Weathering the Pulse Rifle to look used and battle-worn is basically a task of adding realistic-looking scratches, revealing supposed metalwork underneath the paint. This involved a combination of dry-brushing silver paint over select areas, using a silver gel pen for fine lines and scratches, and a silver marker pen for larger areas of paint that have chipped away.
I gave the SPAS cage and the receiver area a thorough dry-brush in silver; this is a process of taking some silver paint on a paintbrush, removing most of the paint from the bristles onto some scrap paper, and then gently brushing it over areas for the paint to catch. It provides a very convincing gun-metal-like sheen to what was the spray-painted satin black finish. I was more heavy-handed with the dry-brushing around areas that would receive more wear and tear than other parts, such as around the trigger, stock, and where the pump-action grip would scratch the SPAS cage when being used. These areas were further enhanced with faint lines using the gel pen to simulate silver score-lines from repeated use.
Before weathering the NATO Olive shroud I gave it a rub-down with a piece of paper, to add a slight satin-quality to the surface, as it was a VERY matte finish (too much for my liking). I then went about the same process of adding dry-brushed silver paint, scratch lines and silver chip-marks to areas that would likely receive the most impact damage (corners, etc). This process was repeated for the barrel and vent housing and all other parts that were supposed to be constructed out of metal.
This was the (almost) finished result:
Here we are after the respray and rebuild. You may notice I've already had a play at some weathering on the magazine base, and one side of the SPAS shroud, but otherwise this is the end result of the clean respray. The subtle difference in sheen between the matte black (pistol grip & pump-action grip) and satin black (everything else black) is exactly what I wanted, and can be further emphasised with some silver dry-brushing and suggestion of exposed metal / paint-chips. You can also see that I have plugged up the holes on one side of the shroud with the tops of some screws that have hex recesses (also painted NATO Olive). I felt this was more visually pleasing and fitting with the overall aesthetic, so will do the same on the opposite side.
Now it's on to adding the final details and weathering this thing to look a little used and battle-worn...
As mentioned in a previous post, I decided to not go on the hunt for the infamous 'Brown Bess' paint (or a close match), but instead decided upon a colour that seemed to be a somewhat halfway-house between Brown Bess & Olive Drab; Revell's NATO Olive Matt (146). In addition to painting the shrouds, the magazine base and some of the plates NATO Olive, the rest of the gun would be painted Revell Black Silk Aqua (302), except for the pistol grip and the pump-action grip which would be painted Revell Black Matt (108). Below is a list of the colours used for this rebuild:
• Revell NATO Olive Matt Aqua Colour Acrylic Paint 18ml (146) - SHROUD & MAGAZINE BASE
• Revell Black Matt Aqua Colour Acrylic Paint 18ml (108) - PISTOL GRIP AND PUMP-ACTION
• Revell Black Silk Aqua Colour Acrylic Paint 18ml (302) - EVERYTHING ELSE
• Revell Silver Metallic Aqua Colour Acrylic Paint 18ml (190) - WEATHERING
I had no previous experience of using Revell's acrylic "Aqua" paints - I had always used Humbrol enamels before this. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out that the best thing to thin it with is Methylated Spirits, and not water (as many others have suggested). The NATO Olive paint I had was particularly thick - almost like a 'set honey' consistency - so needed a lot of thinning down before being able to be airbrushed. The recommended consistency is that it should be 'milky', but trial and error will get you there. I found that airbrushing the Revell's Aqua colours to be quite painful and laborious; no matter how much I thinned them, they would quite quickly congeal and block the airbrush, requiring a lot of cleaning before being able to continue spray-painting. Not the most fun I've ever had!
The kit I used is the same ones as when I did my Terminator Endo skull build, namely a mini air compressor and dual-action siphon-fed airbrush, which can be bought quite cheaply on sites such as eBay.
Remember to always work in a well ventilated room when using chemicals such as Methylated Spirits. And always mix your paint + meths mixture thoroughly before spraying. I secured the various parts to gardening sticks with tape, and mounted them onto an old tin of paint to keep them upright when spraying and drying. Making a makeshift mini spray booth using an old cardboard box was sufficient for my needs. Before painting, give the parts a quick wipe-down with an old glasses cloth to remove any oil, dirt or dust, and then spray in a smooth continuous motion. You'll find that the paint will appear to dry within seconds, though I'd recommend leaving it for a few hours to make sure they're properly dried.
The Pulse Rifle comes apart in a logical manner, and the Snow Wolf reproduction is well designed and thought out in its construction. It is obviously retaining the approach that was used for the original movie prop's construction, namely using the guts of a Thompson submachine gun and the cage of a SPAS shotgun, fused together with additional dressing. The most awkward aspect to disassembling the Pulse Rifle to prep it for painting (ignoring trying to separate the Thompson's upper-receiver from the lower half, which was a bit of a fight) was making sure that I didn't damage the electrical wiring. Fortunately they use a thicker gauge of wire that isn't as fragile as it otherwise could have been, but even when separating the shroud from the wiring (by softening the glue - see previous post) you will end up with one half of the SPAS cage, the stock, the LCD counter housing, and the Thompson upper-receiver and barrel all being connected together by a spaghetti of wires, making it slightly more awkward for subsequent painting.
