TDKR "no sew" vest / belt, boots and gauntlet

TDKR "no sew" Bane vest / belt, boots and gauntlet

I did not have time to do a proper, step by step "how to" but I felt I could at least show photos and give a rough idea how it was accomplished and then answer questions, if anyone has any. Two words: "hot glue!"

First, here is what I ordered:

Glatzan bald cap

Latex Bald Cap, Glatzan Plastic Bald Cap or Bald Cap Kit with Instructions | eBay

brass plate for buckle

1/8" Copper or Brass Sheet(Priced per square inch, I cut to any size you want!!) | eBay

dark brown marine vinyl

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DARK-BROWN-MARINE-VINYL-AUTO-UPH-NAUGAHYDE-54-/271014026607?pt=US_Fabric&hash=item3f19b1dd6f#ht_664wt_1165

olive green cordura nylon fabric

1000D FABRIC CORDURA NYLON 60" WIDE OLIVE GREEN | eBay

black marine vinyl

"JET BLACK" VINYL MARINE, AUTO, UPH. NAUGAHYDE 54"WIDE | eBay

grommets and setter

Heavy-Duty 3/16" Eyelet Grommet Pliers Set with 400 Eyelets - Easy to Use | eBay

cord locks

cord locks toggles black resin spring loaded gr quality | eBay

brown 3mm cord

3mm Nylon Braided Cord / Chinese Knot 9 yd Inc | eBay

Condor Molle tactical hydration vest

CONDOR MOLLE Modular Tactical Mesh Hydration Vest MHV - COYOTE TAN | eBay

Flyye Molle RRV vest (ranger green)

Army Panda Gear Store — Flyye - MOLLE RRV Vest

Molle pack frame and belt

MOLLE DCU desert tan rucksack ruck shoulder straps kidney belt frame only NOS | eBay

Alice pack straps with quick release

Amazon.com: Military Surplus Army ALICE Field Pack Quick Release Shoulder Straps Woodland: Sports & Outdoors

1.25 inch Pistol belts (olive drab)

Military Mini Pistol Belt w/ Metal Buckle (50" x 1.25") | eBay

Emerson CP Gen2 style Tactical Pants ( Black )

Army Panda Gear Store — Emerson CP Gen2 style Tactical Pants ( Black )

Double grommet belt in black

Strait City Trading Co.: Fabric Belts, Double Grommet

Wrist brace

Amazon.com: FLA Professional Wrist Brace 8" Deluxe Left Black Medium: Health & Personal Care

Boots

Xelement Men's Nubuck Distressed Brown Leather Logger Boots

2.5 inch lifts for boots

Amazon.com: WSWS 3-Layer Height Increase Taller Insole Shoes Pad Air Cushion for MEN (approximately 2.5 inches)+ WSWS Shoe Shine Cloth: Health & Personal Care

I also bought dark brown faux suede fabric for boot flaps and straps and dark brown leather-like vinyl at a local fabric store. While there I bought red shoe laces, blue jean rivets and setting tool, large brass snap fasteners and setting tool, 2 1.5 inch D rings, a heavy metal zipper in khaki, and a 24" square of 2 inch thick polyester batting.

This all adds up to about $500, including pants, boots, bald cap, etc. The coat and mask are not included in this total.

You will need styrene sheet slightly thicker than poster board and pop rivets, as well. A small butane torch is really handy for sealing frayed edges of synthetic fabric, removing hot glue and weathering.

You will need a high temperature hot glue gun and lots of high quaiity hot glue (amber).

Wow, that's a lot of research.

Thanks for putting this together. I'm hoping to put together a budget Bane for Halloween and this will help a lot.

Super dope, dude.

First, a word about the hot glue and gun. This project relies on a good quality high temp hot glue gun and hot glue sticks. It will not work with cheesy dollar store hot glue and a half-assed low temp gun. If you invest in a good gun and a pound of good quality amber multipurpose sticks you will use it for a million projects and even around the house.

Now for some info on how I did this, semi step by step. First, we need to break down the "vest" into its component parts. From deep to surface, this is really four garments: the under vest, the armor vest, the "suspenders" and the battle belt / kidney guard.

