# Moebius Cylon Centurion Build Log



## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Okay, since Brad is showing his wonderful build of his Cylon Centurion, thought I might as well join in  

I plan to build 2 units together, one exactly out of the box, and the other with some detailing work (not looking for 100% accuracy). Reason for this is so that I can compare the two kits together later. Don't get me wrong, the kit by itself is already very impressive at 1/6 scale abett there are some improvements that could be done to get her to look more accurate. 

Hence with much anticipation, when my kits arrived from CultTVman a few days ago at my office, I literally tore open the courier box there and there just to get my first glimpse and feel for the kits.

*Overall review of the kit*

I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the box. The Centurions have the biggest box compared to the other Moebius BSG kits to date, and are much heavier. My cancer box is there for comparison.




















Parts are neatly packed in with no wastage of space, but be warned when you remove them. Remember the order of the plastic bags from which they were packed cause if you don't, good luck trying to get them in nicely again.











The Centurion kit comes with many parts (in my excitement to get started, I forgot to count them) and I believe it has the most parts among Moebius BSG series for the moment. The Sprue trees literally took up my entire work table when taken out of their plastic bags and laid side by side.


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

*Test Fitting*

Before I start work on two kits at once, I decided to test fit one first just to understand how each part comes together. 

Putting the head assembly together went without any problems. That section basically consist of only 5 parts - the left and right face plate, the head dome, the muzzle ... that's the nose vent thingy, and the Cylon visor clear part (not shown here). All the parts fitted in smoothly. 











My advise here - *DO NOT GLUE THE FACE HALF YET*. The instruction may tell you to do so but you will have a problem later inserting the neck assembly, or at least that's what I discovered with my kit. I found that I was not able to slide the joined neck assembly unto the head (if they were glued together) without forcing it in. Here's why on my kit.











And here's how the groove looks like underneath the head assembly











To assemble this section smoothly, place your neck assembly on one section of the face plate first, then place the other face plate over as shown below











The parts fit together perfectly this way.


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

I had no problems with the shoulder portion assembly, which only had 3 parts. I used some Tamiya masking tapes to secure that section so I could test the head/neck assembly on them. There are six more smaller pieces that are suppose to go behind the neck but I have not cut them from their sprue as I will need to paint them first. Hence they're missing from the images below





























I sort of jumped ahead and put together the body just to see how it looks




















And finally, how to light up that roving eye. I am actually working together with Mr. Engineer to come up with the Centurion's roving eye set. He did a great job with his Cylon Raider lighting set and we had planned for this one since June 2012. 










I actually contacted Moebius for their assistance and they were very helpful in providing us with the PDF files of the Centurion's instructions prior to the kit's release along with numerous images of the parts. The problem with 2 dimensional reference materials is that its hard to gauge if the board would fit in correctly, and true enough, when we test fitted our board's design on the physical kit, it was a tad too small. We didn't expect the Centurion to be much bigger. We also discovered a curve surface inside the head assembly between the joints, and an uneven stub connector that prevented our board from sitting in correctly. 

That means we need to go back and redesign the board's shape again. The idea here is to create a lighting set that involves little or no modifications to the original parts. We wanted the set to be self contained with easy access to the battery. 

So the head assembly was removed and given to Mr. Engineer for "further development". The good news is that I could continue working on the rest of the Centurion (I'm going to pinch my second kit's head assembly for this one) but to leave the head dome alone. 










The bad news is that we may only come up with a working unit around 2-3 weeks time  If this works, lighting up the Centurion will be as easy as just putting the roving eye set inside the head, and turn it on. Keeping my fingers crossed for this.


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## sg-99 (Jan 11, 2009)

Here is the inserts applied and the shoulder bell armor on:thumbsup:


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Thanks Brad ... now that's a neat idea. :thumbsup:


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Not much update here yet as I am still test fitting the parts and experimenting on how I can give the kit an alternate pose. Have to say the lower torso and thigh assembly can be a handful.

Anyway I received some feedback claiming Moebius Cylon Centurion had a lot of inaccuracies which may be difficult to fix. I was given this image below and told the chest armour and lower abdomen along with the joints were all wrong.











