Build a costume around this, for Dragon Con 2015

11B30B4

Well-Known Member
Build a costume around this, for Dragon Con 2015

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Well this all started sometime in May of 2015. DAC and I did not do anything for Dragon Con 2014 except attend; however, in 2013 we built 2 steampunk Deadmau5 heads. That build can be found here:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=192899

As with that build we began some concept artwork and a basic plan; however unlike the Deadmau5 heads we have attempted to stick to a schedule and a budget. Rather than just build costumes we wanted them to be somewhat functional (hence the Guinness) and we decided on a genre to focus on. Retro Science Fiction, something from the 1950ish timeframe. In keeping with that genre, we also decided to make everything to appear as a black and white movie or TV show. So everything needed to be monochromatic.

So with some research we found several builds but the one that stood out in our opinion was this one:
http://2storyprops.blogspot.com/2014/09/retro-spacemen-for-budget-cosplayer.html

There were lots of others and one even involved a plastic home depot paint bucket as the neck collar. Additionally we found this example of grey scale face paint that looked great:
http://www.whitneyavalon.com/grayscale.html

With all this information we developed a basic concept:

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And developed a budget and materials list, these spreadsheets are in no way complete as what we tend to do is walk around stores and ideas just come to us:

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When it is all said and done, I figure we will have about 300-350 each into this project. Not bad considering we probably had close to 600 each into the Deadmau5 heads. There were something’s we could have done like using real chrome on parts that would have skyrocketed the cost so we found cheaper solutions. Additionally we have a new 3D printer that we wanted to employ in this build so something’s could have been built with other materials but we wanted to use the printer. So as you will see from our workshop, we have a lot of tools at our disposal. One of the most useful ones was the Silhouette vinyl cutter.

So as I write this Dragon Con is 3 weeks away and this post will bring you up to date with our progress. If you see us at Dragon Con please stop us and mention RPF as we love this site and the fans here. Should you have questions comments or suggestions please post them here and we will attempt to respond to them in a timely manner.

Lastly, I should say a bit about who we are. We have no connection to the costume or entertainment business. We are both Soldiers or in my case retired Soldier and both live and work in the Metropolitan Atlanta area. We are constantly working on stuff in our workshop, everything from gunsmithing to making tactical nylon gear, holsters and obviously 2 steampunk Deadmau5 heads. We have some stuff over on the general modeling thread as well. I should also mention that as DAC and I work together on this and all projects we produce, he does the lion’s share of the work. I am not good at painting, sanding and stuff like that. I am more the big picture guy who thinks up what we are going to do and DAC is the guy who figures out how we are going to do it. Now on with the build.

So having worked with acrylic globes before this was a natural extension of the previous build. Many things were learned for this build. Neither of us had any real experience with craft foam and we always seem to involve our total skill sets in these projects. This one involved, paint resin, bondo, sanding (a lot of sanding), 3D modeling and printing, Vinyl decals, LEDs and electronics, shopping and good old fashion determination to overcome obstacles (of which there were a ton of).

The first thing we did was go shopping for the supplies to build the air tanks. We decided on 3 liter soda bottles for their size and shape. We purchased a ton of them so that we could experiment with them from dollar tree. After dumping their contents down the drain we cut the bottoms off them, cleaned them and hung them to dry.

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At the same time we purchased a 12’ section of aluminum drain spout from Home Depot. We shaped the drain spouts for the Guinness cans. Here is a picture of some of the supplies we purchased:

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At this point in the build we decided we needed to make a proof of concept tank using 2 of the soda bottles, some craft foam, the drain spout, and fiberglass resin. We filled the inside of the bottles (around the drain spout with spray household foam to make the whole thing rigid and attached a fin. Here are some shots of that tank

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As you can see we made sure the Guinness would fit just perfect We also liked the fact that the air hose we were using (sump pump drain hose) would fit on the bottles perfectly as well.

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Once we were sure everything would work, we set out to build 4 air tanks for the 2 costumes. Before we could attach the fin we needed to decide on the shape of the fin, here is some concept artwork we did:

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Next we decided to use 3” PVC threaded end caps to close the bottom of the tanks. Here we attached the drain spout to the PVC end caps with liquid nails.

