More Subject Delta and Other Projects–March Was Busy

 

March was a good month, sort of.  We did have some good weather days where I was able to get a lot of work done on the Subject Delta helmet, drill, and tanks.  Even had time to get a good start on Melinda’s Eleanor Lamb/Big Sister costume.

Helmet

I was able to take it outside and get a good coat of resin on it.  I did run into one issue, where apparently my mix wasn’t right and there was one section that would not dry.  Took a while, but I finally got it corrected.

Nice and shiny…and smelly.

After I got the resin on there, and a light sanding, I was able to get a quick layer of primer on it.  Seeing it all one color really helps finding little surface imperfections that I can just fixate on and consider the whole process a failure because it is there.  Then Melinda steps in and reminds me, I’m not done yet.
So more surface build up, sanding, resin, and priming.

                      

        

All of the above were after about an hour of sanding.

                        

 

 

   I considered this the last layer of any kind of body filler, so it was time to apply all the rivets.  These are just wooden plugs I found in the Home Depot router section.  They are slightly rounded, and worked really well.

 

 

Now more resin and primer.  Fortunately there was also another pretty day.

 

                

 

                

                

Still managed to find a few more surface areas that I just couldn’t let go of.  More filler and then primer.  The new primer is also closer to the copper color and I am really happy with the way this is working.

               

               

It is really looking like the Subject Delta helmet now, and the surface is still keeping a hammered metal look.  Once I get the lights in place, glass in the face mask, and the wiring done, the helmet will be complete for final painting.

 

 

 

I also got all the LEDs (yellow and red) all wired and ready, but I am still trying to figure out the best way to get them in the helmet to provide the best light and glow effect.  The red LEDs are great, but I am a little disappointed with the yellow ones.  I may have to scrap them and try different ones.

 

Tanks
you’re welcome

There are a set of 4 tanks that are worn by Delta. I had built them first actually, and I even used PVC pipes to make them.  I may regret that come time to wear this monster for any length of time.  You may spot a winded Delta at a convention near you.
I had also planned to put an iPod on the costume somewhere and speakers in the larger tank so I could play a custom mixed version of the soundtrack and sound effects from the game.  I had two very old and heavy battery powered computer speakers I was going to use.

Well, I found a better and lighter solution.  A single round speaker.

The pink ring is just a foam ring to help it fit in the large tank and not shift and rattle when I move.  Drop this into the tank and hook the iPod to it and the sound is really effective.
With the warm weather, I was able to get the tanks primed and painted.  The paint job is rather fragile since I used just primer colors to keep that flat, muted, rough look.  I think they’ll survive a few conventions if I’m careful.
                  

I’m really happy with the paint job on them.  The smaller tank will hold the batteries for the lights and fans in the helmet, and the larger tank will have the speaker and battery for the drill.

The Drill

There has been a lot of work done on the drill, and a lot of work re-done on the drill.  When I initially assembled the monster, I lowered the torque setting on the drill so it wouldn’t spin too violently and destroy everything.  Well, I never took into consideration that paper, tape, glue, Mache, resin, filler, resin, paint, etc. adds weight and weight needs more torque to spin.  I’ve had to open the drill back up twice now to increase the torque.  I was not happy about that.  Especially the second time since it had a coat of resin, primer, and filler on it, but better to find it now and fix it than to have a non-working drill at a convention.  I’ve got the torque turned up nearly full now.  So, when I use it now, I have to keep myself from getting to trigger happy and just gently pull the trigger.  Getting excited and pulling it all at once could lead to bad things.

               

Happily coated in Mache now.

I then ran into another problem.  It was indeed getting heavy and the initial arm brace that I had built wasn’t cutting it anymore.  Now, how do I attach the supports I need without having to take the whole thing back apart?  Rivets.  Thank God for rivets.

I had the metal left over from college printmaking.  Cut it down a little and then rivet into place.  Bend parts around the supports and done.

I love the copper coloring on the list picture.  I was going to leave it unpainted, but it got hit with some overspray.

After the Mache dried, resin, and primer, the drill needed some filler badly.  Lots of uneven ridges.  It was also at this point when I had to adjust the torque…again.

                             

This is the patch where I had to cut it open to adjust the drill.  Once all the filler dries, time for sanding and priming again.

 

 

 

Eleanor Lamb

But what about Melinda?  What is she going to be doing while I stalk around looking like a deep sea diver from hell?  She’s going to be right there with me. 

There is a character in Bioshock 2 named Eleanor Lamb.  Subject Delta is trying to find her throughout the game, and when she does make her appearance, she is dressed very similarly to another character, the Big Sisters.  Melinda is going to be Eleanor in her Big Sister gear and really get two costumes in one.
 

This is the Big Sister character.  If you ever wondered how they could make something more frightening than the Big Daddies in Bioshock 1, well, they did.

 

 

 

                          

These are all Eleanor in her Big Sister armor.  There are some differences that make this easier than the standard Big Sister, but Melinda will still end up with two for one on this deal.

 

Helmet

First thing to try is that round helmet.  Much more diving bell than the Delta helmet.  I first tried building a foam frame to cover with Mache.  That failed miserably.

Off to Target to do what most normal people end up doing from the start.  Get a beach ball and Mache that.  Why didn’t I do that to begin with?  It’s me.  I always take the hard road.

