My company was hired to build the upper torso of a deep diving suit, which had to be able to be immersed under water, with an actor inside. I did the sculpture in about 2-3 days, and supervised the fabrication and assembly of all of the assets.
The metal frame (above) was made to hold stage weights which were needed to offset the positive forces created by the volume of air, inside the suit.
The sculpture was done over the top of an armature, which was mostly a hollow shell that was made using some plywood and chicken wire, and then wrapped with plaster bandages. A hollow armature helps to reduce the weight and amount of clay needed to complete the sculpture. (As it was, the sculpture was still a few hundred pounds!)
To help keep things nice and true ("squared-up") I made up a set of acrylic panels (the black colored panels seen in the images, below) and attached them firmly to the armature.
This ensured the angles and positions of the side windows would be accurate, and symmetrical, relative to the center-most window and to each other. This would also provide a perfect cut line reference, when trimming out the fiberglass and installing the actual clear windowpanes, in the final suit.
Because this was a "one-off" part (we only needed to fabricate the one dive suit), it was decided we would only need to make a quick, brush-up silicone mold, with a lightweight fiberglass jacket.
We used sheet metal flashing, stabbed right into the clay, to create a registered part line. This way, we could brush up the silicone over the entire sculpture, simultaneously, instead of one section of the mold at a time.
Once the silicone was cured, a quick gel coat and fiberglass were applied. Once that was cured, the flashing was removed, and holes were drilled through the flanges, to ensure proper registration and fit of all of the segments of the fiberglass mold casing.
The mold was then carefully removed from the sculpture, and the silicone re-seated into the casing. The casing was bolted back together, and fiberglass was laid up, to create the part.
Some bodywork was required, in order to smooth out any imperfections, and to remove any indication of a part line. The window areas were carefully cut open, and acrylic was installed.
The "ear lights", strobe tower and antenna were all fabricated and fitted prior to the molding process, and installed onto the fiberglass part, once3 out of the mold.
Yes, those are SOAP DISHES we used for the "ear light" lenses (above)!
The costume element we made was always intended to be combined with a computer animated body of the diver. Posted below, are some still images as well as a sequence from the show, featuring the suit, the actor, and the digital animation.
This is some footage from the show, featuring the actor in the suit, combined with the digitally animated dive suit.
