Bearing in mind the comments, I thought I'd send you a couple of more recent sketches.
Much the same design, but slightly more 'Baroque'.
 
I think I'm getting the hang of it...
 
Best:
Smuzz
----- Original Message -----
From: pinlighter
To: eira.sms ; Brett Davidson
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 9:12 PM
Subject: Re: Night land : Sea of images: Section 3.

Some reactions
 
- the idea of the Helm being especially festooned with sensors and filters is one which fits very well with other NL stories.   The developing idea is that in this era the Helms have to filter the Night Land into a sort of virtual reality in order for the wearers to endure it.  cf for example the story "Slope"  (by me, but Brett and I have used each others' ideas extensively http://www.thenightland.co.uk/nightslope.html
Their nightsuits are not the heavy amplified coverings used by the Watchmen for patrols or close exploration work.  They are as thin as cloth and as light as paper, unamplified and uninstrumented.  Their only augmentation is in the complex filters in the Helms, which make up thirty percent of the suits' weight and consume all their power.  Long ago, men could survive in the Land by relying only on their own senses.  Now they must wear the Helms, which mount shields and sensory enhancements on a pattern two million years old.  The Helms capture and amplify sound, and scavenge what little light there is in the Night Land.   They map the paths through the dark, and they pass messages to other men in ways that hopefully are not obvious to the entities of the Land, where even telepathy is too risky to be used.   They enhance and they communicate and they also protect, for they shield the eyes as well as the Soul from that which can destroy merely by being sensed. 
 but these are the heavy amplified suits used for close in work,
 
 
- the one thing I don't like are the heavy lower limbs and boots.  Very bad mechanically - the last place you want energy-soaking mass is at the end of your limbs.  reminds me of mecha, not in a good way. mecha are not the product of real world evolutionary selection
 
 
- is there a risk of the "ruff" looking foppish?, - maybe more like radio telescope dishes / bat ears / antennae?
 
 
- another gothic suit
 
 
good stuff :-0