Scouser
Well-Known Member
Hi everybody. This build diary is going to serve two purposes.... 1) Keep me going no matter how discouraged I get because if I have this thread I feel accountable even though 99.9% of you don't know me. 2) Show my progress which I pray will be steady even though I have other projects I need to finish (plus work FT and college 3/4 time UGH).
I normally do not work on what I consider soft costumes, those made of fabrics and such, so this will be kinda new for me. The only saving grace I have is I do know how to operate a sewing machine since I worked in a paraloft in the military for about 8 years and helped with a few costumes through the years. So please remember I am not a pro and do not claim to be! I will however do the best I can.
With that being said... here is the foundation of my build diary.
With all that being said, I welcome advice and feedback. Hopefully I can do DD justice since I have been collecting the comic for about 40 years and he has been my fave, hands down since I knew what a comic was. Netflix & Marvel really inspired me to leave my comfort zone with this.
The Beginning....
I plan to start this project Saturday since my wife is having surgery tomorrow.
The cloth/fabric I will be using is Duck Cloth (Canvas). It is heavy duty, but softens with time. The colors are black and classic burgundy. I have to make sure I state classic, because the regular is too dark red/purplish. The thread is heavy duty and generic zippers for upper body (got extra) and pants zipper for pants. There has been questions about the suit being 2 or 3 pieces. It is pretty much impossible to tell from on screen shots and I personally am again going to make a personal executive call and make it 3. My plan is for pants, shirt and vest. My personal reason for not thinking it is a one piece suit with a vest is that the suit fit very well when fighting and when just standing around, like a custom fit. I don't know about anybody else, but I have never had a coverall or any other 1 piece suit fit that well after moving all around unless it had a bit of give (a little baggy or at least a comfort fit). After doing all that fighting, his suit to me fit more like a 2 piece (shirt and pants) because the vest will hide that shirt starting some come up out of the pants some after flipping around. Again, my personally opinion and for my own comfort.
Boots- Nike SFB. I am 99% sure that is the boot in the red suit based on a few images, but this one really sealed it for me. In the red suit fight scenes you can see he is still wearing boots if you look at enough images, but when you see this one and the sole of the boot. That did it for me. Especially since in the black suit you see a different sole on the Bates boot in images. You can see the bottom of my SFB's in the image above. Added them just for that purpose.
Gloves- Pretty sure I may be alone on my thinking here, or not many have thought this far ahead. But if it is a fact that a props company made your red suit, why would they not maybe just add to the gloves you already have? After all the Ringers gloves are pretty cool as they are. Additionally, I don't see any other company making a glove with the same finger guards and tips unless they want a law suit. Take the glove add a nipple/spike to the knuckle and you have the red suit glove.
Alrighty, there is the foundation of my build. Will start working on the pants Saturday and hope to have a good status or completion of them by Sunday night. My apologies if my build goes slower than some, like I said in the beginning. I work full-time and working on my MBA which leaves little time for any crafting and family time. So I will do the best I can during the week, but the weekends may be where I have to wait to add content.
I normally do not work on what I consider soft costumes, those made of fabrics and such, so this will be kinda new for me. The only saving grace I have is I do know how to operate a sewing machine since I worked in a paraloft in the military for about 8 years and helped with a few costumes through the years. So please remember I am not a pro and do not claim to be! I will however do the best I can.
With that being said... here is the foundation of my build diary.
- There are many threads with images from the show. Unless it pertains to my build, I will not be posting any.
- A huge majority of the Netflix DD builds are the black suit right now, so I am kinda flying solo on this one at the moment. Doing countless hours of internet research to try and back up any move I make on the build.
- It has been stated publicly that the show suit was made by the props dept. and the material was custom 3D printed. I don't have that luxury or money. I work with the common person's budget. So I am making an executive decision on my suit based on feedback from people locally. If you plan to make your own suit, feel free to use whatever material you want. A Kevlar material has been suggested in one thread. I personally don't like the way it looks up close and from a distance it looks the same as my material. Figure for the price, I have a much better deal that is locally available.
- I will try to provide educated reasoning behind any purchased part I use in my build. I don't want to waste too much more time doing internet research when I can be building what will already take plenty of time.
- Some crafted parts of this build I will purchase. At this time, I plan to purchase the helmet and weapon.
- Goal finish date is July 15th (sounds like a good date and no finals due. Would love to finish well before this though!!)
With all that being said, I welcome advice and feedback. Hopefully I can do DD justice since I have been collecting the comic for about 40 years and he has been my fave, hands down since I knew what a comic was. Netflix & Marvel really inspired me to leave my comfort zone with this.
The Beginning....
I plan to start this project Saturday since my wife is having surgery tomorrow.
The cloth/fabric I will be using is Duck Cloth (Canvas). It is heavy duty, but softens with time. The colors are black and classic burgundy. I have to make sure I state classic, because the regular is too dark red/purplish. The thread is heavy duty and generic zippers for upper body (got extra) and pants zipper for pants. There has been questions about the suit being 2 or 3 pieces. It is pretty much impossible to tell from on screen shots and I personally am again going to make a personal executive call and make it 3. My plan is for pants, shirt and vest. My personal reason for not thinking it is a one piece suit with a vest is that the suit fit very well when fighting and when just standing around, like a custom fit. I don't know about anybody else, but I have never had a coverall or any other 1 piece suit fit that well after moving all around unless it had a bit of give (a little baggy or at least a comfort fit). After doing all that fighting, his suit to me fit more like a 2 piece (shirt and pants) because the vest will hide that shirt starting some come up out of the pants some after flipping around. Again, my personally opinion and for my own comfort.
Boots- Nike SFB. I am 99% sure that is the boot in the red suit based on a few images, but this one really sealed it for me. In the red suit fight scenes you can see he is still wearing boots if you look at enough images, but when you see this one and the sole of the boot. That did it for me. Especially since in the black suit you see a different sole on the Bates boot in images. You can see the bottom of my SFB's in the image above. Added them just for that purpose.
Gloves- Pretty sure I may be alone on my thinking here, or not many have thought this far ahead. But if it is a fact that a props company made your red suit, why would they not maybe just add to the gloves you already have? After all the Ringers gloves are pretty cool as they are. Additionally, I don't see any other company making a glove with the same finger guards and tips unless they want a law suit. Take the glove add a nipple/spike to the knuckle and you have the red suit glove.
Alrighty, there is the foundation of my build. Will start working on the pants Saturday and hope to have a good status or completion of them by Sunday night. My apologies if my build goes slower than some, like I said in the beginning. I work full-time and working on my MBA which leaves little time for any crafting and family time. So I will do the best I can during the week, but the weekends may be where I have to wait to add content.
