hi, I want to make a custom minifig about Batman... an armored costume... and I thinked for the mask to use the IronMan helmet...

Batman/IronMan Proto by Rusty B., su Flickr

to make theese photos i use a prosprctive view in LDD... but to make this helmet in real.... i thinked to cut off the ears rom a batman mask and fit them on a black IronMan helmet, and than paint the IronMan front mask to make more Batman style....

any other suggestion to make this project?

i'm not too skilled in customization, for this i ask to the community if you got a better idea

Edited June 25, 20177 yr by Rustinidiel

Minifig Customization forum is a better place for this post.

17 minutes ago, Darkdragon said:

Minifig Customization forum is a better place for this post.

thanks a lot!

a little photoshopping of what I want to do

Batman/IronMan Proto by Rusty B., su Flickr

I also thinked to use one online 3d printing service to make the helmet... but before i must add the bat ears to the 3d model of IronMan helmet...

what do you think? what I should do?

Edited May 19, 20177 yr by Rustinidiel

Interesting project, but I imagine it requires quite some skill to pull it off. Especially if you plan to cut things and reattach them somewhere else. Maybe you will want to practice on something simpler in order to get a feeling for what you're doing and gather some experience with cutting and glueing? 3D-printing would be an option, but I think it will be expensive for something so small. However, if you contact a 3D-printing service, they should have people working in the 3D modelling department, too. So if they can import LDD models from both the Iron Man helmet and the Batman mask, merging them the way you imagine should not be a big deal for them.

If you decide to go the customizing route, here's just a handful of thoughts that would cross my mind if I were to tackle a project like that:

- Have spare Batman masks. The chance to perfectly cut off the ears and reattach them to the Iron Man helmet at the first try are slim at best and practically zero at worst.
- The ears are very small. Find a way to cut them off in a thin, clean line, with as little damage as possible. A knife or scissors will not to. Maybe watch some Youtube tutorials to find out how other people do it.
- You will want a clean-cut underside to reattach the ears to another surface. Be prepared to use some sandpaper soft enough to work with Lego in order to smoothen the cut surface.
- Make sure to google or take measurements of the Iron Man helmet and to mark the exact locations where the ears will be attached in a symmetrical fashion, so you don't have to worry about that when you are already applying the glue to the ears and then start guessing where to put them best. You want to pull this off with as much mathematical precision as you can in order to get a symmetrical result.
- Two weeks ago, @Wardancer made a topic with a lot of valuable insight about messing with Lego and glueing. Read it! It might make you aware of some potential problems before you run into them yourself.
- Glue first, paint later. A good paint job might even be able to hide a few shortcomings from the glueing job.

 

Edited May 20, 20177 yr by Cody Startale

3 hours ago, Cody Startale said:

Interesting project, but I imagine it requires quite some skill to pull it off. Especially if you plan to cut things and reattach them somewhere else. Maybe you will want to practice on something simpler in order to get a feeling for what you're doing and gather some experience with cutting and glueing? 3D-printing would be an option, but I think it will be expensive for something so small. However, if you contact a 3D-printing service, they should have people working in the 3D modelling department, too. So if they can import LDD models from both the Iron Man helmet and the Batman mask, merging them the way you imagine should not be a big deal for them.

If you decide to go the customizing route, here's just a handful of thoughts that would cross my mind if I were to tackle a project like that:

- Have spare Batman masks. The chance to perfectly cut off the ears and reattach them to the Iron Man helmet at the first try are slim at best and practically zero at worst.
- The ears are very small. Find a way to cut them off in a thin, clean line, with as little damage as possible. A knife or scissors will not to. Maybe watch some Youtube tutorials to find out how other people do it.
- You will want a clean-cut underside to reattach the ears to another surface. Be prepared to use some sandpaper soft enough to work with Lego in order to smoothen the cut surface.
- Make sure to google or take measurements of the Iron Man helmet and to mark the exact locations where the ears will be attached in a symmetrical fashion, so you don't have to worry about that when you are already applying the glue to the ears and then start guessing where to put them best. You want to pull this off with as much mathematical precision as you can in order to get a symmetrical result.
- Two weeks ago, @Wardancer made a topic with a lot of valuable insight about messing with Lego and glueing. Read it! It might make you aware of some potential problems before you run into them yourself.
- Glue first, paint later. A good paint job might even be able to hide a few shortcomings from the glueing job.

