Custom Batsuit - first WIP ever

[Athanasius]

Update Time!

I haven't done much to be honest, but I'm really excited about what I have done as I tried a few things that I thought would work in theory but was anxious about them actually working, and then they worked really well!

So, I added slits and snaps in the top of the torso part so that the cape can be inserted into the torso armour and snap to the underside.



It worked really well, although I did have to reinforce the straps a bit because as you can see, that hole is pretty big and it didn't leave much in the way of structural integrity.

So, that's the first thing I did.

Then, I finally did some work with the fabric side of things, installing snaps into some short elastic straps to finish off the bicep pieces. I wasn't sure how to attach the biceps to the rest of it, but luckily I didn't have to. The elastic is just tight enough that they actually sit perfectly on my arms and don't need any other attachments.



You may have noticed that I haven't put up any photos of me actually wearing any of this stuff. It's just because I want to hold off on that until everything is finished and I can wear the whole suit painted and stuff, I just thought that would be more fun and would make for a better reveal haha.

If anyone wants to see these parts and how they look on a person I'm happy to oblige, I'm just excited about holding off until the whole suit can be worn together.

I'll take a photo of the torso with the cape attached though, coz I think it looks awesome and I wanna show it off haha.

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you're enjoying the thread!

 

[Athanasius]

Hey everyone,

So I've made a little progress now, and it seems like it's getting close to being finished and ready to paint...

Over the weekend I installed the shoulder straps so that the shoulder pieces can sit comfortably on the torso and they float so that I have a great range of motion, I haven't taken photos yet as the second half of my weekend was a bit chaotic.

All that's left on my to do list is as follows:

*Install snaps in lower back armour (halfway through - should be finished soon)

*Install Chicago screws in Abs

*Figure out design for ribs, build and shape ribs

*Install snaps and eyelets into elastic straps for midsection

*Finish off left gauntlet (kind of took a back seat to the rest of the armour as I've ordered other gauntlets and it won't take long to finish my ones anyway)

*Paint everything

So yeah, it's a pretty short list and I think I'll definitely be on schedule, although I still haven't received the eyelets I need and I ran out of elastic so I had to order more of that too.

Anyway, that's where I'm up to, I'll post pictures of the shoulders and the cape attached really soon.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Athanasius]

Ok, I've got a few more photos!

So this is how the cape hangs and how it looks attached to the suit:



And this is how the shoulders and biceps all fit together with the chest/back piece:



It looks a little crooked there as the mannequin is kinda lumpy and not really a proper "human" shape haha...

But it fits me perfectly, and I'm really happy with it!

I haven't made much more progress, things are a bit busy at the moment but I'm chipping away at it each afternoon after work and I've got a four day weekend coming up so hopefully I can get most of the rest of it done then.

Thanks for reading, I hope you're enjoying this build!

 

[Armatus Cosplay]

Looking good, keep chugging away. The cape drapes very nicely around the shoulders/chest plate. Can't wait to see it with some paint

How are you rigging the individual pieces to the suit? Or just friction?


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[Athanasius]

Thanks heaps! Yeah I'm really pleased with how it hangs, I can't wait to see it with Coofunkurly's Origins cowl covering the top bits!

As for attaching the armour to the fabric suit, the torso part (upper chest and back) is attached to itself with wonderflex straps over my shoulders and under my arms, it's held in place really securely so there's no need to attach it directly to the fabric. The biceps have elastic going from each plate and I fitted it so that the elastic is tight enough that they are held in place on my arms without the need for direct attachment to the fabric.

The shoulders have elastic straps joining them to the torso shoulder straps, the chest and the back armour (so three elastic straps per shoulder). The two elastic straps on the sides of the shoulder armour are slightly stretched, meaning that the shoulder pieces are centred and pulled against my actual shoulders, but they are still loose enough to move when I do. It worked a lot better than I thought it would, and I have a surprising range of motion in my shoulders and arms in this armour.

I've got plans for attaching the mid section which I've already sort of gone into, but I'll go into a lot more detail once I've made some progress so I can put pictures up too.

And yeah, I'm keen to see it with paint too haha, but I'm holding off until everything is 100% finished so that I don't have half the pieces painted and then realise I need to change a few things...

