The Tenth Planet Cyberman Build Diary Part 4 : Completion!
Hey Gang,
So the build continues. Malaki Keller and I finish the Mondas Cyberman by adding tubes, shoulders, rings, finishing the head stocking/helmet and barely getting the gun assembled in time.
Mondas Lives! Photo by Scott Sebring
More Pics and Info
Reference!
The lights proved tricky. We discovered that they are not a single row but DOUBLE rows of lights inside the the clear sections. Each are perpendicular to each other- most confusing! One set- the main 5 that go down each side are silver stemmed and smoky black bulbs. These however are Non functional. The lights in between these- 4 on each side- 8 in all the point outwards away from the chest towards the observer - these have a black base and ARE functional! So we rigged up some PVC pipe, wrapped in mylar and then added for one set of lights a plastic clear chip and the other a vacu-formed pull from some toy Mega Blocks Malaki's son had to cap (and they fit perfectly) the others with a little foil to brighten the LED light it will contain. Rather tricky but here's some sample pics.
Light details- yes the tops are castings of Mega Blocks
Mal got clever and figured out how to create the under box- or interior boxes for the unit out of styrene and painted silver- which served to hide the wiring and... make it more accurate to the original box so we felt we were on the right track.
The hidden box behind the box to hide electronics and mimic the original
In addition to this interior box the added vertical side ridges or slates were created and painted in the same fashion- mostly for aesthetics to match the original.
Extra wood ridge to elevate lights and again mimic the original
The underside of the Chets unit reveals the simple yet diabolical wiring Mal dealt with to make the lights work. We used the switchboard I picked up form an electronic surplus store and hooked it up to ten lights and arranged them at random so it would *appear* they would light up at random but in fact according to the board they are in sequence. The last 2 lights (it's a ten light board) are hidden in the center portion of the chest unit.
Wiring to the switchboard to creating the random lighting effect.
Wiring the electronics/lights inside the chest unit
Once complete, a top switch was wired to this to control it and we are satisfied to see how awesome the lights look when tested!!!
The lights work!!
After that it was a matter of physically screwing or gluing with acyrylic cement (or superglue) to put the entire thing together and seal it up and call it a (mostly) done deal.
The Chest unit comes together
From there we took a 1" wood dowel, chopped it down into small pegs, painted them silver and using the reference material found the right areas to attach them to the chest unit. Superglue would have been ideal here but we were running short on time and hot glue was used here. So far it's held!
Dowels attachments
The other issue on the Chest Unit was to devise the way to hold the gun. Our first thought was a lower lip to catch the bottom of the tube/cylinder and then we though about a metal hook and eye type of catch. In the end we sort of combined both since it was hard to make out the exact method used on the show. The styrene got a small long "L" shaped lip/catch that places into the back of a cut out portion of the back of tube which pushes in and then rests down on it. We tried a few tests and this holds it pretty well. Well mostly well. Sometimes it didn't rest right and it took a tumble later so we may revisit this slightly but most of the time it worked well and was simple/effective at the convention.
Wooden lip to hold the gun mount
Next we busted out the webbing/strapping and the buckles and worked out a 4 way system to go over the suit but under the rain suit to hold the now rising weight of the unit on me at the right right. Once we measured everything on me, the sewing machine was broken out and hastily the webbing was cut, soldered (to prevent fraying) and then sewn into place along with attaching the buckles in the right position. Tedious but once together it all seemed to work and sit well on the first try.
Prepping straps and buckles
Prepping the webbing to make the chest unit straps
The straps were attached to the back plate of the chest unit with simple screw and large washers.
Affixing the straps to the back plate for the chest unit
Then the plastic rain suit was burnt (to help prevent further tearing but this turned out to be a bit of a fool's errand as indeed the tears tore somewhat larger with repeated use at the con... so the suit will eventually need recycling/replacing) to create slits for the straps to come through.
Soldering iron to create slit in the suit for the straps.
Head stocking with nylon/stocking sewn in to make black void.
Then the head stocking had black nylon added to the eyes and mouth to create an empty void effect and amazingly kept a decent enough amount of visibility.
Arts and crafts to make the Cyber Eye rings
Cyber lips
Then a craft circle guide was used to cut out the eye rings from 1/8" foam. The same was done for the mouth. These were eventually painted silver and attached to the stocking using spray glue designed to join foam and fabric.
