I just received one of these and this video is an immense help for the future build. What you've done here is nothing short of amazing! Thank you for sharing!!
Lucky. I was stationed at Pearl Harbor when this movie came out. Nerve racking to say the least. That coming from a submariner. Nice lighting job./ Very nice. I winced when you said vinyl.
I was just watching Alien again and paused it to look for kits. Surprisingly enough, no one has made a better version than this kit Halcyon made so many years ago. Excellent work.
No one can say that the Nostromo is beautiful, which works well for a 'tug' - but it's functional design and brutish look make it a very convincing and memorable ship
I do love your Great JoB!! Very very close to The real ship un the film..or just exactly the same. Thanks for your work and for sharing It. A Luftwaffe lover and modeller. All the best from Madrid, Spain.
I believe there were not 3 lights in the rear, closer to 5. THAT said, they were NOT part of the filming model - Scott had them add it for lighting effect in the landing scene when he took over model photography. They were LITERALLY just bolted on to the back and bottom of the 11-foot filming model. Nice lighting and paint job!
Great darn job! interestingly, the lines of landing lights were done on the fly and within a day. The lights were grain of wheat bulbs and were placed in an irregular line due to the detail placed on the bottom. Neil Swann placed the lights around the detail so he could not get straight lines. I originally thought that lines of Christmas lights were used. I have the Halcyon kit, and the resin version of it. The resin version is hallowed and easier to light versus the vinyl version. I think the exhaust area of the engines might be shaded darker to demonstrate exhaust. Damn fine work!
VERY NICE WORK..!!..............nice touch that leds ...!!!! ..now only rest to ..build the DERELICT WISHBONE SHIP......CONGRATULATIONS.........NICE WORK......!!!
Those underbody lights strips are amazing! Great job. Amazing attention to detail. One thing that would be awesome to consider when making the base is to have the landing gear in it's over stressed position on the rock, which caused the damage to the ship when they landed. That would be a cool little Easter egg on the model. I look forward to seeing the finished base.
Great job TrekWorks, I recall the Halcyon Nostromo kit and like you said it's copy of the movie ship is fairly accurate. There were several scale models of the Nostromo built for the different shots required, such as the Bridge bow section which was a large scale model with a small tv set installed to show crew moving about inside, a set of landing legs for the close shot of the Nostromo touch-down scene, these were lit above the legs in a circular pattern just inside the leg flaps and each leg had a revolving light. The engine nacelles we see lit up when the Nostromo departed from the refinery to land on the planetoid. The scale model of the Nostromo we see landing is the one that was kept by Bob Burns outside his home for a number of years and was restored by Propstore LA, Grant McCune Design which you mentioned, sadly the model was later put up for sale and it's fate is currently uncertain. Built at Bray Studios, Berkshire (outside West London), the various Nostromo models had several attachments and color schemes during production filming in 1978, initially the main scale model was illuminated like the "Close Encounters" ship but was scrapped, then the ship was painted a mustard yellow with a basic shape--no antennae and no nacelle flaps for example--it was recolored into a pale battleship gray with large ships number and name emblazoned on the side nacelles, this too was removed and the coloring varied from a dark metallic gray, a battleship gray, off white blue and a dark green color all enhanced by lighting and panavision lense exposure--mostly filmed by Derek Vanlint and Brian Johnson (before he took off for the Empire shoot and Nicky Allder took over). You briefly mentioned the extra lighting at the rear of the ship during the touchdown scene, these were four divers lamps (later seen as set dressing on the Nostromo bridge) with superficial mesh dressing fitted, the model seen was controlled from the rear by forklift. For filming Brian and Derek used purely camera dolly movement rather than moving the model, this was to control the expose and speed of traveling and sense of scale--this was done too for the refinery model and Narcissus lifeboat ship too. At the rear we see two hexagonal exhausts which were recycled columns from a scale model of the engine room exterior which was scrapped and rebuilt using mostly the Space Shuttle fuel tank kits and greeblies. Martin Bower, Jon Sorensen, Nicky Allder and a little help from set dresser Roger Christian were the nucleus of the modeling team at Bray and with Bower, Allder and Johnson were all Anderson veterans. I hope this information is of some use and once again a job well done!
