Everyone starts somewhere

The first comic book I ever bought was Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying. I have been a Batman ever since. Thirteen years ago, a co-worker made a Storm Trooper costume and let me borrow it for a weekend...I wanted to make one, but I put it off. The concept of building my own costume was so interesting. About 3 years ago, I saw these awesome Batman costumes that were handmade and told my wife...I will do that. I downloaded but did nothing with the files. Last year I challenged a friend, who is a big Iron-Man fan, to make his costume and I'll make mine. RPF has been a huge help to both of us. I'm approaching my Batman Costume from a pepakura standpoint. I've learned several lessons, for instance, my Cowl was just a tad too small, so I'm modifying it as creatively as I can, I am moving the Baleish chinstrap (a more rounded exposure of the chin) and going back to a more Westish chinstrap (more squared exposure of the chin).

So far, I've got the cowl papercrafted, the neck, and a third of the chest armor.

Huge thanks to this website and all those who have contributed in someway to the knowledge I have accrued along the way!



(I tried to add other tags, but since I'm new, it said no.)

Good start.

A great start, indeed! That looks to be a very clean build of a fairly complex pep file. Nice to have you on board, db! :thumbsup

Thanks for the encouragement. I may post the old Storm Trooper pics here later today. Even though, this is a DC thread, I'll put it in here. I forgot to say, my first attempt at a prop was building a lightsaber about 14 years ago.

As for Batman, I haven't had a chance the past several (k)nights to actually do anything...but I'm trying to get my buddy to put his Iron-Man work up on this site. He's flat out rocking the build! Thanks again.

Chest armor is mostly done now. I need to add 2 pieces to the side rib area, the supports, a left collar bone area piece. A few gaps opened up...I think I can "fix" those once I resin and bondo the suit...which will hopefully be very soon. Below is the completed-ish chest plate armor.

Quick question. Best way to work with OBJ files?

View attachment 330809

Previous pic did not post...hmm, trying again. Completed-ish chest armor.

Well I applied fiberglass and resin yesterday. The mask is too small...so I'm trying to modify it. Chest plate looks good. Working on gauntlets now. Time is fleeting...wow. I need to find more files.

That armor looks pretty cool. It's from that Desert Storm Dark Knight model, right? Do you have a link to the file, or is it something you made yourself?

Hey DarthStevenus. I downloaded a bunch of files about 2 years ago with the intent of making the costume back then. It is the Desert Storm DK model. I see that feed is dead at this point. I have a OBJ files I still need to do something with. The following link has a bunch of info about that specific build: http://www.redheadedseamstress.com/2013/10/batman-costume-sources-pepakura/

I've been out of town a lot the past few weeks so I've gotten very little done. I started on a gauntlet and fiberglassed the cowl and chestplate. The cowl ended up being incredibly tight (actually too tight...I tried it on after I fiberglassed it and but some dings in my head!), so I am making some adjustments to make it work. I found if I cut up to the seems there's enough give to make it slide on. I think I will expand and fiberglass those. Sand the tar out of the inside and use a thin spray foam on the inside.

If the cowl don't fit, you mustn't quit!

I'll start sanding soon. Then on to bondo.

I need to add my pics. This past week, I finished a very rough version (bondo, sand, and paint rush job) to finish this for a week of camp. It's the torso, gauntlets, biceps, cape, and cowl.

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From a distance, it looked pretty good. Obviously still need to work on the legs and now I need to fill in the divots with more bondo and sanding work.

By far the coolest experience was last night, seeing the shadow cast in the full moon with the cape, gauntlets, and cowl...awesome! We had a faculty hunt at the camp I needed this for. Captain America, Netflix's Daredevil, and Iron-Man were all there. It was a blast. now..to fix and finish.