#4864293
Hi everyone. This is kind of a jump as I never made a uniform thread for my first suit. So a little history on that. I originally, back in 2011, when I wasn't as researched and more budget minded, bought a Rothco piss colored junk suit. I put on patches and wore my buddies Norm style pack he gave me and was happy. Then I saw how yellow I was in pics, and compared to the movies it made me cringe.

I found this site and started research and wanted to make a pack. After nearly constant research for years, I finally started my own styrene scratch build in October 2015. That is still very much underway and you can watch my progress in the build thread link in my signature.

With the pack going so well it's been eating at me that I still only have my piss flight suit imitation. That has changed as of today!

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Locally sourced for $59.99 is a non used Carter Industries Nomex CWU-27/P fight suit!

I originally went to an army surplus store closer to our apartment with measurements in hand. Chest:43", hips:43-44", inseam:30", arms 23". I'm just under 6' at 5' 11.5" and 210lbs. I tried on a 42L as sizing charts say it should fit perfectly. It was a bit tight on my chest and real tight on my gut. An employee brought out a 44R, it was pretty nice on the chest but tight on the gut. Not loose at all. He said the next size up they had in stock was a 48R and said it'd probably be way too big even for the baggy look I was going after. He gave me his card and said to call back in a couple days so he could check the warehouse for a 46R. I left and had another store just 15 min further away to check out. In Chicago that's not very far at all.

This next store had several in 46, some in 44 and 40, but only in S and up to 46. I tried it on and holy crap, it seemed perfect! I tried a 48L blue service overall, and it's was really nice in the gut, but the chest and back was like a deflated balloon. Not sure if that would translate differently to the flight suit as these were overalls. But seemed to scale the same. I put the 46S back on and sat down. In the old Rithco, sitting was a strategic and careful endeavor! The boys were always in real danger lol. This Nomex suit was even more comfortable sitting! I stretched around and did all kinds of maneuvers. Seemed good.

I was going back and forth in my mind if I should go back to the original store and try on the 48R, but staring at myself in the mirror and pulling up reference shots on my phone, I started to really like what I had on. So I bought it! Woo!

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Rothco on left with patches, Nomex on right. To me it's night and day! The color of the Nomex is such a thing of beauty!

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Pissed my pants? Looks like I took a golden shower! :/ The sleeves were always too long and the pant legs as well. This is the compromise I had to make to be able to breath and walk without a wedgie. Never liked how low the chest pockets were either. This an XL.

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That's so much better! Nomex goodness! I like the lighting here as you can see different castings from the indoor lighting and the overcast outdoor lighting spilling into it.

What do you all think? Did I make the right size decision? Still can't believe at almost 6', 210 pounds, broad shoulders that a 46S fit perfectly. All cuffs are ideal!

Now it's time to transfer patches and get my leg house connector on. Maybe I'll sand the zippers, but they look pretty nice black.
Last edited by Batfly on May 17th, 2016, 2:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#4864342
That mannequin looks so life like!

I'm 5'11" and I have to wear a long. I can't even get a regular to fit without splitting me up the middle when I bend over so if it fits that's good. There would be no way in hell a small would fit me for length. How does it feel when you bend and move and stretch and have you tried it with boots. Do you tuck your legs in?

What I do to my suits is remove the flap on the pen holder and carefully remove the loop velcro as well and then I give a light sanding to all the zippers. They should be brass. The pulls on the carter suits are typically not, but I still sand them to give it a used look instead of the black. You may luck out and have brass pulls like one guy in our group on a carter but I've only gotten brass pulls on the Propper brand flight suits.
Batfly liked this
#4864343
Oh, and when I wash mine for the first time, I dump in a bunch of liquid laundry fabric softener. You're not supposed to to maintain the flame retardant but we don't need that. If you do, it'll take the sheen out of the material and soften it up nicely.
Batfly liked this
#4864404
Venkman's Swagger wrote:Think the size looks perfect dude.
Thanks man!



PssdffJay wrote:That mannequin looks so life like!

I'm 5'11" and I have to wear a long. I can't even get a regular to fit without splitting me up the middle when I bend over so if it fits that's good. There would be no way in hell a small would fit me for length. How does it feel when you bend and move and stretch and have you tried it with boots. Do you tuck your legs in?

