Hi all, this thread helped me a lot with my project so I thought I would include my experiences with making a Tron Legacy inspired suit. I had roughly 12 days to complete the suit and a budget of nothing, so this was definitely not a movie-grade replica, but it was fun to make and everyone thought it looked pretty cool.
Base items:
- Slim fitting black pullover $1
- Ladys stretchy pants $1
- Gumboots $2
- Old hardhat
- Safety visor $15
- Work gloves $2
- Old shin pads
- Foam yoga mat $2
EL Wire and inverters:
- 5 x 7.5ft el wire skyblue
- 2 x 12v battery inverters
- 2 x el wire splitters
~$50 on ebay (trader name: bluericewin)
Other items:
- Spraypaint $15
- Ados F3 $15
Everything else was tape, screws, glue etc. that I had lying around the house or nicked from work. So total was around $85 - $90
I cut templates out of paper for the body armor and traced these to the foam mat. The foam is about quarter inch. I cut out the shapes and lightly taped them together.
I soon realised the small female mannequin I had borrowed wasnt going to work so I used an old sponge matress and towels to pad it out, and make arms. I tried to get it fairly close to my dimensions, but it wasnt exact.
After tracing around the foam panels with white chalk, I applied the Ados glue, ready for the foam panels. I dont know if they sell Ados in the US. Its mixed with gel, so its really nice to use, nice smooth consistency to the bottom of the can.
Panels on, tied up overnight.
More panels on, and a few coats of white spraypaint that will be masked for the light channels.
Rear view. I installed magnets above and below the circular area, for the disc to connect to.
Drawing out the light paths that the EL wire will run along. I cut a length of speaker wire the same length as the EL wire and used that to decide how the lighting would run.
Running the EL wire. I cut slits with a craft knife for where the wire dives and surfaces. I glued it to the suit using a hot glue gun. When the suit was finished I taped over the internal wiring with duct tape so it wouldnt snag.
Masking up the gumboots. I ran EL wire along the feet, but there was too much flex through that area ... by the end of the night, both loops had come free from the boot.
Once the EL wire was in place, I masked over it and sprayed the whole thing in satin black.
The finished garment. The trousers followed the same process as the torso. I used the shin pads on the forearms and lower leg.
I hacked up a few plastic containers for the disc. Try and find the nice soft plastic containers, they're easier to cut and wont crack. That blue plastic was the harder, more brittler type and it was a nightmare to cut.
I ran EL wire inside the disc, taped the driver inside, and pushed the switch to the outside of the disc. I also taped some magnets in so it would stick to my back.
Inside view of the helmet. First I sprayed the helmet black. Then I masked the inside of the visor, and sprayed it black. I screwed and glued the visor to the back of the helmet and ran the EL wire. I didn't hot glue the wire to the visor, instead I held it in place with white electrical tape. I also masked out 2 little holes for the eyes which gave me enough visibility to not walk into a wall. I screwed the inverter to the back of the helmet.
Finished helmet. I used a little extra wire length to run it past those 3 holes.I also added foam padding, a chinstrap, and a rear hood made from 1/8 inch foam to cover the back of my head.
Suiting up. Getting it off the mannequin was tricky, I had to carefully remove the padding first before I could get it off.
Fitting okay.
Working out some cool poses.
I had a malfunction in the legs, that I fixed later.
At the party.
Okay so here are the lessons I learned, and some tips:
EL Wire:
I used the cheapest stuff I could get on ebay and didnt seem to have any problems with quality issues etc. If youve never handled EL wire before (as I hadn't), dont be scared to get a bit rough with it or bend it tightly (within reason), it is quite durable. Also, I found that sometimes when you cut a length of wire, the cut can cause the whole length to stop glowing. I found this out a few minutes before we were due to leave for the party. I connected the 12v driver for the first time and switched it on. The suit flickered, then nothing. My first though was that the driver had burnt out the wire somehow. As i was checking it over a grabbed the termination point, and it lit up. I moved the cut end to a better position and then glued it down.
Power:
After reading something about "overdriving" EL wire with a 12V, 8 AA battery inverter to get a brighter glow, I decided to run the suit with 2x 12v drivers, one for the torso, one for the pants. However I ended up with the arms and shoulders connected to a regular 4v driver (2 AA batteries). I did this as I was running short on time, and I didnt want to have to solder the regular wire around the shoulder area, 4 connections for each shoulder, to connect the arms to the torso. So I ended up with 2 x 1 metre runs up each arm, and maybe 3 metres total on the chest and back. When I connected the torso to the 12v driver, heres what happened:
I could smell burning plastic in the car and was wondering why my back was so hot ... so I wouldnt recommend running less than 6 metres on a 12V driver. When I got to the party, I connected the torso and legs to a single 4v driver, which worked well. But if you compare the first couple of photos with the photos at the party, you can definitely see a difference in brightness and color. The next day, I connected the torso and legs (roughly 6 metres) to a single 12v driver, which gave excellent brightness, and more importantly stayed cool. Eventually I will connect the arms, Im pretty sure there will be almost no reduction in glow. Lesson: a single 12v driver is plenty to power an entire suit.
Soldering: This was probably the most difficult part for me. I cut in regular wire through the knees and elbows to allow for movement. Trying to consistently strip the EL wire without breaking the angel hair strands was a problem. I was soldering around the arms right up until a few hours before the party, so my connections were shoddy. By the end of the night, both arms were shorting out. I guess the lesson here is to take the time to get your connections bulletproof, if you have the time.
Paint:
The paint is flaking off, I probably shouldve used a primer or something on the foam.
Photos:
Make sure you are with people who are sober enough to take a good photo ... what I posted are the best shots I have :unsure
edit: beg borrow or steal a mannequin, I can only imagine how hard it would be to do without one ...
