RobWolf
Well-Known Member
...yes you read that right, and yes I am a little insane!
Hey everyone! Longtime lurker/dormant poster here, and this is my first proper build thread. I wasn't sure if I could be bothered to do one, but then I remembered Celestial Tosspot's recent Facebook rant about the RPF and how foam builds are ***** (he's still sore about beimg banned from here, bless!) so I thought to hell with it - he's wrong, foam builds are the way forward and there are still talented people here. CT is an ******.
But I digest.
This is my first major prop build since my Proton Pack some 7-8 years ago; I've given up on GB costuming now because amongst other things, the reboot has pretty much killed my enthusiasm for all things GB (and I know I'm not alone). GB was always my standard costume for Halloween and now I'm not doing that I figure I can finally get around to trying some of the other Halloween costume ideas I've always wanted to try. One of which being the Power Loader from Aliens, a piece of movie hardware I have always loved.. Now I know this seems like a daunting task, especially for someone like me with no real facilities and very limited budget, but I saw a build on Instructables (I forget the guy's name, I'll look it up - credit where credit's due) where the guy did a Power Loader in 2 weeks (!) on a modest budget using mostly foam boards...and so I figured, if he can do it, why can't I? Plus, the town I have recently moved to has an outdoor parade on Halloween so it seemed like a good opportunity to build such a big 'costume'.
I had put the project on the backburner while waiting for my PL statue (from the Colonial Marines PS3 boxset) to be posted down here from my grandparents' place so I could take measurements and upscale, however the recent Aliens Day (plus Gran's inability to locate the statue) gave me some extra motivation to just get the hell on with it. Like most Aliens fans, I missed out on the hi-top Reebok Stompers while the eBay scalpers (whom I'd like to round up in one place and then nuke the entire site from low orbit...only way to be sure
) predictably had all the luck, but I am very hopeful that the lovely people at Reebok might have one or two pairs left and might furnish me with a pair (hint hint ) to really make my Loader more authentic. I do have one of the older reissues of Stomper (the blue/white/gold ones with the Alien print showing through gum soles) which I got only a month or so ago on eBay and they're my standard daily use shoes.
So, without further ado, here's where I am so far. I was rather lucky in that along with the recent burst of motivation, I had a lot of materials to hand which enabled me to make a start fairly easily. I already had a glue gun, craft knives, hacksaw etc, as well as two rather large plastic estate agents signs which I, uh, 'liberated' from a skip last year and have hung onto in the hopes they'd come in handy for something. I decided to use them to make the bottom of the PL's feet rather than foam board, as the feet will take just that little bit more wear than everything else. So after some rough working out of dimensions, some cutting and gluing, I now have the bottom part of the feet done! I'll add the photos in here once I get some sleep, as my phone doesn't seem to like the RPF's picture uploading. Tomorrow I will be measuring and cutting the wooden stilts which will go into the lower legs and will hold me a good two foot off the floor! The wood again is something I already had to hand courtesy of some old dismantled furniture
I'm not the most skilled prop builder in the world, I do tend to 'rough guess' or 'wing it', and some days I don't have a lot of motivation to do anything at all, I do intend to finish this project (I'm aiming for 'as close as I can get' rather than 100% accurate) but I might be a bit intermittent with my updates so please be patient. I will of course welcome feedback and constructive criticism
Stay frosty!
Hey everyone! Longtime lurker/dormant poster here, and this is my first proper build thread. I wasn't sure if I could be bothered to do one, but then I remembered Celestial Tosspot's recent Facebook rant about the RPF and how foam builds are ***** (he's still sore about beimg banned from here, bless!) so I thought to hell with it - he's wrong, foam builds are the way forward and there are still talented people here. CT is an ******.
But I digest.
This is my first major prop build since my Proton Pack some 7-8 years ago; I've given up on GB costuming now because amongst other things, the reboot has pretty much killed my enthusiasm for all things GB (and I know I'm not alone). GB was always my standard costume for Halloween and now I'm not doing that I figure I can finally get around to trying some of the other Halloween costume ideas I've always wanted to try. One of which being the Power Loader from Aliens, a piece of movie hardware I have always loved.. Now I know this seems like a daunting task, especially for someone like me with no real facilities and very limited budget, but I saw a build on Instructables (I forget the guy's name, I'll look it up - credit where credit's due) where the guy did a Power Loader in 2 weeks (!) on a modest budget using mostly foam boards...and so I figured, if he can do it, why can't I? Plus, the town I have recently moved to has an outdoor parade on Halloween so it seemed like a good opportunity to build such a big 'costume'.
I had put the project on the backburner while waiting for my PL statue (from the Colonial Marines PS3 boxset) to be posted down here from my grandparents' place so I could take measurements and upscale, however the recent Aliens Day (plus Gran's inability to locate the statue) gave me some extra motivation to just get the hell on with it. Like most Aliens fans, I missed out on the hi-top Reebok Stompers while the eBay scalpers (whom I'd like to round up in one place and then nuke the entire site from low orbit...only way to be sure
) predictably had all the luck, but I am very hopeful that the lovely people at Reebok might have one or two pairs left and might furnish me with a pair (hint hint ) to really make my Loader more authentic. I do have one of the older reissues of Stomper (the blue/white/gold ones with the Alien print showing through gum soles) which I got only a month or so ago on eBay and they're my standard daily use shoes.So, without further ado, here's where I am so far. I was rather lucky in that along with the recent burst of motivation, I had a lot of materials to hand which enabled me to make a start fairly easily. I already had a glue gun, craft knives, hacksaw etc, as well as two rather large plastic estate agents signs which I, uh, 'liberated' from a skip last year and have hung onto in the hopes they'd come in handy for something. I decided to use them to make the bottom of the PL's feet rather than foam board, as the feet will take just that little bit more wear than everything else. So after some rough working out of dimensions, some cutting and gluing, I now have the bottom part of the feet done! I'll add the photos in here once I get some sleep, as my phone doesn't seem to like the RPF's picture uploading. Tomorrow I will be measuring and cutting the wooden stilts which will go into the lower legs and will hold me a good two foot off the floor! The wood again is something I already had to hand courtesy of some old dismantled furniture
I'm not the most skilled prop builder in the world, I do tend to 'rough guess' or 'wing it', and some days I don't have a lot of motivation to do anything at all, I do intend to finish this project (I'm aiming for 'as close as I can get' rather than 100% accurate) but I might be a bit intermittent with my updates so please be patient. I will of course welcome feedback and constructive criticism
Stay frosty!