Having fun with foam and head stockings
Then the shoulders were patterned off my own shoulder for scale with paper- just like the pattern making done on the Morbius and Zygon.
Shoulder patterns
The patterns were used to make the foam shapes 2 at a time per shoulder so that when bent the two together create opposite tensions and it retains it's curved shape.
Doubling the shoulders to keep the curve
Once the two sides are barged together for each shoulder, then the heat gun was used to seal the foam pores so it could be primed, sealed and eventually painted silver.
Heat gun- sealing shoulder foam pores for painting
The interior of the shoulders (due to the nature of the base foam being used) needed to be dremmeled down smooth to create an even surface to be barged onto the suit.
Dremmeling the shoulders to smooth it down for attachment/barging
Painting the Shoulders
Once prepped and painted the shoulder got and added side wedge to have the 'under horizontal' dowel added. All three dowels or pegs were then hot glued into place (again... superglue or barge would be better- it held for the con but it's an upgrade we need to do in a small amount of tweaking and post-con-fixing.)
The painted and cut down dowels to make tube attachments
Gluing the dowels on
Dowels glued on to the chest unit for tube attachment
Top dowels
The hidden side tube dowel
For the last added touch before they are added to my shoulders. The 'rivets' look on the side corners was created with small 1/2" toy plastic half spheres.... superglued on and also painted silver with the rest.
Finished Shoulders
Shoulder rivets or plastic half spheres
Barging the shoulders for attachments
On to the limb rings. The rings precut and barged before needed to be sealed with heat, then primed and painted.
Painting the rings
Once that was accomplished we realized I'd overestimated on the size of 4 of them for my upper arms and knees. So they were hastily cut down and re-barged together.
Cutting rings down for better fit
Barging the rings for attachment
Finally using the reference material we marked the areas the rings had to be placed on the suit with blue painter's tape and then began the tedious process of putting barge on the suit and then on the rings before attaching them each for good.
Placing the rings on the suit
Once all on the rings seemed good, symmetrical and rocked the look well.
Cutting the crin tubes for the shoulders
Then we cut the approx 18" length of Crin tubing to make the shoulder tubes and did a test fit. So far so good!
Test fit of the chest unit straps and tubes
Back to the Head... the mostly finished head piece got the addition of ear foam. Rather.. more PVC glued together , sanded, primed and painted silver with the addition of some black insulation foam junctions form Home Depot, cut and glued in place. It was cheap and looked the part well.
The head pieces come together
Ear foam (insulation foam)
Then the vinyl tubing of the right size was sourced, heated to make it circular (they usually seem to come somewhat elongated!) and barely squeezed onto both ends of the PVC tubes to create the transparent look. Once on they were ON FOR GOOD. And surprisingly strong. No worries about major flexing.
Vinyl tubing attached to make the handles
Once complete it was all given a test fit and seemed god except how to keep it on my head?
Helmet side view
Perfecting head piece fit- before adding the final chin strap
Well we used a thinner webbing strap, and barged it into the underside of the helmet and then added velcro to the ends and had it go around like a chin strap. It was a little tight but it worked and remained secure. The head stocking gained some slits in the top to allow the trap to be passed through underneath unseen. A back snap was added to the stocking to tighten it around my neack and make it more flush as well.
Figuring out the dimensions of the chin strap
Finished head fit
The last part that got neglected due to lack of time was the gun. There was no time to get the wiring in place to make it light up this time around- it was a matter of finishing the interior components at this stage.
The Gun comes together
For the grill, we lucked out with a contact of Mal's to have this specially laser cut for us- and it was surprisingly affordable and quick. We had two made to be safe, but in our haste the reference material wasn't immediately on hand and we added an extra horizontal line in the design that shouldn't be there. Another tweak to correct in our fixes and post-con upgrades but as-is it would do and it read well.
The laser cut plastic grill for the gun
The rest of the gun was part of a cheap flashlight, a 99 cent store bowl painted silver with the center cut out and the tube/wood base we'd been working on up til now. Ideally this should all come together with hidden screws and superglue but again... it was down to the wire and it was all hot glued in place. It worked... mostly... but it didn't last the entire con and it's the first thing that will need fixing when the Cyberman is called into action again.
The gun components coming together - 99 cent store bowel, flashlight, cardboard tube.
Hot gluing the gun components together
With all of the above finished- the Cyberman was done in the nick of time and ready to stomp the Halls of Gallifrey One on Saturday and Sunday! Here's a selection of some full costume pics in action!
