Hey, thanks guys.
I did actually spend some time studying Bale's expression. I think the look that really represents the new take on the Bat is in the alley when he growls
"Do I look like a COP.?", so that is kinda the mindset I try to have when wearing it.
The armor was made by someone at the Brotherhood of the Bat forum, the belt was a full-size kit, the boots are Motorcowboy and the cape was scratch-made from non-stretch cotton velvet. (Batnemo's cape pattern was used as a base and then heavily modified.) The cowl underwent some mods to make it fit properly and I think that is where much of a costumes believability comes from- it has too look like it was made
for you and isn't a "one size fits all". The armor was glued to a lycra dive skin, then sprayed with liquid latex and plastidip to make it seamless. From the very start I did want to try to get it as perfect as possible, but it's still a little rough in some places. (I really should convert it into a screen-accurate two-piece because the crotch-area of the dive skin is too stretched out at the moment in certain poses.) I chose between a Begins and a Returns style suit, but I decided that the former would work better with my build.
I'm looking into doing a "professional" photoshoot (my best friend is a Photographer by trade) and possibly a short film so that the suit doesn't just collect dust on a mannequin. I've made quite a few films (and I work with film stuff in video games), but never a fan-film because I'm usually not too keen on using other people's IP. But in this case there are some ideas I'd like to try that would fit the Bat-mythos pretty well, so we'll see.
Here's another snapshot:
