**The Obsessive Replicator: A Journey to Perfection**

The story of Ryan, a self-proclaimed NASA enthusiast, is one of dedication and passion. His journey began at the age of 14 when he made his first Apollo space suit replica, which earned him a coveted spot in a costume contest. The suit was signed by Jim Level, adding a touch of authenticity to an already impressive achievement. Years later, Ryan's skills had improved significantly, and he felt compelled to create even more accurate replicas.

As Ryan delved deeper into the world of NASA reproduction, his work began to attract attention from collectors and museums. However, most of these inquiries centered around creating replicas of a specific part of the space suit – the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) unit with its iconic gold visor. This particular piece had become a holy grail for many enthusiasts, and Ryan was determined to bring it to life.

To achieve this goal, Ryan turned to his network of fellow RPF members, who shared their knowledge and expertise in exchange for access to exclusive resources. One such individual loaned Ryan an original remote control unit, which he used as a reference point to create an accurate pattern. This marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration, with Ryan receiving valuable feedback and guidance from like-minded individuals.

Ryan's replicating skills were further refined through his work on various projects, including the portable life support system (PLSS) cover. He meticulously researched the original design, utilizing specialized velcro called Unna Loop to replicate its unique pattern. This attention to detail paid off when another RPF member recognized the difference between Ryan's replica and a standard piece of velcro.

As Ryan continued to push the boundaries of his craft, he began to develop a reputation as one of the premier replicators in the field. His work not only satisfied himself but also brought joy to others who sought authenticity and accuracy in their replicas. The sense of community that arose from sharing knowledge and resources with fellow enthusiasts made Ryan's journey all the more rewarding.

One notable aspect of Ryan's process was his willingness to adapt and learn from others. When faced with a complex pattern, he opted for a more accessible approach – lending his equipment to another member in exchange for their expertise. This collaborative spirit allowed him to tap into the collective knowledge of the RPF community, ensuring that his creations remained accurate and true to the original.

Today, Ryan's passion project has evolved into a full-fledged career, with collectors and museums seeking out his exceptional replicas. His journey serves as a testament to the power of dedication, hard work, and community in achieving excellence. As he continues to refine his craft, one thing is certain – Ryan's commitment to authenticity will remain unwavering, inspiring others to follow in his footsteps.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys you know how much I love space suits how much I love NASA um I've worn space suits at several comiccons and you probably saw in the rocket special of Mythbusters that I was wearing a really beautiful Apollo era space suit which turns out to have been made by my friend Ryan Nagata and we are here in Ryan's shop in Los Angeles um and we are looking at your newest project Ryan this is magnificent now Ryan I think the best Apollo replicas out there right now it's his work is incredible um and now that I've over talked you walk me through this brand new suit that you've just made it's different than the one you made for me yeah um well the one I made for you was the a7l which was uh the suit that was worn on Apollo 11 through 14 and this suit I made for myself as just kind of a display suit and this is the A7 lb um because they redesigned the Apollo suit for Apollo 15 through 17 um because the first suit you couldn't sit down in it um so and they had to sit down in the the lunar rover so you put a little more junk in the trunk have a little more material so you can well um the the way I designed it is different a little bit than yours but the way NASA designed the actual suit um was that they move these connectors up because your suit has the oh right yeah mine's got the two rows of three and this is spread across the chest instead of down yeah so the a7b had an added joint um in the waist so that they could sit in the lunar rover which is the car you know that they drove around on the moon so what is it about the A7 lb that really got you excited that made you want to make a replica well I hadn't seen a lot of replicas of this particular suit before um and so I thought if I'm making a suit for myself I just want it to be a little different um can you talk about some of the manufacturing I mean you've got some stitching here that so seems so incredibly precise are there oh do you get this right the first try every time uh no I don't I've um I uh I've done many many versions of this um and I've gone through many different techniques to try and get this seam right um these are called Flat Feld seams it's the same seam that you have on jeans where it's basically like um two layers of fabric like this with two stitches it's not truly a Fed seam like uh you're kind of Faking it I'm kind of Faking by doing by sewing it once and then uh folding it over and then stitching twice in a line and I've got a foot for a sewing machine that can actually line it up perfectly but I did some experiments with like a double needle and uh it just ended up looking a little bit better that the the the sewing is is totally amazing and nobody else is doing these double stitches and stuff but also the the the hardware and now I touch it it's resin but it looks completely genuine um and I know you have some special techniques with the mold making can you can you walk us through that maybe grab one of the molds and and talk us through how you do this stuff um yeah yeah sure um this is one of the molds that I use for the parts here okay all right so I see connectors and I see the the oxygen valve and this is the neck ring um yeah uh I think somebody that's really familiar with molds like Frank would probably recognize immediately that you can't really do this like you can't put all these pieces like this cuz I found that once I put resin in here like it's really hard to demold all of the pieces oh right cuz they support each other and make it hard to get out my idea was that in order to make these things really fast I wanted to put everything in like one mold and stick it in a pressure chamber so