Batman Arkham Origins: Resin Utility Belt[Finished]

[Reznor9]

I've for some time been making my costume and props out of foam, which is still a medium I love and continue to work with. I have however been wanting to expand my skills, tools and available resources to try other methods of prop building. Having recently purchased a small 3D printer, I resurfaced some 3D files I got from Teragon several years ago back when I had no means to use them. It was with excitement that I finally was able to print these beauties out. Requiring a little modification for my purposes I've been slowly building them up in portions using sculpting putty and sanding the hell out of them all around. I'm hoping to mold and cast myself a more game accurate version of the Origins belt using Smooth-On Products unless anyone has any suggestions for more cost effective alternatives.

My experience in molding/casting and 3D printing is level zero novice and Smooth-On products at a bit pricy so I don't expect this to be a quick project as I've only enough in my budget for their pourable silicon mold starter kit as recommended by Valor. I'll be posting my progress here and welcome any comments and/or advice.

Reference images from the Neca Origins Figirine


Starting out out my project with this kit for those interested:

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Decided to start with the capsule/pod/cylinder thing. Was one piece of my design that kind of was a pain to make. The way I've done it in the past was to repurpose a plastic sprinkler head. In the end it's a decent replication but not game accurate. This one looks so much better. Printed, sanded and assembled. I then took it to my belt sander and flattened out one side so it's easier to glue to the surface of the belt.
a couple YouTube videos later I was able to build a simple mold box out of foamboard and hot glue. Glued my piece inside the box and used OOMOO 30. After 6 hours I was able to cast my first two molds using smooth-cast 300. Perfect replica and a fun first experience making my first mold/cast.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Moving along I then started on the belt buckle. I originally was just printing it for size and used a horrible resolution. I then went to sanding and ended up using it as my actual master piece. Had to made some changes to the underside of the buckle and fill in a lot of hollow portions as well as fix the effects of ABS warping. After I felt satisfied with the surface I started the mold. Same method as previous piece. Another successful pull. Next will be the pouches.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Decided to remake the capsule. After studying my Neca figure some more I think the piece should be a bit larger. So working on modifing that right now. Also trying to clean up these pouches. The 3D file was bad or something and when opening the file the item is the size of a fingernail. Anyhow sizing it up results in terrible resolution. Hopefully I can smooth it out without issue. Been at it for a couple mins and feels a little better already. Printed two different sizes as it seems the pouches on the sides are smaller than the ones in the front of the belt.

 

[CosBlade]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Looks like you're off to a great start! What kind of belt do you plan on mounting them to?

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Looks like you're off to a great start! What kind of belt do you plan on mounting them to?

I can keep the belt strap as foam with a nylon webbing behind it like I do now... Or I'm planning on experimenting and making a mold and cast it using urethane rubber for a flexible belt... Last method would be making an interlocking linked style belt and continue to cast using the smooth cast 300. There are a couple things to consider. If i go with the urethane rubber like vytaflex I think I might have issues painting it. If I go with the urethane plastic (SO300) then it won't have any flex and will require a linked setup which may or may not look very cool. But truthfully I'm just not familiar enough with these materials to know which to pick as of yet. I'll have to do some research but in the end I think I want to go all in with whatever material I choose so I'm not trying to glue and adhere two different materials to one another.

 

[closet batfan]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Looking great so far.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Looking great so far.

Thanks. Just got my Christmas bonus so need to decide what material I want to use. I hear good things about mold max 30... In opposition to OOMOO 30 for longer shelf life. So might try that. Takes a lot longer to demold but it's more tear resistant and it's cheaper by the gallon.

Im also contemplating going from smooth cast 300 to vytaflex 40 as that's a more flexible material to make the belt of but I need to do a little more research as it doesn't take paint well. So I'll have to dye the mix or something.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Just updating this. Haven't had much time to work on my prototype. Finally smoothed out the pouch and decided to mold it out with Mold Max 30. Made my first casting of the pouch again using Smooth Cast 300 and it came out pretty nice. Next thing I'm going to do is remold the buckle and thicken it by about half an inch.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

I have a lot of sanding to do to the buckle before it's ready for molding... But it's coming along ever so slowly as I only have so much time to dedicate to this project. Hopefully I'll be able to find the time this week and knock it all out.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Still haven't made the master pieces for the belt itself, but decided to mock up a beta build to test it for finish, weight and such. The belt itself is still made of foam but the pouches, capsule and buckle are all molded and cast in smooth cast 300. Belt feels heavy in hand but once you snap it on you don't notice the weight at all, truth be told it makes the thing feel more authentic being that batmans utility belt would probably have some weight to it. Anyhow I'm pretty happy with this test piece so far. Moving forward though I still have to finish my edits to the buckles master mold and im going to try and mold the belt in segments so that it has no foam components when I have the finished product.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Finished cutting my belt link. Made of sintra and styrene and some modeling putty. It's not 100% game accurate because if I did it that way it would have to be cast in a flexible material. For me since the belt in the game looks Metallic, I feel like in the real world it would be made using a solid linked approach... So I think I stayed true enough to the source material but took some artistic liberties to simplify it and create a linked version. Will it look good? Won't know until I try it. Going to go through the primer/filler/sanding process right now and hopefully cast a mold later today.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Mold boxes all setup. Now my least favorite part. Calculating how much A:B to mix to fill these molds...

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Crossing my fingers on a proper mold. From what I felt was a through mix and uniform color consistently when pouring... I fear that the batch was bad or that pockets of unmixed product made their way in as now towards the end of the cure time I'm seeing small pools of lighter shaded silicon on the surface of the mold as if parts of the A:B mix might have separated during the 24 hr cure time. Upon suggestion of the folks at RAM I'm putting them under heat lamps for the duration of the cure. Not sure how that would help but I'll it if it keeps me from having to redo the whole process over again and wait another 24 hours. 2 more hours to go then I'll demold and see if the molds are intact and usable or just pink pieces of trash.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Almost ready for a production prototype. Just need to decide on some color schemes and find a decent belt to mount them onto. Sorry for the use of the filter, but the image details are washed out since everything is white. I'll post better pics once i splash some paint on these.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Does it come in black? I think yes.


Gold coming soon...

 

[closet batfan]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Wow looking great, any plans to make the pouches useable?

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Wow looking great, any plans to make the pouches useable?

Thanks. But at the moment I have no plans nor any idea how I could make the pouches functional. They are just not-functional replica props.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Laying out my test casting of my latest Arkham Origins Belt design.. All the components have been cast out of smooth cast 300. Pouches have blocks of foam embedded within their core to cut down on the weight. Just need to clean it up for painting and assembly.

 

[Reznor9]

Re: Batman Arkham Origins Utility Belt

Finally got around to finishing this thing.
Laid all the pieces out after cleaning up all the rough edges using my belt sander.


Moving on to paint I primered all the pieces and gave tnem a couple coats of classic silver.
I then added a black acrylic wash for a more grubby metallic look.
After that I used some aluminum oil paint to dry brush some weathering.
I then added several coats of acrylic satin sealer to preserve the paintjob.