construction:alternate:inflatables

Inflatables

One method to create an inflatable suit - http://www.furry.org.au/Vulpie/orca/index.html


From: plushdragon
An air-inflated costume has to have a fan in the costume and a battery pack. Without either, the costume will not work. Air-inflated costumes are lighter than a fursuit because there is no foam between the wearer of the costume and the costume shell itself.

The blower pumps in air to give the costume its shape, keeping the wearer cool. The costume can be hugged and can walk around like a fursuit but have more limitations than a foam costume. On some inflatable costumes you won't be able to sit down in a chair because you will be sitting on the fan, blocking the air coming into the costume, causing it to deflate. You also have fan noise.

In my costume I used a fan for use on boats, mounted on 4-inch round piece of plywood, mounted in the tail of my dragon costume, held in by Velcro. The fan has a cigarette lighter plug on a 6-foot cord that plugs into a battery pack that is used for VCR camera lights.

The material the costume uses is the same type in hot air balloons and inflatable display aids. The costume cannot let air pass out of the costume; if it did the costume would deflate. Most materials used in costume is vinyl coated nylon. The costume would use a cloth external shell with nylon covering on the inside. You can have a costume shop build one for you. The average price for one of these is $2,000 to $10,000. The costs are higher than a fursuit because there is more labor to sew the costume, more panels, and it must be airtight. You can build your own as all materials are available to purchase over the counter.


From: Andy Coll
Subject: Re: FL: Inflatable Costumes

Well, the suit I wore had a clear vinyl window in the mouth of the character that had a light nylon mesh on the outside to prevent people from looking inside. The mesh was on the outside so that you could wipe the window clear if it fogged up or put on some no-fog treatment from the inside.

The suit zipped closed and had a velcro flap over the zipper to keep the air in. It had 2 squirrel cage type blowers to draw air inside and had no designed in air exit (air leaked out the zipper and the seams). The feet and paws were attached and the head was part of the bodysuit so there were no real air “seals” on your body (unlike a scuba dry-suit). The suit was covered with medium pile fur and had coated rip-stop nylon inside to keep the air in.

All seams were taped or stitched over with more coated nylon. It was also pretty darn hot inside for an active performer, for static displays like waving or greeting people at a door it would work fine, but for my standard mascot performance the suit got just as hot as a traditional fursuit.

Power was supplied by a belt mounted battery pack, the fans were attached to the body of the suit with large pore nylon mesh covering the intake.

It was a very nice looking suit, and ok to perform in, but it doesn't hold up to all the claims the inflatable costume people make of that style suit (“the coolest character you'll perform in” “less performer fatigue” “longer performances and fewer breaks”). Oh and one last item: it was very expensive, on par with professional style mascots with fiberglass heads (more than $5K).

/home/furryfursuit/faq/data/pages/construction/alternate/inflatables.txt · Last modified: 2011/08/11 12:01 (external edit)

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