BVS Batman Beyond

[karsonhkent]

Hi everyone I'm creating a new costume build of Batman Beyond. Most of the cosplays and costumes that I’ve seen are either really plain and are just a sub dye suit or are make to have an armored look and are way to bulky. I mostly want to base it off of the BVS universe but I’m also taking in a few other influences. I want to stay true to the character but at the same time give it a grounded, realistic look while still giving a personal unique twist to the suit. My designs are based of off: Batman V Superman Batfleck, Arkham Knight, Arkham City Beyond Skin, Batman Beyond Animated Series, and some fan art.

To give it a grounded realistic look I’m building it in 3 layers: The inner suit, the armor, and the outer suit.
The inner suit it going to be a sub dye suit. This suit will give the illusion of a futuristic suit with a circuitry design like in the animated series. It will also serve as something to to connect the armor to.
The armor is going to be used to give it it’s ground realistic look. The armor will be mostly based of the anatomy to give it a muscular look, but will also take some inspiration from Arkham knight as to how the armor plates move and separate in order to stay flexible.
The outer skin is going to used to give it the true comic book look that I want it to have. One thing I really loved about the Batfleck suit is how it was so comic book accurate, so I want to keep that theme while keeping it grounded in a universe like that. I plan on giving using a fabric similar to the the Batfleck suit has. I’m going to have a tear down one of the pecks so that the circuitry and the armor shows and looks like battle damage.
I do have a few problems:

• The cowl is a crucial piece to the costume. I need it to flow and look like the rest of the suit. Most of the helmets I’ve seen haven’t looked very good or don’t fit this type of look at all. What I plan on doing is creating a bust of my head so I can create the perfect latex cowl for my head. My problem is how I can get the fabric on it to cover the helmet without looking like a terrible mess. The cowl has to be covered otherwise there is going to be a weird difference between the rest of the costume.

• I’ve never sewn gloves before and I don’t want them to look like a crappy pair of gardening gloves. Does anyone know where to get a good template and maybe some instructions?

• The boots. I need something slim looking (like the character) and comfortable. The best thing I could think of is using a pair of nike sneakers as a base and building off that. I don’t want it to obviously look like I’m wearing sneakers under it so I was thinking of using EVA foam to make it flow nicely along the shin and foot. Ideas?

If anyone has ideas or any feedback then I’d love to hear what you have to say. I’ll be pretty up to date on here and will keep you guys informed on all build updates. I probably won’t be building for a little bit longer due to my last finals approaching. I will however take this time to do a lot of research. Thanks everyone!

 

[Lightslinger]

Very cool concept, the build sounds similar to Shawn Webber's style, especially his blue nightwing suit.

Nailing the cowl/face will be the toughest part, I've yet to see that pulled off perfectly because if you try to imitate the animated style, it looks strange in real life. I personally think a real life Batman Beyond suit's cowl would be a like a cross between Spiderman, MCU's Vision or a really slim armor Iron Man.

Attached pictures of Webber's Nightwing and the art I found that made me think of a Vision-esque Batman Beyond mask.

 

[Vox]

Sounds like an ambitious project! But it also sounds like you have already given a lot of thought and research time to it, which is great.

For the cowl, if you are casting it in latex, you might look into painting it with a matte leather paint. Leather paint is made to flex (and it does, beautifully), so you can eliminate the natural sheen of the latex without covering it in fabric. Yes, that means it will have a slightly different appearance than the rest of the costume, but there are simply way too many intricate lines on the cowl. Even if you did manage to finally sew together a fabric cowl, it would be so covered in seams that it would not look good.

The one other way I can think of doing it would be to make a face shell (like those used in Spider-Man costumes), with the outside being an actual face rather than smoothed out. Then you could use spray adhesive and, very slowly and meticulously, lay fabric across the face. I've never seen anything done like that, so I cannot guarantee that it will work. Just a thought I had.

For the gloves, I would buy a cheap pair of skin-tight gloves (opera gloves, for example), cut them apart at the seam(s), and use that as your template for your own. Though I'm sure a quick internet search will give you several glove patterns that you can purchase, most of which will tell you how to size it based on how big you want them to be.

You might look into scuba/diving boots. They are typically low profile, and come up past the ankle. But if you intend on wearing them around for hours at a time, I strong recommend attaching a more comfortable sole to them (gym shoe, running shoe, combat/work boot, etc.).

 

[sp1derman]

I have thought about a fabric cowl for a while and think the best way is to sculpt the mask and make a vacuform copy of it.

Remove the ears and add a lip to the bottom of them so there is something to catch cover the ears in fabric.

Make a hood of the same fabric spray you shell with spray adhesive and pull the hood over the shell and work the material into the shapes.

Remove the ear holes and insert the ears and fix them in place then cut the eyes out

Sent From The Batcave

 

[karsonhkent]

Loving the feedback from you guys! Im liking some of the tips you guys got and i think I might try some of them out.

- - - Updated - - -

Very cool concept, the build sounds similar to Shawn Webber's style, especially his blue nightwing suit.

Nailing the cowl/face will be the toughest part, I've yet to see that pulled off perfectly because if you try to imitate the animated style, it looks strange in real life. I personally think a real life Batman Beyond suit's cowl would be a like a cross between Spiderman, MCU's Vision or a really slim armor Iron Man.

Attached pictures of Webber's Nightwing and the art I found that made me think of a Vision-esque Batman Beyond mask.

View attachment 625735
View attachment 625736

Yeah I've been following Shawn Webber for a while and took some inspiration from him without realizing it lol. I agree with the mask and thats why I'm making a perfect fit latex one for my face, giving it a look similar to the picture you added.

 

[karsonhkent]

I had my fun with some photoshop with the same

 

[bear89]

Maybe this could help
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=201312&page=6

 

[karsonhkent]

So Ive been looking into the outer fabric. I got in touch with an account on etsy that makes replica Batflick costumes and they said they can do one thats all black. He wasnt able to give me too much information on their process, but it is a screen printing process using 3D inks. I think Im going to try and attempt to screen print on black fabric myself first, and then if not then use them.

 

[JaxAndTheMoon]

I know you said that you were going for more of the animated series look, but have you looked into the Arkham Knight version of him? It's my personal favorite rendition of the suit, since it is very similar to Nolan's TDK armor design. If you slimmed it down a bit I'm sure you could come up with something unique.

 

[karsonhkent]

I know you said that you were going for more of the animated series look, but have you looked into the Arkham Knight version of him? It's my personal favorite rendition of the suit, since it is very similar to Nolan's TDK armor design. If you slimmed it down a bit I'm sure you could come up with something unique.

Is this what you mean? I think this is cool and all but my main inspiration for this project was the new batman in BVS and how it is so much like the version from the comics. I like this armored version and everything but it just isnt the look im going for. If i was going for something that was suppose to come out of the Nolan universe then yeah I agree this is something that would be so cool.

 

[karsonhkent]

Maybe this could help
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=201312&page=6

Thanks this was actually really helpful. In the end the finished product of each costume are going to be very different. One of my biggest problems is the mask/helmet, and this was a good source for that. I think for my first cowl Im going to just make a resin cowl by slush casting a cowl made perfectly for my head. After that I will cover it with a 4 way stretch fabric that I will screen print a textured pattern on before hand.

 

[BeginnerBatman]

love the idea for this, i'll definitely be following