like I would I would use like a slow setting resin sure um but it turns out like if I fill this entire thing up I can't demold everything so I I have to use it in pieces so okay so walk me through what what is like I see these are really crisp molds yeah but you have a you have a painting technique uh yeah yeah well this I I've done it a couple of different ways but these are just painted with like a metallic automotive paint on top of the resin um yeah okay but um but I kind of weather the edges with silver rbon buff just like the prop makers like uh yeah it's and it's not like there's a difference between how I weather these things versus the way they really look like I I haven't found a lot of these these anodized aluminum connectors where the edges are worn unless it's like a training suit yeah but I just think for like a when when it's resin to add that little bit of extra like metalness yeah yeah yeah like it's good to put that on there um so again like when you look at these suits in museums the connectors are usually pretty pristine but I I think it just looks a little bit more authentic I totally agree I agree with your approach entirely um also come here Joey take a look at this incredible wrist ring here like even down to these little these buttons don't actually work but you can only tell by pushing on them you use magnets to connect the gloves yeah the real disconnect um was a very complicated mechanical part which um um I just didn't have the time or the ability to duplicate I've held one and it blows my mind that it works and these the real ones are actually they're slip after you lock them they're slip fits and yet they don't leak I like I kind of know what's going on in there but I don't know how that works yeah well they have these little um catches inside that when you turn the thing they lock into place like a bank vault kind of right yeah but um but how they make that airtight you know it's like yeah well you'll have to talk to one you're nass of okay so like how long what is the what is the process of of making this how long does this suit take you um well it's tough because every one I make gets a little bit faster because the process gets a little bit more efficient mhm um this suit probably took about a month to make but a lot of like all the mold making everything took years like I see so it's not like you're building it from scratch and I noticed you've got patterns out here are these all patterns for this suit or for multiple suits um these are patterns for uh this and the a7l which is the one I made for you and is there some crossover or there's almost no crossover in terms of the patterns um no there's a lot of crossover um I mean I can walk you through every subtle little different but um I don't think we have time but uh uh so your preferred material for patterns is this sort of shirt cardboard yeah well I hate those um patterns that you buy like the tissue paper ones that you have to cut out and then you pin them to the fabric and I found that if I made patterns out of this like chipboard stuff um that I could actually just stick them on the cutting table and then I have like a cutting wheel right and also I recommend like if you're making a lot of garments to get the biggest cutting table or cutting mat that you can find and so made this really nice big table man so I made this whole table like a cutting mat and um I stick these things down and I can basically just take a cutting wheel and just cut all the way around it so oh wow I don't have to use scors and you use the the the cardboard as a guide for the cutting wheel yeah um sometimes if it's really intricate I'll trace it and then and then cut it separately but you can see this pattern actually is a hybrid CU this is where the a7l um collar goes all the way down here and for the A7 lb STS there so I just did that it's a little bit different the reason was um the a7l has well this has a zipper in the back so I can put it on the ring but the real one did not have a zipper back here so just imagine that's not there how did they get into it um the A7 lb has this s up it's kind of like the Mercury suit oh wow and uh again I had to what a nightmare to get in that it's actually believe it or not it's easier to get in this suit than the a7l really yeah oh look you've done the padding all the way inside yeah oh nice also for for a reason I don't know the the liner of the A7 lb was blue and the a7l was white and I just like the look of the blue liner of the liner but yeah you um the zipper goes all the way around it's two zippers oh okay and the real suits had um pressure ceiling zippers on them which is right yeah of course um here's some of Ryan's attachment techniques on the back pretty straightforward and it's got these um plastic bands to add some bulk because I'm not really pressurizing the suit so right so this is ABS is that right yeah and you're just using that to provide some structure so is that what's giving the the the legs here they're they sort of fluff yeah well it's a combination of batting and uh the plastic I uh I didn't want to put too much batting on it because it was a costume and yeah uh I didn't want to pass out from heat exhaustion um but I know that one well but uh so I added the plastic rings to give it a little bit more bulk without um putting too much batting in there Brian it's just beautiful um what is the next step with this one uh this one I'm got I've got to finish the boots okay um and then uh I'm going to weather this one with now how do you how do you weather the weathering on the one that that that I have is is so subtle it's just like in the seams but it's really like what's what's your Technique well I did I did yours deliberately kind of subtle because I figured you would add as much you can't take it off right fig you would add as much as you wanted um this one I I kind of want to look like um there's a really great photo of Jean cernon and Harrison Schmidt um at the end of Apollo 17 inside the lunar module and they're just covered in moondust oh so you're going to make this real dirty yeah I was going to make this look like it was Moon used um and put the dust on there um and I have uh I got like a lunar soil simulant from um the Johnson Space Center use the actual simulant or well I don't have enough of it so it was just a color reference um I ended up mixing like talc and charcoal powder until it's kind of the right gray and then I'll just dust it on there you dust it in and then you pull it back off and you dust it in and pull it back off yeah um so are you using a brush to do that to kind of like dust it on and then rag to uh or is it something