Behold, I give you Class II Power Loader with Ripley
Posted: November 3rd, 2019, 11:33 pm
Whew, what a build. I love the kit and subject matter (and can't afford the Forbidden Zone version), but I'm glad it's done. Lots of work, but worth it.
I enjoyed beating the kit up - it's been rare in my modeling career to be able to do things like oil stains, drips and chipped paint. (My earliest history as a model builder was to beat up models after they were built, but that's another subject
). It was liberating to not have to worry if all of the paint was perfect. I may have gone a little overboard with the weathering, but I figured this thing has been in space for decades and I doubt they brought a lot of paint with them.
This 1/12 scale kit was produced by Halcyon in 1991 (I think) and the Power Loader was in the movie Aliens. I'm sure it's kits like these that make people hate styrene. If you're going to build this one, here's a few recommendations:
I enjoyed beating the kit up - it's been rare in my modeling career to be able to do things like oil stains, drips and chipped paint. (My earliest history as a model builder was to beat up models after they were built, but that's another subject
). It was liberating to not have to worry if all of the paint was perfect. I may have gone a little overboard with the weathering, but I figured this thing has been in space for decades and I doubt they brought a lot of paint with them. This 1/12 scale kit was produced by Halcyon in 1991 (I think) and the Power Loader was in the movie Aliens. I'm sure it's kits like these that make people hate styrene. If you're going to build this one, here's a few recommendations:
- 1. If you buy one, make sure it hasn't been started. I made that mistake and the kit is made with several pivot points that are not glued so that you can align the various parts in final assembly. The one I bought had some of the pivots glued - major pain to correct.
2. Study the instructions carefully. The parts to be glued and not glued are color coded (well, black and white coded) and it's easy to miss which is which. The instructions are all pictorial and some depictions are pretty small.
3. Take some time to plan the build and do a lot of dry fitting - there are so many seams and gaps, but they can be minimized with some planning. Unfortunately many seams are in visible locations that are hard to get to.
4. There is a decal sheet that has about 40 decals, and mine was garbage. Luckily some kind soul put a file on the web and I was able to print it out easily on decal paper. I can send anyone the file if you can't find it.
5. Try to find a replacement head for Ripley - the one in the kit is awful. I found one on Ebay that was a huge improvement and fit perfectly. Unfortunately I'm not sure who sells it.
6. There's some detail not included in the kit: the foot harnesses (which I added), some tubing on the mechanical feet and hoses that feed the welder/flamethrower (none of which I added). Also the light inside the beacon cover is silly - I replaced it with an old car headlight (a remnant of my earliest modeling history!), but I thought about putting a LED in there.
7. Finally, don't let your dog chew on any parts. Sigh.
