Ripley in a Powerloader

 I've got quite a bit of time to myself at the moment, so I've been making lots of models. 

I went to the local games shop and bought the "Sulaco Survivors" boxed set from Gale Force Nine's Aliens game. I love Aliens, which I first saw when I was 15, and which blew me away. It's still an awesome film, and I'd been interested to see what the models were like for a while.

It was also, I'm sorry to say, one of the cheapest things in the shop. Back in the day, you bought models in blister packs, usually in small 4 or 5-man squads of metal miniatures. They tended to be anything from £5 (usually for a character) to £15 (for a little squad). I still remember the outrage of each metal wraithguard costing £8 (about £12 now, which is still enough for one robot).

Anyhow, most GW characters are £20 or more - and £20 for a single plastic goblin seems outrageous to me, even if he does have a magic stick. Boxes of units are generally £25 or more. Other companies make cheaper boxes - North Star's plastic box sets for Frostgrave and Stargrave are really good value - but I don't usually want 20 blokes, even for the good price of £20. 

So, the Sulaco Survivors set was £12. It includes two models for Ellen Ripley and Bishop each. Ripley is in the powerloader that she uses to fight the Alien queen, and on foot and "enraged". I expect that this means that she's a special character in the game. Bishop comes in standard and "broken" form, for when he's been torn in half. Try getting a GW special character for less than £20. Or several of them in the same box. From a film franchise.

As it turns out, the models are good and sharp, although I had to scrape off a lot of mould lines. Assembling the powerloader Ripley was quite fiddly, and I had to paint most of her separately. It's a really nice, neat model, and really captures her about to clock the Alien queen.

My pictures don't really do it justice, but this is a very nice model and I'd recommend it, although it's probably for more experienced modellers (which both of my readers probably are). I had a good time making this and I'm pleased with the result.

Next time, more robots.