I went back to view season 1 through 4 (helps when the episodes are already in my hard drive) and this is what I found 










The kit is correct as it depicts the Centurion from season 4. The leg joints are a bit big though. Just thought I share this.


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Some care is needed when you are assembling the lower abdomen and upper legs. Firstly the position of the leg locator when joined to the upper legs can be a bit confusing if you had cut out all the parts and laid them on the table - like what I did. I had to test fit several times before I was satisfied that was the best way to assemble them. 

There may be some problems fitting in part 21 in step 4B. I won't recommend waiting for the glue to dry in 4A as it may be more difficult to get that piece in later. Ensure your upper legs are correctly fitted to the leg locator. If not, you are going to have a problem with a section of the leg locator potruding out of leg joint.











I now have the chest armour section with the inner cowling as well as the lower abdomen and upper leg section glued together. The body armour, the head and the upper leg armour are not glued yet. I may need to do some patching up work on some minor gaps here and there tomorrow, and then some sanding. May also need to paint these areas first before fitting in the armour cowlings


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

The rest of the leg assembly fitted in without a hitch. After fitting on the foot, decided to test if the leg assembly was strong enough to hold weight - it did. I have to say I'm still impressed with the size of this kit.

The body armour section, chest armour and head assembly was just placed together without glue, and they held up quite nicely. 




























Next step is to fill in the gaps in the seams between the upper and lower leg assembly.


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

My apologies for the lack of updates. I did have some progress but they're now highlighted over at my new FB page. Its easier for me to catalogue my progress there since I'm always on FB 

Anyway, my Centurion is almost done. Just need to work on the hands, clean off some smudges and work on the base. Here's how my Centurion looks so far. I used Alclad II Chrome and Pale Burnt Metal for most of the armour





































Oh yeah, that wire you see potruding from behind the head is actually the prototype Centurion roving eye set from http://www.facebook.com/PisceanWorks Its still need an internal battery holder but for the time being we used an external power source just to see how it looks like











There are more updates, images and videos over at my FB page at http://www.facebook.com/BrucesScaleModelingDomain Join me there if you are interested. Thanks for looking


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Here's a direct link to a video I made to showcase the lighting module we are trying to make for the roving eye.

http://s1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg612/brucescalemodeling/Assembling%20Moebius%20Cylon%20Centurion/?action=view&current=DSCN6599_3008_zpsb0c11880.mp4


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Almost there. I left the right hand and the head piece unglued for the time being as I wanted to do some touch up later. Here are some comparison shots highlighting before and after applying paint
































































I am considering this build as being completed for the time being, and I am now on to my second Centurion. I am still studying to see if I can get it to pose in a certain manner and this one will involve some heavy modifications done to her. I will of course highlight my WIP here as well so if anyone is interested in modifying their Centurion's pose, I hope my WIP may offer some help.


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

Very nice, Bruce. I like the contrasting metallics!


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Thanks Paulbo.


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Okie .. so I'm on to my second Centurion. To be honest, I had visualized a pose which I had liked but discovered later that if I wanted to do that, some major surgery and scratch building was required ... so I decided to get started 

So far I was successful in getting the head to tilt facing downward and made it possible to rotate left and right. Of course I will have to decide on a permanent pose later when those tubings are connected to the neck and under it's head.










I also made it possible for the head to stay intact despite the kit being tilted upside down










Here's a comparison shot against the Centurion I finished OOB










And I really have no idea yet how I'm going to pose those legs. One thing is for sure, I needed to remove those disk pattern first before I could do anything. 










I've put in some images over at my FB page at http://www.facebook.com/BrucesScaleModelingDomain on how I achieved modifying the head. Let's see if I can get something working for the legs tomorrow.


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## steve123 (Feb 9, 2009)

I love the head pose mods! That is very nice work!.. That really makes the kit look more "lifelike"...

Steve


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Thanks Steve. That's the idea


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## mriccio (Nov 15, 2012)

Are the roving eye kits available for purchase?


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## ryoga (Oct 6, 2009)

Not yet. We're still looking at options for the battery pack


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