Bio Robot

Some neighbours wondered what I was doing

"What is this? Bio robot cosplay, or did you suddenly lose the last sense of your mind and now pretend to be a Stalker?" No, don't be alarmed - I'm too old for cosplay, and of course there is a reason for all this. 

This is a replica of the suits worn by the liquidators (Bio robots) who shoveled the radioactive graphite off the roof of Reactor 4 and it's going to be a part of my exhibition (there are protection gloves too,,that are supposed to be sealed  against the sleeves of the jacket) but unfortunately I forgot to put them on). I believe that It is fairly accurate, even though the only reference pic I had, is the one inch image of a fridge magnet I bought at the Chernobyl museum in Kiev last year, and even if I have some details wrong, at least I'll be able to tell the story behind these suits. If anyone has a comment or better images of this type of liquidator suit, feel free to write me a line.

It took me less that two days to construct this outfit, which consists of:

My fridge magnet, 5 x 8 cm.

• Simple protective jacket and trousers
• Back piece. I have no idea what the original were made of (although most likely containing lead) but this one is of rubber.
• Front piece "apron". The authentic protection should have had lead in it as well, and the only reason that I didn't put lead into this one is that I don't currently store lead at home)

 And in order to put it all together, the following was required:

• 3 meters of fabrics for the protective jacket and trousers.
• 0,50 x 0,96 meters of rubber for the back piece
• 2 meters of leather straps
• Rivets, 2 metal rings, 1 meter of waxed thread, 3 small buckles and additional leather.
• 0,70 meters of fake leather for the front piece.

The respirator is however Swedish, which will be pointed out at the exhibition.