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Published: 2013-10-01 18:18:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 4629; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 15
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Description
MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE THE SUIT• Neoprene rubber (can find by Googling 'Neoprene. There are various sellers and prices)
• a wetsuit undersuit (dive suit) - (again, can find by Googling. Various sellers and prices)
• Barge's cement
• LEDs of your color choice - (I got mine from Oznium)
• an exacto knife
• black latex paint
A WARNING BEFORE GOING ON
When dealing with Barge's cement, please wear a mask and gloves. This glue is very potent and can cause damage to your body if inhaled too much. It will also tear skin if the glue gets on your body and you try to peel it off. If glue does get on your skin, just wait it out. Eventually it will all come off.
PHOTO 1
- Using a pattern I made from scratch I cut out the chest piece with an exacto-knife and started the base layer. The material used for the armor is Neoprene rubber, which is similar to craft foam, but much thicker and stronger.
PHOTO 2
- Repeated the same steps for the leg.
PHOTO 3
- In these three photos you can see some of the progress I made with the base layer. I repeated the same steps in photo one, continuing the leg, and starting on the back. The weird section on her leg is where I had a small mess up. This will be covered later, so if you make a mistake don't worry. Just fix it as best you can for the moment.
PHOTO 4
- Will be explained later. For now, I'm explaining the suit itself.
PHOTO 5
- I completed base layer of the armor. I actually started the second layer (a little bit) on the leg and back.
PHOTO 6
- Once the base layer is completed, you can start on the layout for the LED lights. I placed the LEDs where I wanted them to sit on her chest and ran the wires towards her back. The batteries will be kept in the disc hub, where Rinzler's Idenity discs sit. These LEDs were ordered from Oznium. They are the lay-flat, orange LEDs. They come pre-wired so there's not a lot of hard soldering.
PHOTO 7
- Second layer for the chest area is complete. Be sure to use thick Neoprene so the wires from the LEDs will not show underneath. This is where you will want to take it slow and make sure you're getting all of the details correct. You can cover up mistakes and get it as perfect as you can muster. You can even take shortcuts. For example, since the zipper was in the front for her wetsuit, I decided to have a small slice down the middle so it would be easy for her to get out in case of overheating. However, I made it as inconspicuous as possible and it ended up looking really good.
PHOTO 8
- More layering on the body, and the back has been started. Inside the disc hub is where I have the ends of the LED wires. This is where the batteries will sit and be well hidden.
PHOTO 9
- Since the chest was completed, Pip started painting the Neoprene with black latex paint. You can purchase this at Lowes or Home Depot. I chose this paint because it doesn't flake or chip from movement. It flexes with you and holds everything together nicely.
PHOTO 10
- The hand lights. Now, I ended up uninstalling these because no matter how little she moved, the wiring wore out extremely fast. That and the wires constantly pressing against her fingers when she bent them was quite painful. I would recommend getting reflective tape for this area. I just used the lights without the wiring. So it was still orange, it just didn't light up. Same went for the butt-lights. If I had made them light up she wouldn't have been able to sit. So here, and for the bum area, I would recommend placing reflective tape on the base layer of the armor. Then, when you lay down the second layer, cut a small section out of the first two fingers so the orange will show underneath. For the butt lights, cut out circles in the shape desired. You can use two layers, or just place the tape on the second layer. Feel free to follow the pattern in the photos.
PHOTO 11
- Detail shot of the "T" section, which is a separate piece from the chest. The LED's are gently placed onto the Neoprene inside of small square holes that were cut out with an exacto knife. They were then glued in with a back piece of Neoprene to ensure they didn't move. The wires for these lights also travel into the disc hub on her back. The "T" section itself is covering the top of the zipper, and it is connected at each side of the suit so they line up together nicely. This was secured with strong velcro.
NOW FOR THE HELMET
This photo above is just to show the difference in size from the ordered helmet to the redesigned one.
This helmet I ordered was from a Prop Maker in Italy named Art Funk. You can order an incomplete kit, or a finished helmet, from him on his Facebook page.
Honestly, I would recommend purchasing the kit. That way, if it doesn't fit you, you can re-size it as much as you need to. When I picked up the kit from the post office I received a resin cast of the helmet, as well as a plastic visor. When Pip tried it on I realized that it was way too large for her small frame. I had to cut out the resin visor, heat shape the resin base, cut, and sand it until it fit her. I had to take the entire base in about 50% before it started to look right. Once all of that was sorted, I then had to size down the plastic visor.
After installing the plastic visor to the resin base, all that was left to do was to fill in the mistakes and sand it to give it a smooth finish. Then comes the easy part: painting the visor, resin base, and installing the lights. For the visor I used VHT Nightshade window tint, and for the resin base I used a matte black spray paint. Use any method of your choosing for the lights.
If you have any questions, or need something explained further, feel free to comment below or send me a private message.
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Comments: 7
Hellblazer310 [2013-10-17 01:32:04 +0000 UTC]
How much neoprene do you need? Oh and is there any chance you could upload a PDF of the templates? If not, it's cool. Worth a shot.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
gpfunk In reply to Hellblazer310 [2013-10-17 02:07:29 +0000 UTC]
Unfortunately, I didn't make any PDFs or any kind of sketchup for the project. I mostly eye-balled what I could. Definitely though, after my experience with Neoprene, I would not recommend it. After I put the suit together I noticed a LOT of the edges would rip very easily.
Still, the model is 5'4" tall; and I used about..7 yards worth. And that's fitting the pattern together as tightly as possible to avoid any waste.
Hope that helps!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hellblazer310 In reply to gpfunk [2013-10-17 02:23:38 +0000 UTC]
Yeah, that gives me an estimate. Any similar materials that may work, in your experience?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
gpfunk In reply to Hellblazer310 [2013-10-17 06:55:56 +0000 UTC]
Not so much!
After the neoprene, I leapt right for leather.
You may have some luck using heavy vinyl or pleather though. I'd imagine that it'd shape a little easier with the application of heat. But that's off the top of my head.
I recommend going over to www.therpf.com/ and digging around the forums. There are many more competent people than myself there who can give you a few ideas. I think there's also a pretty extensive Tron thread.
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