"How To Make Alien (Xenomorph) Walls & Corridors?" Topic

"On first thought I'd go with the following…

Hot Glue
Leftover Tyranid arms and legs
Guitar strings
Springs"

Ahhh while that does sound like a good plan…I do believe those tyranid bits were being boxed up and sent my way right?

:)

PS
And yes I do welcome everyone's tyranid bits…the pile she is waiting :)

I've got my own plans for my bits and am collecting more.

-Eli

Just stick all of those bits to one of these, and you are ready to roll (pun intended) . . .

link

Dan

Update:

I noticed that the Griffon hive pieces are again available on eBay:

auction

Dan

Yup i just bought enough wall sections to make a good sized queens lair or very large egg chamber with additional entry corridor walls and some useful looking hive pillars to use for cover if any marines are lucky enough to get that far… :)

I just recived my order of Alien corridoor terrain today from Griffoncub and i am very pleased with what i recived, as i posted above last month i ordered enough pieces to make a large lair or egg chamber with several exits which will lead off to conventinal sci-fi corridoors in time. All the parts i recived were free from any mould lines and the casting was very crisp, the walls are just under 2" tall and the detail on both sides is very good indeed, the price is a bit expensive but i guess as the old saying goes" you pay for what you get" i really do recommend this Alien terrain for anyone who is into this theme.
I also bought some Alien tree stumps from Armorcast to use as hard cover for either in or out of the corridoor system and im pretty sure they were sculpted by the same person that made the Griffon corridoors as the style of sculpting looks exactly the same.

Avamango,

Could you post pics of what they look like once you get a chance to get them painted and photographed?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see them in use right next to some 15mm figures.

Thanks,

Dan

Will do but thats quite a way off at the moment though.

No problem. I understand.

I've got other things on the table too, but am still planning on putting this subject into practice at some point in the near future.

Thanks,

Dan

Assuming I didn't need a 'crapload' of hallway…
I think I'd be tempted to sculpt some positives with polymer clay… maybe hexes rather than squares. Then create push molds with dental plaster off of those sculpts and use polymer clay to create hexes I could line the corridors with… mix and match.
Maybe do it in layers… so have one mold with a regular pattern to it… ribbed, webbed, pustules… and then some other molds for bits to layer over them. I'd make a couple molds that had edge areas where the bioform relaxes to normal walls.

Another (cheaper, faster) thing I've tried is using styrofoam and selectively painting/spraying it with solvents… using something that gives a bit of control. The styrofoam melts and can give a very nasty bubbley/webby look.
Coat it with PVC glue, maybe toss in some BBs or itty-bitty beads for 'nodules'… paint it… gloss coat it.
I used that method for the outsides of some Tyranid structures long ago… unfortunately I lost them in a move.

I'm building an Aliens board currently. Here are some of my test pieces for the walls:

link

Manatic,

Very cool!!!

Just two quick suggestions…

1) More "vines" and less stucco next time.

TMP link
TMP link

2) And some of the vines ribbed, if possible (perhaps with pieces from flexible straws?).

I love it so far.

Dan

A rather cheap and quick method of making something very similar to the look is to take the cheap foam and melt your passageways in it using superglue.

Just use even spurts of glue at a regular distance apart and you'll have the ribbing and a thick coat of the black housepaint (get glossy as you can) adds even more to it. You can even do this in strips of foam to make modular walls.

I wonder if these "lava lamp" "molding mat" stamps can be put on a roller of some sort and used to stamp the pattern on polymer clay:

auction

This is the pattern the "lava lamp" mats have:

And rubber shouldn't stick to polymer clay, right?

Dan

Oooh… that's a pretty nifty idea. I think that it would work well with clay, silicone, etc. Too bad it won't just emboss the foam itself. Although… they make those thin foam sheets for arts and crafts. I wonder if those could be embossed? They have tons of the stuff at Dollar Tree.

If you mean the PVC foam sheets that come in all shapes and sizes, those have way too much elastic memory to retain any type of embossing.

I'm actually starting to like the embossing polymer clay idea.

