UD Replicas Dark Knight with mods

[third3ye]

Nice look. I would do the safety pin mod... but damn, cutting the neck part out of this expensive jacket?

There's got to be another way to do the neck piece? Is it possible to fold it inward? What do you think? Any ideas of doing this without ruining the jacket?

Unfortunately no. I tried folding it in, that doesn't work. Just gotta make a tough call - costume or motorcycle wear.

 

[Gary Pahls]

This looks great! Did they allow you to walk the part in mask the whole night? I've heard they are really strict with costumes

 

[third3ye]

This looks great! Did they allow you to walk the part in mask the whole night? I've heard they are really strict with costumes

Disneyland allows costumes for their Mickey Halloween Party only. Mask just can't cover your eyes, and obviously no inappropriate costumes

 

[ttownmaul520]

that tdk looks awesome! i', 5'7" and would love to do a batman but i'm too short to pull it off and i get jealous when i see someone do it well:lol

so cheers! looks awesome!!

 

[mattycsi]

Second thing I did was make the gauntlets with 2 rows of fins. All I did was separate the fins (UD makes them in 2 rows but they glue them together), paint some chopsticks black :lol, jammed it in between and glued it on, and then did some light leather shaping to get the 2 rows more separated

I've been lurking round this site for a while, but had to sign up and jump in on this thread.

Any chance you can explain this mod further?

I too am a proud owner of the UD TDK suit, but was never too happy with the single row fin finish on the gauntlets. I've never been able to find a better alternative, your mod looks pretty damn good, looks like it could be just what I'm looking for.

Also, you're one brave guy takin a pair of scissors to that neck peice, don't think I could do it.

 

[third3ye]

Any chance you can explain this mod further?

I too am a proud owner of the UD TDK suit, but was never too happy with the single row fin finish on the gauntlets. I've never been able to find a better alternative, your mod looks pretty damn good, looks like it could be just what I'm looking for.

Sure thing. You can also see the pic in my first post for a better close-up of the fin mod.
-Split the fins, they're glued together but you can pull them open with your fingers.
-May want to take this opportunity to pick off some of the glue residue and use some shoe polish to make the insides black.
-Take a black thin stick (I painted chopsticks for mine and cut them to the length of the slit) and wedge it in that small slit at the bottom of the fins to keep both rows separated, with some glue under the stick to keep it on.
-Do some light leather shaping on the fins to get them to stand up straighter; if you don't it'll have too much of a V-shape. I used leather strings and another pair of chopsticks to get the form and a clothing steamer to wet the leather, then just dried it behind the window.

Note that you'll probably want to keep a wedge in between the fins when you're keeping the suit in storage; chopsticks (yet again) did the trick for me. The fins are hard leather but they'll have a hard time keeping their form if you throw them in the bag with the jacket. I actually just store the gauntlets separate from the jacket, less worry for me that way.

 

[Batnismo]

Great Mods! Ive had the Suit for some time now and always wanted to do the cape mod... how did you cut the slits for the cape?
nevermind just saw it LOL

 

[Batnismo]

hey what part of Los angeles are you from? Im like 5 min away form the LAX LOL

 

[mattycsi]

That's brilliant, thanks. I'll be having a go at that in the new year.

Is there any particular type of glue you used or would recommend?

 

[third3ye]

^ I used Gorilla Glue, held up fine.

 

[Clammy42]

Question, how is your dexterity in the suit?

 

[TMP]

Love Davids Work! UD replicas is here to stay.

 

[third3ye]

Question, how is your dexterity in the suit?

The UD suits allow for good movement, only restriction is you can't raise your arms upward i.e. touchdown signal.

Btw, I purchased Kevin's cowl and am in the process of doing a mesh hood with neck guard to replace the GCFX setup. I can already tell the new cowl is MUCH more comfortable and I can go hours with that mask on.

I'll probably get this suit up on a mannequin with the new cowl/neck setup in the next couple months, will share pics when done.

 

[third3ye]

Been a while, but here's the V2.0 on the neck using Kev's cowl and neck with a second hand mesh hood I bought off a RPF member. I think it looks great with the UD jacket, certainly stays in place A LOT better than the GCFX neck and more screen accurate too. I'm not 100% proud of how I glued the back of the neck, probably could've lined up the end pieces better and tightened it up closer over the zipper, but for my standards it'll do.

Once I buy a mannequin I'll have my TDK display up, promised myself I'd sell my Playseat racing game setup (on JY btw if you're interested classy plug) so I can get the extra space in my house for the costume display.

 

[TheD]

Third3ye,

I'm impressed with how creative you are to make those mods. As I read through your post, I was like, "oh man, maybe I want the GCFX cowl?" But then I see you strongly prefer, "The Kevin" cowl which I was initially thinking. As an owner of both, you would confirm my understanding that you prefer the Kevin?

 

[third3ye]

Third3ye,

I'm impressed with how creative you are to make those mods. As I read through your post, I was like, "oh man, maybe I want the GCFX cowl?" But then I see you strongly prefer, "The Kevin" cowl which I was initially thinking. As an owner of both, you would confirm my understanding that you prefer the Kevin?

Short answer - hell yes.

Longer answer - Kevin is coofunkcurly on the forums, and his cowl is A LOT more comfortable than the GCFX cowl. Kev's urethane is thinner (but still very durable) and the sizing is a little bit bigger than GCFX. If you actually want to wear it for more than an hour, picking coofunkcurly's cowl is a no brainer. But if you have a small head (less than 22"), I think the GCFX or perhaps the Hells Kitchen cowl may be a better option. My head is about 22.5" to 23" around and the cowl fits me well with the hood underneath, but if my head were any smaller there'd be some gaps around the mask.

His neck piece takes more work, you need a mesh hood to glue it onto. But, it'll look more screen accurate and it'll stay on a lot better. Maybe the GCFX neck is designed to go with their suit, but it won't stay on very easily without some tinkering with the UD jacket. I managed to get it to work but felt I could do better, that's why I went with coofunkcurly's setup.

 

[coofunkcurly]

Very authentic! And thanks for the kind words. The cowl really suits you.:thumbsup

 

[ROBOSTEVE 0671]

Great work on the mods, you wear the Bat well, and I'll second that Kevins cowls are the best you'll find anywhere! Simply Awesome! , stunning pieces!

 

[ROBOSTEVE 0671]

As for the mods, first thing I did was find a way to attach the cape to where it's supposed to go on the movie suit. I did this with a combination of snaps and magnets, actually held up during my entire outing at Disneyland. Someone even stepped on the cape and took it off my jacket, didn't damage it at all and I was able to put it back on at the park.

Can you possibly show how you did this, where and how you attached the magnets and snaps? that would be incredibly handy to see how you went about it, I know here in the UK a guy actually cut slits in his jacket to mod it but I'd not really want to do that although I've removed the neck all ok.
Thanks for your time and help and sharing the mods.

 

[jeffreygullett]

Sorry I know somebody asked this but I'm still not clear. Can you further explain how you attached your cape?