The under vest is made from the Condor Molle tactical hydration vest (coyote tan). The few modifications here are the addition of an armor panel on the back, adding female snaps to the shoulders to connect to the upper ends of the armor vest, and, perhaps, cutting off the velcro / snap tabs around the bottom edge at the front. Don't do this until last because you will need the ones in the back and the ones in the front (which I cut off!) might be handy to attach to the belt of the pants to help hold it down. I also added wide olive webbing loops to each shoulder to help keep the suspenders centered over each shoulder.

Here are the snaps and webbing loops:



To make all the armor plates, including the one on the back of the under vest, I cut a piece of styrene sheet to the size and shape of the plate, glued a 1" thick piece of polyester batting (split from the 2" thick piece) to it (after cutting it to the same size and shape) and then covered it with the dark brown marine vinyl. This photo shows the size and shape of the plate





The vinyl is wrapped around the batting-covered styrene and then hot glued to the back surface. This whole thing is then sanded with a coarse sanding block (especially the corners) to weather it, and then it is dabbed with light tan acrylic paint to further simulate wear (follow the wear pattern on the real vest). Finally, it is hot glued in place on the back of the under vest. Either pop rivet the corners as described below to further secure them, or use a Dremel to grind off the slick vinyl surface so the hot glue can bind to the revealed fabric backing:



Next, we need to make the green fabric zipper panel as shown in this photo.



I made this from the olive green Cordura nylon by folding one layer around two other layers and gluing it together as a package. The inner two layers are cut to the exact size and shape and the wraparound top layer needs to be about an inch bigger in all directions so it can wrap around the other layers and create a finished edge on all sides. Next, the edges are punched and the grommets inserted and set in the eight holes. Finally, the zipper is cut to length and hot glued in place (it is just for show). A dark green lace off of one of the other military vests was looped through the zipper pull to finish it off. This entire piece was then velcroed onto the armor plate using heavy duty velcro. Because the hot glue does not stick well to the top surface of the vinyl, i cut away the vinyl and the batting in a square in the center where the velcro was to go (as per the above photo) and glued the velcro directly to the underlying styrene. This velcro arrangement allows the suspenders to be donned separately and makes it all much easier to put on. The matching velcro will glue nicely to the underside of the olive nylon:



The next step is to make the armor vest. Here is a photo of what we are looking for:





I made this out of the Molle RRV vest (Ranger green). Unfortunately, this is made out of a wicked waterproof fabric and the hot glue sticks to it relatively poorly. To solve this, I used pop rivets to hold the corners of the armor plates to the vest after hot gluing the main body of each plate to the vest. I found that stuffing the vest with several pillows to simulate my body in the vest helped me get the plates in the right place on the vest. If you are following along with this you will have noticed that the RRV vest is shaped nothing like Bane's armor vest. I basically just cut off the bottom of the vest and used these pieces to extend the sides to make the parts that wrap around to the back and lace to the olive nylon we just installed on the armor plate on the under vest. The back of the RRV vest is cut away and discarded. What you have left should be shaped about like the picture above. I carefully removed the contrasting edging fabric strips (bias tape, for you knowledgable sewers), saved it and then hot glued it back into place around the new edges. If memory serves, this was important around the neck line to get the shape right. Remember that this armor vest is shorter than the under vest by the about the width of the battle belt!!! Finally, try to use some RRV vest fabric with a snap on it to make the upper tips where the armor vest comes up over the shoulder. You can always put a snap there later but it is easier if you just incorporate a male snap from the RRV vest into this part so that it is already there:



These armor plates are made the same way: styrene + batting + brown vinyl + sanding / painting / weathering. To pop rivet the corners, I cut a tiny slit in the corner and drilled a hole in the styrene. Push the batting well out of the way, first, or it will wrap around the drill like a mother! Then punch a corresponding hole in the RRV vest, push the pop rivet through, add a backing washer on the inside of the vest and fire the rivet. Repeat at each corner and your plates are secure! Hide the little slits with a dab of hot glue wiped with a wet finger and one of the hardest parts is done. Punch the holes and set 4 grommets in each side of the wraparound "tails" as per the photo.

