Outbreak Hazmat Suit

nitrox

Sr Member
Does anyone happen to know the brand of Hazmat suit used in the movie Outbreak? I'm looking to reacreate the look for a Halloween costume and need some pointers in the right direction!

Thanks!
 
It was a custom suit made by Global Effects. I LOVE this suit and plan to make one some day. I bought a box of the helmet parts from Global Effects at their auction last year.
 
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Thanks guys, I've dropped them an email so it will be interesting to see what they come back with. Totally sucks it's not something I could purchase though, I don't think I'll have the time to build something close to this in time for Halloween. :(
 
It was a custom suit made by Global Effects. I LOVE this suit and plan to make one some day. I bought a box of the helmet parts from Global Effects at their auction last year.

I don't suppose you have any photos of the parts you bought that I could use as reference images do you? :thumbsup
 
I'm not sure who at Global you emailed, but yes, these were designed by myself, Erica Phillips, the costume designer and drawn by Patrick Tatopoulos.
Both designs are thermoformed. The gray ones are made of thin (.040") white styrene, then painted gray. This was used to get the most detail on the frame of the helmet. The blue ones where formed out of .060" blue Kydex. Any or all reference images we have are on the web. As for size, I'll try to remember to get a tape measure on one this week and post basic dimensions. But it should be pretty straight forward scaling it to your head, this will be as close as anything else.
 
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Because of a limited budget and short build time, we recently used the blue level IV "lab suit" helmet pattern from Outbreak for Stranger things. Completely different body. 640.jpg
 
Hey Chris, what did you guys use for the helmet liner inside the Outbreak helmet if you can share? It looks like an off-the-shelf deal from a face shield or something. I'm talking about the strap that goes across the forehead.

I'm not sure who at Global you emailed, but yes, these were designed by myself, Erica Phillips, the costume designer and drawn by Patrick Tatopoulos.
Both designs are thermoformed. The gray ones are made of thin (.040") white styrene, then painted gray. This was used to get the most detail on the frame of the helmet. The blue ones where formed out of .060" blue Kydex. Any or all reference images we have are on the web. As for size, I'll try to remember to get a tape measure on one this week and post basic dimensions. But it should be pretty straight forward scaling it to your head, this will be as close as anything else.
 
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Yes, it was a commercially available suspension liner. We build a custom attachment block with adjustment that was mounted into the helmet
 
@lmgill I vaguely remember an episode of Friends where they were filming "Outbreak 2" and the suits were very similar, if not the same. Did they rent them from you as well?
 
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The original suits were made for Warner Brothers and like many costume rental places, they do not have the in-house ability to properly repair anything other fabric like elements. So the suits rented like crazy for a few years until they were so damaged, they became unrentable. So if you see any suits like this that are not in original Outbreak colors (that yellow or blue) then they are Global Effects rental suits. With the exception of the suits from "Evolution", those were copies of our suits made by a competitor. (who had better union connections, I suspect)

nitrox;
the visors on the yellow suits were .030" polycarbonate bent with a "finger-break", which is a sheet metal bender. The blue suits had .060" PETG (Uvex, at the time) visors bent using a heat bender to get nice radi' in the corners.

Note: I corrected the thickness of the visors
 
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Studying some tailoring and using personal protecting equipment over the years makes me really consider making one of those for Halloween. I mean, it is not an actual suit and it doesn't have to be (real suits are so HOT to wear, literally...), it is a costume, all you need is basically to tailor a jumpsuit, make a belt, make the helmet (out of a face shield maybe? ) and then make the powered filtration unit prop. Gloves and boots can be purchased from the hardware store and the helmet harness can be scavaged from a face shield or a hard-hat and modified if necessary.

But, what fabric should one use? It should not look like a normal fabric, it should look kinda plasticky. Raincoats maybe? Or tent fabric?
And what about ventilation and breathing? Did they use actual powered respirators (most probably without filters) for comfort or they are just props? Are the suits like real suits (portable saunas and everything) or they used a walk-around, like ventilation holes or using a fabric that "breaths"?
 
Studying some tailoring and using personal protecting equipment over the years makes me really consider making one of those for Halloween. I mean, it is not an actual suit and it doesn't have to be (real suits are so HOT to wear, literally...), it is a costume, all you need is basically to tailor a jumpsuit, make a belt, make the helmet (out of a face shield maybe? ) and then make the powered filtration unit prop. Gloves and boots can be purchased from the hardware store and the helmet harness can be scavaged from a face shield or a hard-hat and modified if necessary.

But, what fabric should one use? It should not look like a normal fabric, it should look kinda plasticky. Raincoats maybe? Or tent fabric?
And what about ventilation and breathing? Did they use actual powered respirators (most probably without filters) for comfort or they are just props? Are the suits like real suits (portable saunas and everything) or they used a walk-around, like ventilation holes or using a fabric that "breaths"?
The suits from Outbreak would work as real suits (The blue one would need minor modifications), the blue ones were sealed and both had positive pressure air supplies. In fact, in the first few months after the film came out, we received about a call a week from labs around the globe, asking if these were real suits, and where could they buy them.

If you looking for fabric for the blue suits, they sell about a 1000 type of vinyl materials, which is what was used. In the case of Outbreak, it was a fabric reinforces vinyl. Custom colored vinyl tape was used over the machine stitched seams.
The yellow suits were made from a material used for commercial awnings.
 
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