Finished Costume!
Photos by Scott Sebring
You Will be Like Uzzzz
Photo by Scott Sebring
Photo by Scott Sebring
Tenth Planet lost promo shot (By Scott Sebring)
I organized a 4 man Cyber group for Sat to meet up witht he Daleks Take Console Pics etc. We had my previous '75 Revenge Cyberman, my friend Justin (Darktimelord)'s Silver Nemesis '88 Cyberman and Mal's RTD '06 Cyberman. We made an awesome group that got turned a lot of heads.
The Cyber Group unites!
Cyber Group AT The TARDIS
Cyber Group at.. the Other TARDIS
Cybermats R Us
On Saturday Night I entered the costume in the Masquearde with Mal's other superlative effort- a secret costume for our friend Kevin- the Kandy Man from 1988's The Happiness Patrol. We performed an odd Couple skit that went over well. We won an award for the detail to casting for the costume as part of Master Class.
The Odd Couple 2.0 Masque Skit
De-Gun
Sunday I wore the costume breifly mostly to pose with Valerie's 1st Doctor and get some portrait shots. By the end though the gun was getting worse for wear and was starting to fall apart. I barely made it back to the room in one piece! (not to mention how HOT the costume was to wear- you can see my sweat showing through the stocking at times!) Ah well- all in a learning curve.
Cyber Elevator
Terrorizing the fans
The highlight of wearing it- with the group- was meeting David Banks at his table. He was pretty happy to see us, gave us each an evaluation, mentioning how creepy the 10th Planet Cybermen were and asked us if we were getting "Cyber Nose" from rubbing up too close inside the helmets. He was very open and friendly and chatted with us for a good 15 minutes. He treated us to free autographs the next day! Very cool guys. He made our day and I can safely say we made his!
David Banks gives his approval
Excellent!
John Levene Bonds with us - He was a Cyberman in the Moonbase!
Cyberman at the center of the 1st Regeneration
My other favorite moment was when a fan handed me a fake cigarette to recreate An Adventure in Space and Time opening... which I relished. Awesome!
Recreating An Adventure in Space and Time
And now my cyber-conversion has finished! If you have any further questions on the costume please ask.
Thanks for looking!
-honorarydoctor
So the build continues. Malaki Keller and I finish the Mondas Cyberman by adding tubes, shoulders, rings, finishing the head stocking/helmet and barely getting the gun assembled in time.
Mondas Lives! Photo by Scott Sebring
More Pics and Info
Reference!
The lights proved tricky. We discovered that they are not a single row but DOUBLE rows of lights inside the the clear sections. Each are perpendicular to each other- most confusing! One set- the main 5 that go down each side are silver stemmed and smoky black bulbs. These however are Non functional. The lights in between these- 4 on each side- 8 in all the point outwards away from the chest towards the observer - these have a black base and ARE functional! So we rigged up some PVC pipe, wrapped in mylar and then added for one set of lights a plastic clear chip and the other a vacu-formed pull from some toy Mega Blocks Malaki's son had to cap (and they fit perfectly) the others with a little foil to brighten the LED light it will contain. Rather tricky but here's some sample pics.
Light details- yes the tops are castings of Mega Blocks
Mal got clever and figured out how to create the under box- or interior boxes for the unit out of styrene and painted silver- which served to hide the wiring and... make it more accurate to the original box so we felt we were on the right track.
The hidden box behind the box to hide electronics and mimic the original
In addition to this interior box the added vertical side ridges or slates were created and painted in the same fashion- mostly for aesthetics to match the original.
Extra wood ridge to elevate lights and again mimic the original
The underside of the Chets unit reveals the simple yet diabolical wiring Mal dealt with to make the lights work. We used the switchboard I picked up form an electronic surplus store and hooked it up to ten lights and arranged them at random so it would *appear* they would light up at random but in fact according to the board they are in sequence. The last 2 lights (it's a ten light board) are hidden in the center portion of the chest unit.
Wiring to the switchboard to creating the random lighting effect.
Wiring the electronics/lights inside the chest unit
Once complete, a top switch was wired to this to control it and we are satisfied to see how awesome the lights look when tested!!!
The lights work!!
After that it was a matter of physically screwing or gluing with acyrylic cement (or superglue) to put the entire thing together and seal it up and call it a (mostly) done deal.
