I've read several inspiring blogs about making the suit either from scratch or from a Spacetoys orange suit. Some even list the base parts originally used for the helmet for the show.
This got me thinking about making my own helmet as close to the original prop as possible using the same parts and making the rest with the same techniques as was used. Simply recreating the prop.
This blog is about building that helmet as well as accessories and about the rest of my suit. This is strictly for my personal cosplay use as BBC owns (and/or possibly Millennium FX) the rights to the original helmet designs.
The helmet
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| Capaldi rocking that Jojo in the "Kill the Moon" episode |
The original helmet is a Scott Procap with added panels for the ear gap and top lantern housing, reinforcement plates as well as hose connectors and guides. Many of these parts were obviously originally 3D-printed and the rest seem fairly well suited for this solution also.
I'm a CAD engineer and have my own printer, this is probably a requirement for making a helmet the same way the propmakers did (ears and panels at least).
I'm a CAD engineer and have my own printer, this is probably a requirement for making a helmet the same way the propmakers did (ears and panels at least).
The first part I've modeled is the tiny clamp on the forehead and sides of the helmet that no one has been able to identify.
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| The mysterious clamp |
Camera attacment? Who knows? BBC probably had these lying around in bulk from decades ago but they may not even be possible to get today. So I modeled my own.
I could get it laser cut and folded from metal later, but for now I'm printing it on my Zortrax M200. It's not really going to hold anything after all and I can print new ones if they break from impact.
3D-Printed clamp
Next I modeled the lantern housing.
It has a single curved base, a lighted hose section running across the top and a white lighted flat front panel with a web or mesh behind it.
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| Screencap from Doctor Who |
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| Updated Lantern housing |
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| Photo of a standard 12mm hose from www.irrigationwarehouse.com |
Note the holes in the top for the red LEDs lighting the hose that goes into the top slot and the rail to secure the thin white semi-tansparent plastic light panel and the web that goes behind it.
The Sanctuary Base logo in the front may also need a recess and lighting channels, I'll have to study that a bit more. It could just be a reflective sticker.
I just watche the beginning of "The Girl Who Died" again and Claras' helmet uses what looks like a rubber oil hose or possibly a thick electrical cable.
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| "The Girl Who Died" screencap |
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| "The Girl Who Died" cable holder closeup |
More to come...
My suit
If you're curious about my suit that go with the helmet, I bought one tailor made from Furshop on ebay. Then I started modifying it, adding things they don't make and altering minor things on it to make it even better. |
| Photo of me from Comicon 2016, this is before I modified anything on the Furshop suit |
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| My 3D-printed Apollo connectors, the left is rough ftom the printer, the right is sanded and polished to get the same look as those used in the show. |
The connectors are fixed to the suit with Velcro fur patches sewn to the fabric and Velcro hook tape on the bases of the connectors the so they can be easily removed.
The Velcro tape glue cured nicely after a day or so and adhered well to the raw print bottom of the connectors.
I'm using this system to allow the suit to be disassembled and hand-washed and hung to dry after a day at a Con without wearing on hard parts.
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| Connectors attached to the suit |
The suit needs a ring collar and I'll probably change the back zipper to a longer and sturdier one also as seen in the show. Apart from that their suit is just amazing as a base.
It has the proper pocket zippers and front fly zipper under the groin patch.
It came with a decent harness, part fiber bands and part pleather.
It even came with a little fake fan pack in pleather though I discarded that because I tore it right away (pleather isn't that strong a material) and also I actually have the real Tornado fan and belt used in the show so I'm using the real stuff of course.
What you have to understand buying a suit from there is that half the work is yet to be done, no matter where you buy it from you can't just get a suit like this in finished state. Not if you want it to replicate what the suits look like in the show, as it would require moulded plastic parts they don't have and other accessories. In this particular case that would mean expensive breathing equipment for welding and unique props that would skyrocket the cost.
That's not what they do. They're tailors. But for a nice base costume and great tailoring and service I'd warmly recommend Furshop.
Note that the orange fabric for this particular suit is impregnated (fireproof balloon cloth perhaps?) when you get it and requires hand washing and rinsing repeatedly or you may get a rash on bare skin from the chemicals. Hand washing and hang drying (it dries amazingly quickly) makes it a bit rumpled which makes it look more authentic so you'd want to do that anyway.
The fabric is actually cool, worth noting as most space suits are prohibitively warm. The suit is actually comfortable to wear as casual cosplay.
So what's up with this buying a suit?
People who know me and what I can do tend to ask why.Sure, I can sew just fine but never made a space suit before and I'd rather put the effort where I can really make a difference, like 3d modeling stuff.
Prop making is more my forte than sewing, though I hand sew historical clothing, like Viking and Iron age garb for other hobbies. Because I have to there, maybe I'll make another blog for that.
I'm almost finished with the suit modifications and accessory additions.
I have the original climbing harness, snow mobile boots (I may get the other type also used later, the snowboarding boots), a pair of Extremis gloves are being shipped right now and of course I have the proper Scott Tornado fan system and belt.
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| Scott Tornado fan, battery, charger and belt |
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| Black Diamond climbing harness |
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| Extremis gloves |
I'll add more recent photos of the full set later.
The suit only needs new improved harness suspenders that are adjustable and a neck ring. I already 3d-modeled the ring to print.
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| Neck ring, the blocky square variant as used by Tennant and Capaldi |
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| Neck ring showing assembly, a full ring woudn't fit in my Zortrax M200 printer so I use male/female ends to hold it together. |
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