John Ovington’s Sulaco

Halcyon’s Alien 3
U.S.S. Sulaco
1/2400 scale

This kit is built pretty much from the box with some important modifications. I wasn’t really concerned so much with accuracy to the studio miniature, but with the overall look and feel of the finished model–it had to stand on its own. I was after an impression of the Sulaco, not the real deal.

First, I removed the raised panel lines on the upper front. I find that raised lines always make a model look toy-like, so I remove them as a knee jerk reaction, but these were particularly scraggly looking. I scribed in new lines to the layout of the old ones.

Second, I removed 4 of the 5 cargo doors and replaced them with some greeblie detail I cast from Voyager’s upper sensor platform. I felt very strongly that the kit needed one level finer of scale variety. Because I know it is not true to the original, I wrestled over this choice, but in the end went with my gut feeling. Beside the smooth hull areas, I think it works. Also, the detail helps tie the antenna cluster into the main body of the ship, where formerly it looked a little stuck on.

Additionally, I discarded the base included with the kit, and mounted a thin-walled Evergreen tube in the Dropship port, which now receives an aluminum rod (painted Krylon Ultra-Flat Black) for display.

After filling and sanding, the whole kit was primed with automotive lacquer primer. I then cut a variety of pieces of fine automotive striping tape to mask off random hull panels. There was a lot of flat area, which needed a good break up, and it took about 3 nights. I then selectively sprayed Floquil gray enamel primer over the paneled areas. After the tape was removed, I gave the whole ship a wash of thin Raw Sienna artist acrylic to warm it up a bit.

The kit has a lot of “ins and outs” which beg to be indicated. All the recessed details were selectively pushed back with washes of Ivory Black and Paines Gray. Raised details and edges were popped out with grays and white gesso. The antenna cluster and “loading door details” were highlighted with gray and dark silver, then washed down with Paines Gray to visually tie them together. At that point, I chose which of the kit’s decals to use, based on what I thought would look best with the values I had established. After application, I washed them down a bit to tone the brightness of the white decal. I also thought the masked panels looked a bit like they were “floating”, so I used a medium gray colored pencil to line around them (tie them down), and break things up a bit more. The whole kit was then dusted down with Tamiya Flat Black, and toned around exhaust ports and guns. A final touch was a light dusting of Krylon dulling spray.

Almost a record for me, I finished this kit in less than a year’s time. And I really enjoyed painting this ship, it gave me a lot to work with!
John Ovington