Mid Century Spaceman Costume (Planning Stages)...

just a thought, since u are dealing with the sealed helmet air problem. What about doing a Buzz Lightyear type of dome that is cut in half so it can open and close? That would give u the look but also the opportunity to open it and walk around without sacrificing the overall concept and look of it? To be honest, a non-opening helmet would be impracticable IMHO!!! Love this thread!
 
Brianpettit said:
Wow... Even being a pretty big comic book fan growing up I had no idea who Dan Dare was. I'm ashamed to say I had to look it up. :sick
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No need to be ashamed, I only know of Dan Dare because I saw the comic book when I visited England in the late 1980ies. It did not make it to Germany IIRC.

Germany had his own Spaceman, "Nick der Weltraumfahrer" (Nick, the spacepilot")
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It looks pretty cool. The earlier stuff that is. The later stuff with his full "hard" suit not as much. The earlier red suit with the "trash can" helmet is sooooo much cooler. I like it. It reminds me of the 50's era Buck Rogers or the Rocketeer stuff.

-Brian
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Yeah, that´s what I thought, too. You can´t beat the classic look ;)

Aquaman said:
...That would give u the look but also the opportunity to open it and walk around without sacrificing the overall concept and look of it? To be honest, a non-opening helmet would be impracticable IMHO!!! Love this thread!
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I think if the rim of the neck seal goes over the opening of the acrylic dome he can put in some space around the opening, creating a "shadow recess" or "shadow gap" around it to let air in.
 
I'd suggest going to a toy store and looking at water guns for the air tanks. Many of the waterguns available today would have the perfect look once you remove the grips.

Good luck on this project, I like the style you are going for. :)
 
Brianpettit said:
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i like this one, because he looks like adam strange but with a different twist, like he'd be another rannian operative or something.

i also like the bubble helmets towards the bottom, the one with the vent in the front like you said could be where you set up a mic, but also, you could put a fan there blowing at you low speed, which not only would give you outside air, but also would help change the sound of your voice.
 
Brianpettit said:
Thanks for the info Raffles. It is awesome to have the someone that knows help out. I appreciate it. It is a big help.

-Brian
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No probs, I was using acrylic for my ODST visors recently and I went through so many sheets it wasn't funny. It can be tricky to work with but if you're careful it should be ok.
 
I did some work on the overall concept with the bubble style helmet...

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By the way I don't know if there is a Rocket Command existing anywhere in pop culture. I made that up quick. I think it would make a cool patch for the suit.

Brian
 
Loving it. Great artwork.

As for Rocket Command, you may want to check this out -if you haven't seen it already. It looks like they have a similar logo on their website.

Raygun Gothic Rocket
 
BAK55 said:
Loving it. Great artwork.

As for Rocket Command, you may want to check this out -if you haven't seen it already. It looks like they have a similar logo on their website.

Raygun Gothic Rocket
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Nope. Had not seen this one. So they built a life sized retro styled rocket? Weird and cool! I don't know how this project fell through my radar. I think it is kinda neat.

As far as the patch goes. I was kinda going for something so "cheesy" that no one would think it was a real thing. Rocket Command sounds like something from those old "B" space movies. Like I said... I kinda threw it together. I may rework it...OR... I may just realize I have thought WAY too hard about this Halloween costume already and do it. :lol

Brian
 
Brianpettit said:
Nope. Had not seen this one. So they built a life sized retro styled rocket? Weird and cool! I don't know how this project fell through my radar. I think it is kinda neat.

As far as the patch goes. I was kinda going for something so "cheesy" that no one would think it was a real thing. Rocket Command sounds like something from those old "B" space movies. Like I said... I kinda threw it together. I may rework it...OR... I may just realize I have thought WAY too hard about this Halloween costume already and do it. :lol

Brian
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Glad you liked the link. I really don't think those guys woud mind if your patch happened to look like their project. It is a classic design and generally what comes to mind when one thinks "rocketship". Let's just have fun and get some great advice on our projects.:thumbsup
 
Well, it's taken some time to get to this, but I thought some of you may like an update on the spacesuit I've been planning on.

I've had this large shipping tube a friend of mine gave to me some time ago and I finally found a use for it as the collar portion of the helmet. It took two tries to get it to fit correctly. The second piece is another mailing tube temporarily tape onto the collar. The 14 inch diameter acrylic globe I had ordered from the website discussed earlier in this thread came today and I quickly enlarged the opening to accommodate my head with my dremel tool.

This is what I have so far. Nothing is glued together yet since I have to add the fan I need to permit air to flow into the helmet. It didn't take long to fog up and get real warm inside the thing.

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This will be my protoype. I'm planning on building four of these for myself and friends for Convergence next July 4th.
 
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cool!

I use those same 14" acrylic globes from 1000bulbs for my deadmau5 helmets. I was on a space-themed float earlier this year and thought about using one of the globes but decided it would be too hot.

good luck on your build, I'll be watching it!
 
Great helmet! Love the retro look. I have a freely admitted addiction to 50s B movies.
Can't wait to see the rest of the costume.
Mel W.
 
I'm coming very close to finalizing my spacesuit design to go with my helmet that some of you chaps have seen in another thread. I had originally planned on using a sweatshirt and sweatpants as the base of my costume. But since I plan on wearing this in July, I had changed the base clothing to a long sleeve t-shirt and O.R. scrub pants.

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Since then, I have recruited some buddies that I want to do with this as a group effort and one of them convinced me to use Dickies coveralls. I think some quilted fabic added in the right areas will give me the look I'm looking for.

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Yeah, I'm a fan of Wally Wood and his artwork has been an inspiration for this costume. Hence the coloring of the costume and the belt from one of his characters from Thunder Agents. I thought it would be a nice tribute to the artist.
 
dukenobles said:
Love the thread. Considering making a similar costume myself. Any progress since last postings? pics?
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I have one more helmet yet to make out of the four needed-

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I found a speedsuit (Yeah, as in Venture Industries.) that I had tailored to fit better, removed the chest pockets, modified the collar to be shorter and stand up and had replaced the sleeve cuffs with an elastic fabric-

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I had designed retro style patches, the center image will be on the left shoulder of all characters and the other designs for each character designating their specialty on the right shoulder-

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And I had to tweak the spacesuit design yet again to simplify it for the ladies who have volunteered to sew additional fabrics and details later this month to the suit to make us look like the heros that we're not-

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One of the toughest things to come up with for the chest piece of the costume was to find a fabirc that looked high tech but retro at the same time. I stumbled on it at a fabric warehouse on a roll of ironing board fabric. I has the look that I had been searching for and it probably would have been used by some studio wardrobe department of the era I'm trying to represent.
 
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Your "retro but futuristic" fabric search made me think of the new X-Men First Class pressure suits.

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Nick
 
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