Nightwing Armor

[FRIEDAWESOME]

With Nightwing appearing in a fan series I am making I needed to make my own suit design for the character. My inspirations were Young Justice, Batman the Animated Series, The Dark Knight, and Ismahawk's Nightwing: The Series.

I started with some concepting and sketching and went through multiple designs but over all I really liked the look this one captured.


Next I went onto making the torso, as I felt most comfortable starting with.



After making the templates I transferred the shapes onto 5mm craft foam from Michaels.
I heated and bent the pieces to my liking and then sealed them using modge podge spray.

I then masked areas where I didn't want overspray, and painted the accents blue. I realized there was something missing though. So I took this kind of webbing mat material used to keep rugs in place, and put it over the armor and sprayed a layer of black and mode lodge and it gives off a kind of carbon fiber look.

I have a layer under the two chest pieces which is just a 3mm foam sheet cut into shape, and then plasti-dipped black.
For the symbol I had encountered lots of trial and error. I tried plastic-dipping a foamy sheet symbol and then spraying it blue but the finished product was always and grainy unsmooth texture, so I decided to use a yoga mat. I made a new logo shape and traced and cut it out of the yoga mat. the mat had cool texture so I then plastic-sipped the symbol, and painted it a metallic blue.

And this is what the armor is all together so far!

I'm really pleased with this so far and I will post more once I work on the shoulders, back, etc.
I plan on using a under armor shirt for the upper part and black tactical pants for the bottom.
Anyways please respond and give your feedback I've made a couple of Threads before but no one ever responds or says anything so I'd really appreciate it if you guys told me what you think because I don't want to waste my time making threads without there being interaction between me and others so please feel free to ask any questions and until my next update!

 

[Rickhemingway]

I like what you've got going so far! Keep it coming

 

[SMP Designs]

Great job so far! The design is nice and clean and your execution on the chest and abs - smooth lines, good symmetry, nice paint job, and love the use of the existing texture on the emblem - are very well done and should film quite nicely. Your approach is, I think, also very smart. This costume will wear well during shooting and allow good range of motion.

if you haven't got it already, I might suggest a product called DuraClear to give all the painted pieces a final protective seal. It's a good, clear and flexible acrylic top coat that will help prevent unwanted scarring and paint damage. It's similar to ModPodge and Sculpt-or-Coat, but I like the consistency better for a final seal and the finish is quite nice and photographs beautifully.

Cheers, and best of luck with the suit and the film!

 

[ghibbits]

The webbing you did is awesome! I was looking into wetsuits to start my Nightwing, sort of like Young Justice has, but this is amazing. Consider me inspired! Keep the updates coming.

 

[FRIEDAWESOME]

Thank You so much it really means a lot! I will definitely look for DuraClear and thanks SO MUCH for the kind words and recommendation!

 

[FRIEDAWESOME]

Made some more parts to the suit recently using the same method except instead of Michael's thick foam I used EVA floormats because these parts of the suit, I felt needed to be thicker and I wanted them to stand out a bit. So I made templates for both the upper back piece, and the shoulder pads, traced templates onto and then cut them out, (been using EVA foam for years and still find it incredibly difficult to cut clean lines).

Then glued on the extra layer for the shoulder pads (3mm foam) and then plastidipped and painted/added texture


I would like to add the effect of bolts or something in these pieces but not quite sure how I plan on doing that yet.
I also need to add a way to hold the escrima sticks in the back piece.

I painters taped the pieces onto an old compression shirt just as a sort of test run, I really like the way it looks on the shirt, and up next is either the piece under the abs (probably spacer mesh sewn onto shirt in the shape of the drawing, or the spinal pieces, but thanks for checking this out and until next time!

 

[TigerStoneFX]

Nice work

 

[HyruleInfantry]

With Nightwing appearing in a fan series I am making I needed to make my own suit design for the character. My inspirations were Young Justice, Batman the Animated Series, The Dark Knight, and Ismahawk's Nightwing: The Series.

