Three dark knights by Halloween (Pic Heavy)

nbehling · Sep 3, 2013

Ok, here goes. I have been a member of The RPF for a while now but have not posted much. Please forgive me if I commit any RPF sins. I not exactly sure how all the posting things are supposed to work.

Last christmas I promised three friends of mine I would make them Dark Knights for this years Christmas. I have been gathering materials (also a lot of procrastination)and now its time for the big push. They all live in different town so there will be no duplicates at the same party.

I work as a graphic designer so I have been tracing the suit from reference photos and from Sonjou ( http://www.therpf.com/f24/tdk-foam-pattern-design-costume-build-pic-heavy-139619/ ) templates. I soon realized it was easier to create my own for what I was doing but I don't want to short anybody on credit because it was used for reference.

The plan is to scuplt the suit armor using monster clay and plastilin clay. Make the mold out of ultracal and the amor pieces will be made of latex. (Sorry I am not up on the sculpture lingo).

nbehling · Sep 9, 2013

FInished the rib armor sculpt. casted it and made my first pull last night. It is a bit rough. any thoughts on how to improveup the mold after it is made?

closet batfan · Sep 10, 2013

Looking good so far, are all three of your friends roughly the same size?

nbehling · Sep 10, 2013

They are all roughly 6' to 6'3" fairly athletic build.

nbehling · Oct 2, 2013

Here is my first pull of the abs and ab straps. I did them separately so I can adjust for different sizes. I will glue and paint them tonight

nbehling · Oct 8, 2013

I have made a lot of progress. I will be adding more photos in a bit.

nbehling · Oct 8, 2013

does anybody know why my photos will not appear as thumbnails?

nbehling · Oct 8, 2013

I finally got the thumbnail to attach by changing it to a png file. not sure why. Still trying to figure this all out.

I have one mesh suit finished. It took a lot of trial and error but it fits one of the guys. What is the best way to glue on the armor to the suit?

The first pull of the chest piece it finished. It has some imperfections from tool marks and not being perfectly smooth but I am overall happy with it. any suggestions to make it appear smoother would help.

The abs are made in pieces so i can glue them according to height of each person. One of my pet peeves is ill fitting dark knight abs. They have not been plastidipped yet.

I have finished a portion of the leg armor. Hopefully i will have the rest finished tonight.

I am just starting the gauntlets but i plan on sculpting one that will be the same for both sides. it will take a bit longer to cast all of them but they will be the same.

Hope you guys like my project. getting down to crunch time.

nbehling · Oct 13, 2013

I tried adding gray where the carbon fiber goes. I think it is to light. I might go all black. any suggestions?

DatManRogee · Oct 13, 2013

Awhile back I came across this YouTube video showing how to replicate that look of carbon fiber with plasti dip. Just an idea for you to consider. I'm really enjoying following your thread, great work so far! I think I know what I want to sculpt next! Haha
Create Carbon Fiber Look with Plasti Dip - YouTube

nbehling · Oct 14, 2013

I would love to try this but i really don't know how much time I have left to experiment. it's getting down to crunch time for halloween. I am making one for myself after this is over. Maybe I will do it for myself so mine is unique.

nbehling · Oct 15, 2013

last night I used my brother as a stand it mannequin while i glued leg pieces to him.

The mask is a GCFX flawed mask. Please don't look at it as a comparison of their final product. I bought it knowing it was warped for a working mask as i build. Thats a rubies belt by the way.

The shoulder is an un polished un plasti dipped shoulder bell. I am happy with the shape but the cast has some scarring from me working to fast and messing it up.

I am really happy with his undersuit. One of the suit will have a mesh undersuit. the others will have what you see in these pics.

I am fortunate to have a screen printing press in my basement so I make a screen with the mash pattern. I repeated the patter all over a compression shirt and pants. So it will have the mesh look but still comfy to wear.

nbehling · Oct 15, 2013

Here is a picture of us screen printing the compression pants. It looks really cool as it shifts and hits the light

LePaul · Oct 17, 2013

Are you using the GCFX urethane pieces to glue to the body suit ?

I just sent them back the chest/cowl piece since what arrived wasn't acceptable (piece came off in shipping, many others falling off) They've been goof to deal with and they apologized for the problems.

My body suit, also from GCFX with the armor pieces slides off me, I need to either pad the shoulders or come up with a harness to keep everything snug. Otherwise, well...everything slides down!

I have the GCFX mask, its very tight, they suggested heating it to stretch some while someone suggested foam in the forehead to gain a bit of space. Its pushing on my eyes so while it looks good, I struggle to see!

Nice build! I like that the pec/chest pieces are attached to the body suit. The GCFX setup hangs over the body suit like football shoulder pads. I'm not sure I like that.

nbehling · Oct 21, 2013

Thanks LePaul. The only thing I am using that is GCFX is the mask. I Made all the pieces myself. They are latex. A friend of mine's mother in law made the bodysuit for his suit and I screen printed the pattern on to compression gear for the other one.

I personally prefer the compression gear for wearing. It puts on like a normal pants and shirt. the seam is hidden behind the belt and it is very comfortable to move in.

My body suit, also from GCFX with the armor pieces slides off me, I need to either pad the shoulders or come up with a harness to keep everything snug. Otherwise, well...everything slides down!

My mesh suit has the same problem. The leg armor is to heavy and weighs it all down. I put a small black belt around my midsection and hide it under the belt. It holds everything in place but is pretty tight and could get uncomfortable.

I also struggle to see when I wear the cowl. Perhaps the foam and head will help me.

nbehling · Oct 24, 2013

Ok guys. Last night was a big one. I constructed the rest of the first suit. It had to be ready for this saturday. I just have to plastidip the gauntlets and give one more coat of Plastidip as a beauty coat before I give it to my friend.

I also made the cape but forgot to take a picture. Let me know what you think.

LePaul · Oct 24, 2013

I bought some 2 inch wide web-belt style material and will sew that around the mid section, into the suit. I'm going to use the plastic buckle to attach from behind (same as those military style web belts use). I hope that will allow the leg portion of the suit to fit tighter (not sag) once I have that done.

The chest part is what I am thinking about next. That is largely covered up with the cowl but I want that to tighten up some too. My friend's wife suggests shoulder pads....?

nbehling · Oct 28, 2013

Well. Suit one went off without a hitch. Cape turned out better that I could have hoped for. The shoulders rode well on him but the Kitchen shots were after an hour of dancing so they kind of migrated back off his shoulder.

He looked like an absolute monster in the suit. He wasn't a guy wearing a costume. He was batman for the whole night. I have to give him huge props. I made the suit for him as a gift and He wore it for 6 hours without taking anything off. It made me feel really good to know he liked it so much (thats me as thor).

The mesh suit was a big question and it fit him like a snug glove. He purchased his mask and neck from Megaprime on ebay. Again I am new to this stuff so I am not sure who he is on here. The belt was a modified rubies belt.

Unfortunately it was terrible lighting where we were. I hope to get some studio shots at some point.

We had to go into the kitchen to get some decent lighting.

nbehling · Oct 29, 2013

What a difference a year can make. I thought these pictures were way to cool not to share.

nbehling · Oct 29, 2013

Tonight I have to make the second Cape and glue the rest of the armor. The suit I am working on now is the compression gear with mesh screen print. This one is a little more experimental so I will hopefully get some good pics of the process.

Three dark knights by Halloween (Pic Heavy)

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