GREAT JOB !! I bought this kit about 20 years ago , and it is still waiting to be assembled. One of these days... And the Sulaco kit is also waiting...
Boyd....I have just caught up on your recent uploads and man.......You are a model building machine!! Fantastic builds of the Nostromo and Arizona. With those as well as the client builds going on, "WOW" just "WOW"!
That's awesome i built a few of the halcyon kits back in the nineties the aliens and the power loader Ripley used I wanted the drop ship and APC but they are very few and far between would of been awesome if these kits were rise out of the dust and be retooled id definitely buy them great work kutgw cheers
Love the inscale lighting - would have been easier to go overboard but you did an excellent job. For the base I may recommend Woodland Scenics rock molds - you can cast multiple copies in plaster, break em up to make different sections and blend them with spackle to make an alien terrain. Good luck!
So if it isnt filled with some kind of epoxy or resin filler, after time wont the rubber droop or warp? I know filling it would probably negate the fiber optics lighting ect. Maybe supports inside instead of filling it.
I would say it might be a concern if the model was left in a non climate controlled area where excessive heat or humidity could get to it. It's been 5 years and no change in it's shape so far.
Looks amazing! Man I miss Halcyon, they did some awesome kits back in the day. I have the Halcyon Dropship and APC from Aliens but was never lucky enough to find a Nostromo :(
Great Job. Think about this: As the ship is landing in the movie there are 2 or 3 extra, very large, spot lights on the underneath of the aft section that are clearly visible in the shot. They are covered by some sort of protective mesh. If you could add those, you would be even more accurate. I have this model and its been sitting in the original box for years. Id like to put it together and I love your achievement with the lights.
got to admit.... the lighting on her belly is uncanny to the prop., HIGHLY ACCURATE/SPOT ON LIGHTING UNDERNEATH. the pigment/paintjob/weathering...... just kick as work.....
Awesome work Boyd!! I've been waiting since the kit first appeared in your collection to see it built! Looking forward to the other Alien builds you mentioned! Can't wait! Take it easy! ...Fred
Beautiful work, my only addition would be to ask if it would have been possible to put LED's at the tips of the Main long antennae and one or two others midship.
It’s a great job, nice weathering too, I wish you show your finished models in a neater less distracting place or maybe cover that other junk with a black cloth or cardboard! Thanks!
Great job Boyd,i picked this kit up a year or so back at a good price,they are hard to find and very expensive now,i have seen one built using brass rods to replace the kit ariel's,as they can be warped out of shape.
Yes I saw some build threads where they were using the brass rods mainly to get some fiber optic lighting in them. I looked into it but the smallest rod I could find was way thicker than the kit parts and looks out of scale. I was lucky all the rods were good in this kit and they do give you a few extra with it.
I do like the underside view-- you might consider a base that allows the ship to be slightly off the ground, at some kind of angle. Just so you can see the lighting.
Polar Lights now has the licence to do kits from the Alien films. The 1st to be released is the USS Sulaco in 1/1000 scale. It will be more than likely followed up by the Nostromo. Both of these releases will be much more accurate than the classic Halcyon kits.
hello mr. Boyd enjoyed that review of your Nostromo model build.. but would also like to know how long that ship is in inches and how wide it is in inches
I thought the colours were a little too dark overall compared to actual screen shots, perhaps darker toward the rear where the engines are. The lighting was very effective.
That is one scary ship. Would look great in a cryogenically cooled clear tank to -200 Celcius with fans swirling smoke around to simulate the planets surface!
Hopefully, they will do a re-issue as this is one ship kit I always wanted. At least it's one that wouldn't be too hard to scratch build yourself if they never do.
For my own build, can anyone tell me why & what wiring goes through the landing gear down into the base? Isn't each LED, used for the landing gear, powered from the control board inside the Hull then with a single 0.5 mm LED & wire run to each gear and mounted above gear?
I just received one of these and this video is an immense help for the future build. What you've done here is nothing short of amazing! Thank you for sharing!!
This old ship is iconic. Good work bringing it to "life" again.
Ah, Halycon models. A truly brilliant company.
That’s a stunningly beautiful build.
Lucky. I was stationed at Pearl Harbor when this movie came out. Nerve racking to say the least. That coming from a submariner. Nice lighting job./ Very nice. I winced when you said vinyl.