The Chest unit comes together
From there we took a 1" wood dowel, chopped it down into small pegs, painted them silver and using the reference material found the right areas to attach them to the chest unit. Superglue would have been ideal here but we were running short on time and hot glue was used here. So far it's held!
Dowels attachments
The other issue on the Chest Unit was to devise the way to hold the gun. Our first thought was a lower lip to catch the bottom of the tube/cylinder and then we though about a metal hook and eye type of catch. In the end we sort of combined both since it was hard to make out the exact method used on the show. The styrene got a small long "L" shaped lip/catch that places into the back of a cut out portion of the back of tube which pushes in and then rests down on it. We tried a few tests and this holds it pretty well. Well mostly well. Sometimes it didn't rest right and it took a tumble later so we may revisit this slightly but most of the time it worked well and was simple/effective at the convention.
Wooden lip to hold the gun mount
Next we busted out the webbing/strapping and the buckles and worked out a 4 way system to go over the suit but under the rain suit to hold the now rising weight of the unit on me at the right right. Once we measured everything on me, the sewing machine was broken out and hastily the webbing was cut, soldered (to prevent fraying) and then sewn into place along with attaching the buckles in the right position. Tedious but once together it all seemed to work and sit well on the first try.
Prepping straps and buckles
Prepping the webbing to make the chest unit straps
The straps were attached to the back plate of the chest unit with simple screw and large washers.
Affixing the straps to the back plate for the chest unit
Then the plastic rain suit was burnt (to help prevent further tearing but this turned out to be a bit of a fool's errand as indeed the tears tore somewhat larger with repeated use at the con... so the suit will eventually need recycling/replacing) to create slits for the straps to come through.
Soldering iron to create slit in the suit for the straps.
Head stocking with nylon/stocking sewn in to make black void.
Then the head stocking had black nylon added to the eyes and mouth to create an empty void effect and amazingly kept a decent enough amount of visibility.
Arts and crafts to make the Cyber Eye rings
Cyber lips
Then a craft circle guide was used to cut out the eye rings from 1/8" foam. The same was done for the mouth. These were eventually painted silver and attached to the stocking using spray glue designed to join foam and fabric.
Having fun with foam and head stockings
Then the shoulders were patterned off my own shoulder for scale with paper- just like the pattern making done on the Morbius and Zygon.
Shoulder patterns
The patterns were used to make the foam shapes 2 at a time per shoulder so that when bent the two together create opposite tensions and it retains it's curved shape.
Doubling the shoulders to keep the curve
Once the two sides are barged together for each shoulder, then the heat gun was used to seal the foam pores so it could be primed, sealed and eventually painted silver.
Heat gun- sealing shoulder foam pores for painting
The interior of the shoulders (due to the nature of the base foam being used) needed to be dremmeled down smooth to create an even surface to be barged onto the suit.
Dremmeling the shoulders to smooth it down for attachment/barging
Painting the Shoulders
Once prepped and painted the shoulder got and added side wedge to have the 'under horizontal' dowel added. All three dowels or pegs were then hot glued into place (again... superglue or barge would be better- it held for the con but it's an upgrade we need to do in a small amount of tweaking and post-con-fixing.)
The painted and cut down dowels to make tube attachments
Gluing the dowels on
Dowels glued on to the chest unit for tube attachment
Top dowels
The hidden side tube dowel
For the last added touch before they are added to my shoulders. The 'rivets' look on the side corners was created with small 1/2" toy plastic half spheres.... superglued on and also painted silver with the rest.
Finished Shoulders
Shoulder rivets or plastic half spheres
Barging the shoulders for attachments
On to the limb rings. The rings precut and barged before needed to be sealed with heat, then primed and painted.
Painting the rings
Once that was accomplished we realized I'd overestimated on the size of 4 of them for my upper arms and knees. So they were hastily cut down and re-barged together.
Cutting rings down for better fit
Barging the rings for attachment
Finally using the reference material we marked the areas the rings had to be placed on the suit with blue painter's tape and then began the tedious process of putting barge on the suit and then on the rings before attaching them each for good.
Placing the rings on the suit
Once all on the rings seemed good, symmetrical and rocked the look well.
Cutting the crin tubes for the shoulders
Then we cut the approx 18" length of Crin tubing to make the shoulder tubes and did a test fit. So far so good!
Test fit of the chest unit straps and tubes
Back to the Head... the mostly finished head piece got the addition of ear foam. Rather.. more PVC glued together , sanded, primed and painted silver with the addition of some black insulation foam junctions form Home Depot, cut and glued in place. It was cheap and looked the part well.
