Palantirion
Active Member
Greetings all. While the subject of this thread is a kit, it is also somewhat a prop: From my research, including talking to the man at SW who built the Sulaco shooting model, I am fairly certain that the parts for this kit were pulled from the same molds used to make the 1/4 scale studio stop-motion Aliens Queen maquete. From my understanding (and please DO correct me if you know more about this item's history!) there were around 15 of these kits produced and sold some time in the mid '90s. More recently there was a Chinese company selling a fully-built/painted recast version that is identifiable through its use of magnets instead of pins for connections.
I bought this kit second-hand fully assembled and painted, and it was in excellent condition. Given its size and significance I placed it as the centerpiece of my display room, about 6 feet up on a cabinet (filled with other Alien-themed items) glaring down at you as you enter the room. A few months later I arrived to find the head had fallen to the floor! Apparently micro tremors had loosened the connection just enough - much horror and grief! It landed directly on the mouth and pretty much crushed it! So I gathered up every piece, even the little shards, and vowed to rebuild it. Given its historical connection to the movie and the extremely low production run I felt honor-bound to ensure that it lived on.
So I left the head, and it's collection of pieces, to sit...for about two years. During that time I worked on other projects, became much more familiar with epoxy putties, resins, and various styles of model painting (by background I am more familiar with fine art painting). After finishing an 80-hour rebuild of a friend's 1/6 scale VF-1S cockpit (which had been busted all to hell during shipping) I felt confident that I could fix the Queen.
This began with a somewhat forensic identification of where each little part came from, and then a triage of what could be used and what would be necessary or better to repair with putty and re-sculpt. Thankfully the clear resin teeth and tendons were only broken in places where the stress lines would be concealed with paint. Then epoxy putty to fill gaps, sanding, more putty and more sanding. Then primer, and more sanding. Then base coating with Tamiya model paints. Blending was all by brush using very thinned paint and a dab-and-pat method to feather (around 10 translucent coats), which pretty closely reproduced the visual texture of the original builder's airbrush technique. Then I toned the colors using thinned-down Freak Flex Tints. This was especially important to differentiate the gums and tendons. Then clear coating, satin and gloss Tamiya clears to match the existing sheens on the model. The last step was to similarly repair about 30 little nicks and scratches around the crown, and pin/re-sculpt the tip of one horn.
Progress pics in chronologcial order:
And here she is finished and happy.
I bought this kit second-hand fully assembled and painted, and it was in excellent condition. Given its size and significance I placed it as the centerpiece of my display room, about 6 feet up on a cabinet (filled with other Alien-themed items) glaring down at you as you enter the room. A few months later I arrived to find the head had fallen to the floor! Apparently micro tremors had loosened the connection just enough - much horror and grief! It landed directly on the mouth and pretty much crushed it! So I gathered up every piece, even the little shards, and vowed to rebuild it. Given its historical connection to the movie and the extremely low production run I felt honor-bound to ensure that it lived on.
So I left the head, and it's collection of pieces, to sit...for about two years. During that time I worked on other projects, became much more familiar with epoxy putties, resins, and various styles of model painting (by background I am more familiar with fine art painting). After finishing an 80-hour rebuild of a friend's 1/6 scale VF-1S cockpit (which had been busted all to hell during shipping) I felt confident that I could fix the Queen.
This began with a somewhat forensic identification of where each little part came from, and then a triage of what could be used and what would be necessary or better to repair with putty and re-sculpt. Thankfully the clear resin teeth and tendons were only broken in places where the stress lines would be concealed with paint. Then epoxy putty to fill gaps, sanding, more putty and more sanding. Then primer, and more sanding. Then base coating with Tamiya model paints. Blending was all by brush using very thinned paint and a dab-and-pat method to feather (around 10 translucent coats), which pretty closely reproduced the visual texture of the original builder's airbrush technique. Then I toned the colors using thinned-down Freak Flex Tints. This was especially important to differentiate the gums and tendons. Then clear coating, satin and gloss Tamiya clears to match the existing sheens on the model. The last step was to similarly repair about 30 little nicks and scratches around the crown, and pin/re-sculpt the tip of one horn.
Progress pics in chronologcial order:
And here she is finished and happy.