I was just watching Alien again and paused it to look for kits. Surprisingly enough, no one has made a better version than this kit Halcyon made so many years ago. Excellent work.
Holy crap! That model is $500-$700, unbuilt and $1200-$1500 built.
Landing lights are same as the film, that's pretty impressive..
that is a cool kit and an excellent job on her
Thanks Kenny, I wish this kit was easier to get. A lot of people want one so it would be cool if some company started making them again.
Wow the lighting really brings this to life!! Great work! Halcyon has long been my most adored model makers from the Alien franchise.
What a masterpiece, great work !
No one can say that the Nostromo is beautiful, which works well for a 'tug' - but it's functional design and brutish look make it a very convincing and memorable ship
One of my favorite sci-fi horror films as well! Well done Boyd!
That is excellent. Great job on the rows of landing lights. That looks straight out of the film.
Thanks!
This is absolutely stunning work. Your attention to detail is superb and a true testimony to the original ship. Nice work.
I can stare at this for hours. Remarkable work
Very cool,nice work. 🤩Can't wait to see her finished
Amazing work!
I do love your Great JoB!! Very very close to The real ship un the film..or just exactly the same. Thanks for your work and for sharing It. A Luftwaffe lover and modeller. All the best from Madrid, Spain.
I believe there were not 3 lights in the rear, closer to 5. THAT said, they were NOT part of the filming model - Scott had them add it for lighting effect in the landing scene when he took over model photography. They were LITERALLY just bolted on to the back and bottom of the 11-foot filming model.
Nice lighting and paint job!
great job with the Nostromo.
STILL UP WAITING FOR THE ALIENS QANON GUY?
Great darn job! interestingly, the lines of landing lights were done on the fly and within a day. The lights were grain of wheat bulbs and were placed in an irregular line due to the detail placed on the bottom. Neil Swann placed the lights around the detail so he could not get straight lines. I originally thought that lines of Christmas lights were used. I have the Halcyon kit, and the resin version of it. The resin version is hallowed and easier to light versus the vinyl version. I think the exhaust area of the engines might be shaded darker to demonstrate exhaust. Damn fine work!
Never thought I would have ever seen this kit built
Wow! Fantastic job.
Super cool Boyd! One of my favorite movies and ship! Excellent work 👍
Thanks Mike!
You really nailed those landing lights mate !.. Great work
Found this today. This is fantastic. Look awesome.
An excellent job all the way around Boyd! Well done.
I love this ship and have this exact kit. LOVE what you did with it Boyd. Really looks great!
Impressive very impressive!!
Absolutely terrific!
VERY NICE WORK..!!..............nice touch that leds ...!!!! ..now only rest to ..build the DERELICT WISHBONE SHIP......CONGRATULATIONS.........NICE WORK......!!!
Those underbody lights strips are amazing! Great job. Amazing attention to detail. One thing that would be awesome to consider when making the base is to have the landing gear in it's over stressed position on the rock, which caused the damage to the ship when they landed. That would be a cool little Easter egg on the model. I look forward to seeing the finished base.
Well I'm thinking of having it in the not quite landed position so you can see the underside lighting a little easier when I mount it on the base.
Great job on this Boyd, I have this kit and you have definitely inspired me, You really did the Nostromo right!
Great job TrekWorks, I recall the Halcyon Nostromo kit and like you said it's copy of the movie ship is fairly accurate. There were several scale models of the Nostromo built for the different shots required, such as the Bridge bow section which was a large scale model with a small tv set installed to show crew moving about inside, a set of landing legs for the close shot of the Nostromo touch-down scene, these were lit above the legs in a circular pattern just inside the leg flaps and each leg had a revolving light. The engine nacelles we see lit up when the Nostromo departed from the refinery to land on the planetoid.
The scale model of the Nostromo we see landing is the one that was kept by Bob Burns outside his home for a number of years and was restored by Propstore LA, Grant McCune Design which you mentioned, sadly the model was later put up for sale and it's fate is currently uncertain.
