“…FOR WITHIN EACH SEED, THERE IS A PROMISE OF A FLOWER, AND WITHIN EACH DEATH, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, THERE'S ALWAYS A NEW LIFE.”

Dillon (Alien 3).

...And to think, till this point it had all gone so well…  

Anyway. There I was, thinking I’d finished the damn thing. I’d painted, highlighted and sat it proudly on my writing table with a custom-made backdrop and- SNAP. It broke off at the wrist, the one on which took the weight. With nothing to further support its weight, the whole figure arched forward, uprooting the right foot. Alien, stand and backdrop inevitably came crashing down. In the fall, the Alien also lost his entire right leg. I considered gluing the thing together, but I figured it would be too complicated to exactly match the colour tone, even with the same paints. All in all, it was fucked. I gave the thing a few weeks, then resolved to start over.So, the first thing was to reassemble the figure. I glued the limbs back together, reattached it to the base, and then used a little modelling putty for good measure. I also used this as an opportunity to correct a few things I felt I’d got wrong the first time.

Colour references, behind the scenes of Alien 3.

I removed the odd ‘sticking out slab’ from the base. It was a holdover of the base’s original function, and this slab would have housed the original model’s leg (seeing as this base is a holdover of an actual model kit, for which I had lost the other pieces). This left a hole, which was alright, seeing how I nearly always stand the Alien facing right, but as I intended to be able to position the alien in any direction, a small piece of putty was discreet enough to mask it. 

First time around, due to a mishap in the gluing process, the alien took to leaning on one side. This time I ensured the beast was straight. A slight lean may have looked dynamic, but this time I went for stability over style. To this end, I also made use of a supporting beam to take some of the weight, connecting the lower rib-cage to the base.

Building up the colours.

I also cut-off some of the more lumpy looking putty work, especially from the knees and elbows, for a more natural shape. I also carve-in a little detail to the putty under the neck.
The backdrop, while it looked pretty good for being made from home-only materials, never sat quite right with me, made worse by the fact I hadn’t glued the pipes straight, and polystyrene (no matter how well painted) always looks like polystyrene. So this time round I ditched the elaborate backdrop for something more simplistic. I was always happy with the way the scaffolding, chains and canister turned out, but it was difficult to find a pleasing way to suspend it over the creature, so I just reused the canister. Seeing how I cut a tile from the original base to make it more symmetrical, I reused this tile to base the canister onto, so that whatever way the alien faces, the canister can be moved bend it.

Next came the painting. The backdrop and base was simply a whole bunch of browns, grays and reds all smudged together, I felt detailing here was less important as it would not represent the final focus- it simply had to set the mood. That left the beast. I muted the colours with a thick black wash.

Movable canister.

Now, for all my work last time around, the alien ended up looking a very similar ruddy colour to the actual figure you can buy pre-painted. Sure, it was nice, but I still; felt I wasn’t getting the ‘natural lighting colour’. I went back to some of the behind-the-scenes photography, and discovered without the orange hue that the alien was in fact a dirty grey, with a touch of cream and green here and intermittently. So I begin by base coating my alien grey, and over the top of this I dry brush predominantly a fleshy / bone cream, along with browns, greys and a little olive green. The overall look is bright, but this is soon dulled by a thick brown ink-wash, which also helps to merge all the colours into a pleasing whole. Final touches include highlight work around the lounge and gums, the spine, and detailing on the metallic teeth.

I finish by coating the alien in a shiny varnish. This not only gives the thing a little more protection from knocks and bumps, but gives it a nice wet-and-slimy look.

Facing both directions.

And now, once again, I’m finished. Here it is, in all its vile glory. Hope you like it?