callmemilo's Man of Steel costume build

[callmemilo]

So I don't know if this will be to display or to wear, but I'm starting to put together pieces for my own Man of Steel suit. I've already designed and printed a pretty nice looking dye-sub pattern (available through Frontier Costuming if anyone's interested), but with this build I'm aiming for something that has all the depth and detail of the real thing. This suit is also going to be a great motivator to get in shape and stay there, lol.



The first major part to tackle is going to be the bodysuit. I could easily print my own pattern with the files I've made, but I'm eager to get something that reacts to different lighting in a similar way the screen-used suit does... that weird kinda metallic sheen. My plan is to silk-screen the chainmail pattern over some shiny navy lycra and see how the resulting fabric turns out. I should be able to divide the bodysuit pattern into smaller sections so I shouldn't need any ridiculously large screens to do it. In theory I should be able to use one comfortably sized screen to do multiple panels on different parts of the suit, since the chainmail seems pretty uniform.



I'm going to be using microsuede for the cape, and planning to get a urethane shield from Pannaus Props, but kind of stuck on where to get the other rubber pieces from (belt, waist armour, etc). If anyone has any suggestions I'd be really grateful.

 

[callmemilo]

Been talking alot with a screen printer (who used to work with Vivienne Westwood of all people!) and he sounds confident that we can print the 3d raised chainmail on the lycra samples I've sent him. He's running some tests at the moment, so we'll see how that goes. I've had a huge amount of difficulty finding glissenette fabric in the UK, so might have to substitute it for this lycra and see what we can come up with.

I've also not really been totally happy with the rubber trim pieces I've seen so far, so talking to a friend who does 3d modelling about getting some pieces plotted and milled. With any luck I'll be able to cast and pull my own pieces for this suit.

Oh, and my Pannaus shield is on it's way! Super-excited!

 

[callmemilo]

Been working on putting the pattern together for the chainmail, and working on getting the scale just right for the print.

But here's a coloured and rendered preview to show you how my chainmail pattern is looking.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

If you can get the scale to match Fulvio's shield, you've got a winner!

 

[callmemilo]

If you can get the scale to match Fulvio's shield, you've got a winner!

Actually, got my Pannaus shield in the mail yesterday! The shield itself is great, but unfortunately the paint has already started to crack. It looks like the paint may just be spray painted over the top of the shield, instead of fully embedded. That said, I'm sure it's difficult to get that metallic finish in urethane rubber any other way. I'm gonna try getting in touch with Fulvio and seeing if there's anything that can be done about it.

The other minor problem I have, is that I have quite a large chest and broad shoulders, so I may need a slightly larger shield for the suit to look right on me.

At least Pannaus' is a very decent looking shield, and I can use it for scale reference with the chainmail of the suit. And if worse comes to worse, I can try 3d modelling and printing my own shield instead.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Did you get my PM the other day?

 

[callmemilo]

Just collected my 4mm laser engraved MDF shield, which will get sealed, cast in silicone, and pulled in a (hopefully metallic) red urethane rubber

 

[masked rider]

View attachment 330198View attachment 330197
Just collected my 4mm laser engraved MDF shield, which will get sealed, cast in silicone, and pulled in a (hopefully metallic) red urethane rubber

Look Nice bro... what's the size of this emblem?

 

[callmemilo]

Look Nice bro... what's the size of this emblem?

It's 33.5cm by 22cm, which I believe Pannaus suggested was the scale of the original shield. I also tried to centre the chainmail texture on it, as I noticed most have it offset for some reason. But left the gold sections empty after reading your thread and learning that they were simply painted areas of the bodysuit fabric.

I still need to figure out how I'm gonna make the trim though haha.

 

[woodyROM]

The shield looks great. What is the thickness? It looks thinner than others I've seen, which is great because the original looks to be quite thin.

 

[callmemilo]

The shield looks great. What is the thickness? It looks thinner than others I've seen, which is great because the original looks to be quite thin.

It's a mere 4mm thick. I want to get a good mix of thin and flexible with durability.

 

[BR2814]

Cool! Interested to see how this new project turns out.

I'm wearing callmemilo's suit (Frontier Costuming Steel Supersuit) in my avatar. To see his detail of this suit there are more pics in my album and in this thread:

http://www.therpf.com/f77/man-steel-superman-superfamily-smallvilles-blur-wondercon-2014-a-213267/

Yes, a Superman suit is actually a great motivator to stay in shape and keep yourself there. Lol :thumbsup

 

[AJ2013]

Just remember, the chainmail colour is actually pewter with a slight metallic sheen to it. Just a tip lol! And the fabric is actually also pewter more to blue.

 

[callmemilo]

Recently found this very cool looking micro suede for the cape. I'll let you guys know how it looks next to the bold red stuff I'd previously ordered

 

[AJ2013]

You should actually go just a slight paler (worn) crimson, however, you are very close. I have a great close up of movie cape in the sun to show you. With the colors, I would use the natural sunlight to get them right. If you get movie stills of him in the sun, that is the best way to figure out your colors, natural light.

 

[callmemilo]

A little more progress to show you guys, fabrics are here to play with. It's kinda hard to tell which cape fabrics you're looking at here thanks to these dull British overcast skies, and the colour correction on my camera, but I'll try to annotate the best I can.

So here's the brighter red suedette. It's a nice rich colour, but the way the fabric is woven makes it's syntheticness very apparent.


This is the deeper, burgundy/maroon, shade of super suede. It's a much tighter fabric, so the fabric itself looks nicer, but it's really rough, and will definitely need pretty frequent ironing (which hopefully won't damage the fibres of the pile).


And finally, here are the two side by side. The navy blue fabric shown here is just your standard lycra, but I'm hoping my screen-printer will bring forward some promising results with the pattern he's going to lay on top of it.

 

[Mystery]

I quite like the one on te right of the last photo

 

[AJ2013]

Use four-way stretch lycra. And get one with a grey pewter colour in the blue, not standard or bright blue. Just get pewter blue four-way stretch lycra with a sheen or lycra glissnette. just a tip lol! Cape, stick to crimson micro suede.

 

[callmemilo]

New quick update... I've got the second half of my chest shield (the backing) laser cut and mounted, pics coming shortly. And been in talks with a screen printer who seems certain he can help me recreate the 3-dimensional texture of the MoS fabric on the navy lycra I've bought. Should have some news of my fabric samples by Monday.

 

[callmemilo]

I've just been handed this sample print from my screen printer, and needless to say I'm excited. He says he's going to get hold of some thicker screens so we can print the detail with more density. But so far we're hitting the criteria I was looking for with this fabric... clear edges to the detail, a nice gloss, and retained stretchiness. Once the thickness of print gets sorted out, and I get the right colour base fabrics to work with, I think we'll be good to go on printing a few batches!



I'll see if I can get you guys a video of this sample piece, to get a better idea of how it looks (and stretches) in person.