kind of figure out each time yeah well I I've never weathered one quite like that before so uh sometimes I take a brush and I just kind of like sprinkle it on um I have this tube thing with like these holes in it that was meant for flocking I don't know if you've ever seen yeah I've seen those and I was kind of thinking about maybe I don't use it for flocking I don't flock um but no flocking uh I had I think I used it for one project once um so I think maybe I'll try putting the the dust in there and getting it on there just so it's a little more even cuz if you put like straight charcoal dust like on there it it sticks pretty well and if you put it in a weird like brush stroke I I think it would look a little off now the fabric choice is really interesting here it's got a real meat to it can you talk about finding this kind of fabric this is different also again than the fabric that made up the one that I have of yours yeah yeah well I I collect Fabrics like I have a whole collection uh the real one was made out of beta cloth just uncoated fiberglass civilians can't really buy yeah it's it's very expensive um it's not made by it's not used on the current space suits so it's kind of a vintage thing um I think there are still manufacturers that make it but the specific weave on the Apollo suits I don't know if you can still get that because it's very unique looking if you've ever seen it up close so I used um I found a a nylon that looks somewhat like one of the weaves of beta cloth that I used on your suit yeah but the um the A7 lb was had a different outer layer of fabric than the a7l um that's this one this is the B yeah this is the B okay so it's got finer fabric yeah they switched over to a 100% Teflon fabric just for the outer layer they used to put um in the early missions they would put patches of Teflon fabric in the areas that they thought would araid the most um and I think when they made the B they just decided to switch over to make the entire outer layer of Teflon and it's um it has a finer kind of flatter look than the A7 L's if you've ever seen the suits in museums so I um sorry no go ahead no I found a fabric that was actually had a light blocking layer in it which is good um so it's totally opaque yeah right um and it it just had that Teflon if you've ever held Teflon fabric it has yeah it's like a it's it's has a certain Sheen and it has kind of a silky slippery yeah feel and you wanted to get the feel as well as the look yeah well part of it is cuz the way it drapes like I wanted a the way when you you look at the Apollo suits they have a very specific look yeah um and I wanted a fabric more important than like the fine detail it was more important for me that like the the bigger picture looked right and draped right yeah so um this particular fabric I think I may even end up using this fabric for the A7 L's in the future in the future because just the way it drapes and feels it feels a lot more yeah now you've got some other parts over here can we take a look at these yeah all right oh I I I like can barely contain myself with the toys I'm seeing you made the camera yeah um can I pick this is this is dude so that's actually for you that one really yeah oh that's so cool this is like it's amazing how light it is what what is your process this is I I have so many questions well um the real Apollo camera mounted on the front of the suit and had this arm but it was yeah it was never meant to be worn uh in Earth gravity just one six lunar gravity so so you actually made it you actually accommodated for gravity camera replica that's a deep cut man yeah um um but it's just a hollow resm tast of of an actual uh hustle blood yeah well there's a there's a commercial version of the hustle blood which was uh you know from normal people to buy and then there was the lunar version that they made for NASA and so I took like one of the commercial commercial version that was broken and so I didn't have any guilt about like taking it apart and destroying it um and I converted it to the lunar version and that's what this is this is one of the steps well it's um yeah well I C first I cast this because I I I had to Mill off the top and I couldn't do it here so I I made a a casting of it first that was just kind of a throwaway and uh I put all the parts oh so that's oh my God that's totally brilliant okay I can I explain this this is so cool okay so I see this and I think Ryan must have acid etched or laser etched these but now I'm looking at this and I see that it's a vinyl applique so you did vinyl cutting yeah and that gives you what looks like an etched yeah that is the coolest lowtech solution to to getting a really excellent markings that's awesome and then when you weather it like with oil paints and then it just collects in the recesses there it's becom just a little bit of dark to add that yeah that's come in close and take a look at this it's absolutely gorgeous but that was a detail of the the lunar camera that I thought looked really cool so I definitely had to duplicate that um how are you printing on on on Silver is this are you printing here to do this or are you sending this work out no that's um there's all kinds of like transfer papers and and adhesive papers you can buy online um that's just like a foil one for Laser Printers amazing um it's it's just it's it's really hard to communicate how how incredibly hilariously light this is and yet how real it looks until you touch it and you realize that it it doesn't weigh anything okay we should move on because there's actually several things to look at um this is new I have not seen I have the underg gloves on my suit um these are beautiful thank you um well I made the intra vehicular suit only for you okay um but uh the plan was always to make the the external parts that they wore on the moon like the the visor and the backpack and the gloves and the boots um so I made these gloves for you for me yeah no way for you dude okay so I've got some stuff to send you too this is we are patrons now of each other's collections oh it's always fun to do the toy exchanges with that oh that is so cool um I actually made a life vest for my Apollo suit which I don't think we've covered on tested oh I have some pictures of it in progress so we can do a separ little post about that but I I one of the two that I made these are magnificent this fabric is such a great imitation of chromel I can't believe it uh yeah it's uh chromel R was the stainless steel fabric that they made the lunar gloves out of and it was it was uh it's a microm meteorite protectant is that part of it yeah I think it's because um lunar regali is