So this year I wanted to out do myself for Halloween and decided to go for a "budget" Apollo astronaut costume (as I can't afford one of those $1500 dollar costumes from ebay
).
To begin I bought up the necessary reference materials-
(Kidding... well sort of as I watched these movies while building the suit. Actually the majority of the reference pics I used were from the
Apollo Lunar Surface Journal )
So I startred with a Tyvex painter's bodysuit from Walmart for $7:
(Unfortunately when all was said and done... this build cost a lot more than $7 dollars.
)
So going by the advice from a similar DIY spacesuit build, I taped off all the seams of the suit from the inside to prevent tearing.
My plan to make the spacesuit "puffy" was to have an outer suit that would have all the patches, hose connectors, details etc, and have a second inner suit with the torso and arms covered in a thick layer of cotton batting-
The female hose couplings would be made out of some Suave shampoo bottle caps, and some caps from some industrial detergent containers at my work. The red hose male connection is a pvc 2 inch elbow joint. The blue male connection is a 1 inch elbow joint. The red male connection is permanently attached, however the blue male coupling is removable.
The pic also shows my (very fake) Omega Speedmaster watch, and my first attempt at a pressure gauge.
The EVA gloves. I originally planned to have a pair of blue kitchen gloves and put a pair of grey gloves overtop with the fingerips cut off. I bought both pairs of gloves... but when I put them together I thought they looked terrible- the grey glove "compressed" the blue glove and didn't look right.
So the gloves I ended up making were with a pair of welding gloves that I bought on sale for $14.
The fingertips were made with a child's "bubble soap/blowing/toy/thingy"- these were 4 for $3 (which meant I had to buy 12 of them
) in the Halloween section!
Painted them blue, cut them and stuck them in the (now cut off) fingertips of the gloves. Some of them needed to be wrapped in a bit of hockey tape so they wouldn't fall out.
And the finished left glove-
I even copied Neil's EVA instructions (his "cheat sheet"), and printed it off on some extra Tyvex material. It is held on the glove with double-sided duct tape.
The "snoopy cap" (communications headset) was made with a costume head cap (there are actually cow prints on the inside
) and a pair of black flip-flops for the headphones. Thick black wire from an old set of AV hookups make up the dual microphones.
The various patches were printed out on Tyvex. I first tried running some nylon material throughmy printed, however the ink bled. The Tyvex is much more like paper and worked like a charm (however I did have to tape each piece of tyvex to a sheet of paper to properly run through the printer). Afterward I hit them all with a shot of dullcote to seal it.
Now the PLSS (Primary Life Support System) backpack-
This started with a large styrofoam box that I wrapped in cotton batting.
The communications unit was a box from the garage. My plan was to wrap the box in silver duct tape, then cover it with white nylon (the same as the PLSS unit).
At first I thought I would just attach the straps to the outer nylon layer, however I figured it wouldn't be sturdy enough, so I nailed and glued the straps directly to the styrofoam core.
All four straps attached.
And the finished backpack. At the last minute (due to time constraints) I wrapped the communications unit in white duct tape. The PLSS unit is wrapped in white nylon.
All the velcro, nametag, NASA patch, and H2O refill instructions are on there. There are supposed to be some fabric "access panels" that close with snap buttons, however I ran out of time (I'll add them eventually).
Here is the finished suit with the inner cotton suit inside it.
And some detail shots:
The umbilical section- everything is held on with "Fabric Fuze" double-sided tape (which is like a gummy glue/tape that sticks to EVERYTHING including the scissors used to cut the tape with
). The pattern of the velcro and snaps resembles Neil's flown suit.
The final pressure gauge. I know the real one was rectangular, however I couldn't get a decent view of one to print out. I figured the round gauge would more easily be recognized.
The helmet.
Since I couldn't afford one of those accurate LEVA helmets found online (and didn't have the time... or skill to try and replicate one with a plastic globe), this is where I broke down and went with a store bought helmet exactly like this one:
However I wasn't going to go out with this thing on my head unaltered.
So I took the visor off, stripped the blue and orange stripes off, took off the cheesy NASA patch and American flag, filled the holes for the plastic pins (that hold the two halves of the helmet together) and repainted the helmet satin off white.
I then added some aluminium foil tape to the visor, and added a strip of black hockey tape to the rim of the visor opening. I also added some caps that I painted silver to the ears of the visor.
The finished helmet:
And now the whole shebang!
This is my "Intravehicular" look.
(The black tactical gloves were just worn for these pics)
The neckring is a bit of a cheat and isn't actually attached to the suit-
The outside of the ring is covered in extra Tyvex, cut to form with my suit when resting on it-
I think it blends really well!
And now the EVA look-
The boots were a cheap pair of winter boots I repainted (which... even though I used shoe dye/paint most of it flaked off
). These pics were taken the day after the party, so the boots are pretty beaten up looking here.
I completed the boots by adding some white ribbon held together with velcro ends.
And now the rest of my pics:
And what Apollo 11 Astronaut suit wouldn't be complete without an American Flag to plant in the lunar surface!
So I went to a local party on Oct 27th (my fourth year going to the same place- Haunted Hamilton at the Scottish Rite). They have a decent costume contest- Many prizes for Best Overall Costume, Best Couple, Best Group Theme, Most Unique/Original Costume, Most Bizarre Costume, Scariest Costume, Sexiest Costume, and 6 honourable mentions.
Now... I have no allusions about bar costume contests (although I would put this above the average contest in which the guy dressed as a giant penis or a chick with big breasts wins
) however I did feel I had "the right stuff" to win "something" this year.
They started with the honourable mentions and 6th place first...
I ended up winning the 1st place honourable mention!
This was actually my first time winning "anything" in a costume contest!
Eventually I plan on improving the chestbox by adding some control switches and the "Off Main Talk" detail, and making some more accurate EVA boots out of some overshoes/galoshes.
Well... this has been a dream come true (I mean what kid hasn't dreamed of being and astronaut at least once
). And it is easily my most ambitious costume project (I usually have to "buy the right jacket" or "buy the right gloves" etc, and not have to make most of it from scratch). It was intense at times, but was all worth it once I had everything on!
Kevin
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