Building the Nostromo Emergency Destruction System.Possible?

[joberg]

maybe she touched it after all (you know, she cannot turn-off the auto-destruction sequence )

[SKIN JOB 66]

[Vader]

On the RPF, it had been suggested that the lid of the unit might come off a picnic cooler. In response to that, I posted some thoughts that I felt I might repeat here, in case it sparks some other thoughts with someone else:

The thickness, the blister dome shape, and the heavy-duty hinges are more suggestive of the kind of cast steel or aluminium hatches that are supposed to shut pressure (e.g. a blast) out, such as something that you would find on a smaller naval vessel, or possibly an armoured vehicle of some sort — look at the driver's compartment hatches of this vehicle to get an idea of the sort of thing that I'm driving at.

The size is just about large enough to let a man through, so it might be a crew hatch, perhaps?
Assuming that the raised base is an integral part of the hatch assembly and not something added by the prop builders, it might belong on a watergoing vessel, where hatches often are raised off the deck to prevent water pouring down in high seas.

And I still can't remember where I've handled it, but I'm still sure that I have ... somewhere.
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[joberg]

Possibility for sure Vader...I mean these set decorators and prop masters had, for quite a few years, access to military grave yards in the U.K. (planes, boats and maybe a few decomissioned subs for all we know) I don't know if some stuff is missing from that particular hatch (rubber seal or metal "lip" to maintain a good closing system), or they simply molded an existing hatch and skipped some details to make their life simpler...who knows? (I know that it can be very expensive to cut all that metal from existing army machine and material...they're built to last ) Or they did research army vehicules/boats, etc, and saw one type they liked and built it from scratch.

[Backlight]

I don't think the lid is military surplus (or metal at all). They used a number of these on the set -- here are four stuck to the wall near the "inner lock hatch":



More likely they are something lightweight (plastic? wood? multiple casts of a single object?).

-- Backlight

[Backlight]

Could the lid be from one of those plastic 50 gallon wheeled trash cans? I think they had those back in '79 (not a match, just a ballpark example.)



-- Backlight

[Mr Webber]

Well there you go, great spotting with the screencap Backlight, that is a tremendous help in terms of building one, huge help, never made the connection until now.

There is no doubt that these were reproduced from more practicle materials but i think they were military inspired. The bin lid idea is definately worth looking into.

Just noticed that the units under the lid on the walls look like the same as the unit under Ripleys lid.

Great work Backlight.
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Formerly offworld66

[joberg]

Yep, excellent catch for sure...seems that they made a mold and fiberglassed the whole thing. Interesting the idea of trash-can lids

[SKIN JOB 66]

[andy]

For some reason in my mind there is an image of this design as part of a military or other style road case. The garbage can lid looks promising too.

Andy

[Space Jockey]

I agree Andy, though the garbage container is a great idea to me it's probably more likely to be from a vehicle (air or land), particulary when so many of the set parts came from dismantled aircraft.
It doesn't look like it would be a difficult shape to scratchbuild though if one had to.

[SKIN JOB 66]

I recently found an image that shows a destruction system keyboard completely different than the one seen in the close-ups...

This to say that if the "close-ups destruction system keyboard" has nothing to do with the one seen here inside the "destruction system chest", Tim will maybe have lack of room problems when trying to fit everything inside at a certain point of his build...

Fred


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THE FUTURE IS A THING OF THE PAST

[Mr Webber]

Interesting picture Fred, doesnt seem to be any clutch assemblies or tubes in there either. Havnt progressed much on this but im getting a stack of signs and light box covers made
next week including the lids instructions for this so it might push things along.
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Formerly offworld66

[joberg]

Thanks for sharing Fred...looks different alright. Maybe the more sophisticated one was built for close ups...who knows, maybe the whole thing was too complicated to encase in a box? Interesting for sure.

[SKIN JOB 66]

If I find other photos related to this "destruction chest" I'll post them here...

I'm talking about a "chest" because it looks like that's what it is, a simple chest added to Brett and Parker's room...

Looks like the close-up version was something more elaborate made later, like the over-detailed Ripley's spacesuit glove they only used in close-ups at the end of the film, when she bugs (hehe) the Alien in the Narcissus...

Fred
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THE FUTURE IS A THING OF THE PAST

[SKIN JOB 66]

Tim,

Great news for your project, I got these photos from Dennis Loewe ! (they were taken by Ian Wingrove, he was one of the guys who worked on that prop)



Hope it'll help !

Fred


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THE FUTURE IS A THING OF THE PAST

[Space Jockey]

Here's the bolts.

[joberg]

Fred you rock And a big thanks to Denis ...lots of work for that prop.

[8th_Passenger]

Wow! Great pictures.

[Pro Mod]

Amazing picture quality, they look like they've just been taken.

As I have a sheet of those orange static warning stickers it shouldn't be too difficult to work out the scale of everything.