so abrasive that uh they need a really strong material because the hands are going to be digging through the soil and everything but it doesn't it doesn't last very long like if you see modern if you see Apollo gloves now the chromel is totally tearing on all these fronts and everything it was woven stainless steel so metal fatigues if you use it too much God looks it's just it's incredible this is I did find a fabric that looks a lot like the original stuff without being actually made out of metal look at this it's even got the uh the labeling on the side um I really also up close it even it gets better and better and better the closer you get to these things oh thank you um okay can we talk about this yeah this is a these are called the Snoopy caps and these are the the communications assemblies that the astronauts wore but this is you made this yeah but it has a very special uh it's very special yeah well I made uh again like all these things I've made different versions of it and the first version I made that you have um I printed this kind of unique looking pattern on the side and this pattern is is original to the Apollo era Snoopy caps it's called Snoopy caps by the way cuz they looked made them look a little like Snoopy specifically but um the pattern on The Originals had this sort of uh Brown and tan weave yeah it's um the original fabric is Teflon this is the original fabric by the way this is the actual fabric that the original this is the same type of fabric that was used on the original right and they don't make it anymore no well they still make Teflon fabric but what whatever chemical process they use to make it doesn't end up generating this weird cross-hatched pattern right which I was very obsessed with for a while so for yours I printed that pattern on fabric and then made the replicas you know out of that so it had this pattern but I after I did that and I posted it uh there was a collector online who said I have a small amount of that fabric from the' 60s that um he was willing to give to me in exchange for making him a cap out of it so I made one for him I made one for me what a great trait the last and this is the last of it yeah wow so I mean oh wow so I actually possess a real Apollo era chin strap and it feels exactly like it's it's exactly right I mean of course it would be yeah that's amazing but um oh the other thing he had was he had castings of the U the ear of the little kidneys that go in oh wow and so um the first version I did didn't have this cut out for the ear cuz there's actually a speaker that would go in there you got to put a real com system in this yeah don't you yeah I've got a mold for it we can make a hollow version yeah we should totally do that I think modern technology is small enough that you could easily put stuff in there okay let's move over to this big guy cuz this is the one that's got me like this is amazing but uh this is a real this is a real thing isn't it yeah I did not make this okay so this outer covering is Apollo era a piece of Apollo era software as it were yeah I uh um well since I've been making these things and posting them a lot of collectors have come out and generously offered up things you know for me to to borrow to use as reference and are they hoping to buy other replicas from you post factum sometimes I change uh I exchange uh like services like I'll make like U this gentleman who loaned me this wanted a a c the plastic um housing to go inside so he just he just gave me the cover and so um I didn't make this Insight either another guy made that and sent it to me but this is the greatest I'm just going to pause here this is the greatest argument ever for sharing your work and talking about what you're doing because you are obsessed with NASA you go into a tremendous amount of research and make really accurate replicas and it brings people out who want to help you make them even more accurate oh yeah and so it satisfies it's like it's it's the best of all the worlds because you're sharing your work and you're getting access to make your work even better because of it yeah this guy uh so this is the real cover it was used in training but that just reminds me like even this velcro that's on here it's um actually this it's a specific type of velcro called unna Loop and it's kindnapped loop it's kind of hard to find because Normal velcro the the loop portion is just kind of all nappy and mixed up randomized um but the the velcro on the Apollo suits was like lined up it it had an organized pattern right it looks almost like a corn field if you look up close it's all very called unna Loop and another guy saw my replicas my first ones that used regular velcro and he's like oh that should um actually you should actually be using unna Loop and I have some that I'll send to you and you just send it to me I was able to I was able to track down another source for it um but again it was like it was very generous so you're going to use this pattern to generate a pattern for your own this is the portable life support system or p as the astronauts would refer to it you're going to use this p to make your own Plus cover yeah um and then I'm going to help you make the Interiors here yeah so this for this top part as well this should have a thermal cover on it as well which um which I've got some patterns and stuff for and then we've got clearly a piece of original NASA Hardware here um of the remote control unit yeah this is oh sorry it's upside down that's right yeah there was actually an RPF member that that loaned this to me and he made this based on patterns for an oh blueprints rather for a for an actual remote control unit um and you just sent it to me as a reference um to use it was very nice it's terrific I mean it's great reference it's like this is this you can make a beautiful cloth pattern using this as your as your guide well I actually appreciate that he sent me his wooden mockup because he sent me blueprints but I have a like a real tough time like following blue I mean they're just I mean I can do it um but thinking it's nice to have a physical piece that you can just measure and quickly um reference when you're making a replica are you going to remake this on your uh on your milling machine yeah I could probably um I can probably Mill something that size yeah um this one is just made out of wood but uh the real ones were aluminum um there actually a really complicated pattern I have to I actually have an indexing head and slitting saws so this is I have equipment necessary you probably make that in a few minutes then yeah well actually I think the thing to do would be um maybe you lend me this