Want to create some scenery to spruce up your model? It's not that complicated. Just good taste and a little skill...
Here's an old 1/60-scale Aliens Dropship kit from Halcyon—the camouflage version featured in the excellent book *Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual*. It was on display in 1998...
Back then, it had a simple snowy backdrop...
After "peeling" the kit off its snowy surface—no easy task—the old scenery is cleaned off, and extruded polystyrene is used to build two walls—in this case, the Sulaco's hold where these devices are stored—along with some recycled plastic pieces....
This gives us an idea of what the set will look like...
Images from the film were used as a reference to pinpoint the machine's location. Since the platform underneath is removable...
Items from the scrap box, along with some "Evergreen" plastic rods, will help perfect the scenery...
Once you're satisfied with your assembly, apply a coat of white primer to even out the surface...
Tractors and various machines are designed to complement the whole scene and resemble the vehicles from the movie...
Painting
First paintings using Liquitex acrylics. The background should remain subtle and not "overpower" the main subject.
Just like in the movie, we'll play with color schemes, starting from light and moving toward dark (the back wall)...
Various painted set pieces that will be added later...
The base plate on which the device rests is a plastic board that was first painted silver and then black using an airbrush stencil...
Install after drying...
Close-up of the bilge door with the lift-up hatch...
Positioning test. You can see the gradient of light colors from right to left...
The top of the left wall is painted black and dark blue to provide contrast...
Preparing the stencils and cutting out the edges of the hatch where the Dropship rests...
Painting the yellow borders. We're keeping a few bright colors for the foregrounds...
You can see that the shim plate is blurred on the left...
Finishing the borders. The ones in the background blend into the bluish tones...
We place the various elements to complete the scene, keeping the sense of depth in mind. The Weyland-Yutani-Corp logo is attached...
The device is glued into place...
An overview of the kit, which has been given a new lease on life...
