I just ordered my first Cylon Outfit

[GoldCylon]

If you use PayPal file a claim.

[dabambam]

Yikes I almost ordered from him myself. We exchanged several emails in fact. I hope it works out for you in the end and your armor arrives.

[aussiecylon]

So I finally heard from the infamous Bentley. Email states that he apologises for the delay, but he has a PayPal claim against him and money from his PayPal account has been withdrawn. (What this has got to do with me or my armor is anyone's guess!!, as I have paid him in full)....He says that he now has some money in his account to be able to post out the package. Yeah....we'll see....

[mad-Cylon]

Please keep us posted, I received the helmet very quickly and emails from him to keep me posted. I am considering getting the complete set, just waiting for you to get yours to see what its like and what trouble you went through.
He is a shady one that bloke....

[aussiecylon]

I think what this guy does is advertise stuff on ebay, waits for you to pay up and then make the stuff you just ordered...which is fine and OK with me, as long as he actually completes the order. In this instance, he has emailed me and said it's completed and he even sent me photos of the outfit. I think now he just hasn't got the funds to post it out to me (apparently!?!) even though I paid him in full!?! How can someone run a business like that?? Unbelievable. I just hope he pulls this off and actually delivers what he promised. If run properly, his little business could and should be a good little money earner for him as he does Star Wars stuff as well. More updates as they happen.

[aussiecylon]

Well, still no word from Bentley O'Toole.

Anyway, I'm building a mannequin out of PVC downpipes and I'll take photos and post here for all to see.

So I was thinking about the 'leather' thigh covers over the cylon's thighs. I'm watching BSG again, (in the name of research of course), and noticed that in some scenes the covers seem to be just leather (or vinyl) stitched onto the front thigh and in some scenes it appears that they are rigid pieces. I liked the rigid look much better and decided to make some. Getting the shape was much harder than first anticipated. Just when I thought I had the correct shape, I would compare mine with what was on the screen and discover I was way off. After a few alterations, (well, quite a few actually), I finally got it nailed. I would say it's very, very, very close to what is on screen. Check it out:

front view
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

side view
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

in position
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

here you can see the cylon on the left has creases on the thigh and the cylon on the right has what appears to be rigid pieces
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

this is what I commonly see with homemade cylon undersuits. It just doesn't look right and it makes the whole cylon look "off". Apologies to whoever this belongs to, I just got the pic from another site.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

[aussiecylon]

Finally my cylon arrived today. As you can imagine, I quickly ripped open the box to take a peek inside, and welcome my new friend into my life....and I did not put on the helmet and walk around saying "By your command"....(nobody was home.....nobody saw me do it.....so obviously it didn't happen!!)

So I laid everything out on the floor to take a good look at what my hard earned cash bought for me. At first glance, yeah, not too bad. The fiberglass is a bit wavy and there are a few hollows and craters that need filled and fixed etc. I kinda expected that. Is it molded from a 'real' cylon?? Dunno. Bentley says that it is (check out earlier posts). It looks good enough but needs a lot of work to make perfect. As you know, chrome will show up every little bit of imperfection on the surface, so yeah.....a lot of work to smooth it all out and make perfect.

The helmet has a substantial seam line running along the centre vertically. A lot of filling needed here. The nose and mouth area also need a bit of work. Overall, its pretty good.

The back pack also has a few seam lines that need to be filled and smoothed. It's pretty smooth with only a bit of attention needed.

The chest piece is smooth also, with no waviness. There are a few pin holes and a couple of imperfections that once again will need to be addressed. Nothing serious.

The battery boxes also are pretty good. A few pin holes here and there and also some tiny bumps, but again, nothing serious.

There are 4 pieces of bicep armour. They are smooth with only a couple of pin holes and tiny bumps that can easily be fixed.
My main concern here is that when I place them together, they don't match up perfectly. Is this normal?? Or do I have to make some major changes here??

Same thing with the 4 pieces of forearm armour. These are smooth, but have quite a few imperfections in them, but once again, easily fixed. Again, when I place them together, they don't match up perfectly.

The shoulder pads need a ton of work on them. They are very wavy, and have a heap of imperfections in them. A ton of body filler is required here!!

The lower leg armour is nice and smooth and needs little or no work on them. There are 4 pieces, but once again, when I place them together, they don't match up at all. Some work need to be done here for them to fit properly.

There are 2 ribs included. They are OK, but there is some waviness in them and they will need some work also.

The sword comes in 1 piece with the scabbard in 2 pieces. The sword itself needs a ton of work to make smooth. It is wavy, has tons of holes in it and is generally a very messy casting. This doesn't really bother me, as I actually enjoy doing body work. The detail on the handle is poor and the handle knob detail is very soft. A ton of work is required on the sword to make it worthy of a cylon centurion warrior!!