Looking good, keep chugging away. The cape drapes very nicely around the shoulders/chest plate. Can't wait to see it with some paint

How are you rigging the individual pieces to the suit? Or just friction?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Athanasius]

Hey everyone!

Just a quick update, I've completely built the ab pieces with embedded Chicago screws, but I can't find any eyelets that fit them and also the rounded heads of the screws warped the wonderflex a bit so that you can pretty clearly see where the screws are installed from the outside of the armour.

Basically I'm going to leave them for now and maybe come back to them later, but in the meantime I'm going to build a new set of abs but this time they'll have the snaps installed as they're easier to install and are actually invisible as they have flat heads.

Also, I've started work on the ribs, which is the last piece of actual armour I need to work on. After this I'll just need to sort out the elastic bits that the mid section armour pieces will be attached to, and then I can paint everything. So it shouldn't be long, but the Chicago screws fiasco delayed me a bit.

For the ribs, I've designed fairly boring rectangular shapes, two columns and four rows on each side, I'll post pictures when I've got them finished.

It's all coming together, albeit a little slower than I would've liked, and it's good I don't have a specific deadline!

Thanks for reading everyone, I'll hopefully have more progress pictures for you soon!

 

[Judge Spartan]

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!!!

 

[Athanasius]

Haha, I'll get pictures posted once I've made enough practice, for now everything still looks more or less the same as it did before, so I feel like pictures are kind of useless at this point.

Unless you'd like to see pictures of how crooked the new ab pieces look with the Chicago screws in them?

I should have the new ab pieces with snaps done within the next few days as well as the rib pieces. Everything that's left to be done is quite easy, but very time consuming, so it should be slow and steady progress from here on out.

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!!!

 

[Athanasius]

Hey Everyone!

Wow, it's been ages! Sorry about the lack of updates, I've been quite busy with non-Batman related stuff. Anyway, I finally have some updates and I'm actually very very close to being 100% completed!

So, firstly, the photos:



That first photo on the left is the finished mid section. I built a harness out of elastic with heavy duty snaps holding it all together. It took ages because it was a trial and error process, and I made quite a few errors to be honest haha. Finally, though, it all came together and is looking like an actual suit of armour. I basically just need to add a few more snaps for extra support on the sides, and then it will be ready for painting. Once it's painted, I'll just need to finalise the other parts (like adding attachment snaps or buckles to the gauntlets and such), and I'll have a complete batsuit!

So, my last to-do list is as follows:

*Add snaps to sides of torso armour for extra support.
*Paint armour
*Add snaps or buckles to gauntlets
*Trim cowl eye holes to fit

... And that's it!

The painting may be a bit time consuming, but I'm going to be working on it pretty steadily from now until April 10 ish, as that's Melbourne Supanova, where I'll be debuting this suit!

I'm quite behind my original deadline, as I first hoped to be finished with the building part and onto painting by February 17th, but as long as I get it done by Supanova I'll be pretty damn happy haha.

So, that's where I'm up to, hopefully you guys are still enjoying this thread even though it's been a little dead for a while...

Thanks for reading, I'll update again soon!

 

[SMP Designs]

Love it! Keep up the awesome, man.

 

[Athanasius]

OKAY!

Another update, and I'm getting ridiculously close to being 100% finished with this build!

So I've painted most of the armour, the only thing that requires painting now is the two bat symbols I've made, everything else is done:



So basically I couldn't find any flat grey paint, but I realised that there's heaps of flat grey primer, so I just used that haha :\ It worked amazingly well though, it's a nice darkish shade and it's got a great texture to it.

I'll take some close up pictures soon, and I should hopefully be able to post a picture of the full suit relatively soon too!

Also, before I painted it I couldn't resist trying the cowl on with the chest and cape. I was a bit worried that the cowl wouldn't cover the back of the neck enough as there's a bit of a gap between my neck and the top of the cape. But it fits really well, and I think it looks amazing!



By the way, that's Rocketeer's Frank Miller style cowl. For anyone who likes it, I recommend speaking to him or heading over to the project runs section, as he has a unlimited run going and this cowl is absolutely beautiful.

