Weyland-Yutani Flight Recorder prop on the cheap

[Collektor]

I watched Alien again a few days ago, and I decided to cobble together an in-universe prop. I decided to make it out of found parts and get creative with it. After going through my materials room I found an old dvd drive, some reflective tape, a pile of transfer lettering, and a half used can of Safety Orange spray paint. I figured that would add up nicely to doing a flight recorder unit, perhaps the one in the escape shuttle.

After cleaning up the outer casing and removing a few labels, I shot it with several coats of paint and set it out to dry. While that was drying I fired up photoshop and put together a few labels and graphics. I did some research on avionics equipment plates until I found a Boeing manufacturing plate that could be adapted to the prop.

Once the paint was dry I cut out and attached the labels and the tape, then dug around in a bin of 20 year old letraset transfer letters until I found a few sheets that would work for laying out the markings on the prop.

When all the graphics were in place I went to work on the paint with sand paper and steel wool to scuff it up and wear it down. I used an old piece of sponge and some watered down acrylic paint to add a few washes of grime to it and that was it.

I'm pleased with the results and it didn't take more than an afternoon to put together. Now on to the photos

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Close up of the decals

 

[cavx]

That is a good job.

Is this based on the one from the EEV in ALIEN 3 or your take on it?

 

[Country Paul]

This looks excellent, I love all the details looks authentic & completely believable, very cool

 

[TheShinyOne]

I fr*kking love this thing to bits!

And when you say "on the cheap" what are we talking about?

 

[red4]

on the cheap = inexpensive

 

[dropshipbob]

Nice work, the whole thing is one believable chunk.

First we had the Weyland biosample case, now this. I sense a new movement coming on.

 

[Collektor]

I fr*kking love this thing to bits!

And when you say "on the cheap" what are we talking about?

As in no money spent creating it, unless you want to count the original price of the xbox I took the drive from when it died a few years back.

@cavx: I used a lot of markings from the Nostromo so my take is its the flight rec from the escape shuttle, but it could just as easily pass as the one from the Sulaco EEV.

 

[Valor]

Really, really sharp. You did a great job of capturing an authentic non-canon feel.

 

[holtt]

How did you end up doing the manufacturing plate? I have done one recently using a thin sheet of metal with a custom-print decal applied to it.



Original/real motor has a brass plate hence brass instead of the typical aluminum look.

 

[Collektor]

I just did it up as a black and white graphic then gave the white parts a very light grey color. I've never had any luck with printing transparencies and then being able to seal the print with a clear coat without the ink getting wasted. When I weathered the prop I went over the printout very lightly with some steel wool to put in a few scratches in the black ink but not abrade through it to the paper

I haven't tried decals yet. But on this build I figured if I went with a metal plate then I'd have to rivet it on the unit and that was a bit more work than I wanted to do.

 

[Valor]

If you want to capture a cool metallic sheen to a manufacturing plates like the one above you can print out the black and white art on a laser printer (NOT an inkjet) on a metallic cardstock called Currency. The white areas shine through as a matte metallic. I use this all the time for museum-like plaques on my prop stands.

Currency Paper

 

[Mike J.]

Very cool.


-Mike J.

 

[Collektor]

Thanks for the tip Valor, I'll have to try that.

 

[holtt]

Indeed - I'll have to try that out. And yea you definitely have to watch out for what you print with and on. I tried printing my first decal sheet on an InkJet - big mistake - lots of blobs. LaserJet worked great though.

The main pain with decals is not being able to print light colors. If you have just one color that's light, you can apply it on top of a white background to get the right color effect though.