Hi there!

This thread is supposed to be a successor to the old Pulse Rifle grip study thread (see here), but that one is already archived. So I thought I'd open a new thread to share my „research“ regarding the 10-hole Hero grip.

I believe it was member b26354 who told me that the pre-production grip with 7 lines (see here) was not used in the movie. Instead, it was a grip with 6 lines:


I looked through my reference pics and it seems this is correct. It‘s also the same grip in the „The Risk Always Lives“ behind-the-scenes video:


The distinct shape seems to match the grip of the „Delta“/Propstore Pulse Rifle, further corroborating the widely-held belief that the „Delta“/Propstore Pulse Rifle is built with quite a few 10-hole-hero parts.



Thus, I created this template for the grips. It is based mainly on the pics of the „Delta“/Propstore Pulse Rifle from http://www.alienscollection.com (the top one of these: http://www.alienscollection.com/pralphadelta1.jpg)



This should print 1:1 on A4 paper if you click here to download it at full resolution. Feel free to use the template at your leisure, I can supply the SVG-File on demand, just PM me.

If anyone has more pics of the „Delta“/Propstore Pulse Rifle or any other input, please feel free to share! I‘d love to have an accurate grip!

Cheers!
Roman


BTW: The „Delta“/Propstore Pulse Rifle seems to have the Hero Thompson and full GL section. The SPAS is attached differently though, and the 8-hole-vent and shoulder stock are obviously different. However, even the shrouds seem to have the „rivets“ down the mag well. This seems for all intents and purposes to be the Hero rifle, except vent and stock. Or are there other differences? The front block and GL barrel front are a bit different too...

I would wager the 'shrouds' from the "Delta" are not original the 10-hole. My suspicion is they are actually from the "Ideal 8" (final prop production photos).

-Reason #1 is the front plate of the mag well on the "10-hole hero" was fairly large and was mis-shapen in order to wrap around the GL trigger. The front mag well plate on the 'Delta' seems to be flat and fit below the trigger leaving the trigger assembly more or less exposed naturally.


-Reason #2 I think this is because you see striking similarities between the the 'cut' of the edges on the shrouds. With so few pics of the bottom from close range, it is hard to say for certain, but look at the 'width' at the various points on the edges of the 'Delta' (modern) and 'Ideal 8' (at time of production) where the shrouds wrap around the bottom of the gun. Unless they were all lopsided (which I'll admit is possible) the similarity can't be ignored.


So for those two reasons, I think the shrouds from the "delta' are actually from the screen-used "ideal 8" and not the "10-hole".


And not to side-track, but more evidence of part swapping can be found on the "Zeta" (wood handle, tech manual) rifle. Someone got a photo close up that showed the Thompson's serial#. Compare it to the serial# on the "Ideal 8" from the production photos.

It is pretty likely the tech manual rifle had reassembled what it could from the pile of screen used parts and filled in the rest with new stuff, including a new grip.

All goes to show: These "Screen used rifles" are not as great a reference as we all want them to be. In the end, they were all disassembled, some put back together for 'Alien 3' randomly, most repainted multiple times, and most had 'new' parts incorporated (like new wood grips, vac-formed shrouds, rivets where screws once stood, and welded reconstruction when no visible welds were present on originals). The existing batch of screen used "rifles" are very likely just screen used "parts" reassembled.


(BTW, the grip looks great! Sorry...got sidetracked there)

You‘re right about the shrouds. I also noticed the plate wrapped around the trigger.

The „Delta“ Rifle still seems to be built from a lot of 10-hole hero parts though, even if it was re-assembled way after the movie with some other parts mixed in.

I am pretty conviced about the „Delta“ grip being the hero grip, the screen-used 10-hole hero grip certainly doesn‘t match any of the other (known) PRs grips. Definitely not the shape of the pre-production grip.

Very interesting!

Cheers!
Roman

Oh, yeah totally. I think "guts" of the 10-hole are most def in the Delta and that most likely does include the grips so I agree with you.

Also, relating to 'grips', I believe they were simply sanded down and cut to shape out of the original thompson grips. With the woodworking being done by hand, each grip is probably slightly different from the others. I really wish that archived thread hadn't lost all its images.

I have a lot of those pics saved in my reference folder, but not all (some were gone from the thread long ago).

The original grips most definitely were just sanded down Thompson grips. I‘m working on one right now, and just sanding the sides down so the grip is 1“ wide all the way down creates the very same flat side shape seen on the original grips.

If you know which photo goes with each post, I can fix/restore them within the thread. Please PM me the photos with where to insert them. I will update the archived post by inserting the correct pics in the right spots then merge these two threads.

PM sent.
It seems however that I don't have the images from that thread, so not much help there... sorry.

Speaking of pulse rifle grips I always figured they copied the look of the Franchi SPAS 12 when they reshaped the Thompson into the pulse rifle's grip. I don't think it's a coincidence.

Oh absolutely. It seems that‘s where they got the six lines design from.
Although I find the reshaped Thompson grips aesthetically more pleasing than the SPAS pistol grip.

Cheers!
Roman

Just to illustrate: both are real Thompson grips, the left one as I received it, the right one sanded down so that it has a uniform width of 1", thus flattening the "bulbous" lower half.
This gives the grip the flat sides we know from the pulse rifle grips.





Cheers!
Roman

I ended up just wrapping the grip and the UGL foregrip in black grip-tape;

https://i.imgur.com/blXz29r.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rtEOUnV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pJpIaA8.jpg

not the prettiest but feels like I'm less likely to drop it or something.

Oh I also wrapped some around the end of the stock;

https://i.imgur.com/cO1UEjn.jpg

It looks much better in real life without the camera flash.

I'm thinking of taking the UGL racker off and putting the tape around to the inside for a cleaner look then re-attaching it.