Sunday 4 January 2015

Aliens Spaceplane Dropship




One thing that's obviously missing from my 10mm Aliens mini-project is a 1/144th scale UD-4L Cheyenne dropship, which exists as a very expensive out of production model that's not readily available and far too pricey for my budget:

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/ColonialMarineDropShip-CataloguePage.htm

So, to fill the gap, I've kit bashed a  Revell 1/144th scale YF-23A prototype fighter kit that I had in the loft, to create a Weyland Yutani Corporation executive shuttle-type spaceplane dropship thing.


This involved scratchbuiling some landing gear using the spare sidewinder missiles from the kit with some plastic rod and card for the supports and skids, then adding an access ramp using the missile bay kit doors and the original oleo legs from the undercarriage. I left off the tailplanes as they made it look too much like a fighter aircraft rather than a spaceplane-style dropship but had to leave the canopy as it was. I think it'll look pretty neat painted up and will also be useful as a scenario objective.


While up in the loft, I found an old EM4 plastic mech model minus any arms, so I had a go at bashing it into a power loader using some Lego robot arms that I pinched from the kids toy box. It's far too big for the version in the film, so I'll use it as an alternative heavy duty lifter which may just get used as scenic decoration. At least it didn't cost very much to put together, which is very much in keeping with the rest of the project!

1 comment:

  1. Very creative of you to use the fighter like that! :)

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