The interior of the APC is laid out, more or less, like that seen in Scott Bell's drawings. His interior rendition, I think, most accurately depicts the APC interior seen in the film. In harmony with the film, my model has only two troop seats forward of the troop door. It's a tight and claustrophobic interior space yet, surprisingly, all the essential elements are represented as they should be while all the workings; batteries, receivers, servos, switches, motors . . . you get the idea, are hidden behind interior bulkheads.
The front wheel tie-rod, the only part of the works that intrudes on the interior space, has been concealed under a flap of the black floor covering.
During constructions, while I blocked out the interior spaces and installed the cardboard bulkheads and walls, I discovered, despite what I had always heard and believed about it being impossible for the interior to fit, that it was not only possible but with plenty of room to spare. At that point, I started collecting items and materials that I would use for interior detail.
Later, after the primary interior structure was up, and seeing how much more additional room was available behind the troop seating area and aft bulkhead, the possibility of fitting the APC with full R/C running gear entered my mind, and seemed not so far fetched. I could easily see where heavy duty gear motors would fit, where batteries could go, and so began to think about R/C requirements as construction progressed.
The driver's compartment, although cramped, could still be packed with plenty of details and lights. There are two lighted panels; the main instrument panel and a smaller side panel. The main panel is lit with an assortment of LEDs. Instrument panel placards were made using Canvas and printed on sticker paper. The compartment walls are clad in a heavy, dark green, corrugated cardboard.
A figure of Bishop sits in the driver's seat. The servo, located directly under the driver's seat, opens and closes the door and turns Bishop's head. Bishop appears to wave with his left hand as the door opens. His hand is simply attached to a point adjacent to the door pull handle. His feet are on pedals and his right hand is on the control yoke.
I made the control yoke using parts of a "V" clamp, styrene stock, a couple of push rod connectors, vinyl end caps, some black wire and a few bits of red and yellow heat shrink. The yoke bolt is covered with a corrugated rubber boot attached to a wood mounting block. The driver's window was cut from clear plastic sheet and the frame is styrene trimmed with rivet detail.
Driver's steering column/yoke.
Inside of unfinished driver's door
Hidden behind the two troop seats forward and opposite the TOC (Tactical Ops Center), are the attach bolts for the right front wheel. Adding an unobtrusive secondary bulkhead, made of 1/4" foam board, behind the seats, provided just enough room for the bolt heads to remain hidden. A steering servo is also hidden, just under the pair of troop seats. Other than the additional seat back bulkhead, the seats and restraint bars are the same as the others.
The back and bottom frame of the commander's seat were made with foam board and trimmed with styrene angle stock. The cushions were made by covering polyester foam shapes with black electrical tape. The tape has a convincing black vinyl look and it was quick and easy to do. The cushions were stuck to the frame with double-sided tape.
I made a simple slide rail and carriage for the commander's seat with telescoping brass tubing and some bits of wood. The commander's seat was made to slide up and down the length of the console and rotate. I made a slide rail for the seat base and another for the seat bottom so the seat can traverse the full length of the console and over the tie rod step.
The command console area was done with black foam board and the driver's compartment was clad in a heavier and darker green corrugated cardboard.
Hidden behind and underneath the TOC console is a heavy duty steering servo for the left front wheel. The servo is located just inside the inner wheel well bulkhead and is connected with a tie rod to the steering servo for the right wheel.
A single high intensity white LED positioned in an aluminum channel illuminates the command console screens.
The command console or TOC CRT displays are printed from a screen cap. I used Canvas to produce the console displays and added a miniature computer keyboard, cut from a refrigerator magnet, in the center of the display. A small scratch-built, flexible shaft, working task light is to the left of the keyboard. A few tiny flashing red and amber lights complement the command console display.
A big, red "Panic" button can be seen on the command console, as well as a HAL 9000 display . . . just quirky things I put in for grins!
"The M41-A. When you absolutely, positively have to kill every mofo in the room. Accept no substitutes."
-- Cpl. Alex Ko, USCM
A weapons bay area is located between the port side main troop seating area and the TOC. A rack of M41-A Pulse Rifles, the main weapon of a USCM rifleman, dominates the area but there is a representative assortment of other USCM weapons such as the Flamer, M56 Smartguns, and HK VP70s, hung on the wall as well.
One Smartgun is secured on the bulkhead adjacent to the weapons bay and another is secured just aft of the two forward troop seats. A Scope Rifle is located at the top of the rack.