thing and I make a a long piece of it and we can slice out the dials that we need like cookie dough yeah exactly oh that's a good idea yeah cuz we should have them be aluminum don't you think yeah um and then that one was aluminum too all right so so you're working now on the full extra vehicular assembly uh yeah so hopefully uh within the next couple of months I'll have a full outer suit um since I started posting the space suits and stuff um a lot of collectors and museums have contacted me about making replicas um but most of them want the the Eva with the gold visor and everything and so um that's what I'm working on now that's great so you're actually it's it's you're it's you're building a career as the replicator yeah based on the original Obsession yeah well I I made my first Apollo space suit when I was 14 years old um and it was a pretty good replica I I like won a costume contest with it and Jim level actually signed the back of this photo I've got that at home um that's great but years later I was like I should you know I should make a really like accurate replica now that I have a lot more skills um and so I just started making them and posting it on the RPF and and then and then you saw and then I made a suit for you and then just it kind of slowly grew into something that I uh I ended up getting a space to do that's amazing that's totally inspiring Ryan thank you so much for showing me all this beautiful stuff and beautiful work I'm Adam this is Ryan we are tested we'll see you guys soonhey guys you know how much I love space suits how much I love NASA um I've worn space suits at several comiccons and you probably saw in the rocket special of Mythbusters that I was wearing a really beautiful Apollo era space suit which turns out to have been made by my friend Ryan Nagata and we are here in Ryan's shop in Los Angeles um and we are looking at your newest project Ryan this is magnificent now Ryan I think the best Apollo replicas out there right now it's his work is incredible um and now that I've over talked you walk me through this brand new suit that you've just made it's different than the one you made for me yeah um well the one I made for you was the a7l which was uh the suit that was worn on Apollo 11 through 14 and this suit I made for myself as just kind of a display suit and this is the A7 lb um because they redesigned the Apollo suit for Apollo 15 through 17 um because the first suit you couldn't sit down in it um so and they had to sit down in the the lunar rover so you put a little more junk in the trunk have a little more material so you can well um the the way I designed it is different a little bit than yours but the way NASA designed the actual suit um was that they move these connectors up because your suit has the oh right yeah mine's got the two rows of three and this is spread across the chest instead of down yeah so the a7b had an added joint um in the waist so that they could sit in the lunar rover which is the car you know that they drove around on the moon so what is it about the A7 lb that really got you excited that made you want to make a replica well I hadn't seen a lot of replicas of this particular suit before um and so I thought if I'm making a suit for myself I just want it to be a little different um can you talk about some of the manufacturing I mean you've got some stitching here that so seems so incredibly precise are there oh do you get this right the first try every time uh no I don't I've um I uh I've done many many versions of this um and I've gone through many different techniques to try and get this seam right um these are called Flat Feld seams it's the same seam that you have on jeans where it's basically like um two layers of fabric like this with two stitches it's not truly a Fed seam like uh you're kind of Faking it I'm kind of Faking by doing by sewing it once and then uh folding it over and then stitching twice in a line and I've got a foot for a sewing machine that can actually line it up perfectly but I did some experiments with like a double needle and uh it just ended up looking a little bit better that the the the sewing is is totally amazing and nobody else is doing these double stitches and stuff but also the the the hardware and now I touch it it's resin but it looks completely genuine um and I know you have some special techniques with the mold making can you can you walk us through that maybe grab one of the molds and and talk us through how you do this stuff um yeah yeah sure um this is one of the molds that I use for the parts here okay all right so I see connectors and I see the the oxygen valve and this is the neck ring um yeah uh I think somebody that's really familiar with molds like Frank would probably recognize immediately that you can't really do this like you can't put all these pieces like this cuz I found that once I put resin in here like it's really hard to demold all of the pieces oh right cuz they support each other and make it hard to get out my idea was that in order to make these things really fast I wanted to put everything in like one mold and stick it in a pressure chamber so like I would I would use like a slow setting resin sure um but it turns out like if I fill this entire thing up I can't demold everything so I I have to use it in pieces so okay so walk me through what what is like I see these are really crisp molds yeah but you have a you have a painting technique uh yeah yeah well this I I've done it a couple of different ways but these are just painted with like a metallic automotive paint on top of the resin um yeah okay but um but I kind of weather the edges with silver rbon buff just like the prop makers like uh yeah it's and it's not like there's a difference between how I weather these things versus the way they really look like I I haven't found a lot of these these anodized aluminum connectors where the edges are worn unless it's like a training suit yeah but I just think for like a when when it's resin to add that little bit of extra like metalness yeah yeah yeah like it's good to put that on there um so again like when you look at these suits in museums the connectors are usually pretty pristine but I I think it just looks a little bit more authentic I totally agree I agree with your approach entirely um also come here Joey take a look at this incredible wrist ring here like even down to these little these buttons don't actually work but you can only tell by pushing on them you use magnets to connect the gloves yeah the real disconnect um was a very complicated mechanical part which um um I just didn't have the time or the ability to duplicate I've held one