SHuttle Narcissus Research: Discussion, Pics and Props

[Mark Sheppard]

lets see some members cool narcissus memorabilia..

[Space Jockey]

A Narcissus thread...cooool!

I remembered on the deep dark depths of my hard drive this hand-drawn blueprint I did when I was 14 or 15 years old, years ago...I scaled it from the Halcyon Narcissus kit! Brings back memories.

[Mark Sheppard]

[Space Jockey]

I think I did have a cross-section, I put all three on a large sheet, with the intention of doing an interior section-cut too, but I got busy with school and never got around to it... 15 years later, I'm drawing it all up on cad. This will probably be the next project after Nostromo.
I only scanned these images before I left England for the US a few years ago, and I'm pretty certain they are still in storage somewhere in my folks house.

[Mark Sheppard]

basically I am just looking for a comparison of the angles in degrees... These are superb diagrams, I am thinking of doing a shuttle, I have something planned that Phase Pistol is going to help me with, but that is another story with a sordid history from others that needs cleaning up..

. These diagrams have an excellent ratio and clarity. They would be very usable to a near future project.

[phase pistol]

Wow! Not bad!

[phase pistol]

The Narcissus is weird, because first Cobb drew this sketch



... which actually looks pretty much just like the fullsized set and the "forced perspective"model that they built!

Later of course they built the "stretched" model which is how we remember the ship usually. But they had to duplicate the detail from the "stubby" first model as best they could. So the hardware in the cutaway areas gets really interesting between the two versions....

[Mark Sheppard]

Actually I think I like this representation of the shuttle better than the film version..it looks like a real lifeboat....very cool pic!

[SKIN JOB 66]

WOOOW Gragham, very impressive blueprint !!! (you really did this at 15 ??? Oh my !!!)



Joseph, I almost agree with you... Yes, Cobb's design really looks like a space lifeboat and I like its exagonal shape (I'll turn one of my Narcissus models into this version someday if I have time) !

however, I think Martin Bower & Bill Pearson were right when they changed the front, because adding length and a nose turned this ship into something much more dynamic... and dynamic it had to be to escape the refinery in time before it exploded !!!



BTW, found this Cobb design for the Nostromo in "From sketch to screen", a book about SciFi & Fantasy models published in 1997 by Strange Light (UK).



I post it here too (already did on the Nostromo thread) because it helps explain the final shape of the Narcissus... Here is what Bill Pearson says about miss Piggy nose :

The Narcissus escape unit first appeared in our workshop in the form of a cardboard mockup of only the rear section which had been built full size for the final sequence.
The only drawing we had (Note : He's refering to Cobb's "lifeboat" design here) seemed to indicate that the front mimicked exactly the shape of the rear, but minus the engine pods. Martin & myself drew this up and it looked very squat and, we thought, "frankly, awful". Our compromise was to stretch the front and I also added dual lobes to draw some comparison to the Nostromo tug.

Fred
_________________
THE FUTURE IS A THING OF THE PAST

[SKIN JOB 66]

Here is the art department reference maquette delivered to the modelshop to help them buid a model of the Narcissus. It was also used as ref to build the full scale set used when the Alien is ejected in space...

Fred


_________________
THE FUTURE IS A THING OF THE PAST

[Refinery1]

Here is a pic of my SS Aliens Narcissus.

http://propsummit.com/upload/600/aut_0018.jpg

[Refinery1]

Here is another one,

http://propsummit.com/upload/600/aut_0019.jpg

[Mark Sheppard]

[andy]

For some reason it won't let me fix them in you post, but I reposted them here so they can show up.




Very awesome! Oh yeah, and welcome Refinery1,

Andy

[Refinery1]

Not a scratchbuild but a kit that I purchased about 8 years ago. Supposedly only one of about seven taken from the original. It did however take me a year to restore. Has a lit scratchbuilt interior.

[Division 6]

Checking pix your copy looks to be from Aliens (A2)
longer nose, different nose detail in the center and lack of detail.
Even the tile pattern is different.

E...

[Gaff87]

Very impressive model!
I think i may need to start on models pretty soon, too many nice models availible.

[Gaff87]

Here are some pictures of the original...













Notice the landing gear aswell?

Really amazing model.

Pictures from...
http://www.martinbowersmodelworld.com/html/alien.html

[Refinery1]

Yes, mine is from ALIENS. I would prefer the original. The one in the red photos is one Martin Bower constructed a couple of years ago. The originals whereabouts is still unknown. I've heard stories that it was stolen.
I plan on doing a kit of the original Narcissus if I could ever get the dimensions.

[Gaff87]

I'd love to start on models at some point and a Narcissus would be top of the list for me