Next: onto the painting...
Once received, I discover the Snow Wolf Pulse Rifle is a surprisingly weighty replica, with numerous metal components, giving it an authentic feel (although I am in no doubt the original hero prop was probably twice the weight, with its all-metal construction). As mentioned, many of the components of this replica are plastic - most notably the shroud and SPAS shotgun cage. I'm pleased to find that parts such as the barrel, barrel vent covering, barrel-end support, receiver, stock & buttstock, and various plates are metal components. Disappointingly virtually all parts are the wrong colour (most parts that should be black or a mid grey), so I have had to teardown the rifle to its bare bones to be able to give it a proper respray.
Below are some photos showing the innards, after removing one side of the rifle. Tip: keep note of all of the various screws as you remove them. My advice is to tape groups of screws together with masking tape as you remove them, labelling their origin on the tape itself - it'll save you a headache later on when you try and put the thing back together. Also be careful of the spring and button that will pop out from the back-end when you separate the receiver from the lower half and the trigger/handle. It can be tricky to separate these parts, and equally as tricky to put them back together. And don't make the mistake I made of catching the delicate metal clip that is situated at the top of the inside of the magazine housing (which informs the LCD display that you've inserted the mag). Tape it down to protect it if you have to, as it can be difficult to reattach if accidentally knocked off, like I did. Final tip - the electrical wires are hot-glued to the inside of the plastic shroud. To separate them from the shroud I wrapped the half disassembled gun in an electric heating pad (set to max) for about 5 minutes. This softens the glue enough to allow me to carefully prise it away from the shroud without much force.
The teardown will continue...
There is a surprising wealth of information regarding the Pulse Rifle on the internet, such as the Pulse Rifle Info & Source Page, which includes a good selection of useful reference photos and information, this Xenopedia data page, and an analysis of the Hero Pulse Rifle prop (as well as a plethora of other fan pages and forum discussions). I'll try and summarise my main findings here:
The Pulse Rifle that has numerous close-ups in the movie Aliens (such as Hicks teaching Ripley how to use it) appears to be the 'hero' prop (and likely the first rifle made for the film). This hero rifle differs slightly from others in the movie, most noticeably that the design of the barrel vent (the heat-sink looking cage that sits around the upper-most barrel on the gun) differs from other versions built for the movie, in that it has 10 vents/holes, instead of the usual 8, and some subtle design differences. This gun also features a functioning Remington shotgun housed within the underslung SPAS shotgun cage, used to simulate the grenade launcher when firing. Because of this there is a second trigger in front of the magazine shroud used to fire the shotgun/grenade launcher, which isn't present on most other versions of the gun made for the movie. Presumably this is the exact prop Ripley uses in the Alien nest when using the grenade launcher.
BROWN BESS OR NOT?
There is also a lot of discussion on the internet regarding what colour these props were originally painted from the movie. In the film they appear to be a green-ish tiny, somewhat like Olive Drab (a typical military colour). But there are a variety of props from the movie that people now own that appear to have a slightly more brown tint. There's a lot of speculation that this exact colour is one called 'Brown Bess'; a long discontinued Humbrol model paint colour, with the reasoning that it looks more green in the movies because of the lighting and the film's colour-grading. Other people dispute this, and say that there is evidence on old Pulse Rifle props that a more green-tinted colour - closer to Olive Drab - being used originally. It is further complicated by the movie Alien3 repurposing many Pulse Rifle props for the film's finale, where they were painted black, over the original paint-scheme from Aliens.
There are a few different supposed sources for replacement 'Brown Bess' paints, now that Humbrol no longer make it, though many of them seem to be much browner than the original paint. The closest reproduction in recent times appears to be Alclad II's 'Brown Bess' paint. I had considered purchasing this paint, but was put off by the high costs nowadays, as it is now out of stock in many UK online stores, and would need to be shipped in from overseas. I also personally am not a big fan of the brown tone of the Pulse Rifle reproductions I've seen from others. In my view (ie from watching the movie) it was a much more green-tint than brown, and that's what I'm going with. So, following that path led me to select the following colours for the rifle, which I will be airbrushing onto it:
• Revell NATO Olive Matt Aqua Colour Acrylic Paint 18ml (146) - SHROUD & MAGAZINE BASE
• Revell Black Matt Aqua Colour Acrylic Paint 18ml (108) - GUN HANDLE AND PUMP-ACTION
• Revell Black Silk Aqua Colour Acrylic Paint 18ml (302) - EVERYTHING ELSE
• Revell Silver Metallic Aqua Colour Acrylic Paint 18ml (190) - WEATHERING
REFERENCES
Here are a few key reference images from the various sources listed above, which I have been using to try and make sure I'm getting the correct details and colouring (click image to open larger version):
