ByYourCommand.net

Hey Guys!

My name is Jess and I am in Albuquerque, NM. I am a member of the 501st and in addition to having a passion for Sandtroopers....I friggin love Cylons! I will be reading through the threads here to research which armor is best for the price and I am sure I will be asking lost of questions.....so please bare with me! If anyone has advice or suggestions...just jump right in!

I have been a fan of the original BSG since 1978

Some more about me....I work in the film industry as a prop fabricator (I do not have skills to sculpt armor...or I would be on it!) and as a on set dresser. I am currently working on a film called "The Eye" with Jessica Alba. Prior to this one I worked on "The Lost Room" and "FanBoys"

Hey Jess welcome to the crew here, we are a small group, but love it when ever someone signs up and ask a question or two, or even has a suggestion. Your back ground sounds great, I would have loved to been able to go down that that in the industry.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

So....in your opinion....who has the best armor for the price? I see Kropserkle chromes their armor....but I have heard of issues when ordering from them.

C1-978 wrote:Thanks for the warm welcome!

So....in your opinion....who has the best armor for the price? I see Kropserkle chromes their armor....but I have heard of issues when ordering from them.

The best anyone has anything good about the Kropserklw suit is the chrome, and that is about it. Beside a slow turn around time, the suit is far off from a 1:1 accurate suit. The major turn off is the pack back, and then the under suit doesn't even come close to the real deal. The formed plastic is a bit thin, and the list goes on. It is a great piece if you don't mind waiting, and you don't care about the way it looks.
There are two members on here that sell the armor, and then you would have to farm out the chroming yourself. One is a 1:1 accurate fiber glass version, pulled off a screen used, and then a styrene version, that has a very good mostly 1:1 accurate, with screen used parts. The details is lost a bit in vacuforming, but over all you can't really tell with out a screen used next to it to for a side by side review.
C.O.R.A. is one member, and Brisfx are the two armor guys.

Welcome to the board! Honestly, be prepared to shell out some mega-cubits for a Cylon suit. They're NOT a dime-a-dozen like all the Star Wars costumes out there. Also, you can spend a ton of money for a bad replica Cylon. You're in the right place to ask questions, so ask plenty. I would estimate spending $2,000 - $4,000 for a replica Cylon. The cost will depend on the quality and the fact that you really do need to buy parts from all over the place......unless you find someone unloading one of their old Cylon costumes which will have all the parts in one place. Even then, you might want to change/fine tune some things. Also, don't be surprised if your Cylon costume takes years (yes, years) to finish. Now, don't be too discouraged and good luck!

Thanks for the advice! I was talking to our DP on the film I am working on and he is going to give me a list of camera operators who may have access to the battery belts. The current ones are now cloth covered but still look the same....to bad for me!

I do have a question about the assembly of the helmet.....it seems that you get the helmet in 2 halves, do you glue the 2 halves together and use a filler (bondo) to smooth it out? I have seen a chrome tape used....but won't that peel and cause you helmet to fall apart?

C1-978 wrote: I do have a question about the assembly of the helmet.....it seems that you get the helmet in 2 halves, do you glue the 2 halves together and use a filler (bondo) to smooth it out? I have seen a chrome tape used....but won't that peel and cause you helmet to fall apart?

This web site has a great step by step online guide to build the Cylon helmet. http://www.tk560.com/cylonbuild.html

I have seen that site before.....my experience with working with thin styrene and trying to use bondo has not gone so well. I mean it works great if you are only going to display the item and not move it much....but if you intend on wearing this, bondo tends to crack and break with normal use. Has anyone else had this issue?