Like I said the scabbard comes in 2 pieces. It is generally smooth, but does have some waviness to it which will need to be addressed. The sword fits inside the scabbard, but I can foresee problems. It is a very, very tight fit, so chrome will very likely get scratched and damaged easily. The scabbard will need to be widened along the seam by a few mm's to fit the sword nicely. A good idea will be to glue the inside with velvet or flocking (??) to prevent damage to the sword.

Well that's about it. Generally pretty pleased with the armour, but like I said, it will need a ton of work to fix all the little defects etc. I know I had a hard time with Bentley, but he did pull it off for me.

I will post pictures of all this in the coming days.

cheers

[GoldCylon]

No pictures no proof on walking around the house with the helmet on saying By Your Command...LoL

Congrats on getting your kit, and a double slap on the back from Bentley. Yes it was cast from a screen use Cylon from BriFX (something like that) suit.

[mad-Cylon]

You did a very good job on the thigh covers, I like the look, what material did you use and how are will you attach it?
Great to know you got your kit from Bentley, the condition you described sounds fine and is how I would expect. How does the grill and visor fit the helmet? mine don't fit at all, with lots of work needed to make it fit. I haven't started that yet as I am still working on my 3 paper creations.
Might just go ahead and give Bentley another order now that he has come through...

[Brisfx]

Hi

Are any of you guys in Brisbane??

Brad

[Brisfx]

My Cylon is the one that Bentley molded his parts from

regards

Brad

[aussiecylon]

Brisfx...can you tell me the history of the suit? Bentley said it was molded from a screen used suit that came to tour Australia way back in 1980 for Channel 7 (I think). He has sent me some email scans of an old TV Week article showing the cylon, and claimed that that was the cylon he copied?? How did you get your hands on it etc?? Any info would be great and be quite an interesting read for all of us here on this forum.

And I will have to have a good look at the mouthpiece etc and see how well it all fits together....not home right now so I'll get back to you guys soon. With pics, as promised.....

cheers

[aussiecylon]

Mad Cylon....I made my thigh pieces from 3mm MDF sheet. To make them curved, I hung the sheet up with straps and placed a weight along the centreline....in my case, I used an old fire extinguisher. You need something with a curved side to it.

I then drenched the MDF with water from a spray bottle and kept it wet for a couple of days. This caused the MDF to take the shape of the fire extinguisher. I then took off the extinguisher and looped the MDF with straps and tightened them up to the required curvature. I then just let the whole thing dry for a couple of days. Just make sure to support the edges of the MDF with long pieces of wood or angle iron, as the straps will distort the edges.

I made a stencil of the thigh pieces from watching and re-watching episodes of BSG and used that to cut out the pieces. I wanted a leather look to them, so off to Spotlight I went and bought some black leather looking vinyl. I then used contact cement to glue the vinyl onto the MDF and that's about it. I have also made some shin pieces and am about to make the upper arm pieces. Like I said, I made mine with a leather look to them, but, looking at some photos and screen shots, I think that a smooth gloss or semi-gloss black is more accurate.

cheers

[dabambam]

Glad you received your armor. I'm getting ready to trim my two helmets from the vaccum molds this weekend. I just ordered a sword and and rib armor from CORA and it's on the way. Make sure to post pics if you can. I might get your armor kit for my second project.

[aussiecylon]

OK guys, here are the photos I promised. For details of the parts, please refer to my previous posts:

Helmet:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Chest:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Back pack:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Forearm pieces:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

You can see here that the forearm pieces don't fit together. One half is longer than the other. Some modifications are needed here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Bicep pieces:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Same problem here. The halves don't fit together, they will need some mods also:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Battery boxes:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

There is a slope on one side. Is this how the battery boxes are supposed to be? And which way do they go?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Rib pieces, mouth grill and front back pack piece:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Shoulder pads. These need a ton of work to make smooth. It appears that Bentleys' mould may be broken or damaged, as there are a heap of warps and creases in the pads.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Sword and scabbard:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Detail is very soft on handle knob. Hard to see in the pic but a ton of work needed here to make it look good:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Eye piece, forearm 'blaster' and back pack pieces. These are not bad, but not great either. The back pack piece is so delicate, that some of the finned details has already cracked off it. Anyone know of any resin replacements? These black pieces are really delicate.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Calf pieces.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

As you can see here, the halves don't match up. There is about an inch and a half of difference. It appears that Bentley pulled them out of the mold too soon. Some mods needed here to fix this problem. I may fiberglass the whole thing to be a single piece:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Same problem with the other side:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Bentley also included some plastic strips in the kit. Not sure what they are:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

The complete kit:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522 ... ed-public/

Well, there you have it. Not a bad kit, but it does need a bit of work.

cheers