by Chris Chulamanis

Ripley takes charge, puts the pedal to the metal, and drives the USCM M577 Armored Personnel Carrier straight into the Alien infested sublevels of the terraforming station to rescue the Marines who were in a desperate fight for their lives. I never really thought of the APC as being a heroe's vehicle but that's just what it was.

This model APC measures, give or take a bit, 64” long with the turret down and stowed. It’s 22” at the widest point and stands about 20” tall with the turret in the upright position. The distinctive wheels are 10” in diameter. It weighs in at approximately 136 pounds. It’s an R/C vehicle and has a complete, fully detailed and lighted interior, as well. Pretty much everything was scratch built except for a few found objects that coincidentally fit the bill for specific details. I worked from a very detailed blueprint of the APC that was used by the Aliens props department to build the full-scale version. It came in handy, to say the least. The Halcyon kit was also a great help. I spent many hours taking measurements off the model and scaling them up. The primary structures are made with quarter inch laminated plywood, and skinned with sheet styrene.

The wheels are one of the most distinguishing features on the vehicle and I really wanted to be faithful in representing the wheel detail as best I could. I used stills from the film and other APC pictures as references to make the tire tread detail and side armor plates. I made several side armor plates and tire tread plates out of styrene and then cast enough of them to make one half of a wheel. After assembling all the side armor plates and tire treads on a wheel form, I made a mold and cast all the pieces for the wheel assemblies.

The flat wheel cover, which was reproduced as resin casts, was made from 1/4” styrene and the rims and center details were made from rectangular styrene stock, bent and glued in place. I later added the four small access covers on each wheel with bits of flat styrene. The resin cast wheel components consist of a flat hub plate and two half wheel resin casts that interlock together. Attached to a hard point on each rear wheel is an off-the-shelf rubber and plastic wheel with axle, and on top of that there are wooden spacer/anchor plates screwed to the wheel and keyed to index onto the gear motor drive lugs. Each wheel has a 2” rubber traction band around it and those are what makes contact with the ground. Front wheel steering is made completely from off-the-shelf hardware resulting in a simple yet sturdy assembly made from bolts, eyebolts, metal washers, and nylon spacers.

For the axles, I used bolts and bronze bushings set into the pipe flanges. A simple tie-rod connects the two wheels and, all things considered, the kludged steering assembly worked well the first time out for the APC’s trial run. It was both a great relief and a moment of joy to finally know that the cast resin wheels and the steering assembly worked. A movie of the first trial APC run is posted here.

The interior of the APC is laid out In harmony with the film representation. It’s a tight and claustrophobic interior space yet, surprisingly, all the essential elements are represented as they should be while all the workings; batteries, receivers, servos, switches, motors are hidden behind interior bulkheads. The APC has a fully detailed driver’s compartment, tactical operations center with sliding commanders seat and aft troop seating with moveable, and lighted restraint bars.

All of the APC models that I’ve ever seen were OD in color but the APC was actually painted with Brown Bess. I weathered and distressed the model by highlighting edges, seams, dents, dings, and some combat splash marks with shades of aluminum and a bit of silver. A black wash was applied to the entire surface of the model and then a bit more highlighting was applied. I black lined around details, as well. When it was all done, I gave it several coats of dull coat.

To avoid a monotonous colored interior, I used a palette of green colors. To differentiate and draw attention to interior spaces and textures, I mixed and matched various complementary shades of greens. The troop seating area walls and the rear bulkhead were painted with Chromate Green and the seat back and restraint bars are in OD. The seat cushions were painted black and some have repairs made from duct tape, in miniature, of course. On one of the troop seats, scratched deeply into the aluminum, it reads, “Crowe Was Here,” a small tribute to Tip Tipping, who played Crowe in Aliens.

This APC model took me years to build, and it is more a testament to perseverance than skill. It’s one of those things that I look at and find myself asking, “How did I ever build that!”

I hope I never blow a transaxle!

Image: Interior

Image: Front

Image: Rear

Image: Overall