I got my pack…now onto the suit. Does anyone here have some good suggestions for the following:
What size do you recommend for a person that is a short/stumpy ■■■■■■■? I’m 5’ 6" and weigh about 175lbs. I’m not fat, but not skinny.
These things look pretty expensive. Doing a google search gets me some site charging around $200 for the suits, while I can find some on ebay that are less than $100. Has anyone had a good experience getting these from ebay?
Thanks all
I’m about 5 pounds lighter than you and the same height, and I find a 40S fits about right. My current suit is a 40R, and it fits fine, but is a little baggy in the crotch area.
Get to a tailor or a menswear shop and have them measure you to recommend a size.
Keep checking eBay. Especially for the smaller sizes, you can usually snag one for under $50.
Don’t worry. I am also short and stocky about 5-7 and 180 lbs… Some advice-Don’t spend a lot of money. You don’t have to. ( it would be a waste). A movie-accurate suit is one of the easier thing to do. (I just finished mine and one for my brother or girlfriend)…
Step 1: A Flightsuit. (an air force flight suit-that’s all it is.) I and many others use Rothco brand, but people use other kinds. If you went to an Army/Navy store to buy the A.L.I.C.E. pack frame for your proton pack, go back there or go to a paintball supply store. ( that’s where i got mine) They had to order it in Tan/Khaki, it came in in about a week. I spent $40new on one and $26new at the army navy store for the other.
Step 2: Patches. You need the “no ghost” logo and a name tag. I reccommend the “no ghost” from the shop at gbfans..(its the best quality and most accurate) and the nametag- I recommend Kathy Pillsbury,which was recommended to me.(she’s on e-bay) www.stores.ebay.com/Katarra8 or www.Katarra8.com she can give you a GB-1 or GB-2 patch, in Classic name or “your-name” you’ll have it in a few days! A custom embroidered in 3 days! enough said. Great quality. about $10-$12 FOR EACH ITEM…
Step 3: Web-belt: Army navy store ($3dollars), JUST BLEACH IT and if it comes out a dirty whitish grey(perfect, success!) or if not try a different brand and try again(i suggest geting more than one) some of them come out a yellowy color and cant be color stripped dyed or anything (i tried) so ,another brand,just come out perfect and others-(another brand) don’t just to save you some time…
step 4: Yellow hose. hardware store 1/2 inch clear vynil( about 5-6 feet) 30 cents a foot. Dye it yellow using RIT dye. Yellow, use a few drops iodine or cofee too mixed in, or a couple iodine wipes.. heat it up on stovetop in a large spaghetti pan. LOW simmer (ALMOST boil first, lower heat, add dye, stir-add tubing) stir low (it wont melt) ..I used a turkey-baster to squirt the mixture through the tube… have rags, etc. ready to wipe up yellow water, put a towel down on the counter. (it’s wicked easy.)
Step 5: dye your suit a little darker (if you want to) add a tiny bit ( 1/4 tsp. RIT black dye) or less to a cup of hot water to the flightsuit in the washing machine (already full of water/ submerged) or if you have a side loader-like me, add a water-dye mix into the barrel, b efore putting the suit in… that’s it… done. dry on LOW…or hang to dry.. it dries fast!
Thats about it except for a few small, minor details. Private message me if you want or want more details. Thanks, you can look at my suits or other fans suits, too I’m posting new pictures later today… 
Oh yeah size wise… dont worry about length, it just has to fit your torso, that’s all.. you can always tuck in the legs, and youre wearing boots too anyway. a Med wont fit me at all, I have a large…I also have a medium for my brother or my girlfriend. he is 5-10 1/2 140lbs skinny. also-- I would probably fit in an x-large too, i’ll probably get one of those later on if i do another one later… I will probably do a charcoal gray, Ghostbusters 2 suit later on…
DON’T follow this advice. Rothco suits are very cheap, and they definitely LOOK cheap. I’m sorry.
