- Build Diary Main Menu
- Head & Shoulders
- Cyberman suit
- Cyber gun
- Gloves
- Boots
- Painting
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I was very lucky to be able to purchase a Cyberhead. The Cyber head was good but I added some detail to it, where it needed extra detail to make it into Attack of the Cybermen style. The same was true of the shoulders or chest section.
Head
I cut holes in the sides of the head and added the fine mesh behind the handles or Cyber ears.
I also added some detail to the outside of the head ontop at the front and gave it a respray as it had been knocked about a bit.
After wearing it for the first time in warmer weather, I knew it needed to have a little air circulation system.
The head was modified to take three small 40mm 12v fans. This provided some much needed air circulation !
A 9v battery will run each fans, which provides necessary airflow inside the head, if it is worn for long periods !
In the photo you can see two of the three fans. One is situated on the chin and the other two are on the sides.
All the wiring is sealed in so that there is no possibility of short circuit or any minor shock due to dribble contacting the wiring !!
The wires connect to the chest unit, behind which is a switch, so I can operate the fans without having to remove the head each time.
Cyber shoulders or chest unit
The chest unit was very good but did not have a cover over the front with a grill. I took a piece of acrylic and cut it to size, having made a cardboard template. The next job was to heat and bend the acrylic to match the curve of the chest unit. This took some doing but eventually I heated the acrylic enough and it bent to the correct curve. I do not recommend trying this unless you know what you are doing as hot plastic sticks to skin and can cause VERY nasty burns. I then has to add the detail at the bottom of the chest unit, this was easily achive with a moulded piece of plastic board.
My first attempt to try and make a suit but that didn’t go too well as it was too stiff. I had not used any latex between the material and the paint, as I had no knowledge of costume building. I simply designed, made and painted the suit. Due to the way the material soaked up the paint and then hardened up, it was and still is like a suit of armour !!
When I saw the chance to acquire a latex based suit I took it.
As soon as I got home I tried the suit on and quickly realised that although my height (6’5”) was an asset to being a Cyberman, I was broader than the suit would allow. Also my arms and legs stuck out of the ends of the suit ! I purchased a black boiler suit from my local work wear shop. It needed to be modified slightly as the boiler suit was made to a set pattern and not tailored to me, it needed arm and leg extensions ! I removed the pockets, sewed up the splits that allowed access to the trouser pockets and let out some of the waist elastic to prevent the latex from splitting.
Next I tackled the Cyber suit I had bought. I carefully unpeeled the moulded latex panels from the suit. Your average Cybersuit design is made up of several panels; arms, front and back torso, legs above and below the knee. All the panels had to be removed very carefully. Some peeled off reasonably easily but one or two began to look like Swiss cheese !
The basic preperation completed, I then had to reposition the panels on to the new suit and glue them on. I knew I needed to use a latex based glue and Copydex was just right.
Once all the panel were correclty attached to the new suit, I painted a layer of latex over the remaining fabric and the edged of the panels. It took quite a while to dry and needed several thin coats to build the suit up to the final required thickness. (Thick coats took too long to cure.)
Any holes that had been made in the suit panels were also repaired in this way.
The design of the suit has tubes attached to the head and the suit. Special care had to be taken where the tubes enter and exit the suit. I took the tube I was going to use to attach to the suit and found one that was larger so it fitted over the main tube to form a coupling. I cut short lengths of the larger tube and latexed them into the suit where ever I needed the tube to appear to enter and exit the suit. I then covered the larger tube in a coat of latex to hide the larger tube. At a later date I could then connect up the tubes and complete the suit.
At the back of the suit where all the tubes begin, I used an electrical gland cover to group all the pipes into. The black piece (see photo) is made of rubbery plastic. I trimmed it so I could fit 
flexible conduit (see photo) into the bottom of the gland cover and cable tied them together. I then appiled a layer of latex to it to blend the two pieces together. When it was well dried I hung the suit on a hanger and attached the main pipe (flexible conduit) from the chest unit into the back of the suit. I sewed this to the back of the suit for extra strength. Lastly I added a thin cable tie to secure it around the bottom end of the conduit.
I added the tubes and sewed them to the suit on the back to prevent them pulling out of the gland cover.
I also tacked the tubes to the shoulders to keep them away from the chest unit. The gland cover was then hidden with latex, so it formed part of the suit (see photo on left).
A last coat of latex was applied all over the suit except to the areas with special detail on them. Where ever I had added or extended the original parts to give on continuous layer all over the suit. The completed Cybersuit shown as the first image is viewed from the back, as there is far more detail on the back of the suit, due to the front being covered with the chest unit.
The suit looked good and only needed a Cyber gun to finish it off !
This was not too hard to produce. As per some of the other parts of the suit that used items found back in the late 80's, the end of the gun was originally modelled on an air freshener which is now no longer available !
Rather than produce a bad copy, I decided to stick with the basic design but give it my own barrel.
The gun made and painted I added a gun sound effect and then lights to the barrel.
The gloves were hardest part of the project to complete as is was not winter and it is really hard to buy gloves in late summer. I had to wait until mid September to get hold of any gloves !
The original Cybersuit design featured gloves with zips on them. Like other parts of the Cyberman the designers used things available in the late 80's and early 90's that are sadly not around today.
The gloves used with zips on the back of the hand / wrist were a hallmark of the late 80’s. I used ones that except for the ommision of the zips were as close as I could get to the original ones used on TV.
I carefully removed the padding and insulation from the inside of each glove, as they would have been far too hot to wear for long periods. Removing the insulation and padding made them cooler and far easier to put on and take off.
The last job was to paint the gloves. A light coat of primer and a couple of thin coats of paint and they were finished.
The original Cybersuit design featured moon boots and then boots that looked like they were covered in material. Like other parts of the Cyberman the designers used things available in the late 80's and early 90's that are sadly not around today. The original moon boots used for the Cybersuit (Earthshock story) were a feature of the late 80’s.
Due to the fact that I have large feet and that I needed a pair of boots that would be strong and comfortable I opted to simply find a pair of boots. I chose ones with steel toe caps as you can't see your feet and I thought that it would afford a little protection against stubbing my toe on a kerb. Later I found it would also help in other ways as kids liked to stamp on the Cyberman's feet.
The laces were removed from the boots. I stuffed the insides with newspaper and supermarket carrier bags in the top to prevent the internal lining being painted and also to hold the boot open, so the tongue was painted as well.
The boots were simply primed and painted silver in the same way as the suit taking care not to use too much paint. I then found laces that as closely matched the silver boots as possible.
Painting the suit was the last challenge. I knew from my previous experiences, that I needed to use only a thin layer of paint. I also opted for a Plasticoat paint as this provided more of a flexible type of paint than car body paint.
When the latex on the suit was well dried I hung it on a hanger and stuffed newspaper into the arms, sleeves and body. A thin coat of plasticoat primer was then applied. This was topped off with plasticoat silver paint. It is important to stress that thin coats of paint should be used or your newly finished suit would look like a well cracked but not peeled boiled egg.
The resulting suit looked stunning but I think it looked a little more convincing after it had been worn a couple of times and had some 'battle damage' on it.
The paint shown on the left was the paint used. I would point out that the cap is a shiny silver colour and only looks bronze due to the background I used for the photo.