When you try this on, you may find that the short armor vest does not want to stay down in the front. This will be fixed when we add snaps to the front to attach it to the battle belt later on:



You can now add the brown 3mm cord and cord locks to lace the armor vest grommets to the grommets we put in the olive green nylon piece on the back of the under vest. You will need to adjust the length of the wrap around "tails" of the armor vest to your own girth or lack thereof so that they are short enough to get within reach of the laces but not so long that there is an overlap. See this photo:





More in my next post!

Looks awesome man.

The boots, what did you use for the straps, and how did you distress them?
Actually, all of it has that nice worn look, what did you use?

Ann you SO much for this post!!!
You have saved me a ton of time & research. Might have cost me some more $, buy I'm totally okay with that ;-)
Looking forward to your next post

"If you are following along with this you will have noticed that the RRV vest is shaped nothing like Bane's armor vest. I basically just cut off the bottom of the vest and used these pieces to extend the sides to make the parts that wrap around to the back and lace to the olive nylon we just installed on the armor plate on the under vest. The back of the RRV vest is cut away and discarded. What you have left should be shaped about like the picture above. I carefully removed the contrasting edging fabric strips (bias tape, for you knowledgable sewers), saved it and then hot glued it back into place around the new edges."

You're right, I don't see how the RRV vest looks anything like bane's without heavy modification. The straps don't even look like they're attached...
More details/pics here would be appreciated ;-)

Nice pics! Nice group shot with catwoman! Keep it up

Sorry, I should have taken pictures as I went along but I was trying hard to make the premiere and just barely made it! This is the least intuitive step and will require some trial and error. Basically, I just used the flat center of the back of the the RRV vest as the front of Bane's armor vest. I cut it off shorter so it is not under the battle belt and the used the cut off pieces and pieces of the front to lengthen the side pieces to go around your sides and the shoulders to go up to the crest of the shoulder. By luck, I ended up with a male snap at the top of each shoulder on the under side so I could attach a female snap to the under vest in the same location. This allows you to snap the armor vest to the under vest at the shoulders and that helps it to stay up. Take off all the bias tape from the edges by cutting the stitching and then refinish the edges of the new shape by hot gluing it back in place on the edges. neatness hardly counts here, anyway, as most of the fabric is covered by the armor plates. I hope this helps!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, that's pretty much what I took away from the original write up. I guess I'm just having a hard time picturing it :-/

Would you mind posting pics of your vest in the individual pieces? I think that would clarify any questions. And still looking forward to your continued posts! You're doing us a HUGE service here!
Thanks again

Next, the battle belt and kidney guard.

The battle belt is made out of the Molle rucksack belt and frame. First, unbuckle the belt from the frame and discard / set aside the frame; it won't be used. The back of the rucksack kidney belt will become the front of Bane's belt and vice-versa. Unfortunately, the back of our belt differs from the front of Bane's in a couple of important ways: it is curved across the top to fit the lower back; this won't work for the top of the front of Bane's belt. Also, it is too stiff to wrap snugly across your stomach.
Correct this by opening the inside lining of the belt across the top and cutting down the plastic stiffener so that it is now straight across the top. Cut away the lining fabric and you can fold the outer fabric down and inside and hot glue it in place. Save the bias tape along the edge by removing the stitiching and then reapplying it along the new straight top edge with hot glue to preserve the finished look of the edge. Use tan fabric paint to paint over the desert camo pattern to make it look more or less all one color tan. Any imperfections will pass as "weathering!"



You will note that the outer layer of the belt has four nylon straps looped in the center front. These are in the perfect position to hold Bane's two buckles. The large buckle is shaped roughly like a child's drawing of a house or, if you prefer, home plate with the point at the top. All five corners are rounded, inside and out. I cut this out of 1/4'' thick plexiglass using a scroll saw but you could use a coping saw, instead. Mine is 4 1/2 inches wide and 4 inches high and 7/16" wide. It has to have a slit in the frame at one point to allow you to put it through the loops and I slit mine just to one side of the center of the bottom so that the slit would be hidden by one of the two loops we will add at the bottom of the belt. Here is a close up photo:

.