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Next we took one of the bottle tops and cut it to fit the PVC end cap and liquid nailed it into place then we made foam rings to section off the tanks and hold the drain spout in place. Then we filled the empty space with spray foam. In retrospect the foam rings were a bad idea as they kept a lot of the spray foam from curing in any case we did not discover this until the tanks were assembled. Once the bottoms were done we closed off the top of the drain spouts

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We used a piece of aluminum flashing to cover the gap between the bottom bottle and the top bottle, keep in mind that the size of the air tanks was based on fitting 3 Guinness cans inside each air tank. From here we continued with the foam rings and spray foam.

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Once the foam was done expanding we applies fiberglass resin to the entire air tank. Then we cut the fins from craft foam and hot glued them in place.

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We applied another coat of fiberglass resin to blend the fin with the air tank and applied several coats of bondo to the entire build.

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During the cure times and days when we wanted to work on other stuff we were still not sure how to get the chrome on the tanks where we wanted it. We wanted these tanks to resemble the fin section of a 1950s car. We purchased some of this chrome spray paint but it just did not look good or real. Later, I found out that I could get some Chrome Vinyl that we could use.

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At the same time we needed a way to attach the air tanks to us. This may sound simple but we did not want whatever type of rig we developed to interfere with our tunics that needed to be big and stand out in the shoulders. Further, we needed them to be light weight, so after careful consideration we came up with the idea of using Plexiglas and nylon straps.

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Continuing with the air tanks we sanded them then applied a primer coat to identify pin holes and imperfections. We then marked and drilled them for mounting to the backpacks. After attaching the mounting hardware we applied fiberglass resin to the mountings and had to move the tanks outside as my wife began to complain that our house smelled like an auto body shop.

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At this point the tanks have a final layer of glazing putty on them and are sanded. We should being to apply real paint to them this weekend.

So while we were working on the air tanks we began on several concepts for the ray gun. Based on the materials we were working with and its rigidity, we had to come up with new designs until we settled on one. The first version we had planned on printing it on the 3D printer but I just did not have the time or energy to make the 3D models. About this time I found some aluminum spray bottles at the dollar store and decided to use them at the base of the gun.

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So the idea for the Raygun was simple. We took the spray bottles, cut the bottoms off them, cut the angle and side windows out, Insert a 1” hollow acrylic rod. Then insert a 3/16” solid acrylic rod that had been sanded to function like a fiber optic down the center of the 1” rod. Add a strobe LED and power source, a spring to add some flare to it and a grip.

First I needed to build a 3D model and print the grips.

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Next we built the LED rig with 2 coin 2023 cell batteries. Originally we had planned on storing the batteries in the grip but moved it to the top rear of the 1” acrylic rod later. Once the grips were printed we needed to glue them together, bondo them, and sand them.


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We had originally planned on painting the spray bottles black and add chrome highlights but DAC sanded them and shined them up nicely so we ran with it. In this picture you can the shined bottle on bottom compared to the unsanded one on top.

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We also realized that the acrylic rod barrel would not be very sturdy so we found a hollow aluminum rod. DAC put it on the metal lathe and shinned it up. Then we applied a little liquid nails to it and slid it over the acrylic rod. Finishing the barrel off with some rubber O-rings.


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We added some black vinyl graphics to the top and clear coated the whole thing then test fit the sanded grips.

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At about this same time I had made the 3D model for the antenna to go on top of the globe. We planned to add another strobe LED and power source to them as well. Once printed they needed the same treatment as the gun grips, gluing, bondo, sanding. Then we primed and painted them, lastly they got a clear coat.


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We felt something was missing from the ray guns so we added more graphics and another layer of clear coat.

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Later we gorilla glued the grips to the guns and added some chrome graphics to the grips and did some touch up paint.


The rayguns came out great.

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So it was time to put the guns away and work on the tunic. For the tunic we got some really cool vinyl foe leather that had a greenish gold tint to it. Looking at the material it reminded me of the original Star Trek Klingon sash material. In any case because of the need to remain monochrome in this costume we needed to mute the color. In this picture you can see several swatches of the material with more diluted black acrylic paint on them. We settled on the bottom right one of 75% diluted. The bottom left is the material with no paint on it.