and it blows my mind that it works and these the real ones are actually they're slip after you lock them they're slip fits and yet they don't leak I like I kind of know what's going on in there but I don't know how that works yeah well they have these little um catches inside that when you turn the thing they lock into place like a bank vault kind of right yeah but um but how they make that airtight you know it's like yeah well you'll have to talk to one you're nass of okay so like how long what is the what is the process of of making this how long does this suit take you um well it's tough because every one I make gets a little bit faster because the process gets a little bit more efficient mhm um this suit probably took about a month to make but a lot of like all the mold making everything took years like I see so it's not like you're building it from scratch and I noticed you've got patterns out here are these all patterns for this suit or for multiple suits um these are patterns for uh this and the a7l which is the one I made for you and is there some crossover or there's almost no crossover in terms of the patterns um no there's a lot of crossover um I mean I can walk you through every subtle little different but um I don't think we have time but uh uh so your preferred material for patterns is this sort of shirt cardboard yeah well I hate those um patterns that you buy like the tissue paper ones that you have to cut out and then you pin them to the fabric and I found that if I made patterns out of this like chipboard stuff um that I could actually just stick them on the cutting table and then I have like a cutting wheel right and also I recommend like if you're making a lot of garments to get the biggest cutting table or cutting mat that you can find and so made this really nice big table man so I made this whole table like a cutting mat and um I stick these things down and I can basically just take a cutting wheel and just cut all the way around it so oh wow I don't have to use scors and you use the the the cardboard as a guide for the cutting wheel yeah um sometimes if it's really intricate I'll trace it and then and then cut it separately but you can see this pattern actually is a hybrid CU this is where the a7l um collar goes all the way down here and for the A7 lb STS there so I just did that it's a little bit different the reason was um the a7l has well this has a zipper in the back so I can put it on the ring but the real one did not have a zipper back here so just imagine that's not there how did they get into it um the A7 lb has this s up it's kind of like the Mercury suit oh wow and uh again I had to what a nightmare to get in that it's actually believe it or not it's easier to get in this suit than the a7l really yeah oh look you've done the padding all the way inside yeah oh nice also for for a reason I don't know the the liner of the A7 lb was blue and the a7l was white and I just like the look of the blue liner of the liner but yeah you um the zipper goes all the way around it's two zippers oh okay and the real suits had um pressure ceiling zippers on them which is right yeah of course um here's some of Ryan's attachment techniques on the back pretty straightforward and it's got these um plastic bands to add some bulk because I'm not really pressurizing the suit so right so this is ABS is that right yeah and you're just using that to provide some structure so is that what's giving the the the legs here they're they sort of fluff yeah well it's a combination of batting and uh the plastic I uh I didn't want to put too much batting on it because it was a costume and yeah uh I didn't want to pass out from heat exhaustion um but I know that one well but uh so I added the plastic rings to give it a little bit more bulk without um putting too much batting in there Brian it's just beautiful um what is the next step with this one uh this one I'm got I've got to finish the boots okay um and then uh I'm going to weather this one with now how do you how do you weather the weathering on the one that that that I have is is so subtle it's just like in the seams but it's really like what's what's your Technique well I did I did yours deliberately kind of subtle because I figured you would add as much you can't take it off right fig you would add as much as you wanted um this one I I kind of want to look like um there's a really great photo of Jean cernon and Harrison Schmidt um at the end of Apollo 17 inside the lunar module and they're just covered in moondust oh so you're going to make this real dirty yeah I was going to make this look like it was Moon used um and put the dust on there um and I have uh I got like a lunar soil simulant from um the Johnson Space Center use the actual simulant or well I don't have enough of it so it was just a color reference um I ended up mixing like talc and charcoal powder until it's kind of the right gray and then I'll just dust it on there you dust it in and then you pull it back off and you dust it in and pull it back off yeah um so are you using a brush to do that to kind of like dust it on and then rag to uh or is it something kind of figure out each time yeah well I I've never weathered one quite like that before so uh sometimes I take a brush and I just kind of like sprinkle it on um I have this tube thing with like these holes in it that was meant for flocking I don't know if you've ever seen yeah I've seen those and I was kind of thinking about maybe I don't use it for flocking I don't flock um but no flocking uh I had I think I used it for one project once um so I think maybe I'll try putting the the dust in there and getting it on there just so it's a little more even cuz if you put like straight charcoal dust like on there it it sticks pretty well and if you put it in a weird like brush stroke I I think it would look a little off now the fabric choice is really interesting here it's got a real meat to it can you talk about finding this kind of fabric this is different also again than the fabric that made up the one that I have of yours yeah yeah well I I collect Fabrics like I have a whole collection uh the real one was made out of beta cloth just uncoated fiberglass civilians can't really buy yeah it's it's very expensive um it's not made by it's not used on the current space suits so it's kind of a vintage thing um I think there are still manufacturers that make it but the specific weave on the Apollo suits I don't know if you can still get that because it's very unique looking if you've ever seen it up close so I used um I found a a nylon that looks somewhat like one of the weaves of beta cloth that I used on your