Re: New Zealand Iron Man -(update 2.2.13 - Partied hard, won $1000!!)
I just thought I would share some experiences with my costume which I hope will help others indending to wear their suits quite extensively.
Having an openable faceplate is almost a must if you have lit eyes, and are moving around anywhere dimly lit with stairs or obstacles. Otherwise you just dont have enough vision. You can compromise on the brightness and size of the eye lights to find the right balance, but a simple hinge and magnet arrangment is probably not hard to do on a foam lid.
Fans are a nice idea, but I found that they were next to useless as they simply didnt shift enough air. I got far more benefit from having small vent holes/mesh, and the breeze that was around on the day. The fans also drained the 3 AAA batteries in less than a couple of hours, and made the lights that were also connected to them very dim. On the day I just disconnected the fans. For fans to be any use, you need much more powerful ones than the 3" 5v case fans I had, and much larger capacity batteries.