Weapons Bay
The aft troop seating bulkhead and walls are clad with corrugated cardboard panels which look like 1/6th scale copies of the material used in the APC movie set. A single troop seat back and a seat bottom cushion were made from scratch using styrene stock and Sculpey. I made molds and cast up the ten required. Since space was so limited in the troop seating area, I marked where the seats went and then trimmed off the wall cladding so the seats would sit flush to the bulkhead walls. I used angle stock of various sizes to trim out the interior walls.
The roof interior is clad in vacuum-formed styrene sheets. A caged, working strobe light is located at the front of the APC roof. The workings for the strobe light are located in a small vacuum-formed housing attached to the underside of the roof. The manually operated switch is mounted just above the driver's door frame.
There are vacuum-formed corrugated panels on the ceiling of the interior spaces behind and extending over the troop seats; all in keeping with the look, as one might expect.
A second smaller roof cover, aft of the main cover, allows access to the rear area of the troop seating compartment and the rear bulkhead which can be removed to access the smoke system, gear drive motors, speed controls, and the rest.
The lighted restraint bars, each illuminated with two white LEDs, were fun to build. I worked from a sketch. Once the overhead section of the roof was temporarily installed in the troop seating area, I made a mockup of a restraint bar out of wood dowels to test the fit in the fully raised and lowered positions. I looked at stills for reference points and eyeballed the dimensions.
The mockup came out right the first time and I used it to cut all the pieces at once before I started gluing them together. I made five pairs of them, using styrene tubes and resin cast hinges. I made the cushions for the restraint bars out of Sculpey and then cast the rest up. The restraint bars can be lowered and raised, just as seen in the film set and add to the interior illumination.
The white interior lights are incandescent bulbs. The diffusers for the lights were cut from vacuum-formed, ant bait traps. I knew the first time I saw them that those little pieces of plastic would come in handy one day, so they were never used as intended. The red interior combat lights are just bare red LEDs mounted in cast resin brackets; there are two in the troop seating area; one by the door and one in the driver's area.
The stores cabinets located forward on the starboard side have descriptions on them that one might (or might not) expect to find on a typical USCM APC. Descriptions that might be seen by a keen observer and perhaps draw a smile: 1 Each, Case of 24 Units: Harsh Language; 6 Each, Package of 8 Units: Sharp Sticks.
Much of the wall and bulkhead cladding was done using various sizes of corrugated plastic and cardboard stock. The interior of the APC is really full of details. I wound up putting in details that were not seen in the film set of the APC; rivet details on panels, ventilation screens, and floor moldings are just a few.
The floor deck is covered in a bidirectional weave material that looks like miniature black ballistic cloth. It was easy to install and looks convincing enough. I thought, at first, to go with something even thinner as headroom is tight.
While not elegant, all the interior details combine to produce a rugged look that reflects form derived from functionality. It's a dimly lit, claustrophobic and spartan interior that speaks of simplicity and little of creature comforts. There are, however, some little and unobtrusive things that one may notice, which tell of human presence in the APC; a picture of the driver's girlfriend taped to the instrument panel, crumpled gum wrappers between two seats, graffiti, a Pulse Rifle Manual, discarded MRE packaging on the deck, a sandwich bag containing cheese and crackers, and a few other interesting bits and artifacts.
I wanted to have little interior details that reflected a well used look. Other items like a magazine, a cigarette box, matches, and such can be seen stowed away in small cubby holes about the interior. The floor is littered with stuff and some if it has a history. What has found its way onto the floor of the APC is actually some of the surplus "ground" material that was used in filming the miniatures in Aliens. A UKCM pal sent me some and I've scattered the material onto the floor and that's like having real, scale Acheron dirt on the deck! How cool is that?
Regarding details, it was definitely manufactured for Aliens and is excess stock of the same material used on all miniature LV426 exterior sets. It's distinctive qualities as an extra-fine, 'non-dirty' dirt made it ideal for a miniature set which would have had people clambering all over it, who wouldn't want to get filthy during work. It can be blown with air, it can simply sit and give a weathered look, but is ultimately clean and inert. If you think about it, there must have been a lot of this stuff about -- LV426 is a planet of volcanic ash, rock and dirt!"
-- Pt. BBC Lewis (Roger Rowley), UKCM
Copyright © 2006 by Christopher Chulamanis. All rights reserved.