I started with some concepting and sketching and went through multiple designs but over all I really liked the look this one captured.
http://www.therpf.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=522158&d=1440955626&thumb=1

Next I went onto making the torso, as I felt most comfortable starting with.

http://www.therpf.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=522159&d=1440955704&thumb=1

After making the templates I transferred the shapes onto 5mm craft foam from Michaels.
I heated and bent the pieces to my liking and then sealed them using modge podge spray.
http://www.therpf.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=522160&d=1440955833&thumb=1
I then masked areas where I didn't want overspray, and painted the accents blue. I realized there was something missing though. So I took this kind of webbing mat material used to keep rugs in place, and put it over the armor and sprayed a layer of black and mode lodge and it gives off a kind of carbon fiber look.
http://www.therpf.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=522161&d=1440956003&thumb=1
I have a layer under the two chest pieces which is just a 3mm foam sheet cut into shape, and then plasti-dipped black.
For the symbol I had encountered lots of trial and error. I tried plastic-dipping a foamy sheet symbol and then spraying it blue but the finished product was always and grainy unsmooth texture, so I decided to use a yoga mat. I made a new logo shape and traced and cut it out of the yoga mat. the mat had cool texture so I then plastic-sipped the symbol, and painted it a metallic blue.
http://www.therpf.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=522162&d=1440956253&thumb=1
And this is what the armor is all together so far!
http://www.therpf.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=522163&d=1440956297&thumb=1
I'm really pleased with this so far and I will post more once I work on the shoulders, back, etc.
I plan on using a under armor shirt for the upper part and black tactical pants for the bottom.
Anyways please respond and give your feedback I've made a couple of Threads before but no one ever responds or says anything so I'd really appreciate it if you guys told me what you think because I don't want to waste my time making threads without there being interaction between me and others so please feel free to ask any questions and until my next update!

The way you have done the armor is amazing. Would you mind me using the same techniques for my Red Hood Armor?

 

[HyruleInfantry]

Made some more parts to the suit recently using the same method except instead of Michael's thick foam I used EVA floormats because these parts of the suit, I felt needed to be thicker and I wanted them to stand out a bit. So I made templates for both the upper back piece, and the shoulder pads, traced templates onto and then cut them out, (been using EVA foam for years and still find it incredibly difficult to cut clean lines). View attachment 527051

Then glued on the extra layer for the shoulder pads (3mm foam) and then plastidipped and painted/added textureView attachment 527052
View attachment 527053

I would like to add the effect of bolts or something in these pieces but not quite sure how I plan on doing that yet.
I also need to add a way to hold the escrima sticks in the back piece.

I painters taped the pieces onto an old compression shirt just as a sort of test run, I really like the way it looks on the shirt, and up next is either the piece under the abs (probably spacer mesh sewn onto shirt in the shape of the drawing, or the spinal pieces, but thanks for checking this out and until next time!
View attachment 527054

Just a suggestion when cutting using a Exacto-Knife or any kind of knife on something don't try and cut in a single swipe. Use multiple light even cuts. It may take longer but you're more likely to come away with a smooth cut.

 

[SMP Designs]

You can also use a Dremel or a power drill with a small barrel sanding attachment to smooth and round cut edges on Eva foam. It works well on 6mm and over. Also, a quick run over the pieces with a heat gun will collapse the cells at the surface of the foam and give you a much less porous surface to seal and paint as well as smooth any minor imperfections.

 

[FRIEDAWESOME]

Yea, feel free to use this method!
I'd love to see how it turns out, please show pics or make a thread! And yea I definatley use the dremel to smooth the pieces definatley won't leave them with rugged edges, thanks for the suggestion tho, that might save me some time dremeling lol, and yea I definatley tried my best heating and bending these but my heat gun is slowly breaking lol so I will probably order another soon!

 

[FRIEDAWESOME]

Thanks, Really means a lot coming from you, I'm a huge fan and love all of your props and cosplay pieces!

 

[TheBeast284]

Any updates?