Subject Delta: Part 3

Progress on Subject Delta has been going very well, despite being sidetracked by another project I’ll post about later in the week. If everything goes well I probably have a few more weeks before the whole thing is complete, but we can defiantly see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Drill consist of three sections; the foam drill, the arm support, and the cosmetic sleeve. The arm support is made from 4” PVC with an epoxied handle and drill trigger integrated inside. This allows all the weight to be supported by the PVC rather than any of the cosmetic parts. Over the support fits an assembly made from foam, fiberglass and PVC. The side vents were sculpted and cast, and have screens hot glued inside. Everything was then painted with metallic paint and is currently awaiting weathering.

Drill Handle


Drill and outer sleeve.

The dive suit was a big challenge, mainly because I hate working with fabric. To make it I dyed some heavy weave cotton fabric a mixture of blue and brown, and then David and I used a Rothco jumpsuit as a patterns and support for the dive suit. I then started adding details with brown duck cloth to give it a reinforced canvas feel. The glove was made by creating a cuff and sewing it to a regular brown gardening glove.

Laying out the Pattern


Piecing Everything Together


Test Fit

In order to bulk out my figure I made a custom padded suit to wear underneath the dive suit. The pants are made from sweat pants and plush filling. The sleeves came off a muscle shirt and were sewn onto an old t-shirt I had. My torso is bulked out due to a cooling vest I will be wearing to keep me from overheating once I am sealed inside.

The Under suit


Muscle Shirt


Cold Vest


Glove

On to the details! What I call the Flavor Flav weight was shaped from MDF and is supported by custom dyed cotton rope from the helmet. The diving knife, or what I call the BFK, was made with PVC, fiberglass, and a hole saw was used as the handle. The knee plates were made from a Styrofoam sculpt that was molded and cast from fiberglass, and will attach using snaps.

Weight and Knife


Knee Plates

Lastly, I added a gold motorcycle visor to the helmet so people cannot see the wearer’s face. You can also see David’s unbelievable wreathing job in this shot.

During the week as I wait to finish another project I will be working on the last few gribblies for the suit as well as starting the boots. My hope is to finish the suits construction in mid-July so we can focus on weathering everything, but at this stage I think we have plenty of margin to have it done for DC’11.