God damn that awesome

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"Colonial Marines never die, they go to hell and regroup."

A01/TQ2.0.52152E1
Cpl Waldon B, Callsign: Waldo New York-USA

Thank you very much guys (and gals). Feels great to do something that got such a great response. I actually just boxed up most of the bits for storage. Kind of a bummer. My only regret was that we weren't able to scratch up more events to rock it, but I'll be hanging the head over my fireplace in the 'man cave' year round!

One of the coolest things I've seen. Inspiring stuff.

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I have a class 2 rating

Wow, that is awesome!! Your wife has great spirit!

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Pfc. Wells, Brandon. W
"I am the ultimate bad-ass. State of the bad-ass art."

As I mentioned in other threads, the whole fam is getting involved for an event this weekend. My wife talked my sister in law into being the "alien"! They are twins, so I knew my wife's old alien costume would fit with no modifications so I dug it out of the shed.

The two years in a box were NOT kind to our old buddy, though. The tape had started to disconnect all over.


I was toying with the idea of resculpting and retaping everything down, but on a whim I thought "what happens if I try to just burn the edges/flappy parts" off and spray everything with rubber from a can?

Sure enough, a heat gun tightened up the 'loose' ends pretty damn good!!! I took a heat gun to the entire costume. I then made the jaw and teeth smaller to make it look better overall and re-did the tendons on the jaw. After a blast from the heat gun I have to say everything is much improved.



Hit everything with a can of $10 "flex seal" rubber




As thrilled as I am with the overall result, I do have regrets/worries
-I ran out of rubber before I got to the tail. Would hate to buy another can for one part, but we will see.
-I also want to hit everything with a coat of "gloss", but I am not sure how spray gloss coat will deal with the rubber. Maybe a big bottle of "mod podge" gloss would work better, but now we are losing the "budget build" principle of the thing
-I wish I had masked off or not put the teeth back in before I sprayed. I may wrap them in foil or something, but now the texture makes it hard to just paint
-Was going for "aliens warrior", but the new treatment solidified an AVP:R warrior (at least to me when I see the ridges).

Oh well!

But that is the 'rebuild' so far. 3 days to drop!

Wow. The "rebuild" looks even better than the old one. Great work.
Hope it holds a few Halloween/Drops.

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Sgt. Frank Peters 'reload' Smartgun Operator
A03/TQ3.0.12136E1 "It will be no picknick!"
AL Colonial Admin. - Sergeant at Arms (SgtA) -- 2020-2022
GERCM - Executive Officer (XO)
UKCM Foreign Legion: The Deviant Dragoons

This is Pure Epic Awesomeness!!!

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USCM- The Colonial Marines- A Brotherhood of Bad Asses!

Great re-shapeing of the costume. You're in time to halloween:)

Thanks guys.

I did end up fabbing up some other quick items (same process. Duct tape & cardboard, heat gun, then rubberized).

I made "bicep" and "forearm" sections this time.


I added some little "spines" on the back between the tubes.


And the finished product!
Thanks to my sis-in-law for stepping up! She had never seen the movie until we all watched it the night before, but she had fun. She was definitely the star as I still heard the typical "cool army guy costume" and "GI Joe, right?!" (luckily the GI Joe remark was quickly shot down by the guys KID that actually knew Aliens).
But Alien was a hit! Everyone loves the alien...



("Eat THIS!")

Just curious, how did you mount the tail to the costume?

It is bolted to the plastic paintball armor. I had a bit of 1" steel tube that I bent upwards and ran one end through the foam tube of the tail and sandwiched the other end with two bolts and some washers around the plastic body part. Its all pretty secure, but can be broken down for storage.

thanks for the quick response...

So it has been a long time since I dug this out. When I did, I was disappointed to see all the paint/rubber was flaking and it was absolutely falling apart. Very sad that it had turned to trash while in the shed, but I figured Halloween was a perfect time to give it a final send off!

I slapped what I could on a mannequin. I electrical-taped whatever i could back in place and balanced it all together as best I was able.




Later while trick-or-treating with my kids, my wife tells me it fell. It exploded upon impact I am told. The remnants are certainly beyond repair! Glad the old boy got one more outing, and maybe now I will focus on the v2.0 when I get a chance. Had lots of fun with this stack of cardboard, tape and paint.

Ah, boooo!

Look forward to the next one bison, this was fun to follow along with. Great job!

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"I'm working on it ... "