Again I wouldn't say the velcro on the older jackets is an olive green, it's a brighter green than the jacket.(see my jacket pic)
So if it didn't take the brown dye. I think it would look like the Dallas jacket pictured.

What Nylon on the Jacket do you mean?
If you mean the strip for the buttons then that is a different green again, more of a brown/grey/green.

_________________
Martin 'Victim' Victory
A86/TQ3.4.49421E3
UKCM 13th Regt. 1st Batt. Freebooters


you can't take the PUNK outa Spunkmeyer

The button strip on your's is a different green again to that on the other stock photo of an older Mk3.

I can certainly see what you mean about the velcro colour on your jacket cuffs.

The trouble here is that there was so much variation between jackets.

I'd sure love to know for certain what colour the damn things were! It's been bugging for years.

_________________
"The other Gareth"

Hey guys, Here's some photos of the Nostromo costume that I've put together.













Now, I would be the first to say that this is not 100% screen accurate.
The MKIII jacket is pretty easy to modify into a Nostromo jacket. I made the lacing on the sleeves from scratch and was easier (and cheaper) to make that finding the actual G-4B flightsuits that they used for the movie costumes. The shirt I used was a modified Dickies work shirt and the pants were modified Dickies painter pants. Considering that I have next to no sewing abilities, I think that this turned out pretty good.

Randy in San Diego

I think it turned out pretty good too!

How did you stencil NOSTROMO on the back of the jacket? It looks damn near perfect!

_________________
I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

That looks bloody good!!
You've done very well there!

Now then, one important question... What colour is your jacket?

_________________
"The other Gareth"

The color of my jacket is a greyish-green, similar to the top jacket pictured in post 15 in this thread. It could use the darker style buttons pictured in the lower photo from the same post, but other that I'm happy with the the way it looks in contrast to screen captures. I'm not sure if any of us will ever have a chance to examine a screen used jacket to know the exact color, so I'm just not going to worry about that. I've seen several of these MKIII jackets now and they all vary in color and design details depending on their date of manufature and supplier.

This was a fun project to work on from a movie that doesn't get enough costume representation. It makes it all worth it at Comic Con when just a handfull of people recognize the costume from ALIEN.
Maybe in the future I'll try to remake the shirt & pants from scratch.

Randy in San Diego

Randy,
Glad to see you posting here.

I got the pic of the jackets from John F.

Once I get my sewing machine serviced I will be tackling this beast.

Cheers.

E...

Excellent work Randy.

So you haven't dyed your jacket then.
Again maybe it's my eyes but yours looks brownish to me in the pics.

How did you make the lacing on the sleeves?
Did you make and sew all the lace loops?
I've been trying to find ready made tape like that, sort of thing you might see on clothing/corsets with laced up ribbons, no idea what it's called though.

_________________
Martin 'Victim' Victory
A86/TQ3.4.49421E3
UKCM 13th Regt. 1st Batt. Freebooters


you can't take the PUNK outa Spunkmeyer

OK. So, Randy has one of the current style jackets which are a grey/green. Not exactly olive drab but that's probably the best all round description. Interestingly this appears with a brownish tint in his photos which looks pretty close to that which is seen in some of those stills.

The 70's jackets didn't come in this colour, they were more olive. To get from the olive green of the older issue to the colour of my current issue jacket would require more blue.
I dyed a pair of olive lightweight trousers a while ago with some blue dye. They turned a darker green/with a hint of grey as I'd expected. Certainly not the olive drab/grey-green of my flight jacket.

I'm not sure the costumers would have gone to the hassle of colour stripping the jackets befor dying them so I do wonder what (if any) colour they were dyed with.

The mystery continues...

Really great work there Randy! When I first saw the trousers I assumed you must have made them from scratch. The modifications look very well done!
You say you have next to no sewing ability but from what I see there I'd say that you could make just as good of a job with a scratch made pair without too much difficulty.

I see you've made the jacket laces the same way I was planning to.

_________________
"The other Gareth"

Fantastic!! just need to get a little dirty

What's your address so I can send my painter pants

_________________
Rob Slater
A08/TQ2.0.42136E1

Randy did some excellent work; he helped me a ton when we worked on our costumes. As he said we did not get much recognition at ComicCOn this year, but it is a most comfortable costume to wear.

Thanks for posting Randy & Eric.

-Mac (John F.)

PS. there is also a thread we created over at SciFiHero.net that talked about the white Nostromo shirt. It also has some links and somewhat old info on patches and medalions-- it may help.

http://www.scifihero.net/forums/index.p ... entry39635

Don't worry about that... Unless you are dressed as an Alien the uniforms from the series do not get much attention in general.

But I think slowly but surely we are making a mark.


Yeah so uhh... How did you put the NOSTROMO on the back of your jacket Randy?

_________________
I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Randy created a stencil using stiff cardboard, based on some artwork from friends who did the jacket years ago.

