Batman Beyond-Star Wars Style

[Teroch]

I acctually have two costume projects oging on, the Star Trek Hazard Suit and this little number. This one will probably be done first, and the Hazard Suit later since I still need to learn how to sew.

I came up with this some time ago over at thedentedhelmet.com(TDH), a Star Wars Boba/Jango/Mandalorian armor fan website. What it is, is doing crossover costumes of mandalorian(mando) armor with other series. For instance this Judge Dredd-Mando. Now of course, these can get as off-beat from the standard Boba/Jango as possible, so the field is wide open to the imagaination. I myself, am doing a Batman-Mando, in the style of Batman Beyond.

I started this about a year or so ago, but with school and work, I've only worked on it in my off hours. However, I'm almost finished with the 3D pre-pro, doing mostly critique work now, and should be able to at least get the soft parts started soon. I'm having a guy over at TDH make the armor into metal, and paint it all. Here's my photobucket with the current pics:
Batman Beyond-Mando
There has been some changes since the pics shown below. I have new cod piece, the shins have been redone to be simplier to make in metal, and I also split the collar pieces off the back plate for the same reason. A couple straps will connect everything to make them secure.
I also made the normal Batman Beyond Bat-Suit. This way, I can wear everything for two really hot days, then be cooler in just the normal bat-suit for the last day or so. Take the armor off, switch the gloves, cowl, and belt boxes, and there ya go. (The bat suit is in a sub-album in the above link)

Besides funding (stinking car broke down; fixed now), my only problem is designing the helmet. A friends gave me the idea of making a face plate for the standard "T" visor, and using a normal latex mask underneath. This is the kind of style I'm talking about:
I'm toying around with something similar to this:
Mandalore Face Plate
It would be a whole lot different, but the basic idea is there. What's good is that the wraith like appearance would be kept with that.
However, I still need a bat cowl that has long enough ears. Everything else I've seen is too short. I don't want overly long ears, but something that seems reasonable, yet still in contrast to the show.

So, what do you all think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


*SEE BELOW FOR UPDATES*

 

[Teroch]

Since it's all part of the same costume project, I'll just post the props in here as well.

This is the tranquilizer rifle from the episode "Slicer". Abunch of kids were sliced with animal DNA, and Batma used this is change them back to normal. Thought it would be good to use as a normal tranq rifle anyways, so here it is. It'll be a 3d model-to-prop item, probably with polyurathane. If people want one, I'll do a run later on.

I still have the grip and shoulder stock to do, but I have the main body, mag, and gun sight all finished. The magazine will be removable, and probably will have some "darts" modeled in later. The gun sight will be molded separately and attached by scews. I have insets modeled in, and I just need to cut the screw heads down. And no, I'm not molding screws :lol

*SEE BELOW*

 

[Nicky]

Awesome

 

[Teroch]

Re: Batman Beyond-Star Wars Style *PIC HEAVY*

Thanks, I'm having lots of fun with this one. I'm hoping to get it on to actually making it by at least december or janurary, after building up enough funds.

Ok, huge update, long post. *PIC HEAVY*

Finished the rifle for now. I'll probably critique the grip later.

Pretty much done with the suit and armor, so all I have to do now is the helmet, gauntlets, and the pistol. The pistol will be simple, the same with the gaunts, but the helmet will take a bit of doing.

An update on the suit itself. I've mostly been refining the models themselves to make them look better. I've beefed up the arms so they don't look tiny compared to the rest of the body. I've also switched back to the old shins, and put in normal Jango Fett thighs plates.

Here's a semi-beauty shot of the bat-suit and the armor over it. The armor looks almost real in this one, and that's just default scene lighting:thumbsup

Front to show off the thighs. Notice the newly preportioned arms. :lol

No jumpsuit:

Here's what I got modeled out and planned for soft parts, and will probably end up sewing most of them.

First, the bat-suit. A jumpsuit of course with the bat-symbol sewn on, or something. Still figuring this part out. The thought is, is that I can just take my armor off after a couple hot days at cons, and just switch over the gloves, belt accessories, and cowl (head gear) to be normal batman. i.e. two-costumes-in-one.

Next up is the vest. It will be a front zip up pattern when made. The collar you see is a dicky, the same thing as the stormtrooper neck seal, minus the ribs. The black above that is part of the jumpsuit.

This is the belt and leg straps. The belt will be used with and without armor. The leg straps are stiched together, and the leg loop will be adjustable with one of those plastic buckles.

Next is the belt accessories. First up is the armor set. Black boxes, that may or may not be functional, and silver cylinders in homage to all the past bat-belts. I'll probably go with the Jedi "pen top" route when making those. The buckle is custom. Don't know how I'm going to get that done. any suggestions?

Next set of belt accessories will be for the bat-suit. The blet and buckle will remain, while the black boxes and cylinders will be replaced with silver boxes, like in the show.

The holster and leg pouch. The holster will have an extra mag pouch attached to the front. The leg pouch will be good for carrying stuff at cons.

The straps you see here are what will connect the armor plates. I'll use velcro for friction to stop them from slipping (metal armor), and the straps will hold it steady. This only shows small stips, but almost all of them will be connected in one big harness. The ribs hold the breast plate, stomach, and lower back; there's a strap that leads ip and over the shoulder/collar that helps to hold the collar piece and upper chest piece on either side, plus an extra strap for just the collar armor to make it more secure, and strap leading off from the first strap for the shoulder bells (not shown); one small strap that's between the top point of the stomach plate and the bottom middle of the chest plate.