I covered the plastic buckle with gold adhesive vinyl and then spray painted it flat black. I then scraped off the black to expose the gold around the edges and corners to give the appearance of a brass buckle from which the black paint had been worn. This effect could also be achieved with Rustoleum gold paint covered with a layer of flat black acrylic paint which could then be scraped back off to show wear.

The smaller front buckle I made from a real piece of 1/8 " thick brass I bought on ebay (the link is in the first post). The seller will cut it to size for you but you will have to cut the two roughly D-shaped holes in it. It measures 4 1/4 inches by 2 1/8 inches. The center is 7/16" wide and the top, bottom and sides are 1/4" wide. Mark out the cutouts and drill 1/4" holes in the corners and along the sides and then connect the holes with a jeweler's saw. File the edges straight and smooth. Once you cut it out, bend the two sides back slightly so that it curves to match the curve of your stomach. Both sides will need to be slit so that you can put the nylon straps around the sides of the buckle. Do that in the middle of each short side so that the each slit will be hidden by its strap. Finally, spray paint the buckle flat black and then scrape the paint back off to match the wear pattern of Bane's buckle. Either a nylon scrubber (like you use to clean around the house) or a piece of steel wool works great for this step. Once the buckles are done, put them through the looped straps as per the photo: big buckle in the back, point up, through the bottom two loops and the smaller buckle through the top two loops. Use some left over tan nylon straps to make the two loops on the bottom edge of the belt and hot glue them around the bottom of the big buckle, hiding the slit, and then hot glue the loops to the bottom edge of the belt.



Add two small tabs with female snaps to the top edge of the belt's center to match the two male snaps on the bottom of the armor vest we will add later to allow you to snap the bottom edge of the armor vest to the top of the belt so as to keep the armor vest from riding up in the front:



Working our way around to the sides of the belt, the wide strap and buckle is used to secure the belt at the lower back but we need two (Bane had three) straps on each side to secure the black "leather" kidney guard in position over this wide strap/buckle. I used left over tan nylon straps with velcro still attached and leftover nylon fasteners and D-rings to attach the kidney guard in the back to the battle belt in the front. Here is a couple of photos:







This both allows you to adjust the straps as necessary and an easy "entry point" to get the damn thing on and off!

The kidney guard is made from multiple layers of the black marine vinyl with bamboo vertical "stays" on the back to keep it from folding down when you sit. I made these from the cut off handles of dollar store backscratchers. There are four of them: two long ones in the long section on the right and two short ones on the left. I guess Bane only wanted to protect his right kidney!





The brass snaps are just the tops and are hot glued in place to simulate Bane's rivets / studs. The straps are just two layers of vinyl glued back to back and then glued to the protector, itself. One caution: hot glue sticks great to the back, but poorly to the front, of this slick vinyl. Really rough up the vinyl with a Dremel burr or cut tiny partial-thickness slits with an x-acto to make a rough spot to beef up the glue's adhesion.

Suspenders next, faithful reader!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Keeping my eye on this thread. That vest is worth the watching and reading. I have my work cut out for me. LOL!

This is awesome! Can't wait for the suspenders post, I really need help there, and you nailed it!

Where did you get the coat (assuming you didnt make it)! and this costume is insanely good

Thanks for the kind words. I bought the coat on ebay

Bane Coat The Dark Knight Rises Costume Brand New All sizes | eBay

It is very well made and very accurate to te screen-used coat.

Steve

Now for the suspenders:



Think of these as two long belts (they are two long belts: 1.25 inch wide olive drab pistol belts!) which connect by snaps and velcro to the bottom edge of the back of the under vest. The under vest comes with these connectors all the way around the bottom edge:



We do not need them to loop so I cut off the female snap / fuzzy velcro half of the loop and hot glued them to the ends of the two belts:



Now the back end of each suspender can be fastened securely to the back edge of the under vest:



Working our way up the back, the next feature of the suspenders is are big black D rings. I bought mine at a fabric store but they were out of black so I covered chrome ones with black heat shrink tubing. You will notice that the belts are not continuous from the velcro / snap up to the shoulder pads. I had to add short pieces of a third belt to the ends of each of the two belts using hardware I had left over from a rifle sling. Don't sweat this part, just add length if you need to. The join is concealed with a piece of contrasting fabric cut from any of the darker fabric scraps you now have:



