Machen's Oldfangled Minis

[Machen]

As I understand it, also including dialogue in the show and including the alternative intro for the Movie version (not just the normal movie version 'Mission Galactica') the Imperious leader IS still living. They decided not to show the front face shot mostly cause it looked better not to, but the figure still used it of course. The Original Cylons were reptilian. They built Robotic servants. Over time, the original Cylons pretty much all died out but there are a handful left who kinda run things, but mostly there Robotic soliders, the Centurions, and .. Admin? (the IL series, of which the main one seen is Lucifer, though not the only one).

As there is only ever one Imperious Leader at a time, It's not quite clear what the others did while waiting (there was a bit of an iffy thing on one book about the number of brains they have being a rank but.. non-cannon stuff ^_^).

Much later, two prototype new models were created, Andromus and Andromidus, who were indistinguishable from humans but these were only for a certain mission really as on the whole, it was a failed design (less advanced to look just like Humans, where were the enemy after all).

Something which always bothered me is for the Pilot version (where Baltar lives), The new imperious leader sends him on a mission to make peace with the humans, as he believed that is possible, where the previous one was more war focused. Baltar then ignores this command and tries to wipe out the Galatatica. No problem there, but they don't really bring that point up again. which is a bit annoying I felt they should have atleast brought up the fact that it was HIS wish to wipe them out.

Anyway, there are plenty of living foes which at attacked and killed in the series as the universe is a hostile place, and they are quite happy when they come across some friends (or atleast believed friends) in the universe.

that said, while they are different models, I have only one Centurion painted fully, two half way, and a bunch still to do ^_^

From what I've read and seen, I don't believe the Imperious Leader is a member of the reptilian race. They are categorically described in the series as extinct. (The series also strongly hints that Count Iblis, a Devil figure, was instrumental in the creation of the robotic Cyclons, but doesn't detail how, or even whether the robots drove their own reptilian creators extinct, or if they just died out naturally.) Imperious Leaders can be swapped in when one dies without much fuss because they can be built. When the new Imperious Leader addresses Baltar and spares him, the Imperious Leader states: "My predecessor was programmed at a time when our Empire was less capable of tolerance."

The execs making the change to avoid killing living things business is what I've gleaned from the internet. It could be wrong, but it seems to be the consensus view among Galactica fandom. If that doesn't seem to fit with other living things being killed in the series, it wouldn't be the first time such inconsistencies popped up in 70s TV. If there's some sort of history book of the series with better information out there, I'd be happy to defer to it, but internet-searching is about as far as my personal interest in the truth of the matter goes.

100% agree with you on the undeveloped plot hole where the second Imperious Leader had a change of perspective and wanted to make peace with the humans. That WAS annoyingly unresolved.

 

[ManicMan]

Ugh, I find online 'fandoms' can be... iffy. I've seen many like some wikias which either make direct mistakes or take 'fan ideas' as gospel..

I'll have to double check some things, most noticable the TV movie 'Experiment in Terra' (compared to the TV version), which took bits from Return of Starbuck and Experiment in Terra, along with new bits which not only showed the original Reptilian Cylons (which pre-date the disco era), but.. yeah, I think the Imperious leader might be stated to not have any organic parts.. But I think they might be more cyborg in nature.. they are stated cleary to have been created AFTER the Centurions and started the war. Larson himself added some of the extra stuff in the film which cleared up some points which had been hinted but not stated (like how only 5 Battleships were left after the Thousand Yahren War (baring Pegasus believed lost). The film if i remember, is someone finding a Log that Adama made which gives there history and who they were. I believe like in alot of things, there are the odd mistake created but most of it is fine.

Mm.. maybe I should take a photo of my Viper model sometime.. it's.. pretty much in scale with the minis ^_^ It's the old Mobius model.

 

[Machen]

Let me know what you find. I also remember a scene in the original series where Apollo is explaining the Cylons to Boxey, and after Apollo mentions their reptilian creators, Boxey asks if the reptilians can make their robots stop attacking humans, to which Apollo replies that they can't, because they all died out long ago.

To be honest, I think the idea of having some reptilians still around would be more fun, and anyway one of the fun things about miniatures is that anything goes on the table and in your imagination. My Cylons will be facing off against the Planet of the Apes, Cybermen, and Oldhammer Chaos Mutants in the future, among many others. Does that make sense? Is it canon? Would "serious" Battlestar Galactica fans approve?

Who cares? It'll be a heck of a lot of fun.

Here's a question I haven't resolved: what's the origin of the word "Cylon?" Was it derived from "Cyclops?" From "Cyber?" From the historical Cylon, an Athenian noble and Olympic Games winner who staged a coup called "The Cylonian Affair" and tried to set himself up as a tyrant in Athens in 636 or 632 B.C.? You mentioned iffy fandoms. From my (admittedly brief) internet searches I found only one attempt at an explanation, and it seemed pretty iffy in its vagueness.

 

[ManicMan]

hard to say.. Larson was raised Mormon and there is ALOT of mormon 'culture' (for want of a better term) in the series for background.. though they are... a confusing subbranch of a subbranch of a subbranch of Christians.. and it's.. sometimes pretty far away from Christianity in places but.. end of hte day, if it makes you happy and isn't hurting others, go nuts! I have some.. pretty strong links to churchs mostly Christian Baptist but I'm Agnostic (meaning I don't have faith (or belief) that there is a God, and I don't have Faith (or belief) that there isn't a god).. But there is alot of good stuff in the mythology just like there is in Ancient Greek believe systems, Roman, etc.

Anyway, I don't believe Larson is practicing, and clearly there are parts in Galactica which go against the Mormon faith (for example, Cassie is a prostitute, which the one couple find is unforgiveable, and Starbuck clearly doesn't subscript to the Mormon believe system, but it was used as a base for many bits. That said, I can see the idea that it is from Cyclops due to the whole scanner eye but that is kinda just something that Larson loved to a point that in the early 2007s, the type of scanner was named the Larson scanner. I'm gonna go with more the Greek Cylon (or Kylon) of Athens due to the fact of the shows naming conventions.

* Apollo (Greek god Apollo or Apollon)
* Adama (greek, Adamas, also Hebrew 'Adam', Biblical references that the Father is Adam)
* Baltar (well.. that is more Latin, so there is alot of cross with greek
* Athena (Greek God)
* Cassiopeia (Greek Wife of Cepheus and mother of Andromeda)
* Sheba (Hebrew, Biblical reference for a kingdom which was around the Red Sea, more common the Queen of Sheba is known)
* Serina (not quite sure short of being a female name version of Serine)
* Adar (Hebrew calendar for I think March)
* Cain (or Kain, Biblical son of Adam)
* Iblis (Hebrew, Leader of the Devils)


of course names like Starbuck, Jolly, Greenbean etc are a bit simpler. but as you can see, mostly a mix of Greek and Hebrew (so Christian faith)

 

[Geroak II]

Amulon's robes... wow.

 

[Machen]

Amulon's robes... wow.

Thank you, that means a lot coming from the master of micro-detail. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it off, and there were a couple times that I thought I might have to strip the paint off of Amulon and start over, but in the end he came together.

IL series Cylons were the Cylons' scheming politician class, displaying higher intelligence than Centurions, as well as human traits like vanity and envy. Unlike the spartan black and silver Centurions, IL series Cylons brought the bling and dressed in elaborate outfits, reflecting their more flamboyant personalities and grandiose ambitions, so I tried to make Amulon's costume accordingly ostentatious.

I dubbed him "Amulon" after a corrupt priest from the Book of Mormon, as a nod to the series' many thinly veiled Mormon references. (I've never read the Book of Mormon. I just googled Villains in the Book of Mormon, and a corrupt priest seemed like a fitting analogue for this guy.)



The patterns on Amulon's outfit were inspired by Specter's (an IL Series Cylon character from the 1978 tv show, shown above) costume, but deviate from it, particularly on the back and shoulders, just because it was more fun in the end to make up my own design. He provided a much-needed break from painting black and silver centurions over and over.

I've got about five more centurions to finish painting before my little Cylon skirmish force is done, easily the largest group I've ever painted. I know that's not much for folks who regularly paint armies of 50 or more, but until recently the largest group I'd ever painted was a squad of five. In the past I've been too bored by the prospect of painting a lot of miniatures in identical color schemes to follow through beyond five models, so the Cylons have been a kind of personal test to see if I could stick it out and finish the job. I'd like to get back to painting one-off characters after this, but with Star Schlock arriving soon, I'll also have a bunch of new forces to work on.

 

[Machen]

that said, while they are different models, I have only one Centurion painted fully, two half way, and a bunch still to do ^_^

I presume that your different models are the Big Mr. Tong ones? They're the only other Centurions that I'm aware of besides Crooked Dice's Argonauts. Those are nice. Mr. Tong isn't the best at sculpting dynamic movement, but when it comes to things like clunky robots, that doesn't matter. I don't mind Crooked Dice's different take on Cylon laser weapons, but Tong's have more screen-accurate rifles with the bayonettes, and he offers slightly more poses, including kneeling positions. Also, you can scale Tong's Cylons however you like, which is nice considering that Crooked Dice's are on the smaller side of 28mm (i.e., perfect for Star Grave.) The main reasons I went with Crooked Dice are that I like the character of hand-sculpted models (their more recent sculpts are digital, but the Argonauts are older, from back when they hand-sculpted all of their models) and I prefer the durability of metal to the crisp fragility of 3-D printed resin.

I'm not done painting Cylons yet myself, but it wasn't that long ago that I had just one lonely trooper completed. The journey of a thousand painted Centurions begins with a single model.

 

[ManicMan]

yeah, Mr. Tong's via tangent miniatures cause they also do a colonials. Only problem is cause of the cheap-ish resin job, the Bayonettes on some are broken and one one, the tip of the sword on his belt is (oh and minor detail on chest plate) but the posing is fine and the price for them was really good for the amount in a pack so more then happy. I'll proebly remove the rest of the bayonettes on ones which they are broken, and repair the sword tip easily enough. Some peoples reviews on the company aren't great and e-mailing them I was getting NO feedback at all, but they were at Salute and the figures looked fine to me, so I got a bunch, though there were a couple of other figures I could have gotten but didn't.. Oh well.

The Crooked Dice ones do lean into being more Greek styling which I can see why though. some Resin and IF the sculpture knows what he is working with, can be pretty tuff, though some have the problems, like I said about, with cheaper resins and the sculpture trying to go for overly thin bits which resin isn't designed for.. one advantage with hand sculpted stuff is you are working with the material so you get a fair idea of what you can and cannot do with it..

 

[symphonicpoet]

^^^Amulon is a great name. Feels like it fights right in. And holy crap, how did I miss those robes! Well done, Machen. Well done!

 

[twisted moon]

excellent work.
i got the not vulture guards from the star schlock kickstarter but am not too interested in the rules. i hope you'll post some battle reports though.