Lastly, 4 mag pouches, similar to the on on the sholder, will be attached to either side of the rib straps. Mando Rule: "Never enter a fight without a gun and lots of ammo." ;D

That's pretty much it. The gloves and boots I'm still looking for. I'll probably just use normal neoprene gloves, and riding boots, or something. I do want to make the normal batsuit at least a bit more realistic than the cartoon. for the classic fins (besides on the armor's gauntlets), I'm going to make some simple gaunts with the two large fins like in the show. I'll also probably put some pieceson to show the top-side small batarang launcher, and bottom-side large batarang storage/ejection port.


So, what do you all think? I hope you understood everything. Please forgive any typos, as it's almost 3 am :lol

 

[Namgorf]

this is one of the most imaginative costumes yet, Batman Beyond has always been a favorite but i never thought to make it real GJ cant wait to try my own suit now thanks to you :cool

 

[Teroch]

Glad I could help

OK here now. Deciding to get bored with another project, here's my helmet idea. I wanted to keep up with the wraith/ghost appearence, so I opted for the scouttrooper looking helmet. I also found the same style used on the Predator helmet, the old and new cylon bots, and various other SW helmets. It seems to be a reaccuring theme in sci-fi. I do plan on protruding the "mouth" area like the Scout Trooper's, to see what it looks like. It's still a WIP, so don't be suprised at any pinching you see.
Some early shots:

Twenty minutes later. I'm just playing around with the cheeks for now. I'm thinking of having them flow into the "mouth" instead of having a sharp/rounded edge like this:

 

[Jawafive]

The idea is pretty neat. Never seen anything like it before. Only thing I don't like is batman carrying a gun. Nice job otherwise!

 

[Teroch]

Tazer. Not a gun, a tazer. and a tranquilizer rifle. Maybe even a net bazooka down the line :love I'm having fun with it.

I've been told the mask looks like the goblin from spiderman 3. I'm gonna sharpen up the edges on the visor area, possibly widen the mouth as well. I wanna get away from the goblin, or any other character. Batman ony.

 

[Teroch]

OK, got some ears going and reworked a previous version of the helmet that's just the front, and sharpened up the corners of the visor a bit to get am ore "batty" look.

Here's it is with small medium and large ears. The large ears match the cartoon series, but I thoguht I'd test out different lengths.

These small, swept back ears were inspired by a Batman Beyond motorcycle figurine.

medium, free-standing

large, free-standing. I like these, and I might sweep them back a little bit.

 

[Neon Sentry]

The small swept-back ears remind me too much of Azrael's bat duds. Part of BB's signature look are his extremely long ears, so you probably wouldn't want to lose that, however, considering your other liberties and the fact that this is your project, I won't take any offense to this being viewed as just some meddling.

Awesome work so far, I myself have been working on my own BB armor, but it hasn't gone past 2d. I simply don't have the 3d skill to start translating it.

 

[Teroch]

Ya, I'm going to use the longer ears. Just thought I'd tinker a bit.

Well, besides going to buy the $3,000 3DS program, you could use gmax, a free version of 3dsmax. Go here: turbosquid/gmax to download it. It doesn't have a renderer, but I there's a plug-in for it. It's good for straight modeling.

Then to learn how to use it, you can go to 3dbuzz for their free video training manuals (VTM) on 3DS max. Since gmax is just a watered down version for game makers, the contorls and tool are pretty much the same. And using the units scale (1unit=1inch), you can make it to a real life scale. Easier for when/if you take it over to a cad program for blueprints.

Then you have blender.org, which also has video training (both are free).

 

[Neon Sentry]

Cool links, thank you. I tried Blender back in the day, but it was incomprehensible to me at the time, and OpenFX gives the image quality of cheap commercials from the early '90s, so I was a bit disillusioned with free modellers.

 

[Teroch]

Ya, I know what you mean. But blender has been used in blockbuster movies, and other major projects, so it's not like it's a horrible program. It's just the user interface is difficult for blender newbies.

Glad I could help! :thumbsup

 

[Rico]

Very nice concept! Brilliant and imaginative. Are you the same Koza-Toragh from CT.net?

 

[Teroch]

Very nice concept! Brilliant and imaginative. Are you the same Koza-Toragh from CT.net?

Yep, the one and only "Pitiless Klingon Goat" :lol

 

[Bountys Hunted]

WOW!!! I'm jaw-dropping amazed at your work!! I love your Judge Dredd Mando, it is turning out SUPERB!! Very, very cool outfit.

Your Batman Beyond Mando...another WOW!! I've not been a fan of the outfit, but seeiing your concept just is stunning. That looks like it will be flat out awesome! Great, great work, looking forward to seeing more and more!

-Rex

 

[Teroch]

Thanks a bunch! Sometime down the line I do plan on doing others, like Wonder Women and Green Lantern. Don't know about Superman though. What kind of armor do you make for the man of steel?

But alas, the Judge Dredd crossover isn't mine. That's Valcar's magnificent creation. He even got props from Lee Townsend, an artist that's worked on several Judge Dred projects. :thumbsup
Here's some info on it:Judge Valcar = 2000ad Crossover Project

 

[Teroch]

Ok, so I worked up the ears to where I think I want them, and I'm now playing around with different visor shapes. The one I have been using reminds me too much of power rangers....:lol

Here's one that's a bit more mando-esque. Don't know if I'll use it for bamtan, but it is an idea for a later mando design. I put silver back on so you can see the detail better:

 

[Redboykliq69]

Most impressive!!!thumbsupthumbsup:thumbsup

 

[blufive]

I must say, I was skeptical when I read the title but I really dig this.

:thumbsup

My only "build" for the project is to shorten the ears just a tad. You'll have problems walking through door ways otherwise.