OVERHAULIN' ...Colonials Edition

[Tothiro]

So today was my scheduled "do nothing productive to put your head back on straight" day, and with a few rent gigs wrapped up I plan on casting into the am (I'm looking at You SeattleEd). I figured I'd share some of the day's leisure activity:

I had this spare LJN head wearing a pair of Big Jim boxing gloves and knocking Superman around, so I've pressed him into Colonial Viper Pilot service. The sculpt is a weird amalgamation of both Boomer and Col. Tigh, so I guess if anyone is looking for either in a pinch it'd work ok, but it's not spot on for either.



What I did here was really basic. I had set up some tan Rit to boil to see how much closer to "I can live with that" I could get Apollo. The color does actually help a bit. Since I already had the dye going I also tanned out a pair of the old Playing Mantis AJ Army uniform pants (Pretty sure that's where they came from) and an already stained a bit HD Fonzie shirt from the spare outfits bin.
The fonzie fabric took the tan a lot faster than I expected, as I'd never dyed mego poly before - but it turned out a kind of neat color (too dark, but that's ok) AND it's a happy accident because this experience solves a problem for another project.

I'd thought about using the pants from the CTVT Space:1999 second season crew, but they're not a dark enough tan either, and the fabric is very thick. They also don't fit well, because they're too tight in the thigh.
I put some Little John boots I had on boomer for the compare.

You can see where there's too much fabric on the Apollo legs (they're basically bell bottom width all the way up the leg) but there's enough bones there to be perfectly workable if they're just taken in on the inseam a bit.
The top is very baggy, but again, probably stitched 4 or 5 mm tighter up the sideseams would do it.

I put a small slot notch into either side of the blaster handle, only just as deep as the grip pops out, and that allows smooth vinty handgrip. Anyone that knows me probably already knows I'll probably be recasting myself some in a hard teal or purple too.

Taking a fresh look at the jacket with another head in place, I noticed that what was going on was slightly different than I thought before (dude! I was WRONG!!) ok ok... but seriously it's a combination of small problems.
1) there is enough back fabric material but it's hamstrung by the critical shortness of the collar, and the way the collar is stitched. It effectively gathers up all the fabric like a drawstring.
2) the waist is far too wide. The jacket needs to be taken in considerably and then it will lay less like an awkward cardigan.
3) the figures neck, it's just too damned big.

Here it is laying flat, but positioned to show what it would look like with the sides lined up.


Here it is gathered in the front to see how it would lay:

and again showing the amount of material we're talking about:



Finally the crew hangs out while Magnus: Sharkbot Jumper makes a guest appearance.


I'll be modding the jacket to see where it can go before I commit to hacking one up for a restart. My early estimate is there's too much fabric in the waist, and not enough fabric in the collar. The collar is a problem unless i can get out and luck into finding some microfiber Ultrasuede to match this color, which is a real longshot.
Either way with some simple alterations (minus the need for new heads) there's a serviceable starter point to be had here.

[JediJaida]

You'd either need to take a HUMONGOUS dart in the back of that jacket to make it lie flat, or try to make your own.

[Tothiro]

Actually I'm going to remove half the width from either side of both panels under the arms, bringing the sides in evenly. I'm going to see if there's a way to rework some of that into a collar extension while I'm at it since there's more back panel material that has to go than front panel to make the seam vertical. I don't think there's going to be enough fabric length for that though.

Collar fabric final: Once the collar is removed the top of the jacket lays perfectly. The collar itself though is a full 1.4cm (14mm) too short to be sewn the way it's intended. If it were 14mm longer from the factory, it would have come out genius.
Total collar space needs to be 7.2cm long by 1.7cm wide (the width of the cut as is) which includes 4mm on either side to double in for a french seam, so a total collar length of 6.4cm (this is all as much for my notes as everyone's) =)

Here's what we're looking at - the top of the jacket lined up proper without collar (it can still lay open, I've just positioned it this way to illustrate the tailoring):


And with the collar piece placed, left side folded in for the seam... the other end is the extreme edge of the fabric, if you fold it in as well, the piece only makes it as far as halfway across the length of the shoulder patch:


The jacket at this stage is still a little plus size on the waist, but only by about 2cm total for a fitted look (1cm each side is a good number, but at this angle really not that much). I think most would agree if the collar is just fixed, no one is going to think anything is askew with the rest of the cuts and presume it good to go for a flight jacket anyway.

