6FT PVC Body Frame Plans (Twin Spine Design)

Diabolik · Jul 20, 2012

A customer of ours that moderates a Star Wars forum is building a top notch AT-AT Driver costume and wanted to build a mannequin to display it on so he could enjoy it all year round. He chose a twin spine design due to the added weight of the helmet and body armor. He is documenting his build on their site and made some plans for others that might want to attempt something similar. Since he was nice enough to share his work with me, I thought I'd post it here.

If anyone wants to build something similar using off the shelf plumbing fittings, our Spider Couplers add 3 1/2 inches each to the equation. If anyone has any questions about the plans or needs any help with the dimensions just let me know and I'll be glad to help.

In the picture there is a "cross" fitting at the neck. You can use a T fitting with this design in that location as the fourth hole is not needed and the parts list has been adjusted to reflect that.

Thanks,

D.

ter_ran · Jul 20, 2012

Howdy,
I myself used electrical conduit for spine as it is stronger along with doubling my screws at the joints and they held perfectly! Great product! I will be ordering more sometime this season again! Thanks Spider Hill Prop Works!!!

Diabolik · Jul 20, 2012

thanks ter_ran

Are you talking about metal EMT pipe, or the gray plastic PVC style conduit ? I've never tried sizing up Metal EMT with the PVC before ???

Might have to look into that.

ManufacturedFear said:
Thank you for posting this I have done searches in the past for something like this.

You're welcome. if nothing else, it gives you a good starting point and takes some of the guesswork out of it. On our site there are also plans for a grave grabber and a single spine version of the 6 foot body.

ManufacturedFear · Jul 20, 2012

Thank you for posting this I have done searches in the past for something like this.

lisa48317 · Jul 20, 2012

Awesome! Are the spider joints in the same area of the store as the rest of the PVC fittings? I've never seen anything like that!

Thanks so much for posting!!

Diabolik · Jul 20, 2012

You're welcome Lisa. They are not available in Home Depot or Lowes yet.... Maybe one day ?

Right now they are pretty much only available through our site. http://www.spiderhillpropworks.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=35&product_id=49

There is also a recent thread here in the tutorial section with a great method for making your own as an alternative.

D.

Diabolik · Aug 3, 2012

Updated Design

I ended up helping my customer rework his original design a little because with the elbows added at the hips, his guy looked a bit bow legged even after he was stuffed and dressed. A quick change to the fittings at hips did the trick. I went ahead and built a full frame myself this weekend to try out the twin spine design and to nail down some measurements. I put together some new plans that we will be adding to our site. I wanted something that was going to be a bit more printer friendly.

As I was saying earlier, if anyone wants to build something similar using off the shelf plumbing fittings, our Spider Couplers add 3 1/2 inches each to the equation.

Thanks,

D.

lisa48317 · Aug 3, 2012

Do you have pics of one of these guys "in action" or rather fully dressed? At 6' he's got to be pretty intimidating!

Diabolik · Aug 3, 2012

If you click on the banner in my signature, it will take you to our site.
There is a gallery there that features several finished customer projects.

I am not sure what I am doing with this particular frame just yet ?

Blarghity · Sep 3, 2012

The title of this thread gave me an awesome prop idea - a Siamese twin Frankenstein, except they weren't twins when they were alive.

A corpsified Siamese twin skeleton would be pretty grotesque as well. I wonder if the Mutter Museum (full of all sorts of gruesome medical oddities) over in Philly has one...

6FT PVC Body Frame Plans (Twin Spine Design)

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