Dan

Ribbed wire tubing is very effective in creating an Aliens look, shown here:

(second from the right)

and here:

Related blog posts:

link

link

CC – take a look at the new starship corridors from Fenris – he now has a batch that my mate 'alienesqued up' for him – the look very nice and walls apparently are to follow

Does anyone know how to glue the "lava" rubber molding mats to a wooden rod?

auction

What sort of glue would I need, that will not destroy the stamp?

I'm hoping to glue it onto a 2 inch long rod that is 2 and 1/8 in diameter. I think that should be the right size for the 50mm by 171mm molding mat, right?

Anyway, my biggest concern is what to use as the adhesive.

Thanks,

Dan
TMP link

why not recast those in silicone rubber? mount them on the sides of gutters?

link

im thinking two would cover the entire gutter…

then use these to cover the joint:

Wow, though I was already planning on using the plastic canvas for corridor floors, it had never occurred to me to use it to represent exposed areas of the corridor walls!

Thanks for the excellent idea,

By the way, if my latest version of a roller with Greenstuff patterns doesn't work for polymer clay, then I may make use of the lava rubber stamp, if I can wrap it into a roller to make a repeating pattern impression:

TMP link

Dan

Anyone know how tall these Kryomek hive walls sections are?

link

Thanks,

Dan
PS. Not to be confused with this other product they sell:
link

I imagine Gorilla Glue would work.

Not sure if you'll be able to get it off the wood, once applied though, so best to test with another, less valuable piece of rubber and dowel.

Great stuff going on here!

1. you will need a release agent or the material will stick to your pattern maker

2. those wire tube pieces are just great

3. a glue/adhesive that will allow for removal later?…hmmm…anything that bonds well enough to hold to the dowel will by the nature of the hold…well it will hold…so I would think screws…and cover up the screw imprint later

4. gorilla glue will never let go, it is made to be near permanent

Looking forward to seeing an end result.

I was just thinking of this yesterday when I had my hands on some of these

Mine was 6" industrial vacuum hose…flexible and lightweight.

Slice in half long ways then bend and secure to thin wood with screws and/or adhesive.

I got 30' x 6" for $16 USD…had enough to make lots and lots of tunnels.

Figured after all the pieces were secured then pour a leveling material to create a flat surface for the miniatures to stand on…a 50/50 plaster and white glue blend mixed with a base paint color/tint for example.

CC , the smaller one seems app. 3cm while the "larger" more like 6-7.

That's dreadfully small.

28mmMan,

Did you ever take pics of the final results?

Thanks,

Dan

Stop me if you heard this before… ;->=

When I did my 'box' for playing the Leading Edge Aliens board game, before my best bud relined the inside with those Wild Walls, I'd taken some bead styrofoam strips, back when they still used hydro-cyanide gas to inflate, and used a pocket lighter to melt and sculpt the walls. A coat of Testors glossy black, which further melted and deformed, and they looked OKAY. (I knew the dangers, and worked in a WELL ventilated area.)

For the flooring, I used plastic window screen, painted gray, and glued to black-painted plywood. I then made floor tile edges with modeling putty. THAT was the hard part!

Doug

Hmm . . .

I guess you don't really need much to turn an open space into a a part of a hive:

link

Dan

Found another cool image from "Aliens", the film:

link

Dan

Now THIS is what I call elaborate!

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Dan

I really, REALLY wish I could make something like this …

link

Dan

That's what i bought last year from Griffon cubs E-Bay shop which i amused he opened after seeing all the interest shown on TMP.

And these are the 25mm scale Alien tree stumps from Armorcast that i have used for scatter terrain on the table, as you can see its very much like the Alien walls from Griffon games.

It'd be nice if someone would 3-D print them, to make masters, and then make molds to sell, so people can produce their own.

Funny, I was just thinking about this thread the other day. I was contemplating making an Aliens-themed dice tower using a length of 3" wide PVC pipe, chicken bones, hot glue, etc.

Please do! I would love to see how that would turn out.

Dan

Man, for some reason I keep going back to look at these other Giger-like patterns:

TMP link

TMP link

Lots of similar motifs, don't you think?

Dan

Actually, yeah, there are. I'm wondering if one of the custom stamp makers online could make a nice cylinder stamp for you. Not sure if it would be 3D enough, but maybe so.

Another thought on that -- make a small frame using wood or Legos, line the bottom with your ribbed tubing, chicken bones, etc., then pour a thin layer of RTV silicone over top, no more than a 1/4" thick or so. That should be thin and flexible enough that you could wrap it around a small dowel, tube, paint roller, or whatever, without it tearing. Then you can try rolling out your walls in something soft like wood putty, which will air-dry without shrinking. Just a thought!

Sculpey Clay needs a release agent, to de-mold without damage. I've used standard formula Armor-All, with great success, as this was recommended on a Sculpey site. I used press molds for creating textures in Sculpey rolled into 1/8" thick sheets, to make river/road sections (did not work as well as I had hoped, cannot recommend that).

Whatever approach you use, the Armor-All will work well: just rinse the uncured Sculpey under water, after de-molding, to remove the Armor-All, then bake it, to cure it; you can blot dry it with a cloth towel, if desired, or just bake it without drying -- the water won't affect it during the curing/baking process. Cheers!

CC
I have seen the stuff you have done with green stuff, over time being on here, and you are good at it, why not just make the master walls you want to have and make molds and just recast them as wanted/needed like Hirst Arts stuff

A cylinder mold, for pressing into clay, sculpey-like material, putty, etc. would be great!

I imagine it would be one of the less costly options, and should be able to provide a decent level of relief. The rest could be painted in, as desired.

Once you had a mold made, you could have them produce multiples to defray the setup costs, and reduce the unit pricing too. Given the number of hits here, I suspect quite a few people would be interested in them.

War Monkey: "why not just make the master walls you want to have and make molds and just recast them as wanted/needed like Hirst Arts stuff"

Hmm. It would rock if walls could be done as somewhat thin laminates, that could be placed over normal tech panels.

Mako11, I still love the idea of some sort of cylinder, preferably something that could be replicated and sold.

Dan

This looks really cool:

link

Dan

CC
You can make the master molds thin and use "plastic resin" when casting, you can go fairly thin, then glue to your backing material, of your walls, or you can bend it with heat as well, might be able to wrap it around a roller

like the column that would be great in larger rooms to work around

This must be one of the most interesting topics ever.
Thanks to all for the great ideas & links.
Some ideas come to mind which i'd like to share with you all.

1) Plasticene or clay rolled flat ( use 2 flat straight pieces of wood, placed pararelly & a rolling pin to get an even flat surface) is a great base to create any texture. This can be used with RTV rubber to create a skin mould.

2) Any flat rubber mould can be twisted into interesting shapes. This can be used to cast unique plaster of paris or resin shapes.

3) Any type of screw or bolt can create a uniform grid when rolled on the flat piece of clay.

4) I think one can use a piece of 20/25/30mm dia PVC pipe & PVC glue ( use in well ventilated areas) to create molten like structures.PVC glue melts polystyrene also so you can use all those sprues you saved up to add humps etc.Use cocktail sticks to stretch the still soft glue into almost any form.
This PVC pipe can be used a rolling pin ( as Carique used for his brickwork). One can make different sizes for different projects eg. the ribbed walls for that space jockey scene.

5)UHU or any other glue makes great dribble/snot , just press a little bit & let it stretch without snapping off.This dries in a semi transperant straightshape , this can then be glued to Aliens mouths etc.

6)Those black tubes/pipes remind me of washing mashine drain pipes or sink flexible drains.The Ironmongers are your friend :)

7)I have used empty shampoo or soap plastic bottles + a blowlamp to create lava craters. Just be careful to use polythene bottles( these should not emit toxic fumes when molten ) & that the plastic is extremely hot when it dribbles.You can use different coloured ones to create diffrent backgrounds. Plastic terracotta coloured plant vases are excellent for this also.

Hope these help

Guys,

Now this is how a hive is REALLY done:

link

Here's their original concept:

link

Dan
PS. Though nice, this other hive example is a bit too abstract for my taste:
link

Would people still be interested in vacuformed plastic walls like the old Sci-Fi Supply?