Another Cylon joins the ranks !!!

Post by **Mr Fett** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:14 am

Hello everyone. My name is Andrew and Iv'e seen a few of you on the RPF and elsewhere. I've been doing costuming for 10 years now, starting with Star Wars and moving into the realm of other types of characters I thought were cool looking in my youth. For example besides Star Wars stuff, I've got the 1985 G.I. JOE Snake-Eyes, Predator, Jason Voorhees, etc. Well a few months ago I saw someone post a Cylon costume for sale up on the RPF and I snagged it. I've always liked the look of Cylons and even though my suit isn't the most screen accurate one, it still looks "good enough for the moment" and I'm happy to at least own a suit! I'm sure upgrades will come later, as they typically do with my costumes.

See you all around the board....

Post by **GoldCylon** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:30 am

Welcome on board Andrew, and let me guess you bought a Krop suit?

Post by **Mr Fett** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:04 pm

Actually no it wasn't a Kropserkel. I don't know where it came from, as I know I'm at least the third owner of it. It doesn't look like any of the Kropserkel parts I've seen.

The things that aren't accurate with it is that the bicep clamshell pieces only have one per arm, not two to make a full circle around my bicep, also the sword scabbard is black, not chrome.

The undersuit itself appears to be made very similar to the real ones I've seen pictures of, only it's a grayish color, not the correct plum, and the ribbing on it is thicker than the screen-used ribbing, and there's less of them. Example, the belly section only has like 15 or so ribs, not 30-40 like I've seen in pics of the screen used suits. It came with darker gray vinyl patches on it, but the two grays blended together too much so I replaced them with a nice black finished vinyl instead and backed it with buckram. Yes I know the real patches were gunmetal, but I couldn't find any for the life of me, so I guess my suit is more of an "action figure" look with the gray and black instead of the TV show accurate plum/gunmetal. In the future I'll probably upgrade to a more screen accurate undersuit, but this one works for now.

It does have the correct Cooper Armadillo Thumb gloves with it, and the boots aren't Georgia Lineman, but very close.

I got the suit in April and got it up and running for our local comic con in May, where I wore it the first time and everyone liked it, so the "screen accurate stuff" didn't matter.

There was a few "New BSG" guests there. I didn't even get over to their tables where they were signing when I see 'Viper Pilot Kat' and her friend come literally running over to me (in heels, mind you). She took a bunch of pics with me with her own camera and totally ate it up. She was cool.

Later I was over talking to 'Col. Tigh' (who called me a fraking toaster) and Kat came over again and wanted more pics with me. So yeah, the real BSGers liked the suit.

This was my first event wearing it, and my shoulder bells kept falling back because they were connected to the neck armor, not the undersuit. A problem that will be corrected by the next time I suit up. Also, the suit never had the two L-brackets that go under the neck to the backpack, so I had to ghetto rig up something to fill in the gap with scrap plastic and metal tape and chrome car door trim. It worked alright, but I'll probably order the real pieces from C.O.R.A. sometime. I did have the eye light going, but it was hard to pick up in pictures in the daylight. I also have the CD sold on Ebay of the constant eye sound effect running in the backpack of my suit, which everyone loved.

It didn't come with a blaster, but sometime I'll get one!

Post by **GoldCylon** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:29 pm

Well it looks like a Kropserkel to me. The give away in the back pack. The under suit also looks like a Krop, but I do see some up grades done to it. The boots, and the ankle gauntlets have been up graded. A little help with the back pack try to Velcro the back side of the face plate to the top of the back side of the chest plate. Also criss cross your suspender left to right, and right to left over shoulder and across your chest to hide them from view.

Post by **Mr Fett** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:51 pm

Yeah, I'm not sure. Unless I have an older model Krop or something. I'll have to take a backside pic, because the backpack I have does not at all look like the backpacks on the Krop website. It looks exactly like the pack shown in the more accurate sets of armor available out there. It's the collar thing that throws me off, too. The front collar is a separate piece on the Krop suits, mine isn't. The whole neck system is one vacuumformed piece....but it's missing the L-bracket on each side that would sit on top of my actual shoulders.

Also all the Krop suits I've seen on this board have had black undersuits, and mine is gray, so again I'm unsure where it originated from.

Thanks for the tip on how to place the velcro and everything to hold the armor together better.

YouTube · Post by **Cylon-Knight** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:18 pm

Mr Fett, WELCOME! Glad to have you here and WOW, that suit and the pics with the new BSG cast - simply awesome. Thank you for sharing them.

I agree with GoldCylon that some of your suit looks like Krop parts - but the helmet isn't one that says "Krop" to me... the mohawk on yours is much better. But GoldCylon has the best roving red scanner eye for all things classic Cylon! He's in THE KNOW.

Glad you've joined up - looking forward to seeing you upgrade your suit. Enjoy the site, and post often!

YouTube · Post by **Cylon-Knight** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:18 pm

P.S. Mr Fett you said you make your own costumes typically - do you have your own vac form setup?

