them in the opening, the second was that I dropped it and it broke into a dozen pieces!!
As a result I decided to make a new one out of one piece of 25mm Mdf, and which is the way I should have made it in the first place.


This just needs the inside edges sanding and its ready for painting.

Next revisit was the detonator clamps.
I’d only ever only made one of these and it suffered from the same problem of too tight a tolerance resulting in the detonator not fitting correctly and that’s before I apply any paint.
So I altered my drawing and machined new ones from modelboard.



These were they marked up and all the angles produced on the disc sander.


I need to finish sanding these and they’ll ready for painting as well.

The hatch was beginning to look a little battered so I rubbed it down and applied a bit of filler in one or two areas.
I still have to fit a small divider into the long illuminated edge, and then I can give it a coat of primer with the rest.



Finally, I couldn’t resist putting some of the new pieces together.







 
Sorry, Pro Mod. Just saw your replies now.

That looks stunning. Absolutely incredible.

I'll be in touch shortly about the updated graphic.
 
Thanks guys.

Can anybody please help me identify this font?


I first thought of the usual suspects Helvetica, Futura and Arial, but the G isn’t correct.
Also, I think it looks a bit like a stencil (some breaks in the letters) or, do you think it's because I've been staring at this grainy image for far too long and I'm seeing things which aren’t there?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
I think it's a stencil, but I can't be certain. There are definitely breaks in the letters, you can see it on the "N" "G" "S" and "C".

Here's a couple images.

Alien.Directors.Cut.1979.DTS.1080p[14-25-01].JPG Alien.Directors.Cut.1979.DTS.1080p[14-18-21].JPG
 
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Is it perhaps Eurostyle stencil font? I know they used Eurostyle and the stencil version in Aliens (mainly on the airlock of the Sulaco) and other Sci-fi movies.

Eurostile.png
 
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