Building a Better Narcissus by John Ovington part 1

INTRODUCTION

This kit review and build-up focuses on correcting and detailing Halcyon’s 1/144 scale model of Narcissus, the escape shuttle for the commercial starship Nostromo from the classic movie Alien. My goal in assembling and modifying the kit was to make it better match what is seen in the film. The kit was originally produced in 1991 and is the only mass marketed injection molded styrene rendering of this subject to date. The finished model roughly measures 6-1/2″ wide, 8-3/8″ long, 2-1/2″ tall.

I almost bought this kit about 13 years ago, but was tight on cash. I’m very glad I waited, as I really didn’t have the skills then to do much more than a “box stock” assembly. Like many kits I now have, it would not have come together for me at all were it not for the Internet and its resources. Though Halcyon is now defunct and this kit is many years out of production, at the time of this writing 1 or 2 kits are available every week on eBay in the $25 to $45 range. I’ve also recently seen that it has be re-popped by Aoshima and can be currently found in selected hobby shops for about $44 and through Hobby Link Japan on-line for around $35.

The kit looks very inspiring at first glimpse in the box, and it’ll build acceptably “box stock”, but it has some simple problems and inaccuracies. On the upside, the kit has no cheap looking/toy-like raised panel lines which are the hallmark of low-priced sci-fi models. The low points are where basic assembly is awkward and detail has been eliminated or simplified, no doubt because of manufacturing limitations. But Halcyon made a better effort than most to minimize that impact. This is where, with a little work, this kit can really shine.

I’d originally set out to do an “ultimate Narcissus”, but as I progressed on the kit, I kept finding more research that in some cases would have had me starting over a couple times …and there are some minor proportional issues which are impossible to correct. There’s only so much I was reasonably willing to do and ever expect to finish. For now, my finished rendering of this kit represents a snapshot of what I knew over the time of assembly about the actual filming miniature from the movie. As a side note, this ship is never referred to by name in the film. However her name “NARCISSUS E1” is lettered on the side of the shuttle’s retractable garage bay under the Nostromo’s starboard wing.

OVERVIEW

If you’re going to take a serious stab at rectifying some of this kit’s basic construction issues, I highly recommend looking through Olivier Carbourdin’s article on Starship Modeler http://www.starshipmodeler.com/other/oc_narc.htm. I consider my review to be additive to Olivier’s. I won’t cover what he has already. But will note an issue and whether you should defer to his review for correction process. I actually printed out a copy of his SM article and diagrams to keep handy while assembling. I’m not going to cover basic assembly steps already handled by the kit’s printed instruction except where noted …and I’m also not going to badger you about good assembly and painting habits – except for one, wash your model every so often, your hands have oils that can hose your paint job! While painting, I kept my laptop on the worktable with my photo research easily viewed in ACDSee.

Before beginning any assembly or painting, it’s also a very good idea to visit Martin Bower’s site. He is the designer and builder of the original Narcissus miniature, as well as many other iconic sci-fi spacecraft. Take some time and compare your kit from the box to his finished Narcissus filming miniature pics and the full-sized rear exterior set pics

ASSEMBLY

My assembly adhesive throughout was Pacer cyanoacrylate Zap-A-Gap (gap filling formula). When I build the second kit I have tucked away, I’ll probably rely more on Ambroid Pro Weld for assembly. All seams, scratches, chasms, etc., were filled with 3-M Acryl-Red automotive glazing putty. For major rearrangements, and there were some, I used Evercoat catalyzed polyester resin glazing putty. Rough sanding and major erasures were done with 3-M 220-grit wet & dry paper used wet. Most finish sanding was done with 320 or 400 wet. Line scribing was performed with both Squadron and Micro-Mark scribing tools.

I try to build and detail my models to make the painting process easier, so the model will (as I like to put it) “paint itself”. This kit, as I’ve built it, is a pretty good example of that strategy. My assembly notes are listed in order of esthetic irritation, from most to least.