Post by **GoldCylon** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:32 pm

Even with out seeing the back part of the back pack I can tell it is a Krop, and adding the correct "L's" wont work. It would be a massive under taking that would be easier, and maybe cheaper to buy a new kit, and built it that way, and then have it chromed.

Post by **Mr Fett** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:27 pm

Yeah, like I said, I have no clue where the parts originated from. The guy I got it from said he got it off someone before him too, so I don't know how old it is. Did Krop ever make another suit besides their current one? I'm curious, because if Dale said it's Krop and I've looked at all the pics of their suits on this board that board members own, and the pics on their website and based on those, I can tell:

- My helmet is different. Besides my thinner mohawk, they make theirs with the eye area and mouth area being one solid resin piece. Mine had two vacformed pieces ( "stunt" mouth and eye area). I didn't like the eye area that came with my helmet, so I ordered a resin one from C.O.R.A. which is on my helmet in those pics.

- My backpack neckpiece is different sized and shaped.

- My shoulder bells are different shaped.

- My sword doesn't come out of the scabbard like theirs does.

- Every Krop undersuit I've seen pictures of has been black, and their tubing looks 'soft'. My tubing actually has some sort of insert, possibly metal even like coathanger wire, that I can reshape the roundness of the tubes around my body by hand.

- My belt boxes are different. Mine don't have the little extra lip theirs has where the belt fits against....and I have 6 belt boxes, not 7.

PS- Cylon-Knight. I personally don't have a vacformer, but I know a number of different Star Wars costumers within a few hour radius of me that have vacform machines. Maybe I'll just mold up my belt box and make the correct 7th one then, good idea.

Post by **GoldCylon** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:05 pm

A guess on my part that your suit is an older Krop suit with a few parts exchanged. The under suit color looks like an older Krop suit also, but sorry I don't have any photos to refer back to. I think Krop also went the 6 battery box route also, and they attached the boxes to a unknown item to a regular over the counter wide belt.

Post by **Mr Fett** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:18 pm

Thanks for the info, Dale. You do know your Cylons better than anyone.

So maybe it is some sort of "mutt" from different sources. The mystery will continue I guess.

The belt boxes are connected to one of those black old army web belts. I actually like this system for costuming since I don't have a vintage battery belt to have the belt boxes go over, this makes the whole belt setup very light weight.

Another thing is I've never seen the eye setup I have on any other suits either. It's 20 square LEDs connected right to a rectangular circuit board that hangs below the eye area inside the face of the helmet. I do plan on getting a brighter light source from somewhere else in the future. This one doesn't seem to have the brightness to see from a distance in broad daylight.

Post by **GoldCylon** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:23 pm

Thank you on the compliment. As for the day light source of viewing with a brighter light. Forget it it just isn't going to work at all. Even in Galactica 1980 the scanner were not plugged in in the Return of Starbuck. The outside glare just washed the light bulbs out.

Post by **Mr Fett** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:40 pm

I knew you were the Cylon master on the RPF.

Ooooh! Thanks for that side angle. OK that's what I'm talking about. My neckpiece from the side looks almost just like that one. Same height and shape off the top of the backpack and along the side of the head. Missing the large L-shaped pieces underneath which attach into the front rectangle. I've seen the pics of the Krop backpack top and it sticks up way further than the one in the pic you showed.

I just took a few pics then Dale can verify what backpack I have. Never mind the shoulder bells hanging off the neckpiece. I said I'm going to switch them out later!

You can see my ghetto space fillers behind the front rectangle on the armor, and the fact I'm missing the two hoses on the backpack. Were those just electrical split loom tubing? I could just add that if that's what they were.

Note my nifty sound setup for the eye warble velcroed inside the backpack. The hanging wire gets attached to an Ipod in a sports case which gets clipped to the top side of the back of the suspender pants, hidden inside the back armor.

Post by **GoldCylon** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 12:03 am

That looks like it might be a fan made back pack. The toilet seat (aka shoulder piece around your head) is off in the way it looks for a original, but back piece looks very cut except the cut is off, so that is why I say fan made.
Maybe try the chest piece for your sound system, it would project the sound in front of you over from behind you.
Also try Velcro for your shoulder bells on the under suit, not the back pack.

Post by **Mr Fett** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 12:15 am

Yes, I agree it's fan-made, and it does look different from the pieces I've seen on the Krop suits, so sounds like it's up in the air where it's from. I may have an artist friend of mine reculpt the entire "toilet seat" area and create a new piece that sits flush with the top of my backpack. Or, I might just eventually get a whole different backpack.

I considered the chest plate for the sound system, too, but went with it in the backpack for ease of use at the moment. You can still hear it from the front, as it sounds like it's surrounding the body.

I'm definately going to velcro the shoulder bells right onto the undersuit. I will also be trying to run a piece of velcro between the chest armor and the front rectangle on the neckpiece as you have suggested.

Another Cylon joins the ranks !!!

Another Cylon joins the ranks !!!

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