At last nights premiere of Alien: Covenant in London, 3D Printing Industry got a glimpse at some of the uses of 3D printing in the new movie.
As previously covered on 3D Printing Industry, the forthcoming Alien: Covenant film has taken inspiration from 3D printing for the body of Walter, “The world’s most advanced synthetic companion.”
In the weeks leading up to the film’s release, other stories have surfaced about the film’s use of the technology, and so 3D Printing Industry has decided to take a closer look.
Starring the Audi Lunar Quattro
May 4th marked the World Premier of Alien: Covenant in London’s Leicester Square. A star-studded event, the appearance that had the biggest impact for us was the presence of the Audi Lunar Quattro Rover.
Made by Germany’s Part-Time Scientists, the Audi Rover was initially developed for the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. Many of the rover’s components have been 3D printed by PTScientists at Audi in aluminium and titanium, and the robot is set to travel into space as part of the car manufacturer’s Mission to the Moon.
As part of this mission, PTScientists have worked on the ALINA lunar lander that also has 3D printed parts, and are looking at the possibilities of 3D printing with lunar regolith, aka ‘moon dust’, with microwave sintering.
An Alien teaser from Audi has so far shown the Quattro Rover taking a starring role as a high-tech guard dog aboard the covenant colonization vessel. It will also be seen exploring unknown territories in the feature-length film.
The rover in Alien: Covenant x Audi lunar quattro teaser. Clip via Audi USA on YouTube
The prequel to the pulse rifle
No Alien film would be complete without a whole arsenal of armaments. As a prequel to most of the other Alien films (all except Prometheus), Ridley Scott wanted to switch the more advanced Pulse Rifles for existing weapons.
With this in mind armorist John Bowring, also the creator of Crocodile Dundee’s infamous knife, developed replica guns with the help of 3D printing. In the example below the rail systems at the end of the rifle are laser sintered out of aluminium. This method helped to make the replicas more lightweight and manoeuvrable for stunt use.
As a little bonus, we’ve also tracked down 3D printable .stl models of the M4A1 Rifle from the original Alien film and a Motion Tracker on MyMiniFactory.
The rifle designed by Oleg Khmarnyi is available here, and Carlos Slater’s tracker is here.
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Featured image: Detail of the official theatrical poster for Alien: Covenant. Property of 20th Century Fox
