Articles:
Gremlins in the Garage!

The Hive
by Steven Alford
(steven.alford@airmail.net)

Behold the complete story: Many parts of this diorama are still in progress.

Surrounded by Predator and Alien carnage, an injured Queen lies with barbed spikes in her carapace and a torn net hanging from the spikes. Hours earlier she, her drones and elite guards defended their home from many invading predators. One Predator even survived to become a host for her young.

Her offspring even now bursts forth from the Pred host in a blossom of luminescent blood.

A short, green skinned, pointed eared creature is coccooned to the wall(muttering "Do or Do not; There is no try.")

A strange "gill-man" is coccooned upside down from an organic bone-like structure from the slime covered wall.

Beta Pred team arrives to try for the Queen again and of course to kill any Pred survivors/host.

Shorty is stabbing one alien with his right hand, holding another alien by the throat, and stepping on yet another's alien's chest.

Piercing Tongue Collector is staring face to face with one of the Queen's elite. This annarexic? (impossibly skinny) alien is hold the Predtor's face with his right taloned hand and the Predator's mask in the other, while his long slithering tail immobilizes the Predator's right arm. The Queen's elite is about to deliver his own "Piercing Tongue" into the Pred's face. Will Piercing Tongue Collector's team mates be fast and accurate enough with their plasma cannons?

On top of the hive, a flying alien with razor sharp talons swoops down toward one of the hunters. The Hunter prepares to launch a spear toward the flying alien death dealer.

I do not plan to have any human carnage in this hive diorama, only alien and predator carnage.

I am building this story/diorama in 1/8 scale.

Completed charactors:

  1. Piercing Tongue Collector (Dark Horse's Predator 2)
  2. The Queen's Elite Guard - (Repositioned Takeya's Alien (one of two)
  3. Flying Alien (a converted Dark Horse Alien Warrior with Cthulu's wings).
  4. Shorty (a repositioned S. Wang sculpted Pred toy prototype)
  5. Two Halcyon Alien 3 (one reposed crawling)
  6. One Dark Horse Alien 3
  7. Pred host with Pred burster (D.H.'s first Predator with a white metal alien emerging)
  8. Alien/Pred adult Hybrid (Ian Colter? sculpted - Eyeball Productions?)

Characters In progress:

  1. Bug Hunt two Figure kit (Female (Machiko Noguchi?) in pred armor/gear and one cool alien) Great cold-cast porcelain? sculpture!
  2. Pred throwing spear (Mostly good/great sculpture, I will add a better sculpted medipack, net-caster, and hand/blade/guantlet.)
  3. Gort Pred with six mask option.
  4. Medicom aliens (repositioned)
  5. Reposed Halcyon aliens (repositioned ...crawling, leaping, hanging, climbing, dead, bleeding, etc.)
  6. Yoda (Victim...Sorry about that to all Star Wars fans. I am a Star Wars Fan too.)
  7. D.H.'s Creature from the Black Lagoon (Victim hanging upside down)
  8. Kaiyoda's 1/9 scale queen
  9. Kailyoda's Alien Warrior

The Hive is three feet deep, two feet wide and about three and a half feet tall. The Hive structure is about 90% complete and internally illuminated by six incandescent and two halogen lamps behind translucent agate? slabs for that "organic look". The complete diorama with figures will be complete in a year or so (I hope).

I have seven Agate Slices in the hive right now. I may add one more. I used translucent 1/8 inch thick Agate slices. I purchased some from a local MJ Designs (Hobby Store) and from The Cave, 5618 Bell Avenue, Dallas, TX 75206 (214) 824-5566.

Agate is composed primarily of microscopically crystallized silica (SiO2) and often occurs as a cavity filling in lavas. Agate is formed in layers and usually follows the shape of the cavity. These specimens are sawed and polished slices of agate that filled cavities in basaltic rock or lava. Some agate slices are treated with compounds and heated to give them the brilliant blue, green and red colors.

Clear casting resin was poured over the Agate slices on the "floor" of the hive. Clear resin, Color kit (transparent dye: red, blue, yellow, green, amber, & pearl), and an excellent "How to Video": "Splash & Ripple Construction" are available from WASCO TAXIDERMY, P.O. BOX 967, 1306 W. Spring St., Monroe, GA 30655, 1-800-334-8012. Many of the techniques taught in the video can be applied to "hive slime", "exploding alien heads" and "alien drool".

I am always looking for more 1/8 scale kit for my hive. If I need to, I built it modular so I can add a second level between the top and primary level or to the side corridors.

My goal was to build ... well ... when you disturb a fire ant hill, the ants boil out of the ant hill. I want to build this image with aliens.

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