#1 “That Damned Nose” – part #s 25 & 26

• Overall Reconstruction
• Attachment Aligning
• Thruster Ports
• Side Correction
• Re-Scribing Linework

Definitely the kit’s worst feature, it needs the most work. The kit’s nose “as built” might, in retrospect, be better off scratch built. However, following Olivier Carbourdin’s procedure you will be well on your way to a better nose. His method is a little complicated, but very logical and it works. In the reconstruction phase, the trench piece should be trimmed for length to occupy about 2/3 the space in length, rather than ¾ from the kit. This can be seen in a top view of the actual filming miniature:

However, I did not see this pic until it was too late for my nose. Also, leave off Olivier’s “V shape plastic card” (Figure C), he has said he didn’t have a clear reference pic for what was actually going on there.

The kit’s nose has a tendency to angle slightly upward giving the ship a pig-nosed appearance. Once the nose has been rebuilt, it must then be attached to the main body so that it is correctly centered (left to right), BUT ALSO so that the nose’s top surface is in the same plane as the center sloping surface of the main body. This is a tough act, as it actually can’t be done without putting the bottom of the nose out-of-plane the other direction.

I split the difference, erring toward the bottom being a little out-of-plane. Material had to be removed from the lower front of the main body to allow the nose to angle correctly.

I drilled out the kit’s two existing thruster holes (plenty distorted after the re-build) and installed a piece of ¼” diameter thin-walled Evergreen tubing for each. The tubes were cut flush to the front angled face of the nose. I filled some of the ragged gap surrounding each tube with scrap styrene. The rest was puttied, then sanded flat. I cut 2 rings from the same tubing (matching the same angle), and tacked them over the installed tubes. There are riffling marks shown on the front thrusters in the forced perspective front view model used in the film. Skip ’em, they don’t appear on any other version of the shuttle.

The nose “as re-built” also looked a little shallow in plan view (top view). I built the sides out with sheet styrene to within about .5mm of the hull’s belt-line. The edges of these pieces were sanded flush to the surrounding nose faces. To correct their pitch, the new side pieces were sanded to a taper: fat in the rear, thin toward the front.

All the existing scribed line-work on the nose is rather deep & wide compared to the rest of the kit. Since some of the angles of the nose had changed with the new side pitch, the corresponding line-work needed to be moved as well. Excepting the very end with the thrusters, all the nose facets were puttied, sanded, and the lines corrected and re-scribed. There is additional detail work (later), which ties the nose in more to the main body.

#2 Engines – part #s 8-12 (12 pieces altogether)

• Reshaping/De-Humping
• Filling Leading Edges
• Making New Vent Cowlings
• Rescribing Linework
• Nozzle Interiors

If I do this kit again, I might go for scratch-building the engines. They are almost as bad as the nose, except that they’ll actually fit on the model without looking TOO out-of-place. However, compared to the filming miniature and the full-sized exterior set, the model’s housings should be straighter (side view), housings & nozzles should be more rounded or tubular (rear view), and need to have less of an obvious gap between the engines and body. Again, I followed Olivier’s engine notes (and his figure G) to start.

On both sets of high and low engines (part #s 9-12, eight pieces altogether), I sanded off the raised softly molded rectangular shapes towards the rear – more on those later. The kit’s engines also have a pronounced hump, with the high engines especially bad (#s 9 & 10). As much as I thought the pieces could handle, I sanded the profile down flatter while trying to keep the L & R edges rounded over.

I puttied heavily between the leading edge of the high engines and where they meet the hull to soften the joint. The diagonal line that is made where the high engines mate to the hull was extended forward to meet the first vertical panel line to match the studio miniature. This particular task would have been more easily accomplished with the engine not in the way, but it was an after-thought. See diagram

On the low engines (#s 11 & 12, four pieces altogether), I sanded off the longitudinal ridges as well as the soft rectangle shapes. To be more accurate, the pronounced joints between the low engines’ leading edges and the hull were filled and sanded out completely.

Where those soft-looking poorly molded rectangular shapes were sanded off should instead be smooth-but-crisp rectangular cowled vents which are open at the rear. Both the miniature and the standing set have this feature. I built four identical vents out of sheet and strip styrene, tapered each toward the front and rounded over the front and side edges to match what I could make out in the reference photos. After each was glued in place, I re-scribed the panel lines on the four engines.

All of the above (and the rhynoplasty) goes a long way toward making the whole model seem less squat and more sleek …as it should.

On to Part 2