It was traced and cut out by hand, then the letters were spray painted on.

-Mac

_________________
"Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?" -Pink Floyd

Pump Demibold should be the correct font:

_________________
I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies.

Here's a Nostromo patch that I've been working on. It's closer to being screen accurate than most of the patches available commercially.



Randy in San Diego

That's looking tight Randy!

Indeed! Much better than the "happy rainbow" commercial patches!

I scored a Mk3 jacket the other day... my size, seems to be the "grey/green" version:



In bright light and w/ flash, it looks like this:


(Same jacket - I just removed the name tag velcro)

So... how to proceed? Dye or not? SG-RB, is your jacket stock colour? In the pics, it definitively has that Alien brownish hue...
I have a feeling the colour seen on screen is about as elusive as the one on Han Solo's ESB parka or Indiana Jones' Raiders shirt... something with lighting, post-prod and film stock... maybe?

_________________
I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies.

I can tell you Randy's and my jacket (seen in post 15, this thread; jacket #1) are the same color (the OD green) and we did not dye them.

In my picture, posted by Eric, in bright sunlight that jacket looks different than indoor w/ flash. I am certain lighting has a great deal to do with the precieved color of the movie jackets. THose flouresent lights on the NOSTROMO (I think) give the jacket a bluish tinge, like when Dallas goes to see Mother. But in other sceens it looks brown or even green. Now the stills pics could be color altered when they where processed, so who can say there.

I do not think the movie jackets were dyed, but I don't know that for certain and we've never seen an actual jacket surface, so we cannot make comparisons (a real shame).

I'm also not sure how the RAF MK3 jackets will take dye, since they are a treated materal to make them water-resistent???

-Mac

BTW nice score !!

_________________
"Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?" -Pink Floyd

The new jackets in these photos do look quite close in colour to the screen used jackets in their photos.
My only concern is knowing that the old jackets were a very different green. Much richer than the OD / Sage colour of the new ones.

My Mk3 is very similar in colour to my Sage N2B (Alien 3).

_________________
"The other Gareth"

I'm in the same boat about whether to try and dye or not.

Has as been said the jackets seem to come in all different shades depending on year or manufacturer.

It seems all we know is the jackets must be pre 79.

My jacket is from 72 and a lot of the details seem match up with the SU jackets (black buttons, wider brighter green velcro on cuffs).
But as WDI said it is a richer olive green and doesn't seem to vary in colour under different lighting (unlike the newer Shiney more sage green ones).
Of course they would have been newer jackets when used so maybe they had a bit of a shine to them which would affect the colours more under the varying set lighting.

Even Bretts Jacket goes from bright green to brown in those pics.


Love the patch Randy, are you thinking of selling them?

_________________
Martin 'Victim' Victory
A86/TQ3.4.49421E3
UKCM 13th Regt. 1st Batt. Freebooters


you can't take the PUNK outa Spunkmeyer

Anyone know where I can get a copy of Pump Demi Bold
for free.
I'm not about to waste $30 on a font thats over 30 years old and will only use once or twice.

E...

PM'ed you, D6.

_________________
I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies.

Replied.
Thanks my friend.

Eric...

Time for a bump.
I'm at a loss here... thought about mixing some blue and gray dye for the jacket... then, I popped Alien in the DVD player and checked the bridge scenes - now I'm partial to adding some brown to the green instead. I dunno... a "Han Solo ESB parka"-situation has arised. Now, I know I can't emulate the very true color of the jackets used in the production, but I can strive for some true-to-screen color anyway... opinions?

Another thing for you experts out there: what color are the wings? Dallas has gold wings on his jacket - are Kane's supposed to be silver?

Also, anybody got a lead on the shoes used by the crew?

Randy - I really like the look of your patches! Are you going to offer them?

_________________
I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies.

The jacket is a tough call. I like the fact I got the OD Green one, and I am happy with that color. SOme brown dye would probably be the next best option, but it seems to be a real matter of taste at this point.

The wings: Yes, Dallas had yellow/gold wings, which were supposedly based on an older wing design. However, in a few scenes Dallas has blue wings on his uni- (check the scene in sickbay after Kane comes out of his coma -- costuming flaw.) Yellow/gold wings have never been available as a patch, so you would have to make your own.

It is speculated that Kane had silver wings, but I have never seen definiative proof, but it is a good assumption and I like the idea. So many of the scenes of Kane's wings are in distored lighting conditions, so it is puzzling (the blue wings could look silver under the right lights)??

For sneaker, the closest match today is a pair of all white Converse All-Star Hi-tops. Not the exact sneaker; I'm not certain the original was ever found out. Then the mods to put in leather, rivets and D-rings for the laces and paint over some bits white.

I was looking at some PF Flyers (yes, they are back) but could not find any that matched the movie sneaks.

-Mac

_________________
"Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?" -Pink Floyd