Screen accurate Aliens M40 grenade case

[Dean O]

I’m on an Aliens kick lately. In addition to revisiting the M40 grenade I also wanted to redo my grenade box to make it more accurate to the original prop. I’ve created vinyl decals to match the worn/torn letters on the original.

I’m starting out with a green casegard case rather than red but I will paint the red paint chips in over the Brown Bess. I have a one jar of original Brown Bess left over from painting my pulse rifle last year.

Here is my test to make sure the size of the decals are correct. I think they look pretty spot on. I need to order matte vinyl to make the final set from or just use the decals to make a painting template.

 

[Dean O]

Started work on a new test box today. The current 12ga cases made by Casegard are a little larger than the ones made 20 years ago so I had to scale the decals up to look proportionate. Too bad they don’t make the old style any longer!

Here‘s a size comparison between the new style and old.

 

[Dean O]

A few pics of the paint stencil I made today, to place the “chips” in the paint in the correct locations. I had to take some liberty with the sides of the original prop that are seen.

I tested the paint stencil for the lettering yesterday. I like how they look painted over vinyl decals.

Comparison of SMS paints blaster brown to the humbrol Brown Bess I bought 20 years ago. On the test square, it does not look quite right but when painted over a brown primer, I think the box came out pretty darn close. The pulse rifle magazine was painted with Humbrol and has also been weathered.

 

[Dean O]

Filled the chips in and painted the lettering with the stencil I made.

 

[Dean O]

Weathered the box, I want to make adjustments to some colors, the base brown looks too dark to me, but I feel like it’s pretty close.