Batman costume - Halloween 2014

Just about finished the second gauntlet, all I have to do is wait a few days for the paint to become scratch resistant and then spray on a clear coat and attach the straps. Figured I'd take some shots while wearing the gloves. I was worried I'd have to get new gloves since there are navy blue patches on them and I don't plan on having navy blue anywhere else on the suit, but nobody will notice in the dark. Plus I do really like the look of the gloves, they're kind of unique I think.

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EDIT: Okay, seriously, does anyone know any foolproof way to properly post pictures on these forums? I just did it this exact same way two posts ago and it worked fine.
 
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Went to Walmart yesterday (they have the lowest prices on fabric, from what I could tell) and bought 6 yards of black satin 100% polyester fabric at about 58 inches wide. It's got the exact sheen to it that I wanted, and it's just about the right weight. I used this pattern for the cape, which I found on this thread. I just got done cutting out the pieces, and hopefully I'll get to sewing them together later this afternoon. Here are some pictures.

The fabric

I made this big template for the panels out of cardstock and poster board

Traced out the templates with white chalk, trying to keep them as close together as possible to save fabric

After tracing out all the pieces

After cutting out each panel

Arranging the panels to get an idea of the size of the cape

It takes up about half my kitchen floor, which is to say it's pretty big. Looking forward to completing this cape, hopefully by the end of the day.

EDIT: I'm also playing around with the idea of putting some small "pockets" at the ends of my cape so that I can slip some black dowel rods in them. That way I'll be able to grab them and get that dramatic Batman pose. Hopefully the cape will hide the rods.
 
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Yesterday I hemmed up the sides of my cape, and today I bought some 1/8" brass rods at Lowe's and stuck them in the hems. Sorry I couldn't get a full shot of the cape, didn't have enough room to take the picture.

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Yesterday I ordered some motorcycle pants off Amazon.

Biker Gear black motorcycle waterproof pants

I think I'm going to get one of these Take Five compression shirts as well.

Take Five compression running shirt

I like the trim that runs under the chest and down the arms. I'm probably going to cut some chest and ab pads out of foam to make it look armored underneath.

I've been thinking of how to attach my cape, and I think I'm going to make a big shoulder pad out of sintra, similar to the Noel Batsuit and this one from Gotham Knight. I bought a bunch of hook and eyes at Walmart the other day that I'll use to attach the cape to the shoulder pad. I'll glue them to the insides of the sintra pieces and sew the hooks onto the cape. I figured five would do it, one on the front of each shoulder, one on the back of each shoulder, and one in the middle of my back. I drew up some quick sketches, maybe I'll post a picture of that later.

It's sort of a shame to have to make a big shoulder pad like this, since the one part of the Batman look that I could pull off without any padding is the big broad shoulders. But it seems like the best way to attach the cape. Also, if I connect the shoulder pad to the bat symbol on the front, I should be able to hide that logo on the compression shirt.
 
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Well, the pants I ordered got here today, and they're not exactly what I thought they would be. Tags sewn all up the front with brand names on them (which weren't shown in the pictures on Amazon), and they're way too thick. Guess I should have expected them to be that thick, since they're motorcycle pants, but whatever. I just took a trip to the closest UPS store and returned them. I guess that means I'm back to my original idea of some cargo/tactical pants. I was hoping for something that looked a little more interesting, but they'll have to do.
 
Made a prototype for the shoulder pads. I didn't have anything big like poster board, so I had to tape together 9 sheets of cardstock in a 3x3 rectangle and work from there. This is the third version so far, and it's probably pretty close to what the final product will look like. I wanted to see what it looked like with some of the other pieces of the suit, so I tried it on with the cape, belt, and one of my leftover paper cowls.

Batman getting goatse'd.
 
Is anyone familiar with this compression shirt/pants?

Tesla Gear Men's Compression Base Layer

It looks like it has a cool texture, and if the only logos are on the belt area of the pants, I might give them a try. I'm cautious about trusting the pictures on Amazon, since I've bought things before specifically because the pictures didn't show any obvious logos, only to find that there were brand names everywhere once I unpackaged them.
 
Back piece of the cowl is basically done now. Just need to clear coat it. It didn't turn out absolutely perfect, you can see a few tiny spots that could have been filled in or sanded down more in some of the shots. But I'm extremely happy with it, especially since it's my first time ever doing this. Hoping to get the front piece done before the 31st so I can show it to my friend when he comes to visit.
 
Thanks IceTyrant, I've been trying to make sure I get at least a tiny little something done on this costume every day. Also I plan on posting the pep file and the .obj of the cowl one of these days if anyone is interested. I just have to change part of the model so I've been kind of putting it off, out of laziness, but I'll get it done soon. It doesn't have the holes for the straps though, I figured other people might want to connect the pieces some other way. I just cut the holes on mine with a hot knife after fiberglassing.
 
Thanks bolinmedia! Going to do some sanding and probably another coat of bondo on the front piece of the cowl today. I can't wait to be done with it, it's so close.
 
Today I trimmed up the holes for the straps with my dremmel and sanded down a few more areas. Then I sprayed some primer. Going to try and get the finishing touches done later this afternoon. The corners of the mouth in particular need a considerable amount of work. Bondo tends to get bunched up in there and diminish those crisp angles. Going to have to cut it out with my hot knife probably.
 
Well... I was working on the front piece for the cowl all last night, trying to get it ready to paint. Eventually it got too late and I wanted to go to bed so I figured I'd get it done today. So I woke up a few hours ago and got right to work filling in all those tiny little air bubbles and low spots and sanding once everything dried. I was ready to paint, so I set the cowl down on the table and went to sweep up all the bondo dust on the floor. While I was sweeping I bumped the table and my cowl piece fell off and hit hard concrete. There are about 4 big cracks, two of them in very inconvenient places. I tried to brush off the rage I was feeling as quick as possible and get right to work on fixing them. I fiberglassed the spots I could to give extra reinforcement, but I really don't know what to do with the cracks in the bondo. I've had a little luck sealing up small cracks with super glue, but some of these are like 2 inches long. Anyone have any advice on how to deal with cracks in bondo?
 
Cleaned up the cracks on the cowl with superglue yesterday. And then got the piece painted. Here's a shot of me wearing it (I haven't sewn on the small straps on the sides because I need to repaint part of it). I'm also wearing my shoulder pad thing. It doesn't conform perfectly to my face, in fact there's a big gap on the upper part of the eyes and the corners of the mouth, but I'm happy with the results given the time I had and the fact that I've never done this before.

EDIT: I also played around with the idea of making some lenses with LEDs (these are just cardstock) but I don't really think there's room for that. Something to remember for future versions of this cowl that I might make.
 
Halloween is coming up and I'm trying to get this costume finished. Progress so far is pretty good. I went with this compression shirt by Take Five (my shoulder pad covers the logo on the chest), and these Propper tactical pants. The color between them isn't a 100% match obviously, but it's damn close, and both pieces of clothing will be separated by the belt so it should look great. I also took some photos with me wearing some of the pieces and Photoshopped this.

EDIT: The pants are pretty baggy and I'm thinking about taking them in around the thighs (calves won't be an issue because I'll be wearing knee/shin guards). Anyone have any advice on that?
 
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