Morning Exercises - Arkham Batarang

[HVD]

Hey RPFers!

I am typically more of a lurker than a poster, but seeing as how it is the slow time of the year for TV and film, I thought I would show you talented folks some of the short projects I assign myself in the morning before I go to work. If you're interested in seeing more, please let me know and I'll continue to post.

A little background: I moved to Los Angeles from Virginia at the beginning of 2011, shortly after graduating college, to take a position with the now relocated Sony Imageworks. After being laid off in 2012, I took some of the props I made for my Girlfriend's cosplay costumes to a shop in North Hollywood and was hired on as a model maker.

Today I am the head model maker for that shop and supervise/build props for television/advertising in addition to operating a laser cutting service that caters to the prop and prop rental industries.

I guess we'll start off with a short project I started yesterday morning: The Batarang from the popular Arkham video game series. I have now tweaked it into a production ready piece that I can take from start to finish in about 10 minutes, less if I am doing a bunch at a time.

So Here we go!

First, I found a large scrap of black .25" acrylic and used my laser cutter to cut out as many blanks as I can fit into the piece (in this case 18 I believe). This cut took about 20 minutes, so about a minute per blank:



Here is one of the blanks below the router template I made to put an edge and bevel on the blank. This will not only aid in painting it later, but will provide some visual distinction to the silhouette.



Next I set up the center detail to engrave/cut while I head to the router. I will make another post in a little bit when I have photos of the routing setup.

The router is currently in use for another project, so I'll be back in a little bit

If you have any questions, let me know and I will answer them in the next post!

 

[HVD]

So, got a turn on the router. Here are the two bits I am using to make these. Ideally I would have a 60 degree chamfer bit for the blade part, but I only have a 45 on me, so that will do. The other bit has a rounded bevel and I will be using that to make the edges that aren't part of the blade a little more comfortable on the hand and eye.



I start with the Chamfer bit and put an edge on the each side of each wing:


Now that I am adequately covered in acrylic shavings, I move on to the rounded bevel that will encompass the rest of the outer edges.


Here is a horrible photo showing the now beveled edges.


And after routing, I return to my laser to find that all of the centers have been engraved and cut (Don't worry, it was within eyesight, Don't operate lasers unattended!). The acrylic you see is a very special and equally expensive metallic infused acrylic. I like to use materials like this to prevent the worry of paint wear to those who use these for Cosplay.



My next step will be painting the bladed edges. Next and last post coming

 

[robotboy]

Wow very amazing work so far! I would kill to have access to a laser cutter


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[HVD]

So, I left off at Paint. Here is a photo showing the quick and dirty edge painting. It looks sloppy because it is... because it won't matter come next step!


Next, I throw a palm sander in a vice with 400 grit paper and start block sanding the front and back of each one. This not only sures up the paint edge, but it also tones down the specularity and gives it a nice even matte finish.



Once that's done, I am left with a stack of nearly finished batarangs, you can now see that the paint is perfectly in line with the chamfer.





And last but not least, I glue on the little detail discs I cut earlier.


And I set them all up to allow the solvent to do its thing for about 10 minutes before attaching the other side:



And after gluing the other side, I am left with these! Finished con-safe cosplay replicas of the batarang from the Arkham games!

I hope you enjoyed this, I'll post more if there is interest in this post. I do **** like this all day every day, so there is plenty to share

Take care RPFers!

-HVD



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Etsy

 

[Mystery]

wow, great work, I'd love to see your take on some Amazing Spider-Man 2 lenses :thumbsup

 

[HVD]

Thank you robotboy! It was worth every penny.

And I'll take that into consideration, mystery. Oddly enough, I was on the vfx team for the first one for almost 2 years. Had access to all of the models and concept art. Maybe I should have paid closer attention! Thanks!

 

[robotboy]

Thank you robotboy! It was worth every penny.

And I'll take that into consideration, mystery. Oddly enough, I was on the vfx team for the first one for almost 2 years. Had access to all of the models and concept art. Maybe I should have paid closer attention! Thanks!

would ever consider offering commissions? for laser cut pieces i mean

 

[HVD]

I don't have a problem with taking them, I just typically don't because I don't like asking people to wait for me to have free time to do it. Now would be ideal, but in a few weeks when productions pick back up, I'll be lucky to see the light of day, much less take on commissions, lol!

 

[FNG1138]

Awesome! Wish I could work for a company like that!


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[robotboy]

I don't have a problem with taking them, I just typically don't because I don't like asking people to wait for me to have free time to do it. Now would be ideal, but in a few weeks when productions pick back up, I'll be lucky to see the light of day, much less take on commissions, lol!

I messaged you on your etsy page for what i needed


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