Built at Bray Studios, Berkshire (outside West London), the various Nostromo models had several attachments and color schemes during production filming in 1978, initially the main scale model was illuminated like the "Close Encounters" ship but was scrapped, then the ship was painted a mustard yellow with a basic shape--no antennae and no nacelle flaps for example--it was recolored into a pale battleship gray with large ships number and name emblazoned on the side nacelles, this too was removed and the coloring varied from a dark metallic gray, a battleship gray, off white blue and a dark green color all enhanced by lighting and panavision lense exposure--mostly filmed by Derek Vanlint and Brian Johnson (before he took off for the Empire shoot and Nicky Allder took over).
You briefly mentioned the extra lighting at the rear of the ship during the touchdown scene, these were four divers lamps (later seen as set dressing on the Nostromo bridge) with superficial mesh dressing fitted, the model seen was controlled from the rear by forklift. For filming Brian and Derek used purely camera dolly movement rather than moving the model, this was to control the expose and speed of traveling and sense of scale--this was done too for the refinery model and Narcissus lifeboat ship too. At the rear we see two hexagonal exhausts which were recycled columns from a scale model of the engine room exterior which was scrapped and rebuilt using mostly the Space Shuttle fuel tank kits and greeblies. Martin Bower, Jon Sorensen, Nicky Allder and a little help from set dresser Roger Christian were the nucleus of the modeling team at Bray and with Bower, Allder and Johnson were all Anderson veterans. I hope this information is of some use and once again a job well done!
Thanks for your comments. Lot's of interesting info about Nostromo.
Great build Boyd... thank for posting it.
GREAT JOB !! I bought this kit about 20 years ago , and it is still waiting to be assembled. One of these days... And the Sulaco kit is also waiting...
A good investment, these kits cost a fortune when they turn up on ebay!
Very good !!! 👍🏻
I lusted after this kit when it came out.
Great work Boyd, awesome work with the lighting.
Thanks buddy!
Awesome Build brother. You always amaze with your light work!
Thanks Gil, I hope you're still planning on coming down here for the Fiesta Model show. It would be cool to see you there.
Boyd....I have just caught up on your recent uploads and man.......You are a model building machine!! Fantastic builds of the Nostromo and Arizona. With those as well as the client builds going on, "WOW" just "WOW"!
VERY NICE work Boyd...
That's awesome i built a few of the halcyon kits back in the nineties the aliens and the power loader Ripley used I wanted the drop ship and APC but they are very few and far between would of been awesome if these kits were rise out of the dust and be retooled id definitely buy them great work kutgw cheers
Your ship got all the wires sticking out ,now we got the WiFi and Bluetooth to think about. Anyway I’m a fan nostromaus.
Love the inscale lighting - would have been easier to go overboard but you did an excellent job.
For the base I may recommend Woodland Scenics rock molds - you can cast multiple copies in plaster, break em up to make different sections and blend them with spackle to make an alien terrain. Good luck!
Cool tip, thanks!
Excellent work!!
Man brother that turned out great very very nice build
Thanks Man!
I had this one, the big alien one & the face hunger in these kits. They were expensive at the time, the detail in them was very good.
amazing u do incredible work great model 🖒🖒🖒🖒
As usual Boyd, incredible work and it's awesome!!
Looks amazing! Well done.
FAAANNNTAAASSSTIC!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Looks amazing! Great work!
I loved Halcyon models. Why can't they be re released?
😮beautiful❤❤
Looks great!
you do amazing work!
wow Boyd that look's incredible I've been looking to find one for a wile looks great!
Great done,regards from sweden
I love this.Do you have the video of the base?
So if it isnt filled with some kind of epoxy or resin filler, after time wont the rubber droop or warp? I know filling it would probably negate the fiber optics lighting ect. Maybe supports inside instead of filling it.
I would say it might be a concern if the model was left in a non climate controlled area where excessive heat or humidity could get to it. It's been 5 years and no change in it's shape so far.
@@TrekWorks That makes sense. Thanks
Sweet!! It's kinda creepy looking in the dark. Def has that Aliens vibe! Awesome work as always Boyd! 👍🏼
Thanks Omar, yeah it's meant to be creepy ;)
Enjoyed the Video.