 

thanks for your advices!!

I will check the 3d printing service prices...i think it is the easyest way to got a good result

but if it will be too expensive, i think to give a try to the customization work

you are in right: the batman mask ears are so small... there is another Lego part to use (cutting or not) for make a good ears for my helmet?

@Rustinidiel

I cannot think of any, not in the shape you desire. But it occured to me that instead of cutting the ears from the mask, it might be a viable option to rather cut off the upper part of the mask itself and then, possibly using sandpaper, start remove the unneeded parts of the mask layer by layer... and maybe even have the ears still be connected by a very thin layer of plastic, so they retain their original position and relation to each other. That way, you could more easily retain the parts that you want and apply the ears in perfect relation to each other.
I made a short animation to show the creation process that I have in mind:

 

 

Maybe that works best. You need to be willing to sacrifce a whole Batman mask, but that's inevitable anyway.

Nice work ^^ It's so easy when you're just watching, but when you start trying to figured out how you can do it you 

4 hours ago, Cody Startale said:

@Rustinidiel

I cannot think of any, not in the shape you desire. But it occured to me that instead of cutting the ears from the mask, it might be a viable option to rather cut off the upper part of the mask itself and then, possibly using sandpaper, start remove the unneeded parts of the mask layer by layer... and maybe even have the ears still be connected by a very thin layer of plastic, so they retain their original position and relation to each other. That way, you could more easily retain the parts that you want and apply the ears in perfect relation to each other.
I made a short animation to show the creation process that I have in mind:

Maybe that works best. You need to be willing to sacrifce a whole Batman mask, but that's inevitable anyway.

the sacrifice of the batman mask is unavoidable

when i will do my next bricklink order i buy some batman masks to make this experiment

ater connection with the glue... the helmet will be playable? or you think it will be a bit delicate?

Edited May 20, 20177 yr by LuxorV
Please do not quote images from the same page. Thank you.

Depends on the glue, but I think it should be durable enough to use it fairly regularly. Don't throw it against the wall or anything.

 

And just for the record, I am speaking highly theoretically here, because I haven't done any cutting/glueing myself with Legos.

Cut the front face part off from the bat cowl, like the shape of iron mans mask. Make tiny holes in the side of the cowl and attach the front mask part to the cowl. 

7 minutes ago, Cody Startale said:

Depends on the glue, but I think it should be durable enough to use it fairly regularly. Don't throw it against the wall or anything.

 

And just for the record, I am speaking highly theoretically here, because I haven't done any cutting/glueing myself with Legos.

ahahah yes, if will not be durable i will not be angry with you 

5 minutes ago, Mattyj82 said:

Cut the front face part off from the bat cowl, like the shape of iron mans mask. Make tiny holes in the side of the cowl and attach the front mask part to the cowl. 

if i do this... i have a Batman cowl with the IronMan face.... my plan is to have a Batman helmet, strong, armored... for this using only the bat ears on the IronMan helmet will result a better armored thing

6 hours ago, Rustinidiel said:

I will check the 3d printing service prices...i think it is the easyest way to got a good result

You should ask @Scrubs. He has already modeled these parts for Mecabricks, so perhaps he could be able to "merge" them easily.

I appreciate that the OP has a particular look in mind, but if you're willing to consider fantasy armour rather than sci-fi armour for your Batman, you have quite a few options. There's Excalibur Batman:

Or you could MOC one from parts (sorry about the non-Batman stuff in this picture):

 

Thanks for the suggest... but i prefer the scifi and continue with my project

I made 2 prototype Iron-BAT helmets based on ironman helmet, but both didn't look good to me. I think the helmet from "batman vs superman" would be a better choice.

https://youtu.be/hHLW27bQeF0

11 hours ago, Mars said:

I made 2 prototype Iron-BAT helmets based on ironman helmet, but both didn't look good to me. I think the helmet from "batman vs superman" would be a better choice.

https://youtu.be/hHLW27bQeF0

the first you made... with long ears, is the same i want to do

do you molded or 3d printed it?