[Ben]

nice work so far.....

[Tothiro]

Updates:
Colonial jacket has been taken in on the sides (5mm of material removed along the seam from each panel, effectively cutting just to the inside of the stitch (the jackets come with 4mm between factory stitch and edge of cut)

It's more open here, but it also hangs more closed if set that way, and each side matches up to the other as they would on the live costume. If you pull the neck together under the chin so that the collar is nearly closed, it can flare a bit at the base like Starbuck usually wore it on the show.
I've decided not to modify the front closure tabs (they're the right size but not spaced widely enough apart) because I like them. I may test out how small gold tone buttons look on the collar for pips, but that's once I can either source matched fabric or decide on something else.

Speaking of the Collar - it has been temporarily addressed -

Unfortunately there was no way to harvest usable fabric from the jacket side mod, so without a matching fabric yet I had to cut the collar in half and insert a vinyl spacer in the back to make up the distance.

[nobody]

BBP should really send out prototypes to MM members for critique before commiting to expensive final production. Question about Cylon. Dont they make a kind of sheet of foil/silver that when you rub it on stuff it sticks? I'm wondering if you could chrome a cylon head that way?

[Tothiro]

(The phone is always on!! )
To be fair I think the prototype was probably closer to this than the factory produced version. It's entirely possible the proto was dead on, I mean the jacket top turns out very well proportioned once you remove the collar, and the sides were a very negligible change. The sleeves are a touch long too, but nothing you wouldn't see in regular production variation (I'm glad they're too long instead of too short).

If the factory messed up the collar, I'd say it's all on them. If not, then yes - I would agree that that bit was an error in an otherwise good pattern.

Chrome: Yeah there's a silver foil and gold foil you can buy in sheets, but it's really intended to be burnished onto a treated (sticky) surface. I went through a lot of that on the ToyFare Silver Surfer, and we just ended up going silver gray. You can't chrome or treat a vinyl head in reflective surface because of the nature of the vinyl. To have chromed the Cylon heads, BBP! would have had to make the craniums hard plastic (maybe treated like a helmet with everything that's black underneath a vinyl base?) Anyway that would have really ballooned costs.

If someone were really into chroming out a head, I'd suggest doing a resin recast and sending it to be chromed. There are hobby kits for sale where you can chemical dip your own parts to chrome, but the chroming comes out fragile and not as bright as a pro rig. There's a shop called Chrometech USA which does motorcycle and engine parts, but also caters to hobby crowd because I think the guy himself is into model trains. Turnaround isn't super fast for little pieces, but I understand he does nice work. There were some Micronaut Aliens chromed on the last board that looked pretty fly.

[PNGwynne]

How many collar extensions/inserts could you harvest from extra jackets?


The effort & attention you've put into this is really impressive--kudos & thanks.

[Tothiro]

How many collar extensions/inserts could you harvest from extra jackets?


The effort & attention you've put into this is really impressive--kudos & thanks.

Happy to perform a service, Guv'na! =)

Yeah - I'd considered that. By my measurements you can take material enough for one collar from each side of the left sleeve, so basically one collar in the front, one in the back, if you unstitch all the seams and position the pattern blank correctly. The right sleeve not so much because of the Warrior insignia, but you can get a third collar from the back panel up the center... it's actually like, 1 or 1.5 mm short - but that's no big. Just cheat the interior seam on the french seam ends of the collar buy a smidge and you'll get the same length as the others.
So 4 Colonials = 3 modified jackets. It's kind of a bitter solution. Unless you really want to make ceremonial uniforms for one or two, and plan on having a spare, in which case, eh.

The blasters are still totally awesome though.