The Belt

The belt is probably the most complicated part of the costume. There are:
5 belt boxes that attach directly to the belt,
2 thigh boxes that hang off the belt on the sides,
and one thermal detonator that clips to the back of the belt.

The 5 smaller utility boxes on the front of the belt 9 cm wide, 6.5 cm tall and 2.5 cm deep.

Once you have created your master mold or sculpture, you'll want to refer to our plaster casting and vacuumforming sections to make your final vacuumformed armor parts.

The thigh boxes are approximately 11.5 cm deep, 17.8 cm wide in the front and 19 cm wide in the back along it's base.
The front wall is 5 cm tall and the back wall is 9 cm tall.
The top surface is 14.5 cm wide in the front, 16.5 cm wide in the back and 7.6 cm deep.. They have an added surface on the top of the box , something I did not notice with my first incarnation of the belt boxes.

(show image of old compared against new)

Once you have created your master mold or sculpture, you'll want to refer to our plaster casting and vacuumforming sections to make your final vacuumformed armor parts.

The Thermal Detonator consists of a 30.5 cm long ribbed tube, two endcaps on each end of the tube and a box housing that clasps around the middle part of the tube.

The housing box is 12 cm wide, 6 cm tall, and 6 cm deep. The tube like things sticking out of the sides are 5 cm wide in diameter. The top indention that runs the width of the thermal detonator is 3 cm wide and .6 cm deep.

A particularly noticeable part of the Thermal Det box is the indention area on the top of the box. Alot of prop makers miss this bevel in their haste. This beveled area is .6 cm deep on our molds.

Since the Thermal Det box is essentially a square, we decided not to sculpt the object in play, but to make a rigid pattern out of sheet plastic which we would then tape up the seams, therefor giving us a final mold to our plaster into much quicker than sculpting.

Here is the pattern taped up. We needed to make sure all the seams were sealed, or the liquid plaster would seep out before it got hard, then all this work would have been for nothing.

The final product. This image is actually of our old plaster mold, it's been through alot of abuse, as you can see.

ILM attached the housing box to the ribbed tube via a ZIP-tie. The pipe was fastened to the cloth belt with a couple of clips that slid over the top of the cloth webbelt. No one has identified what these clips are yet, but "money clips" are the accepted replacemnt item used today by costumers.

Again, refer to our plaster casting and vacuumforming sections to make your final vacuumformed armor parts.

-end section