Recently I had an idea
(dangerous I know), I decided I wanted to try my hand at doing a new outfit,
not just any outfit, I wanted to bring back Sao Til!
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| The Sao Til reference picture :) |
For those that don’t know Sao
Til was the brainchild of my good friend Tim and was the winning entry in John Barrowman’s
Tonight’s the Night ‘Search for an Alien Superstar Competition’ in 2009.
So with the idea in my head I
text Laura (Tim’s wife) to share my plan! Her reply ‘have you told Tim yet?’, I
hadn’t so between us the secret costume plan was hatched, the objective to see
the look on Tim’s face when Sao Til made an appearance.
Originally I was looking at
November Memorabilia to get the costume completed by, this would give me loads
of time. To help me with the costume Laura sent me an email detailing all the
bits I would need, the toughest part was going to definitely be the arm.
Armed with the list of parts I
dragged Jemma round the Ipswich shops in search of a variety of different bits,
unfortunately Ipswich let me down so I had to raid eBay for the majority of the
parts!
So head to toe, here’s what we
have:
Head: Pinstriped Hat, Claire’s
Accessories
Head: Blue tights, eBay
Head: Purple floral tights,
eBay
Head: Chicken fillets, eBay!
Body: Black shirt, already had
one
Body: Navy Tie, already had
one
Body: Black Overcoat, already
had one
Hands: 80’s pink wrist warmer
thing, Claire’s Accessories
Hands: Blue Body Paint, eBay
Waist: Superman Belt – It’s
not part of the outfit but I love my Superman belt
Legs: Black (Grey) Jeans, eBay
Boots: Black Cowboy Boots,
eBay
Having managed to source the
parts sooner than planned the outfit was brought forward to me ready for Expo
instead.
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| The actual Sao Til arm - Tim's one |
The Neural Probe (Arm):
As I mentioned earlier this
was the first time I’d put an outfit together from scratch, it was also my
first ever attempt at building a prop! Luckily I’m a wargamer so I’m used to
building things out of random bits of ‘gubbins’, Laura had sent me a few pictures
of the original arm, I’d also seen the real one so I knew what I was trying to
get to...
Unfortunately I didn’t have
access to the BBC props department to give my Neural Probe a few tweaks so I
decided to do my own take on it, similar in style but also different.
I wanted to keep the same feel
with the large metal base plate (although mine would be wood painted to look
like metal) and the prongs and lights.
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| My version of the Neural Probe (with lights) |
The base plate is 2 layers of
3mm hardboard with a layer of 1mm plasticard on top, added to this were two
sets of expanding bolts (yep these things are designed to attach tv’s to
walls). Holes were then drilled to fit the lights into and washers stuck in
place to add detail.
The whole thing was then
painted silver before being bolted to the arm. The arm itself is a wine cooler
with the inside sprayed blue; I also wedged a small paint roller inside to give
me something to hold. To stop the end section moving too much there are 4
dowels to keep the plate balanced.
Overall the outfit didn’t take
too long to put together and I’m really proud of how the finished product
looks.
Having worn it and looked back
on the reference pictures I can see a few mistakes I’ve made, ie the chicken
fillets being at the wrong angle. I’ve also learned what a nightmare body paint
is!
Sao Til will make another appearance
in the future I’m sure! For the full album of build pictures face a look at my page.
And the best bit, Tim was
really impressed!
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| The finished Sao Til |
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