suit yeah but the um the A7 lb was had a different outer layer of fabric than the a7l um that's this one this is the B yeah this is the B okay so it's got finer fabric yeah they switched over to a 100% Teflon fabric just for the outer layer they used to put um in the early missions they would put patches of Teflon fabric in the areas that they thought would araid the most um and I think when they made the B they just decided to switch over to make the entire outer layer of Teflon and it's um it has a finer kind of flatter look than the A7 L's if you've ever seen the suits in museums so I um sorry no go ahead no I found a fabric that was actually had a light blocking layer in it which is good um so it's totally opaque yeah right um and it it just had that Teflon if you've ever held Teflon fabric it has yeah it's like a it's it's has a certain Sheen and it has kind of a silky slippery yeah feel and you wanted to get the feel as well as the look yeah well part of it is cuz the way it drapes like I wanted a the way when you you look at the Apollo suits they have a very specific look yeah um and I wanted a fabric more important than like the fine detail it was more important for me that like the the bigger picture looked right and draped right yeah so um this particular fabric I think I may even end up using this fabric for the A7 L's in the future in the future because just the way it drapes and feels it feels a lot more yeah now you've got some other parts over here can we take a look at these yeah all right oh I I I like can barely contain myself with the toys I'm seeing you made the camera yeah um can I pick this is this is dude so that's actually for you that one really yeah oh that's so cool this is like it's amazing how light it is what what is your process this is I I have so many questions well um the real Apollo camera mounted on the front of the suit and had this arm but it was yeah it was never meant to be worn uh in Earth gravity just one six lunar gravity so so you actually made it you actually accommodated for gravity camera replica that's a deep cut man yeah um um but it's just a hollow resm tast of of an actual uh hustle blood yeah well there's a there's a commercial version of the hustle blood which was uh you know from normal people to buy and then there was the lunar version that they made for NASA and so I took like one of the commercial commercial version that was broken and so I didn't have any guilt about like taking it apart and destroying it um and I converted it to the lunar version and that's what this is this is one of the steps well it's um yeah well I C first I cast this because I I I had to Mill off the top and I couldn't do it here so I I made a a casting of it first that was just kind of a throwaway and uh I put all the parts oh so that's oh my God that's totally brilliant okay I can I explain this this is so cool okay so I see this and I think Ryan must have acid etched or laser etched these but now I'm looking at this and I see that it's a vinyl applique so you did vinyl cutting yeah and that gives you what looks like an etched yeah that is the coolest lowtech solution to to getting a really excellent markings that's awesome and then when you weather it like with oil paints and then it just collects in the recesses there it's becom just a little bit of dark to add that yeah that's come in close and take a look at this it's absolutely gorgeous but that was a detail of the the lunar camera that I thought looked really cool so I definitely had to duplicate that um how are you printing on on on Silver is this are you printing here to do this or are you sending this work out no that's um there's all kinds of like transfer papers and and adhesive papers you can buy online um that's just like a foil one for Laser Printers amazing um it's it's just it's it's really hard to communicate how how incredibly hilariously light this is and yet how real it looks until you touch it and you realize that it it doesn't weigh anything okay we should move on because there's actually several things to look at um this is new I have not seen I have the underg gloves on my suit um these are beautiful thank you um well I made the intra vehicular suit only for you okay um but uh the plan was always to make the the external parts that they wore on the moon like the the visor and the backpack and the gloves and the boots um so I made these gloves for you for me yeah no way for you dude okay so I've got some stuff to send you too this is we are patrons now of each other's collections oh it's always fun to do the toy exchanges with that oh that is so cool um I actually made a life vest for my Apollo suit which I don't think we've covered on tested oh I have some pictures of it in progress so we can do a separ little post about that but I I one of the two that I made these are magnificent this fabric is such a great imitation of chromel I can't believe it uh yeah it's uh chromel R was the stainless steel fabric that they made the lunar gloves out of and it was it was uh it's a microm meteorite protectant is that part of it yeah I think it's because um lunar regali is so abrasive that uh they need a really strong material because the hands are going to be digging through the soil and everything but it doesn't it doesn't last very long like if you see modern if you see Apollo gloves now the chromel is totally tearing on all these fronts and everything it was woven stainless steel so metal fatigues if you use it too much God looks it's just it's incredible this is I did find a fabric that looks a lot like the original stuff without being actually made out of metal look at this it's even got the uh the labeling on the side um I really also up close it even it gets better and better and better the closer you get to these things oh thank you um okay can we talk about this yeah this is a these are called the Snoopy caps and these are the the communications assemblies that the astronauts wore but this is you made this yeah but it has a very special uh it's very special yeah well I made uh again like all these things I've made different versions of it and the first version I made that you have um I printed this kind of unique looking pattern on the side and this pattern is is original to the Apollo era Snoopy caps it's called Snoopy caps by the way cuz they looked made them look a little like Snoopy specifically but um the pattern on The Originals had this sort of uh Brown and tan weave yeah it's um the original fabric is Teflon this is the original fabric by the way this is the actual fabric that the original this is the same type of fabric that was used on the original right