Bishop To The Rescue

[Missing Brick]

Scene from James Cameron's 1986 movie Aliens:

"Close your eyes baby. Don't look at it"...."Bishop!"

"Punch it Bishop!"

Special thanks to Matthias aka Blacktron for the custom Ripley & Bishop minifigs:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58464&st=25

Background photo kindly provided by James Addison (Extramatic)

Edited April 13, 2014 by Missing Brick

[Blacktron]

Wow! Your dropship turned out to be beautifully! That thing is huge! You did it all in dark bluish grey, didn't you? Have you solved the problem with the folding weapon arms? I wish I had enough shelf space for this, I would start building right now. My second problem would be I don't have nearly enough bricks in that color to build this. That would take hundreds of bricklink expenses.

She is a beauty.

[Missing Brick]

Thanks Blacktron. Yes the bodywork's all dark bluish grey with some white and red markings here and there. She's 90 studs long and weighes about 2.5Kg when fully loaded with APC on the ramp and battery box for the lights.

I'm up to version 5 of the folding arms for the missile pods! They're definately the most challenging part of the model. I think I may have finally found a solution that is both functional and looks good. Although they will probably still need some kind of metal reinforcement to prevent drooping when in the open position. The above photos show an older version using clicky hinges and plates that don't fold very well - so I'll post some closeups of the new version when I'm done.

Thanks again for the awesome Aliens minifigs that inspired me to build this thing!

[Blacktron]

You're welcome. I enjoy this colonial marines project very much and your awesome MOCs and dioramas are a great inspiration for me too. I keep saying to me "No, you don't have enough shelf space and dark bluish grey parts to try this", but I'm not sure if that will keep me away from trying it on the long term.

I can only imagine how difficult it must be to find the perfect solution for the folding weapon arms. I hope you'll find it and I'm looking forward to see more detail pics. You clearly deserve much more comments for this MOC. Sometimes I really don't understand this emphasis here on eurobricks.

[Missing Brick]

Thanks Blacktron. I think the Aliens movie is quite a niche interest: you need to be 46 or over to have seen it at the cinema - and I'm guessing there aren't that many over 40's on here. Also, I think the footfall in this forum is pretty low due to the Star Wars forum hoovering up most of the AFOL sci-fi fans. Plus it's difficult to make Aliens MOCs without custom minifigs so not many people are into it. That's a shame because *every scene* in that movie is ideal for MOCing: Relatively few characters, relatively small scale locations and hardware - it's all very do-able in Lego, unlike say LOTR or Star Wars - in which the locations and action tend to be on a much larger scale.

Anyway, I'm working on a dustoff photo-shoot next - with the '01' dropship coming in to land, all weapons deployed, APC on the ramp, LED lights on both the APC and the dropship. Just hoping my support wires hold out. Don't want to drop my dropship!

[Orange Leader]

I just saw Aliens again tonight and I really think your LEGO version of the dropship is awesome and It really is huge!! I like your other Aliens MOCs as well. Now where's that Xenomorph Queen? :P

[MassEditor]

Another fantastic MOC from one of my favorite movies. The engines especially are masterfully done. I can definitely tell you've put a lot of "megablocks and elbows" into the scenes you've built!

And you built this with storage for the APC??