Custom Bat-buckle for music project

Costume making, prop building and other '66 Bat-related arts and crafts.

Moderators: Scott Sebring, Ben Bentley

Forum rules
Costume making, prop building and other '66 Bat-related arts and crafts. Great place for info and helpful tips. Proudly display your latest creation. Please keep it '66 Batman related otherwise it will be moved to OFF-TOPIC.

(NO SOLICITATION). If you're looking to BUY or SELL something, go to the MERCHANDISE SECTION. Even if you're trying to assemble a costume by buying or acquiring different crafted items rather than constructing or customizing them yourself, then it belongs in the MERCHANDISE SECTION. Don't even ask somebody if they're planning on selling something within this section.

Be sure to read the Board Rules as well before posting for the first time.

Thank you!
Post Reply
User avatar
mwilbury
Posts: 0
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:37 pm

Custom Bat-buckle for music project

Post by mwilbury »

If you've seen me hyping it on the Bat Board music thread or in Bat-Merchandise, I went all out on the packaging for this new jazz album of Riddle/Hefti covers, The Bat Swings!

It's a tribute album of sorts, an homage, and not a licensed affair (except for the music publishing), so I wanted to include as much '66 Bat-imagery as possible while keeping at least one foot in the realm of parody. It's an interesting dynamic (pun intended), when so much of the show itself is satire.

There's a cosplay element to the CD sleeve, and I made a custom utility belt buckle for a teaser image:
TheBatSwings-Utility_Belt.jpg
The buckle is made out of sheets of styrene and temporarily affixed to the belt with 3M adhesive foam tape. I have lots of styrene from the hobby store, but it gets kind of expensive. This time, I found huge sheets of styrene in the scrap bin at a local hobby/electronics store in Orlando called SkyCraft. I spent less on the styrene than I did on the bronze spray paint.

One of the sheets already had a texture that was a great match for my project. In the end, I probably could have made a proper metal buckle, but it created a deep bevel that I hope shows up a little more clearly in my photos.
Utlity_Belt-Construction.jpg
The earbuds (Bat-Buds? Bat-Phones? for the Bat-Pod?) are cheap bluetooth headphones I got on Amazon. They already had red pinstripes, so I cut fins/wings out of styrene, painted them black, and applied red vinyl for the edge striping.
Bat-Phones.jpg
User avatar
svl
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 1:56 pm

Re: Custom Bat-buckle for music project

Post by svl »

As a musician and a '66 Bat fanatic, I can't tell you how much I love these. Massive kudos on a GREAT job!!!!!!!
User avatar
vintagematt
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2018 6:06 pm

Re: Custom Bat-buckle for music project

Post by vintagematt »

Thanks for posting, as soon as I saw that teaser image I wondered how you made the bat belt! Awsome album, this just shows how much you are putting into this amazing labor of love, great work!
"Batman told him a super funny joke. When the creature didn't laugh, that was proof!"
User avatar
floatinjoe
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 12:09 pm

Re: Custom Bat-buckle for music project

Post by floatinjoe »

That is a really great looking belt buckle and earbuds!
Caped_Crusader
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 08, 2013 11:07 am

Re: Custom Bat-buckle for music project

Post by Caped_Crusader »

Those are AWESOME! I want to make those BatBuds!
User avatar
Ben Bentley
Moderator
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 2:31 pm

Re: Custom Bat-buckle for music project

Post by Ben Bentley »

Love your prop-work and the final artwork! Heck the whole project from the arrangements and performances through to the artwork is a new standard for the effort I wish all projects rooted in fandom could achieve.

I've said it more than once, but i'll say it again - Well done to you and all involved!
User avatar
Batman65
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2015 6:09 am

Re: Custom Bat-buckle for music project

Post by Batman65 »

svl wrote: Mon Mar 19, 2018 3:18 pm As a musician and a '66 Bat fanatic, I can't tell you how much I love these. Massive kudos on a GREAT job!!!!!!!
What he said! I love these! The buckle almost looks like my Foam Cave 66 bat belt. All great stuff!
Post Reply