Hi,
I make virtual props in Second Life and am on my 3rd round of making these masks and the powered filtration pack. I just bought the film on DVD and am now able to see a few more examples of the mask and pack than I was from the publicity tabletop shot (shown earlier in this thread).
I thought I'd share some observations:
• The film masks probably replaced the lens because no commercial mask seems to be without the interior cone that covers the mouth and nose. I think you are right in your theory that WETA just used an existing mask and replaced the lens with ones they fabricated in-house (as seen in that workshop photo). Having that cone is undesirable because the actors' faces are obscured---the reason for making the full face show and WETA having to create a customized mask.
• The masks seem to have an air supply hose (cyan color in the film) and a black hose that I am guessing is wiring for a communication system. You can see a coil where the black hose/tube enters the mask. There is no coiled section to the cyan colored tube. Also there seem to be some black snap-on tube guides and some sort of squarish button control along the tubes. Could this be a communications control?
• What the box on the right temple is could be anybody's guess. It only can be seen on a few actors, including the door gunner in the chopper when Jake makes his first mission (and is subsequently lost).
• I looked to see if I could find anything like the filtration unit. My guess is that WETA modded an actual filtration unit buy adding that bottle, or it is something else entirely, like a roto-molded canteen or even a spray tank off a bug sprayer or yard fertilizer.
• I have made costume breathing masks before and to keep them from fogging you can blow air into them and have it exit near the mouth
• I am frustrated on the film examples because I cannot tell how or where the tubes attach to the filtration unit. Does anybody have any insight to this?
• The filtration unit is suspended by a web strap that is typically work diagonally across the chest. It is unclear exactly how the strap attaches to the filtration unit but one can presume a strap end attaches to each side. Note that you can sometimes see it worn so that the bottle is sideways and sometimes so that the bottle is on top.
• The film bottles seem to be gloss black with a cyan/blue bottom
That's it for now. I am still tying to make sense of this. Of course, my job is made much easier by the fact I am making a virtual model and not a real one.
Cheers,
Nix