 

Next was adding the textured areas.  I used a rope to mark off the areas and then filler to raise them.  Melinda then coated the whole thing in resin.

The circle was left uncovered just to make cutting out the port hole easier.
I’ve got to order some more LEDs for this and rig up a ring to hold the LEDs and light the mask.

Syringe

Eleanor, the Little Sisters, and the Big Sisters all carry this terrifying syringe.  The Big Sisters have it mounted to their arm, where the Little Sisters carry it with them.

It actually is not that hard to build, with the exception of the glowing red bottle on the bottom. I’m working on that.

Old plastic shelf leg (same thing that is the main grip in the drill) two dowel rods, some wood and glue and poof…one syringe.

These will be the valves on the outside of the syringe.  I love rivets now.  I don’t know what I did before I found them or why it took me so long to find them.

 

 

 

 

 

March has been a good month for getting stuff like this done. Thanks to the weather.  Hopefully I can keep up the pace and finish ahead of schedule.  I’m still working on my Little Sister, a new Destro mask, and updates to Melinda’s Baroness costume too.  There will be entries on them, when I have something to show.

February/March Update

 

First off, like many other bloggers out there, I am going to now try to stick to a regular update schedule.  Once a month, usually around the first week of each month, I will add an update of some sort.  Also, like many other bloggers, don’t hold me to that.  That’s the plan.  We’ll see how well it works. Now on to the costuming updates.

At this point, I’ve got the drill construction 95% complete and several layers of Mache on the Delta helmet.  I’m really waiting for some warm weather to start working with the nasty chemical part.  I decided it was time to start cutting and poking holes in the helmet though.  It was hard to do because I never knew if what I was about to do would end up destroying everything or not, but I had to.

To do this properly, I couldn’t use the back of my old office chair for a stand anymore.  So, a more proper one was built.

It’s a stand! I swear!

 See!

I needed to construct a backpack and frame into the helmet to:
help hold the helmet in place
provide a surface for attaching the tanks
help carry the weight of the tanks from the helmet to my shoulders and hips
I had an older backpack that I thought about using the frame from it. I did use the straps and waist belt, but the Boy Scout in me would not allow me to destroy a perfectly good backpack and frame.  More PVC then.
I built the frame into the helmet and even used some more expanding foam to help secure it to the helmet.
  
     

Yeah, I know, all the pictures are of the helmet on my old office chair.  It just worked better for getting the foam on the inside.  The build was actually done on the stand.

With all that done and dried, it was time for another test fitting.  This did not go well at all.

 

      

Adding the frame had also caused some warping in the back.  Nothing could be done about that though.  But I had to do something about the horrid shoulder mismatching.

After looking at the pictures, I decided the best thing to do would be to just slice the shoulder off and rebuild them.  This would also give me a chance to add in the ventilation system I’m after.  I mean, I’m going to be walking around Atlanta in September wearing insulation on my head.  I need to get air in and out somehow!

 

Once the shoulder were cut off, before I rebuilt them, I added an 80mm computer fan to each shoulder blowing air in onto my neck.

     

  Exhaust Fan

I’ll power all three fans from the same source as the LEDs I’m adding.  What LEDs you ask?  Must have forgotten about those.  See, Subject Delta’s helmet lights up in the face mask area.  Yellow if he is calm and red during combat.  He also has two lights on his chest that come on in the dark.  I’ve ordered all the LEDs and resistors and am building out that part slowly.  The power will be from a 6 volt camping lantern battery.  Heavy, but long lasting and steady power, and it fits in the 4 inch tank on my back.

This is one of the two chest lights.  They each hold 5 10mm white LEDs.  I cannot express to you how bright these are when they are lit.

Sorry, I digress, back to the shoulder repair.

With the new intake fans in place, I had to make sure that I did not seal them in, but left some sort of opening for them to draw in fresh air.  This would mean the shoulders would be some sort of vent hood.  I went back to my roots and broke out the card stock, scissors and tape.  This just needed to hold on long enough to get a layer of Mache over it anyway.

     

The two blue dots on either side are the lights in place.

Now for another test fit.  This one went much better.  Not perfect, but without scrapping the whole thing and starting over, it’s as good as it is going to get.

 

 

In the last picture, you can see how the frame got a little warped when I added the foam and it set up.  That bothers me some, but once the tanks are on, I don’t think you’ll notice.

Now one final coat of Mache, and this one was a special coating with some wood glue added to it.  This gives you a chance to be able to sand the surface smooth if you want.

Peek-a-boo. I see you!

 

Now, just need some good weather to apply a layer of fiber glass resin and a primer coat of paint and see what it looks like all one color.  It is easier to see any major screw ups once you are looking at an even colored surface.

I know the helmet isn’t perfect, but I didn’t set out to make a perfect replica either.  Plus it is supposed to be worn and beaten looking.  That was one of the reasons I chose this method.

Also you might have noticed I started referring to this as the Delta helmet.  When I first started this, I was going to do Subject Sigma from the Minerva's Den DLC for Bioshock 2.  Well, Subject Sigma was never paired with a little sister, and the little sister is another piece to this costume.  In order to be more accurate, or anal your choice, I’ve switched to Subject Delta from the main Bioshock 2 game.  Fortunately, the two characters look exactly alike.