What I do to my suits is remove the flap on the pen holder and carefully remove the loop velcro as well and then I give a light sanding to all the zippers. They should be brass. The pulls on the carter suits are typically not, but I still sand them to give it a used look instead of the black. You may luck out and have brass pulls like one guy in our group on a carter but I've only gotten brass pulls on the Propper brand flight suits.
Ghostbusters never smile in pictures! Lol. I'll sand the zippers and was wondering about the pulls. It moves pretty good and the sensitive area fits like tailored jeans. I like the washing idea to knock out the shine! I have some crappy Rothco jungle boots I actually bought for paintball long ago. They hurt like crazy! I'll be getting some corceran or however you spell it jump boots soon. But yea I like the tucked in look and will be doing that.
Last edited by Batfly on June 1st, 2016, 3:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
#4864405
Oh yeah, and I'm going to remove the pencil pocket flap. Which Velcro to you mean by loop Velcro? I took off the name badge Velcro already.
#4864452
Where you remove the flap on the arm, there will still be he hook side left on the arm. You don't HAVE to remove it, but I do. If you do, be extra careful because some of the stitching is what's holding the pocket on. If I remember correctly, the horizontal stitching can be removed, but the vertical stitching can't, so what I did was break up the fibres of the Velcro along the verticals stitching and removed it a little at a time to leave the stitching intact. I'll take some photos when I get home.
Batfly liked this
#4864454
I get what you are saying, you cut the Velcro out around the thread instead of normally cutting the thread. Good to know to be careful around there, thanks!
#4864457
Yes! Thats what I was trying babble out there. I've done it now to 9 suits (not all of them for me, I'm not that addicted) and it gets easier, but it is a slow process. I use a seam ripper because the point on it works great to get between the fibres.

It's a small detail that most wouldn't notice, but it's the details that count amirite?
Batfly liked this
#4864466
So right! I'm even bugged because the top left of the name badge is slightly curved closer to the zipper the the bottom left. No-one else will notice. So I'm torn between redoing it or telling myself I'm being to critical. The little things!
#4864467
Speaking of name badge, here's a pic of what in talking about.

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#4865927
PssdffJay wrote:How is it when you wear it? Might not be noticed then.
Hey Jay, just wanted to let you know I saw this but just haven't done anything else with the suit yet. I've been focusing on the thrower, which you've been seeing in my other thread. I'll get back around to finishing up the suit sometime soon. I stopped cause I started getting preoccupied with wanting to make fobs and holders etc. Then I started pricing out boots and I'm like, THE PACK OR THROWER ISN'T EVEN DONE YET! So I'm focusing on those first for now :P Priorities? LOL
#4866857
Got a little bit of an update. Worked on the hose fitting.

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Started by chopping off the post.

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Next, I drilled the six thread holes. Forgot what bit I used. If anyone is interested let me know and I'll find out what size it was.

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I drilled out the rest of the post starting with a 3/8" bit and finished it with a 1/2" bit. I ended up having to press it up against the bit to widen it some on all the inner sides. The reason will be evident soon.

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I adhere a neodymium magnet in with some jb weld.

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I realized I forgot to buy a nylon house barb last time I was at the depot of homes. So I rummaged through my tool closet and found butt connectors. I cut one down just under the extended lip.

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Ran some glue onto the connector and placed it into the yellow tube which I had tried to cut off an even end. This is why I had to widen the house connector inlet. This piece pushes the end of the tubing out ever so slightly post a half inch diameter.

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With some more jb weld I adhered another magnet onto the butt connector making sure to watch for proper polarity alignment.

And it works! My dumb self forgot to take a pic of it connected. Stay tuned for that lol. I just need to sew it on the suit and sew on the no ghosts logo!
#4866859
Here's the plugged in shots.

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I kinda like the star patterned end of the butt connector being visible. Its unique and looks like it has some sort of function to me. :)
#4867149
Got a little more done last night after work.

I was about to sew on the leg hose connector when I just started playing with it and the hose. I was just inserting the hose and removing it. Feeling the magnets do their thing. On the third repetition the glue let go separating the house from the butt connector. The glue stuck to the hose just fine, it just didn't adhere to the connector, which I suspect is pvc or some other dense plastic. Totally backwards from what I thought would happen. Better to find out sooner than later. Back to the drawing board it was.

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I went rummaging through my screw bin and found some that their lengths were exactly the same as the tube outer diameter. I drilled through the butt connector and screwed in the screw to make threads.

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Then I drilled through the tube, slipped it onto the butt connector, and screwed the screw in.

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Works great. It's not coming off now. Just love the release on this if it gets snagged. It's also strong enough that it didn't budge with jumping, running, and of course waking.

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After spending about a half hour of looking at reference shots and standing in front of a mirror with the suit on moving the house connector around, I finally decided on a location. While holding it in place against my leg with my left hand, I sat down while still wearing the suit. I unzipped it with the right hand and then slid that hand in and under the house connector. Still holding it to the fabric with my left hand and the fabric to it with my right hand, I fliped the connector over. I then spread my fingers, smoothing the fabric to the edges of the connector. Next i smooth moved my fingers over the edges to grip said edges. I did a hand swap so I could grab a pre threaded needle with a several knotted knot at the end. From this smoothed out, edge gripped underside I poked around where I knew the top hole was. Once I get it, I hand swap and flip it over again. With the left hand this time I poke the needle on the outside to edge into the fabric. It gets flipped and I carefully tie three knots with excess past the original knotted end. Then I just repeated threading that same hole 7 or 8 times keeping the thread tight the whole time. At the end, from the underside, I dug the needle under the threads, but over the fabric, and made a knot. I did this 3 times and cut the thread.