and they don't make it anymore no well they still make Teflon fabric but what whatever chemical process they use to make it doesn't end up generating this weird cross-hatched pattern right which I was very obsessed with for a while so for yours I printed that pattern on fabric and then made the replicas you know out of that so it had this pattern but I after I did that and I posted it uh there was a collector online who said I have a small amount of that fabric from the' 60s that um he was willing to give to me in exchange for making him a cap out of it so I made one for him I made one for me what a great trait the last and this is the last of it yeah wow so I mean oh wow so I actually possess a real Apollo era chin strap and it feels exactly like it's it's exactly right I mean of course it would be yeah that's amazing but um oh the other thing he had was he had castings of the U the ear of the little kidneys that go in oh wow and so um the first version I did didn't have this cut out for the ear cuz there's actually a speaker that would go in there you got to put a real com system in this yeah don't you yeah I've got a mold for it we can make a hollow version yeah we should totally do that I think modern technology is small enough that you could easily put stuff in there okay let's move over to this big guy cuz this is the one that's got me like this is amazing but uh this is a real this is a real thing isn't it yeah I did not make this okay so this outer covering is Apollo era a piece of Apollo era software as it were yeah I uh um well since I've been making these things and posting them a lot of collectors have come out and generously offered up things you know for me to to borrow to use as reference and are they hoping to buy other replicas from you post factum sometimes I change uh I exchange uh like services like I'll make like U this gentleman who loaned me this wanted a a c the plastic um housing to go inside so he just he just gave me the cover and so um I didn't make this Insight either another guy made that and sent it to me but this is the greatest I'm just going to pause here this is the greatest argument ever for sharing your work and talking about what you're doing because you are obsessed with NASA you go into a tremendous amount of research and make really accurate replicas and it brings people out who want to help you make them even more accurate oh yeah and so it satisfies it's like it's it's the best of all the worlds because you're sharing your work and you're getting access to make your work even better because of it yeah this guy uh so this is the real cover it was used in training but that just reminds me like even this velcro that's on here it's um actually this it's a specific type of velcro called unna Loop and it's kindnapped loop it's kind of hard to find because Normal velcro the the loop portion is just kind of all nappy and mixed up randomized um but the the velcro on the Apollo suits was like lined up it it had an organized pattern right it looks almost like a corn field if you look up close it's all very called unna Loop and another guy saw my replicas my first ones that used regular velcro and he's like oh that should um actually you should actually be using unna Loop and I have some that I'll send to you and you just send it to me I was able to I was able to track down another source for it um but again it was like it was very generous so you're going to use this pattern to generate a pattern for your own this is the portable life support system or p as the astronauts would refer to it you're going to use this p to make your own Plus cover yeah um and then I'm going to help you make the Interiors here yeah so this for this top part as well this should have a thermal cover on it as well which um which I've got some patterns and stuff for and then we've got clearly a piece of original NASA Hardware here um of the remote control unit yeah this is oh sorry it's upside down that's right yeah there was actually an RPF member that that loaned this to me and he made this based on patterns for an oh blueprints rather for a for an actual remote control unit um and you just sent it to me as a reference um to use it was very nice it's terrific I mean it's great reference it's like this is this you can make a beautiful cloth pattern using this as your as your guide well I actually appreciate that he sent me his wooden mockup because he sent me blueprints but I have a like a real tough time like following blue I mean they're just I mean I can do it um but thinking it's nice to have a physical piece that you can just measure and quickly um reference when you're making a replica are you going to remake this on your uh on your milling machine yeah I could probably um I can probably Mill something that size yeah um this one is just made out of wood but uh the real ones were aluminum um there actually a really complicated pattern I have to I actually have an indexing head and slitting saws so this is I have equipment necessary you probably make that in a few minutes then yeah well actually I think the thing to do would be um maybe you lend me this thing and I make a a long piece of it and we can slice out the dials that we need like cookie dough yeah exactly oh that's a good idea yeah cuz we should have them be aluminum don't you think yeah um and then that one was aluminum too all right so so you're working now on the full extra vehicular assembly uh yeah so hopefully uh within the next couple of months I'll have a full outer suit um since I started posting the space suits and stuff um a lot of collectors and museums have contacted me about making replicas um but most of them want the the Eva with the gold visor and everything and so um that's what I'm working on now that's great so you're actually it's it's you're it's you're building a career as the replicator yeah based on the original Obsession yeah well I I made my first Apollo space suit when I was 14 years old um and it was a pretty good replica I I like won a costume contest with it and Jim level actually signed the back of this photo I've got that at home um that's great but years later I was like I should you know I should make a really like accurate replica now that I have a lot more skills um and so I just started making them and posting it on the RPF and and then and then you saw and then I made a suit for you and then just it kind of slowly grew into something that I uh I ended up getting a space to do that's amazing that's totally inspiring Ryan thank you so much for showing me all this beautiful stuff and beautiful work I'm Adam this is Ryan we are tested we'll see you guys soon\n"