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.

 

[The Kaiser]

Dean! Thanks for sharing - It looks great! Seeing your project made me finally finish my own case I had been sitting in a box for years. Would you mind sharing the font(s) you used for your case? I have a few san serif options that are close, but I am not totally confident. It also looks like just a italicized and condensed version of the same main font is used for the top "M-40" and side lid "M40 Grenades" lettering (respectively), but I may be mistaken. Thanks!

 

[Astyanax]

This is fantastic! I must do this...does anyone know offhand where in the movie we see this?

 

[Dean O]

Dean! Thanks for sharing - It looks great! Seeing your project made me finally finish my own case I had been sitting in a box for years. Would you mind sharing the font(s) you used for your case?

Thanks! Glad I could inspire you to complete yours. Rather than try to find a font that matched perfectly I decided to draw the font to match the original prop.

I imported the images of the box into Procreate, straightened and scaled them the vintage box I own, then drew the new font over the corrected image. For the newer case gard box, I scaled the image/font up so the proportions were correct on the larger box.

Corrected image of box lid.

This is fantastic! I must do this...does anyone know offhand where in the movie we see this?

Thanks! I’m not sure exactly when in the movie the box is shown, I’m thinking when Riley loads up to find Newt and face the queen.

 

[Astyanax]

Thanks! I’m not sure exactly when in the movie the box is shown, I’m thinking when Riley loads up to find Newt and face the queen.

Yep, you called it! Here they are:



Thanks!
Bill

 

[The Kaiser]

Thanks Dean! I appreciate the info and the corrected prop image. That will be helpful for finishing up my stencil design.