Now that I've completed a suit from scratch using a MR.I suit and foamies I would like to share my experience.
Cost:
Starting out I thought I could make a complete suit with purchasing a latex head and bio for around $600 and i was way off! I made mistakes and needed to buy additional parts, airbrush paints add up quickly, and buckles straps velcro magnets all add up! I added up everything I could find invoices for and it came out to roughly $1400, this number does not include tools that I bought for this suit.
Tools:
These are what tools I had to buy that I didn't already own, this isn't everything I used for the project:
1. Heat Gun
2. Glue Gun
3. PVC pipe cutter
4. Airbrush kit
5. Pepakura viewer
6. Paint Rollers
7. Paint brushes
8. Foam brushes
9. Exacto Blades (Tons)
Time:
I didn't track my time but I believe over the year it took to complete the suit I invested around 700 hours. I started in August 2016 and worked on it heavily for a few months, then decided I didn't like where it was going and gave up for about half a year. I got back into it mid 2017 with the goal of completing it by late September 2017. So don't give up!!! I remember the first time I painted a piece of armor and weathered it, it looked better that I could have hoped! That gave me the drive to work on the project heavily for half a year, and complete it!
Issues:
With everything complete my only issue are the dreads. Since they are made from backer rod they are quite stiff. I knew this going in and the addition of PVC dread rings helps the movement but they are also heavy. The worst part is they restrict the movement of my head, I can probably only turn 45 degrees each way, using less dreads would have been better but then the look seems wrong to me. The whole suit design comes down to the cost of quality. The backer rod dreads with PVC rings only cost me around $50, but actual molded dreads would have looked and moved much better.
Hope this helps some people with their builds or thoughts they may have about building a Predator suit.