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So I began to make a template for the tunic. After several revisions we cut the material. We needed this tunic to be stiff so we backed it with some craft foam, then we finished the edge with a foe leather edge that the lined with bailing wire to allow us to shape the tunic. Lastly made cutouts for the backpack so that it did not interfere with the tunic on the front.

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Next we made belts and belt loops out of foe black leather vinyl. Around this time we got our coveralls back from the seamstress who had removed some of the bagginess in the legs. Here are some shots of us in the coveralls with the tunics, belts, costume boots and gloves.

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At this point we began work on the holsters for the rayguns and this is where we hit another snag. We did not want the white back of the foe leather to show so we lined the holsters with the foe leather on the inside as well. This unfortunately pulled some of the clear coat off the guns after a night of them resting in the holsters so we had to cut open the holsters and line them with some extra nylon underarmour material we had laying around.

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This was not our first issue with the guns, when we attached the grips to the main part of the guns, we had put them in a vice and it messed up some of the clear coat and chrome on the sides of the grips. DAC as always was able to fix this to an acceptable level and we moved on. At this point the guns are still missing some clear coat but we will fix all that when we get around to clear coating the air tanks hopefully this weekend or next.

We also had an initial version of the patch that we would have vinyl printed on the coveralls next week but as we added more graphics to various parts of the costume we redesigned the patch.

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About this time the face paint arrived and we have yet to test it out.

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A trip to Hobby Lobby proved fruitful when we spotted a card collectors clear acrylic box that would be perfect for the oxygen level box. The plan here was to add three flashing LEDs and a non-functional air gage. I assembled a cheap LED flasher kit from Frys and DAC painted the box. He also made a wood jig to hold the LEDs and frosted the light ports that had been masked off. Everything hot glued in place we decided to add some chrome and rivets and presto, you have a retro air gage. We really like how these turned out.

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Using more of the underarmour material and some craft foam we made head covers for us. This way we will only have to paint our faces for the black and white look. An added benefit is that the underarmour will breathe with is a small consolation since the globes will have very little air flow in them. Sorry about blocking out my face but you really don’t need to see my ugly mug, if you really want to know what we look like, that will be coming up in a later post with the face paint.

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So if you scroll to the top you will notice that we had intended to use foam to bridge the space between the globe helmet and our shoulders. We have decided that we did not like this plan and we decided to go with the 12” concrete cardboard tube from Home Depot. Again we did some concept art work moving the air gage from the shoulder in Version 1 to the chest in Version 2 to the neck ring. We also had some PC fans left over from the Deadmau5 build that we have decided to incorporate into this build. Lastly, this provides us an opportunity to add some vents in the neck ring and get some much needed airflow in the helmets.

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So this should have everyone up to speed and we will be adding more in the coming days and weeks. Thanks for your interest and comments.
 
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This is fantastic!!! Thank you for sharing all the pics! I've long talked about creating a 1950s era spacesuit and you've done it! Expert work!
 
Bravo!! Bravo!!
Fantastic build. Looks great.
Lots of different techniques and ingenuity!
Love the "Bingo" on the gauge.
 
Fantastic thread. Thanks for all of the pics and description. I was thinking yesterday about retro sci-fi helmets, so perfect timing. Cant wait to see this finished!
 
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wow, you are so meticulous and creative. just got done reading through this thread as well as your steampunk DM5 thread. you take such a great approach to costuming, it's really fun to watch your stuff come together, nice work sir..
can i ask where you get your clear globes??

you can disregard the question about the globes, i looked more closly at your spreadsheat from the first post.. :)
 
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Grimwood, thanks for the compliment.
Racer MachX I see you found time away from chasing Speed J thanks for the comments. Actually we were toying around with different words and since both of us have a military background, Bingo just sounded correct. We really like how those gages came out. To be honest it was the first thing we completed that really looked great for this build and kind of re-energized us. I had been losing steam with no end in sight for the air tanks and the two mishaps with the ray guns really take the air out of the sails. The air gages were kind of bland and DAC said why don’t we add Chrome lettering and Chrome frames around the lights and gage. When it was done I was very pleased.
DazzlerFan, thanks for the compliment.
Royaltykustomz, thanks for the compliment. I am glad that you found the link for the globe. I am not 100 % positive we went with the 16” I will check when I get home and confirm the size. Also for some odd reason each globe is listed twice on their web site with about a 10 dollar difference. We found the exact same globe, size, material, neck size etc… listed twice.
Here is a 16” clear acrylic globe with a 5.25 neckless opening for $46.43
https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/851/PLAS-16PC.html
Here is the same globe for $23.15. We have no idea what the difference was between the two but we went with the less expensive one.
https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/8049/3202-16020-003.html
Again everyone thanks for the interest.
 
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Royaltykustomz, sorry it took so long for me to reply. we got the 14" globe not the 16" I think we had planned on the 16" but when we looked at our DM5 heads (which are 14") we decided they would be large enough.

More updates coming soon. Been working on this most of the weekend.
 
Hello everyone,
Well Thursday we fixed up the neck rings and PC fans and like almost everyday, we AGAIN sanded and primed the air tanks.

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So first up, the fans. These PC fans were left over from our DM5 build, they came in a pewter color, which we did not plan on changing but later decided on painting them black. So we knew we wanted to wrap the outer edge with chrome so that needed to be flush. We cut up some plastic styrene and hot glued it in place then filled in the gaps with bondo. That got sanded and then the whole thing was painted gloss black, lastly wrapped with chrome.

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Next the neck collars were made from the 12” concrete tube from Home Depot. After we got the proper shape we added a base layer of bondo. We then added a layer of fiberglass resin on the inside of the ring. We made all the cutouts we needed then we made some washers for the air hose connections from left over concrete tube. We also made a flush mount for the air gage out of left over concrete tube. We hot glued several layers of the cardboard together to get the needed thickness then cut it to shape. We applied fiberglass resin to the washers and the air gage mount to give them strength. Once everything was cured, we gorilla glued everything in place then we added a layer of bondo. Then we sanded everything then primed it. Also on Sunday we worked on how we would fill the vents on the back of the neck collar. We used some craft screen from Hobby Lobby. Pressing this in place and shaping it. We will hot glue these in place once the neck collars are painted. This will add some much needed air flow inside the globe.

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By Sunday they were sanded and re-sanded and primed ready for final sanding and paint this week sometime.

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So the air tanks… well it involved more sanding and coats of primer and more sanding and more bondo and more sanding and more primer. By Sunday night the final coat of primer was applied and all we have now is more sanding 220, 350, 400, 800, then paint this week.

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Thanks for the interest.
 
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Ok so here we are on Wednesday, August 19, 2015

The clock is ticking…

So since Sunday we have sanded all the air tanks to 220 grit. We are going to sand them to at least 400 before painting.



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Monday we handed over the coveralls to our good friend Uncle Bob who has an interest in a printing (screen) shop and we had him vinyl transfer the patch to the coveralls as well as a piece of white cotton we had. More pics of the coveralls to come soon.



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So we took the white cotton prints and made patches out of them. These will be sewn to the tunics.



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We also tackled the cutting of the globes. This is a point of no return action. We cut the larger head hole and the front voice box holes after considerable reference marking.

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We also ground down the molding knob thingy on the top of the globes and mounted the Velcro for the antennas.

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When considering how the globes would be mounted to the neck collars we decided we would need to hide about 1.5 inches around the base of the globe. To accomplish this we will be painting on the crazy mirror chrome finish on outside of the base of the globe. When seen on the inside of the globe it looks like mirror chrome. Here is a test piece we did to show the effect.

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So I also got around to finishing fixing my DM5 head. As stated previously, my DM5 head has a problem with the gears in the ear. The gears work and have stressed the plexiglass forcing it to crack so I will have to disassemble the ear and replace the back plexiglass. Once disassembled, I made a jig out of plywood to drill the new plexiglass. I should have this all fixed up by Friday.

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Wednesday, I had everything needed to finish the DM5 head. As stated previously, the rear piece of plexiglass had cracked. I think this is partly because of how I mounted the gears. At the time I was pressed for time so I took a 3/8” aluminum rod and cut it into 1 ¼” sections then I scored a ring at each end of the rod to allow for an E-clip to lock on the rod. This simply held the gears in place and the E-clips sandwiched the plexiglass to the rod. So this time around I got some nylon 1” x 3/8” spacers and hollowed them out to fit a Chicago screw. Add some washers and some paint and I was in business. I got another piece of plexiglass, cut it and drilled it out. Hot glued the plastic cover on the new plexiglass and reassembled the ear. Called in a HAZMAT team to knock the 2 years of dust and cob webs off the DM5 head, reattached the ear and verified everything was working as it should and presto, DM5 steampunk revived.

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So that’s where we are until DAC gets to the shop and we make more headway. More updates to come.
 
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Ok so its Saturday and we have gotten a lot done.

First, we mounted the air tanks to the backpacks. We wanted to get this done before we painted them to prevent them from getting scratched once painted. To accomplish this we made a jig that held the air tanks and made a paper template of the backpack. Lining everything up as best as we could given that the air tanks were handmade and not perfect, we marked where to drill the backpacks for the mounting hardware. Once we drilled the backpacks’ we mounted the tanks to them and tried them on for fit.

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So then we removed the air tanks from the backpacks and put all that stuff to the side. Next we moved on to the globes. We had planned on making a chrome decal of the logo for the back of the globe but then we realized that we have a media sand blaster and thought “how cool would that look if we sand blasted the logo on the globe”. So we grabbed one of the left over pieces of the globe that we had cut out for the head opening and decaled it. Then we sand blasted it and WOW! It came out great. So we did the same to the actual globes and they came out great.

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Once we were done with all that we moved on to painting the chrome mirror around the base of the globes. This gets a black backing.

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After that we moved on to cutting, gluing, and mounting the voice vents on the front of the globes. This should help with getting some air inside the globes. While DAC worked on this I finished making the screens for the rear vents on the neck collars and I made some foam mounts that will help anchor the globes to the neck collars.

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Lastly, yesterday we painted the air tank endcaps and cleaned up the shop to eliminate most of the dust before painting.

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So Saturday we built a free standing paint booth that looks like something from Braking Bad. We used PVC pipe, plastic drop cloths, and a tone of tape and clothespins.

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After we got the paint tent up we added the suction fan from our paint booth. We made a larger jig to hold all 4 air tanks and the 2 neck collars. Everything was cleaned one last time and allowed to dry. The paint we have chosen is a 2 part automotive black paint made by Nason. We mixed the 2 parts and appled with an air gun. Everything we are painting will get 3 layers of paint allowing them 45 minutes to dry between coats. Then we will let them cure till Monday when they will get the clear coat and decals.

First coat…

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Second coat and DAC sucking up all those healthy fumes inside his respirator.

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I would say that the ambient temp inside that paint tent is close to 100 degrees and the humidity off the chart.
Third and final coat.

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So that wraps everything up till Monday. We will apply the chrome graphics and clear coat the tanks next and we still need to sand the ray guns and mask them for the clear coat and so we are expecting to have the whole thing completed by next weekend. Still need to test the face paint as well.
Thanks for the interest and more updates to come.
 
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So its Tuesday and 9 days till Dragon Con.

After we posted the previous update we sanded the rayguns to fix the missing clear coat issue. We had planned on painting them with the automotive clear coat at the same time we painted the air tanks and neck collars but after finishing sanding them, we are happy with how they turned out so they are done at this point.

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Monday we applied all the chrome decals to the air tanks and neck collars. Next we cleaned everything, then we painted three layers of clear coat on everything. Next we will be sanding them with 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 then polishing them. This will take several days.

Decals before clear coat

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First layer of clear coat

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Second layer of clear coat

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Third and final layer of clear coat

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Lastly Monday we tried out the face paint makeup. Well let’s just say that the only experience we have with putting paint on our faces comes in the form of loam and light green military face paint. Ladies, we are impressed with how you put on makeup and have a new found respect for you. We are not that satisfied with the outcome so we will be exploring other options.

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Yes I know I look like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family…

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Anyway, more updates to come. Thanks for the interest.
 
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Ok its Monday and 4 days till Dragon Con. This past weekend we got a lot accomplished and it looks like we will be complete tonight or tomorrow night.

So DAC sanded and polished the neck collars, this process takes about 2 hours each; however, the results are amazing. Once we had the neck collars, we started by installing the rear vent screens. We hot glued the craft screen in place. Next we moved on to the air hose connectors (threaded 90 deg 1” PVC elbows), we installed the threaded endcaps inside the collar and screwed on the elbow. Next we added black plastic automotive door trim to the top of the collar.

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At this point we invert the globe and centered the collar on it, tape it down and hot glue it in place. We added several wedges of foam to support the globe and bridge the gap between the globe and the neck collar. Next we installed the fan and finished off the bottom edge of the neck collar with air conditioner line set foam insulation. Velcro the antenna on top and presto DAC is a retro space man.

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It was around this time that we discovered that the 10CFM fan we had in the back of the helmet was not going to be enough to prevent fogging. We tried putting Rain-X inside the globe and that did not really help anything. An option that was posed by our dear friend Uncle Bob was to channel the air from the rear fan to the front of the helmet or reverse the fan to create positive pressure. Neither one of these options seemed easy to do after we had already built one helmet. At this point a new idea popped into DACs head, we could use ½” wide plastic hose with holes drilled in it to channel the air from the fan around the inside of the globe. It should be noted that this idea (DAC admitted) came to him after we (not seriously) tossed out the idea of adding a Dyson bladeless fan to the neck of the globe. Don’t know what a Dyson bladeless fan is? No problem, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux7p4StpjJc
Anyway, we took another look at the build 2StoryProps did here http://2storyprops.blogspot.com/2014...cosplayer.html
To see if they addressed the fogging issue. Considering that Dragon Con is in Atlanta and we have very hot summers with almost 100% humidity, we really needed to fix the fogging issue. Looking at 2StoryProps build we noticed something we had overlooked before, they got their idea from a build that had been done here on RPF. Here is the link http://www.therpf.com/f24/retro-comi...ts-pics-95516/
In this build BAK55 used two fans, one pushing the air and one pulling it. This constant air flow would address the fogging; however, we did not have the room for the type of rig BAK55 built. So we did what we always do, we make sh$% happen.

So we ventured a trip to Fry’s Electronics to see if we could get more powerful fans. At Fry’s we found these PC Expansion slot fans http://www.frys.com/product/4764049?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG
Which were not real powerful but we had an idea of how to use them. Next we found these Evercool Aluminum pc fans that produced 23.72 CFM at Microcenter. That’s more than double the original fans we had, plus these fans were aluminum which meant that we could shine them rather than apply chrome vinyl to them. We used the 60mm version but Microcenter only shows the 70mm on their website. http://www.microcenter.com/product/2...puter_Case_Fan
Keep in mind that we are down to the wire on this build so all this reengineering would be taking up precious time, but we were committed.

So how would all this work? First we had to shine the fan housings, we removed the fans from the housing and started with 400 grit sand paper, then 800 grit, then 1200 grit. Next we polished them with steel wool and rouge. Lastly, we buffed them to a high shine. Keep in mind that each fan took about 3 hours and we enlisted the help of our friend and DragonCon virgin KK to tackle a fan. This year will be KK’s first Dc and he is not doing a costume but we expect to see something from him next year.

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While all this sanding and buffing was going on, DAC continued sanding and buffing on the air tanks. Each air tank takes about 2-3 hours.

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If you question why we did not simply spray paint the air tanks with krylon and clear coat them with a rattle can, well here is the reason. Check out the reflection and shine on these things. This is what can be achieved with automotive paint and a lot of hard work.

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So after the fans were polished and reassembled, it was time to install them. The aluminum box fan went in the rear blowing air into the helmet. Next we cut out some of the foam wedges and installed the cut down pc expansion slot fan in the front of the neck collar. We added 5/8” clear vinyl tubing with holes drilled every 3” and connected it to the expansion slot fan. Lastly we hot glued everything in place. Both fans are powered by a single 9 volt battery. This setup seems to work well and the fogging is hardly noticeable. We will also be using an anti-fog gel on the inside of the globe.

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After we had two of the tanks done we mounted them on the backpack. We added a chest strap to hold the backpack in place. Then we cut and added the air hoses.