I did the same for the bottom hole. With the connector staying in place now, I put on the embroidery loop. This made the last four holes super fast and easy! It's like having four hands! Thanks Alan Hawkins for this idea. It makes patches and leg hose connectors so much easier to sew on!

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Finished up all six holes. I picked this thread color from Michael's by memory. Pretty Damn close if you ask me.

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Took the hoop off. Of course I had to immediately put the suit back on and attach the hose.

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So stoic!

Also, I love the way the name badge turned out! I made sure to do some light aerobics to test the small sizing. I bent over, walked a bunch, sat down, the thing fits better than a glove! Super comfortable. I threatened the girlfriend that I'd wear it everywhere like a 5 year old in a Spider-Man costume. She said, ok whatever lol. We're weirdos.

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My girlfriend wanted to try on my old Rothco flight suit for fun. It completely ate her. Man, she's tiny! Looks like an oversized wing suit on her. Lol.

Just need to sew on the no ghosts patch and remove the pen holder flap if I ever get to it.
Last edited by Batfly on June 10th, 2016, 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#4867151
There's that strange looking mannequin again...

That embroidery circle thing works great! I bought one when alan posted a photo of one. Wish I had figured that out a while ago, but it helped my newest suit. Especially when doing the patches too.

Everything you're doing is good, I want you to know this.
#4867163
Thanks a bunch! Yeah, I'm trying to show the suit, not me lol.
#4867466
Alright, update time! On Saturday I had a day off so I wanted to finish up the suit. I put the suit on with an elbow pad on my right arm. I played the where-does-this-look-best in the mirror game. I took some gaff tape and tapped it in place.

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I then carefully took off the suit and put the embroidery hoop on the sleeve.

I sewed on all the red thread areas starting at the top left edge next to his head. Finished ask the read areas when the girlfriend came home from work and spent time with her.

I was going to finish up the black thread parts Saturday, but the Orlando Pulse shooting happened. I grew up in Orlando till the age of 30 and had been to Pulse multiple times. This hit me pretty hard and I was in a funk all day. #OrlandoStrong ! [emoji25]

Last night, however, I did finish it up after work. But first, some things were waiting in the mail box.

Two things that came in you'll have to head over to my pack build thread to see. [emoji14] Link is in my signature.

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The other things were our Ghostbusters shirts. Mine glows in the dark. Hers isn't as she's tiny and they didn't have a glowy one in her size. She got a women's junior small. Lol. If we have off in the 26th we plan on matching with the Windy City Ghostbusters in the pride parade. I'll wear my suit without pack and she'll have her GB shirt on. She loves it and wore it all last night LOL.

Back to the suit:

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I accidentally found out I could see through the fabric to find the edges to aid in needle placement. A bit late, lol, but better than never.

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All finished up!

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Without embroidery ring.

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And while wearing. I love it! The Nomex upgrade was extremely worth it! It's so beautiful.
Noremon liked this
#4867640
Gah, I'm losing my mind! In a good way. I'm off work for about an hour when the lady calls. Two people called off so she's closing now. I have the afternoon/evening to myself. I look up a store and see they are closing in an hour. I jump in my car to get something I was going to wait till tomorrow, my day off, for. Couldn't wait though. Here's a hint:

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Yep!

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Got my mofuggin boots! Was looking for 995's, but they only had XC1585's. They looked close if not identical, so I tried some on. In wide, my usual size fit perfect! I have really flat wide feet. These things are very comfy and not even broken in at all!

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So I purchase them somewhat excited even though they weren't the model number I was looking for. Before I even leave my parking spot, I plug my phone charger in (why I didn't look it up in the store, was almost dead) and look up "1585 boots site:gbfans.com" waiting to read some slight reason leading to buyers remorse. Low and behold these suckers are just the newer improveder model. The only difference seems to be newer lighter outer sole material and black stitching. They went from rubber to something-urethane (it's single density poly, I know, just laugh please (Jeb Bush, heh)).

Gah, other than what I spent, I'm overjoyed!

I like that I supported local business and got to try on several pairs. These things are great. Can't wait to break them in.
#4867665
Lol, thanks VS. You really know how to talk to a ghosthead! ;)
#4867775
I've been wearing the new boots a lot to break them in. They are so comfy even while still stiff.

I've since scraped off the black paint on the zippers and pulls. Did the right boot last night and the other I just finished. Before that I've been wearing them since 9:30am lol.

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Before...

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...after.

I used 240 grit paper on the the zipper teeth.

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On the pulls I used two foam sanding sticks to get as far into the recesses and sides as possible.

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When the end would wear down, I'd just snip it off.

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I just love how they look! Uh! And I thought they were sexy when I first got them.
Conqueror_Worm liked this
#4867887
Right TK?! I'm actually wearing mine to work today to help break them in. LOL

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#4867894
Batfly wrote:Right TK?! I'm actually wearing mine to work today to help break them in. LOL

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I read on a few military forums on the best way to break these in. They said you don't break in the Corcorans, they break your feet in. I still have a few healing blisters on my heels. ;)

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