A personal project…

My love of all things Batman has never gone unnoticed. But, I think that my newly devised project is taking things to extremes.

I am starting to create a full Batwoman costume of my own design. It won’t be just any costume. It will be (Marks and Spencers orgasm voice please) tailored to myself only and made so that it could actually be used to fight crime. I’m talking kevlar stab-proof body armour, a utility belt with bat-gadgets, gauntlets and more.

This is a project that I would like to build on throughout my life – obviously it will be a long and often gruelling task, especially with the techniques, attention to detail, and of course money matters. However, my ambition is to go to Comic Con in Los Angeles and wear it there. Yes, I’m talking about CosPlay – not that anime rubbish – but, Detective Comics at its best.

The purpose of this blog isn’t just to tell you guys my ambition that I am not going to fulfill.

I have already started as of today.

I have bought all the materials that I need to create a Bat-Mask that is tailored to my own face, including: dental alginate, plaster, liquid latex and more; from all over the internet.

Today, I started the procedure to make an exact mould of my face, with pictures to prove it:

> Ready for the Dental Alginate to be put on. Straws up my nose so that I can breathe. These turned out to be the most painful things ever when knocked as they had to be inserted quite far in to be able to breathe properly. Also, vaseline on my eyebrows and eyelashes – don’t want to lose them babies!

> Dental Alginate put on. This stuff really sets quick. You have about 45 seconds to stir the powder with water, and then less than 3 minutes to put on, which proved very difficult as it was messy stuff. It seemed to harden much much faster than said in the instructions.

> The Dental Alginate set too fast to be put on my nose.

> My only method of communication with Aaron – it was impossible to move my mouth at all. One second I could laugh, the next I couldn’t move any facial muscles.

> Because the Dental Alginate, even when set is very delicate, MudRoc is put over the top to allow it to keep its structure. This concoction is really heavy, and my neck started to really ache.

> By now, the Alginate had turned a deep pink, showing that it is practically set. I started to get scared about losing my eyebrows, eyelashes and possibly my skin.

> The taking off of the structure was a lot easier than expected. The alginate is quite rubbery / foamy so it was very easy to peel off without worrying about it losing its form.

> The finished facial structure! And look – my eyebrows are still intact!

> Alas, the mess…

Overall, I think this turned out really well. On the instructions, this procedure was said to have the difficulty level of DIFFICULT. And bearing in mind that Aaron nor I had done anything like this before, it went great. Although the end nose bit is broke, I can hopefully fix that when I get the plaster mould later, and I don’t need that part of my nose to make the half-mask that I want.

However, this is only a small part. Once I have left this structure to set for a day, the next step is to pour plaster into it, to create a positive replica of my face.

Many thanks to:

Aaron, my housemate, who put all the stuff on me. Admittedly, he just wanted to “slap a load of shit on my face”.
TimDrakeRobin, from DeviantArt, who gave me really in depth instructions on how to make a mask and what I need etc.

Stay tuned for more updates on this. I should be adding the plaster mix tomorrow evening.