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So all we have left is to hem the legs of the coveralls, rework the head covers (not sure where we are going with this), test the new face paint we got, and finish one last air tank. Then we need to do a full dress rehearsal then wash everything and figure out how we are going to transport everything to the hotel for DC. More updates to come and thanks for the interest.
 
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So its Friday and day 1 of Dragon Con as I post this and a few things happened along the way.
Last night we hemmed the coveralls and removed the collars. We also changed the head covers somewhat.

Tuesday we were moving to the last tank to sand and polish, at this point we discovered a catastrophic failure in the tank. Almost one whole side of paint failed to adhere to the primer. When we sanded it, it completely FU#$ed up. So pissed and having a bad day to boot, we did what we could to patch it and repaint it. That failed as well. In the end, we had to strip 2/3 of the tank, patch resand, prime, resand, paint, resand, clear coat, resand, and as I type this, DAC is doing the final polish to it. It actually will end up being the best tank out of them all. Between coats of paint Thursday night, we ran down to Dragon Con and grabbed our badges. We should be leaving the shop soon to head to the hotel.

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Wednesday, we tried out the new face paint. We are not happy with it either. Even my dog Guinness does not like the face paint, so we will not be doing the face paint.

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Stopped and grabbed enough Guinness to last Friday night and since my costume was all done we shot some pictures to show here. After Dragon Con I will post more pictures. See you at the Con.

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[URL="https://i.imgur.com/AtPmAZv.jpg%5b/img"]https://i.imgur.com/AtPmAZv.jpg[/img[/URL]]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/DU2zIQo.jpg

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Thanks for the interest.
 
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Well Done! Even without the face paint it looks great with the hood on. Looks very "mission ready". You look like you just stepped off a 1950's movie set!

Have fun at the con.
 
Psicorp7, The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father, love me some B5. Thanks for the comments and we did have a great time.

Ok so it’s Tuesday and Dragon Con was great. We have chosen to share several pictures that are not just about our build but other cool stuff we had the opportunity to see. So we hope you enjoy the pictures. First, there is no better way to start off Dragon Con than with a Guinness.

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As stated previously, we decided to wear the steampunk DM5 heads on Friday night. They were just as big a hit as they were in 2013.

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In the process of bouncing around we found this cool girl who built a fantastic DJ booth and she invited us to pop in.

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So for Saturday we wore the Retro Sci-Fi suits. This naturally started in the hotel room. This was one of the first years that we did not get a room in the host hotels. With 65,000 people competing for rooms, it has become next to impossible to get a host hotel room. This of course meant that we had the logistics of getting to the convention in costume from about 2 miles away. Uber rocks!

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From there we donned the tanks and helmets and headed out. We started off with the head covers on but soon decided to ditch them. The temp was in the high 80s and the humidity was very high so even with the fans, we got lots of fogging around the top of the dome. We also decided on Thursday that we would skip the face paint. We just did not get the results we were looking for. In any case, once inside the hotels we were fine and once the sweat was dry, no more fogging. So some of the pictures are with the head cover and most are without.

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Not wanting to pass up an opportunity, we posed with a B9 Robot.

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And we had the opportunity for photo ops with heads of state, albeit, long dead heads of state.

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So other cool stuff we saw around the Con:

Group of girls in cool Retro Sci-Fi (70s) costumes that we ran into.

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If you are going to people watch and don’t want to be noticed, go as a bush.

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I love Dr. Who and this Cyberman was a fantastic costume.

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A different kind of six pack at one of the BSG panels.

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Very cool DeLorean Time Machine made from Coors beer cans.

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An Insanely cool group costume AT-AT.

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The best Immortan joe, for obvious reasons.

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Best Black Hole costume, I have always wanted to do a Maximilian but I have no idea how to levitate.

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Very cool Abney Road group that just stopped traffic.

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The Star Wars panel room had some really cool artwork on sheets hanging on the walls

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The line for the Masquerade.

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A BMW i8

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Us at the Landmark Dinner for breakfast everyday.

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Well, that’s it, 2015 Dragon Con is over and we start thinking about next year and plotting to try and get host hotel rooms for next year. Thanks for the interest.
 
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