Sure thing and thank you!
First off, my very good friend Don Corbitt did all the sewing. I did the design and the tube system.
The reference pictures from the making of the costumes for production were invaluable! If you haven't seen that already, definitely
check it out.
Okay... so our design is a little different, but follows the same basic concept.
It's a cotton fabric black unitard as the base that we added a zipper to... I suppose you could use a front zipper unitard, but you'd have to sew a flap of the same black material behind the zipper eventually... I would think... and it might be harder to hide the zipper later.
Then we made lots of foam covered sections. We'd cut the foam in the shape we wanted and then encase the foam in a "burrito" of fabric. Typically in sets of two, mirror opposites.
Then we started placing them on the unitard where we wanted them and sewed them on.
For the vertical rib section, we used this stuff that's supposed to go around car interior liner (at least I think that's what it was).
And this may come as a shock to some people, but this is NON-FUNCTIONAL suit. So the crotch is a separate piece that is velcroed in place so I can go to the bathroom...
The water return tubes are surgical tubing painted matte black.
The clip on the end was the hard part. After trying many things, I final decided on a
nose clip like swimmers use. I bend it a little more and cut the surgical tubing to fit around it. Then with elastic string, I tied it to the surgical tubing. Then instead of it going on the outside of your nose, you stick it in your nose. Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but neither is a stormtrooper and I wear that!
It hangs from ear via elastic string that is tied around a pinched piece of the surgical tubing (you have to work with it to get it just right). It needs to hang slightly, but not pull the clip out of your nose.
Then... the part that some people don't believe me on, I painted the whole thing with flat black latex enamel house paint. Seriously. And MANY MANY coats. The problem is that the fabric and foam soak up the paint like a vacuum. However, if you apply a base, let it dry and then apply again, eventually it stops soaking it up. What you get is a very nice "rubbery leather" look that the suits in the movies had. It's pretty clear that this is similar to the process that the original designers used on the movie suits.
I then added velcro to the zipper seam, which as you can see in this picture, is oversized slightly. That's so you can stick the seam together and hide the zipper. Velcro lining the inside of each side of the "overlap" allows me to keep it closed enough to where the zipper is hidden.
The boots are motorcycle boots from Joe Rocket (I ride a Suzuki) covered by leather spatz I got off ebay.
Finally, I took it outside and threw dirt on it... then I rubbed cinnamon into it and viola.... I look like I've been wandering the sands of Akkrais.
This year, I finally found a crysknife that's of nice quality.... so my outfit will be complete.
I hope that answers some questions.
My flickr set can be found
here. I took these pictures earlier today.
I can take more of any part you'd like to see in more detail or answer any further questions you might have. Just let me know.
Cheers,
David
PS. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get a Dune group together one year for D*C. I've got an idea I want to do next year for a thumper.