The head pieces come together
Ear foam (insulation foam)
Then the vinyl tubing of the right size was sourced, heated to make it circular (they usually seem to come somewhat elongated!) and barely squeezed onto both ends of the PVC tubes to create the transparent look. Once on they were ON FOR GOOD. And surprisingly strong. No worries about major flexing.
Vinyl tubing attached to make the handles
Once complete it was all given a test fit and seemed god except how to keep it on my head?
Helmet side view
Perfecting head piece fit- before adding the final chin strap
Well we used a thinner webbing strap, and barged it into the underside of the helmet and then added velcro to the ends and had it go around like a chin strap. It was a little tight but it worked and remained secure. The head stocking gained some slits in the top to allow the trap to be passed through underneath unseen. A back snap was added to the stocking to tighten it around my neack and make it more flush as well.
Figuring out the dimensions of the chin strap
Finished head fit
The last part that got neglected due to lack of time was the gun. There was no time to get the wiring in place to make it light up this time around- it was a matter of finishing the interior components at this stage.
The Gun comes together
For the grill, we lucked out with a contact of Mal's to have this specially laser cut for us- and it was surprisingly affordable and quick. We had two made to be safe, but in our haste the reference material wasn't immediately on hand and we added an extra horizontal line in the design that shouldn't be there. Another tweak to correct in our fixes and post-con upgrades but as-is it would do and it read well.
The laser cut plastic grill for the gun
The rest of the gun was part of a cheap flashlight, a 99 cent store bowl painted silver with the center cut out and the tube/wood base we'd been working on up til now. Ideally this should all come together with hidden screws and superglue but again... it was down to the wire and it was all hot glued in place. It worked... mostly... but it didn't last the entire con and it's the first thing that will need fixing when the Cyberman is called into action again.
The gun components coming together - 99 cent store bowel, flashlight, cardboard tube.
Hot gluing the gun components together
With all of the above finished- the Cyberman was done in the nick of time and ready to stomp the Halls of Gallifrey One on Saturday and Sunday! Here's a selection of some full costume pics in action!
Finished Costume!
Photos by Scott Sebring
You Will be Like Uzzzz
Photo by Scott Sebring
Photo by Scott Sebring
Tenth Planet lost promo shot (By Scott Sebring)
I organized a 4 man Cyber group for Sat to meet up witht he Daleks Take Console Pics etc. We had my previous '75 Revenge Cyberman, my friend Justin (Darktimelord)'s Silver Nemesis '88 Cyberman and Mal's RTD '06 Cyberman. We made an awesome group that got turned a lot of heads.
The Cyber Group unites!
Cyber Group AT The TARDIS
Cyber Group at.. the Other TARDIS
Cybermats R Us
On Saturday Night I entered the costume in the Masquearde with Mal's other superlative effort- a secret costume for our friend Kevin- the Kandy Man from 1988's The Happiness Patrol. We performed an odd Couple skit that went over well. We won an award for the detail to casting for the costume as part of Master Class.
The Odd Couple 2.0 Masque Skit
De-Gun
Sunday I wore the costume breifly mostly to pose with Valerie's 1st Doctor and get some portrait shots. By the end though the gun was getting worse for wear and was starting to fall apart. I barely made it back to the room in one piece! (not to mention how HOT the costume was to wear- you can see my sweat showing through the stocking at times!) Ah well- all in a learning curve.
Cyber Elevator
Terrorizing the fans
The highlight of wearing it- with the group- was meeting David Banks at his table. He was pretty happy to see us, gave us each an evaluation, mentioning how creepy the 10th Planet Cybermen were and asked us if we were getting "Cyber Nose" from rubbing up too close inside the helmets. He was very open and friendly and chatted with us for a good 15 minutes. He treated us to free autographs the next day! Very cool guys. He made our day and I can safely say we made his!
David Banks gives his approval
Excellent!
John Levene Bonds with us - He was a Cyberman in the Moonbase!
Cyberman at the center of the 1st Regeneration
My other favorite moment was when a fan handed me a fake cigarette to recreate An Adventure in Space and Time opening... which I relished. Awesome!
Recreating An Adventure in Space and Time
And now my cyber-conversion has finished! If you have any further questions on the costume please ask.
Thanks for looking!
-honorarydoctor