Looks amazing! Man I miss Halcyon, they did some awesome kits back in the day. I have the Halcyon Dropship and APC from Aliens but was never lucky enough to find a Nostromo :(
Great Job. Think about this: As the ship is landing in the movie there are 2 or 3 extra, very large, spot lights on the underneath of the aft section that are clearly visible in the shot. They are covered by some sort of protective mesh. If you could add those, you would be even more accurate. I have this model and its been sitting in the original box for years. Id like to put it together and I love your achievement with the lights.
got to admit.... the lighting on her belly is uncanny to the prop., HIGHLY ACCURATE/SPOT ON LIGHTING UNDERNEATH. the pigment/paintjob/weathering...... just kick as work.....
Awesome work Boyd!! I've been waiting since the kit first appeared in your collection to see it built! Looking forward to the other Alien builds you mentioned! Can't wait! Take it easy! ...Fred
Beautiful work, my only addition would be to ask if it would have been possible to put LED's at the tips of the Main long antennae and one or two others midship.
Nice always wondered how big that model was
It’s a great job, nice weathering too, I wish you show your finished models in a neater less distracting place or maybe cover that other junk with a black cloth or cardboard! Thanks!
Wait, so if this is the nostromo, what's the name of the biggest ship the rode in on?
Great job Boyd,i picked this kit up a year or so back at a good price,they are hard to find and very expensive now,i have seen one built using brass rods to replace the kit ariel's,as they can be warped out of shape.
Yes I saw some build threads where they were using the brass rods mainly to get some fiber optic lighting in them.
I looked into it but the smallest rod I could find was way thicker than the kit parts and looks out of scale. I was lucky all the rods were good in this kit and they do give you a few extra with it.
Very cool!
I do like the underside view-- you might consider a base that allows the ship to be slightly off the ground, at some kind of angle. Just so you can see the lighting.
You read my mind Eliot, I was thinking of some clear acrylic rods on the base under the gear to raise it up a bit
just like you mentioned.
Beautiful Job my friend, that turned out above cool. Any chance of you going to give the base sound FX.
Thanks Dennis, yes sir I'm getting a board from Tenacontrols for the lights and sounds. Stay tuned ;)
Polar Lights now has the licence to do kits from the Alien films. The 1st to be released is the USS Sulaco in 1/1000 scale. It will be more than likely followed up by the Nostromo. Both of these releases will be much more accurate than the classic Halcyon kits.
james bielby
Polar lights take an eternity in releasing their kits, but no doubt cheaper than the ebay scalpers.
Beautiful
hello mr. Boyd enjoyed that review of your Nostromo model build.. but would also like to know how long that ship is in inches and how wide it is in inches
It's about a foot long and about 10 inches wide.
I thought the colours were a little too dark overall compared to actual screen shots, perhaps darker toward the rear where the engines are. The lighting was very effective.
How much is this kit going for?
Have you recording of the making of the ship, the lighting and painting.
No sorry, this video was all I have on it. I'll make another one showing it completed and mounted on it's permanent base.
Putting your hand in the shot sure helps for scale reference.
Where is the escape shuttle? I could never understand in the film, where it is relative to the entire ship.
Just needs some smoke coming out of the engines getting blown by the wind. Beautiful model!
brought to us by jack links😁
That is one scary ship. Would look great in a cryogenically cooled clear tank to -200 Celcius with fans swirling smoke around to simulate the planets surface!
Totally awesome
I built the Halcyon APC. It was OK but there were plenty of issues.
Hey do you know where I can find the light layout for the underside of this kit as seen when the Nitrous puts down on that planet please?
Awesome thanks.
awesome!!!!
Hopefully, they will do a re-issue as this is one ship kit I always wanted. At least it's one that wouldn't be too hard to scratch build yourself if they never do.
Finally was able to acquire one in late 2022.
Awesome
Oh god... that so rare... 😭 I want it...
Every once in a while they pop up on ebay. Just sell a kidney or two and you're in! 😉
I have this kit. I built it but did not light it. Haven't finished painting it. That was probably 25 years ago.
This kit is so hard to find!
How come you didn't light up the two lower engine? Plus. Instead of using 5mm led. Have you thought of using 10mm led?
I don't think they showed the lower engines lighting up in the movie.
For my own build, can anyone tell me why & what wiring goes through the landing gear down into the base? Isn't each LED, used for the landing gear, powered from the control board inside the Hull then with a single 0.5 mm LED & wire run to each gear and mounted above gear?
Nice.
Cool.