On the back of this piece of fabric, add a male snap and add a corresponding female snap to the upper outer corners of the olive zipper panel on the back of the armor vest. This will serve to hold the suspenders in position and keep them from migrating laterally:



Next, add the paired eyelets to the two belts. Bane's are spaced about 2.5 inches apart. Stop about 5 inches from the front end and add a male and female heavy duty snap to secure each suspender to the battle belt buckle:



Next, use the big wide shoulder pads from the RRV vest. These can be shortened by slitting open the end, cutting the foam inside to 12.25 inches long and then refolding and hot gluing shut the fabric to restore the finished look. These come equipped with a wide elastic band that can be used to thread the belts through:





Next comes the Alice pack quick releases. Discard the dark green laces and use red shoe laces to match Bane:



Hot glue the quick releases to the belt after adding some 1 inch olive webbing (some will be laying around from one of the other items you have disassembled) to the bottom end so that it matches Bane's. It won't match the webbing in the Alice release perfectly but it can be cut to the longer length needed to match Bane's vest. Seal all the cut edges with a lighter (this also works great to add dark smudges here and there for weathering, just don't burn down the house!) Wrap a piece of tan 1 inch webbing (again, left over) to secure the long lower ends to the belt and secure with hot glue. Once you try everything on and you are certain of the positioning, hot glue the back of the belt to the front of the shoulder pad on each side.

Finally, add the cross piece in the front. This is 1.5 inch wide olive webbing with two sets of double eyelets and I velcroed it to the back of each of the suspenders so that it could be removed to facilitate taking the vest on and off. Probably could just be hot glued at the proper height:



Try it all on and adjust, as needed!

Next, on to the boots and gauntlet!



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

The Boots:

First, scuff the hell out of them with a sur-form file or a cheese grater.

Then dab olive acrylic paint, watered down and mixed with fabric medium to vary the color and make them a little greener.

I made the overstraps out of suede fabric hot glued to the olive cordura nylon to add thickness and strength simulating leather. Match the color of the suede fabric to the color of the boots as closely as possible but it does not have to be perfect.

Here are the paper patterns I used for two of the five pieces you need for each boot. The third piece is just the tiny 1" strap to anchor the lowest buckle on each boot and the fourth and fifth pieces are just the straight 1" straps you thread through the big top panel.



Cut out the shapes from the suede cloth and glue it to the nylon and then cut around the suede to cut out the nylon. The straps are made of leftover 1 inch olive webbing with the suede fabric hot glued to the front surface. Thread the straps through slits in the large upper panel and test fit around your ankle in the boot with the lifts in, if you are using them. The buckles are roller buckles I ordered from Tandy online. You will need 6 sized for 1 inch straps. Use jean rivets from the fabric store to secure the buckles to the ends of the straps and then to secure the large panels to the straps as per the photos:





The lower, smaller overstrap is made the same way but it is hot glued directly to the inner ankle of each boot along the edge of the zipper. The buckle is mounted on a small piece of suede / nylon also hot glued to the boot, this time on the outer ankle midway between the eyelets and the heel panel:





Punch the holes and add grommets to the lower strap and I added a velcro tab to the end of the lower strap to keep it from flopping around:



The boots are done!

The gauntlet is just a black nylon carpal tunnel brace I ordered off Amazon (see link in first post) covered with dark brown vinyl:





Take your time and just cut the vinyl and hot glue as you go. You can make a paper or fabric pattern first and then trace around it on the vinyl if you would like.

Good luck, fellow Bane wannabees and let me know if you have questions.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I though you abandoned us!

Truly amazing job and great write up, thanks again!!!

hey houdini - the problem I have with this vest is that there is so much going on I can't tell what is what/where; is there any way you can diagram or color-code a couple photos so that we can see what layer or piece is what?

Thanks!!
Working on a Bane for myself and am having analysis-paralysis about the vest.

It is confusing and I wish I had more time to re-do it all as a step by step tutorial. All the pieces are photographed separately above. For now, that is the best I can do. I think once you have all the purchased items in front of you it will begin to make sense. Start by adding the back armor plate to the under vest, then make the armor vest and then add the battle belt and, finally, the suspenders.

I hope that helps,

Steve


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk