[Ceros]

Originally Posted by falconwind

Does anyone know if someone is making these patches? I don't really want to have to get a embroidery company to run me off a batch of 50 just for myself.

Also does anyone have an idea for how to simulate their gasmasks? It's obvious in pics that the mask is actuall two pieces, goggles and respirator. Closest thing I can think of is say, a 3M half face respirator and a pair of welding goggles.

Hey Falconwind. As for embroidered patches, I think they might have issued some in limited quantities with either the special edition of KILLZONE (available only in the UK), or made some available as promo material for the initial release... but I can't be sure of that. As for KZ merchandise, there's very little. What has been made is not available for purchase to the public, but is instead given out as promo or prizes to G.A.P. members at Sony or to fans at conventions.

I finally got around to finding my original post on the Playstation Forum so I've copied and posted it here. It should clear up your questions about the rest of the costume and how you might go about making a cheap version of Helghan sodier for yourself.


MAKING YOUR OWN HELGHAST COSTUME

There are several variations of the regular grunt-type Helghan soldier, each with slightly different ammo pouch placements and variations of BDU styles. I have also come across a photo I'm sure you will find useful for reference purposes. The picture below appears to be one of the costumes made for the KILLZONE commercial, and other media promotions. For the most part this is not even close to the BDU designes featured in the actual games or other illustrations. I would assume rather, that someone at GG had a go at it instead of hiring a professional costumer/prop-maker, and at least came up with a halfway decent and recognizable representation of a Helghan soldier.




Here is my breakdown of the seperate components used in this particular rendition, based on my experience in this field.

Upon close inspection, it appears as though the base for the costume is a either a black pilots flight suit or police tactical uniform. You can find a suitable flight suit ($120 to $250) or tactical uniform ($130 to $230) here. http://www.flightsuits.com/products.html

Over that is a tactical vest. Unfortunately, this costume could have been a lot better if they found a decent sized model (bulkier/stockier) and if they took the time to pad out the ammo pouches to “beef up” the vest a little. This specific model is the Guarder S.D.U. Tactical Vest Level 4 V-12C available for purchase for $72.00 US here. Scroll down about half-way down the page and find model #GD-CG-V12C http://www.wgcshop.com/pcart/shopper.php?cat=Vests You can actually find these MUCH cheaper on ebay.



The back of the vest is even further from the Helghan design than the front, but that may be irrelevant for the purpose of your own costume. There are more suitable tac-vests out there, and with a little searching you can find one much better suited than this. The main similarities are the raised reinforced collar, the “almost wide enough” shoulder pads, and the placement of the three front pouches.

Onto the helmet. Unfortunately whoever made this costume did not invest the time or money themselves to get certain things right, and hiring a professional costumer/prop-maker would have gone a lot further in selling the image. One or two bang-on Helghan military uniforms would have given KZ tons of media mileage in my opinion, because they are just that cool. This helmet, is not even close to the ones we are used to seeing in-game. In fact, the Helghast design is probably closer to the ones seen in Starship Troopers than anything else. As everyone on this forum knows, you can buy this tactical helmet at just about every airsoft or tactical supply company in the world. The overall shape is right, but I would end up adding clay and sculpting over this, upward and outward to achieve the proper shape of the Helghan helmet. Once that was done, I would take a mold of the helmet and pull my own in fiberglass, or make a positive in dental stone and vacuform one over that.

The goggles are easily purchased cheap-o snowboarding goggles as far as I can tell, and simply not worth mentioning due to the shape being completely wrong. Almost every depiction of those piercing red glowing eyes is round, save but for a few illustrations in which they appear slightly oval shape running horizontally. That is why I would suggest using chippers goggles (also known as grinding or welding goggles), which come with removable lenses in clear and dark green for welding. Make sure you order the “cup type” as these are closest to the Helghan design and likely what they were based on. They actually do come with colored lenses but I doubt red is available. This can be remedied by cutting out lense sized pieces of “lighting gels” available at any local sound & lighting rental company (the kind that rent PA’s for DJ’s and dances etc.), and inserting them behind the clear lense. These are easily available at any safety equipment retailer or here http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgur...lr%3D%26sa%3DG
They are the ones 5th and 6th from the top of the page.



If you are a little more ambitious and willing to risk it, you may want to purchase the pair 3rd from the top on the right. The overall shape isn’t quite right, but keeping your helmet low and tight to the upper edge of the goggle system should hide that well enough. The nose piece is by far, much closer to the Helghan design, but you will need to modify it slightly by removing some of the bottom of the nose-piece to make room for the nose-ridge on your respirator. Be warned though - unless you plan on “sculpting up” your respirator to match actual Helghan designs, this goggle system will not work with an out-of-the-box respirator… which brings me to the last piece of the puzzle. I know… it’s a long post but bare with me.

The last and definitely most frustrating piece of the Helghan soldiers combat uniform is the respirator. It seems quite obvious that the design is based on oxygen masks used by jet-fighter pilots. Well, if your wallet is deep enough… be my guest. Heck, even if you can afford it you still may have trouble finding someone you can convince to ship it to Canada because it's illegal for anyone in the States to export any military gear that is currently still being used.Your best bet is to look on ebay, but if you do find one complete... you'll be dishing out large coin for it. You can find many of the main individual components of the pilots oxygen masks on ebay, but not quite everything to build it up to spec. This might not be a bad thing though since you would still have to build up on the regular mask if you wanted it to perfectly match the Helghast respirator.

So.... unless you can find one second hand, your best bet is to do what the person who made this Helghan costume did. You are looking for a regular old respirator used by airbrush artists, car painters, and anyone else using hazardous or toxic fume causing nasties. The particular one used here looks to be the 7700 Series North Respirator which is readily available at a cost of roughly $20.00 American




I hope at least some of this info is usefull. Either it should give you an idea of what to do... or what not to do. If you have any questions or need advice on building or assembling anything, I would be happy to help in any way I can.