Alien: Four foot long Nostromo

leading from 

Alien: The Arrival Of Jon Sorensen

and

Alien: Creating The Nostromo

a) Simon Deering builds the smaller Nostromo frame
Perhaps we might be looking at an instance when a cut went wrong in the carpenters for a smaller Nostromo that was about four feet in length, 

 

Simon Deering had to start building a frame for something, perhaps this half scale Nostromo that is seen leaving the refinery

The smaller 'half scale' Nostromo as seen in the film leaving the refinery

b) Jon Sorensen applies his modelling and wiggetry skills
Jon Sorensen would apply his modelling and wiggetry skills. 

 

Jon Sorensen working on a smaller 'half scale' version of the Nostromo.

Rone Hone, Bill Pearson and Steve Jolliffe share a joke in the workshop -
no doubt it would have been something evil. (source http://www.zen171398.zen.co.uk/)

Steven Jolliffe is seen alone working alone at the table (Photo credit Jon Sorensen)

c) Firing off into the darkness

 

The ship would be seen in one shot from the rear when the engines lit up as it was pulling away from the refinery firing off into the darkness to the planetoid.

The engine effect would be created with dozens of halogen light bulbs.

 

 

Phil Rae:"Here's two shots (here and below) of the medium sized model.....fully detailed to match it's bigger brother. It was somewhere around 4 foot + long, and as far as I can recall was only used in the shot 
from the rear when the engines lit up as it was pulling away from the refinery. The engine effect 
was  created with dozens of halogen light bulbs.....something the biggest model didn't have. "
(source: http://www.eagletransporter.com/)

(source: http://www.eagletransporter.com/)

1. Simon Deering: Yeah, I remember the first er, the first instructions were, we had this yellow piece of paper, we had the Ron Cobb drawing I believe it was on the wall and we , we didn't get a lot of direction to start with, which was interesting and fun, you know. we used to have er, my favourite memory of it was Ridley Scott, who'd just come in every now and again, look at what we were doing, he'd start making sketches on the bench and look at it and go "fucking great! Fucking that! How about a few more bits sticking out here and a few more bits sticking out there", and "can we try something like this?' And then he'd go off again, and we'd just play and just make it up, and it was pretty soon that somebody said still "don't bother copying that picture any more" and then it was er, I believe that's when the cut went wrong in the carpenters, and I started building a frame, I'm not sure there were ever a drawing erm, of exactly what they built because because it was very different to the er, the other,  the other ones as I remember, yeah, (Alien Makers I documentary by Dennis Lowe) 
2. Phil Rae:"Here's two shots (here and below) of the medium sized model.....fully detailed to match it's bigger brother. It was somewhere around 4 foot + long, and as far as I can recall was only used in the shot  from the rear when the engines lit up as it was pulling away from the refinery. The engine effect  was  created with dozens of halogen light bulbs.....something the biggest model didn't have. "
   (source: http://www.eagletransporter.com/)