So, my to do list has been shortened significantly, and now is down to:

*Paint Bat Symbols
*Fit Gauntlets
*Fit Belt
*Buy Shirt/Pants for undersuit

So basically, as I mentioned a while ago, I do have a pair of coveralls that are a great heavy duty grey fabric and have an awesome texture. But the only problem is that they are an absolute nightmare to get on and take off, and if I'm going to be at a convention all day (which I am), I can't wear something that will be that difficult and time consuming to take off. I'm still going to use the coveralls for my mannequin display of the batsuit though, so I'm not wasting them which is awesome. It does mean, however, that I do need to go out and find some decent clothes to wear underneath the armour.

Alrighty then, I think that's all the updates I have at the moment, so from this point on it's basically just fitting the smaller stuff like belt and gauntlets with snaps or buckles, and then finding some decent clothes and doing the last tiny bit of painting. I should be finished very soon, and to be honest I'll post a finished picture with the coveralls once everything else is done if I can't find clothes by then, even though it's horrible to wear underneath plastic armour haha. So just a heads up, if I look really sweaty and uncomfortable in the finished picture, it's because I'm probably seconds away from heat stroke :O

Anyway, thanks for reading everyone, I hope you're enjoying this thread!

 

[Athanasius]

Hey everyone, sorry for some reason the pictures I originally tried to upload didn't work, I've fixed it now.

Also, I'm going to take some more pictures tonight and upload them tomorrow because I should be able to get a lot done after work.

Thanks again, stay tuned for more updates!

 

[Athanasius]

Hey everyone!

So, this will hopefully be the last update until the suit is actually finished, as I am finished building the thing and am now just waiting for the under armour clothing to arrive.

In the interest of updating you guys and showing progress and such, here's the clothing I've ordered:



So that's what I'll be wearing under the armour, and I'm thinking of wearing a black singlet so that the mid section will be black underneath the grey plates and you won't be able to see the elastic strips between plates.

What do you guys think?

When I've finally got these, I'll post pics of both with and without the singlet, and you can see which you like better

As for photos of the suit, I'll post them when I've got my hands on the shirt and pants, coz I want a full suit photo to be as finished and polished as possible. Should be very soon though!

Thanks heaps for reading everyone, I'm almost finished!

 

[SMP Designs]

OKAY!


View attachment 452519

Is this the cowl and cape you're going to wear with the on I'm working on?

 

[Athanasius]

Is this the cowl and cape you're going to wear with the on I'm working on?

I'm not sure, I reckon I'd mostly be wearing the Arkham Origins cowl by coofunkurly. The Frank miller cowl is the only one that fits properly over my armour as the armour is quite chunky, whereas your suit will fit like clothing so I'll be free to wear the origins one.

But to be honest I'll probably be wearing all the cowls I have at least once [emoji14]

 

[SMP Designs]

Another quick update. The sleeve pattern has been cut apart and traced onto paper.

All of the Cordura pieces for the sleeves were made first. The biceps and triceps are padded with the same foam as the chest and abs and the forearm pieces are lined with heavy cotton. Once all of those were complete, the stretch pieces were cut and all of the pieces are assembled. Here's the sleeve flat with the shoulder added.

And, the torso with one of the sleeves attached.

 

[Athanasius]

Far out Sean, every post just gets better and better!

Those sleeves are amazing! The biceps/triceps blend perfectly with the shoulder, and I love the shape of them!

ARGH, IT'S SO CLOSE!

I can't wait to see the rest of it, I keep checking this thread every day hoping there'll be updates haha, and whenever I see a notification on my phone for the RPF I freak out

Loving your work Sean, keep it up!

 

[SMP Designs]

Far out Sean, every post just gets better and better!

Those sleeves are amazing! The biceps/triceps blend perfectly with the shoulder, and I love the shape of them!

ARGH, IT'S SO CLOSE!

I can't wait to see the rest of it, I keep checking this thread every day hoping there'll be updates haha, and whenever I see a notification on my phone for the RPF I freak out

Loving your work Sean, keep it up!

Gaaahhhh! I am SO SORRY, I accidentally posted that update on your thread instead of the one I made for this suit.

Otherwise, glad you like it - I'm rather pleased myself.

 

[Athanasius]

Gaaahhhh! I am SO SORRY, I accidentally posted that update on your thread instead of the one I made for this suit.

Otherwise, glad you like it - I'm rather pleased myself.

Haha far out, I didn't even realise!

Oh well, it's not a huge problem or anything