They can usually be had for about $40. For a little over $10 more on eBay, you can get a Nomex suit that is the right shade of khaki (or damn close) instead of that ugly Rothco yellow color. The chest zippers on the Rothco suits are HORRIBLY low. They should be chest height, and are instead mid-torso or lower. The Rothco suits are also missing a storm flap (the flap of material just inside the zipper) and the fabric zipper pull, as well as having cheap plastic zippers versus the metal zippers on a Nomex suit.
The Rothco suits are also made of a horrible, incredibly CHEAP looking shiny poly/cotton material. If you want to be cheap and shiny, you may as well buy the Rubies costume; if you want to have a quality uniform, drop the extra $10 or so on a good Nomex suit.
You also shouldn’t have to dye a Nomex suit, and it is indeed fairly difficult to do much more than tint one.
As far as belts, it’s much easier to find a white canvas pistol belt online (a web belt is much thinner and doesn’t have the proper grommets) and dye it with some dilute black RIT rather than try to bleach a darker colored belt.
The other advice is fairly sound. GBfans Shop and Katarra are the current best sources for patches. For the yellow leg hose method, some use iodine, some use fairly concentrated golden yellow RIT, and others use brown leather dye; a combination of these has returned the best results for me. Just heat the dye mixture, plug up one end of the tube, fill the tube with the hot mixture, plug up the other end, and hang it for a few days before draining and rinsing. Repeat if needed.
Jairus . . . . . ARE YOU A GOD?
seriously though people, listen to what this man says(sorry Jay). He speaks the truth rather bluntly but only in hopes of helping fellow aspiring Ghostbusters look their best and “get it right” the first time.
A little advice on searching eBay for Nomex suits: Search using a combination of the keywords “flight, suit, desert tan, sand, cwu 27/p, flyers coveralls, nomex” etc. and search sizes using a military chest size/inseam system, “40S” for example represents a chest size 40 with a short inseam(pant) length.
try to avoid searching for sizes using the keyword khaki and the sizes S, M, L, XL, etc. as these keywords will return the cheap Rothco suits as a result.
Another rule of thumb is never buy a suit when this picture is used:
Not Only will you receive a Rothco suit which does not look like the suit pictured, but you will slowly begin to look like the pigeon-toed neanderthal wearing it.
I’m a tall lanky ■■■■■■■, nice to make the aquaintance…
2 ebay sellers that are awesome that sell new and used nomex
http://shop.ebay.com.au/merchant/hoobub_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZ
Hoobub is a retired military man himself and was extremely helpful in sizing for me, unfortunately he didn’t have the colour in my size at the time.
http://shop.ebay.com.au/merchant/treasure-hunter59_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZ
Treasurehunter I bought my nomex from and it was well worth it. I had a rothco before and its chalk and cheese man when it comes to fit and quality. Ive washed and done the fabric softener thing a few times to get that flame retardant coating off and recently Ive chucked it in the wash with some black clothes a few times. It looks a bit more dull than the real tan look it had when I bought it.
Thanks to both Jairus and AMC78 for their helpful info. Does anyone know how often this site restocks their merchandise? They’re sold out of the no ghost patches, and if that’s the best one out there that’s the one I want. Wouldn’t mind getting the pistol belt as well.
I got my patches from this guy, they are up there in quality. But invest in a nomex suit for them.
For the web belt you’ve probably seen multimediamayhem.net, they’re out of stock but I bought all my belt gear from them in one go so was really convenient. Couldn’t hurt to ask when they’ll have more? Unless you try the local surplus store, if you get a white one you can always chuck it in a dye bath of pearl grey RIT.
Just ordered the nomex earlier today from the link you posted. $50 plus shipping was a steal.
My first suit was a Rothco…it’s actually still sitting undyed in my closet. Recently I was able to get a Nomex that fits me for less than what was originally paid for the Rothco (the new suit actually seems to fit me better). I dyed it just to experiment; all I was really able to do was tint it but it doesn’t look half bad.
Nomex is definitely the way to go if you can get them.