If you want to be like Batman, you don’t have to follow Bruce Wayne’s footsteps exactly. No tragic origin story is necessary – you just need to make the costume. Instructables user sellers.nathan made his Dark Knight costume based on the one seen in Batman Begins. He used a black zentai suit as the base and other materials included: 5-6 tiles of EVA foam, Plasti-Dip spray, and plastic resin. He worked with a friend who has Adobe Illustrator skills to create templates that Nathan then cut out of foam (he shares the files over at Instructables).

After the foam armor pieces were cut, smoothed, and painted, Nathan had to figure out a way to attach them to the zentai suit. He tried to use glue, but it didn’t work out. Velcro ended up saving the day, and with the help of his wife, they sewed small pieces of velcro to the suit and glued the opposite side of the velcro to the armor:

This process took many hours. My wife and I were up very late many nights in a row to make sure this was done by Halloween. We finished 2 days before.

The first step is to cut the strips of velcro to sizes that will fit for each piece of armor. I suggest at least 2 pieces for each armor part, sometimes more. Then, sand down the back of the foam where the velcro will be glued. This is really important. I didn’t do that on a few spots and the velcro comes off with minimal effort. You have to sand through the plastic coating. Then wipe it down so you have a clean surface. Next, put glue on the foam and the velcro and let sit for at least 30 sec. to get a little tacky. Then put them together. I left the pieces together for this. Clamp the velcro and the foam. I used cardboard as a buffer to not dent the foam. Let sit the appropriate amount of hours. After this is secure, you are ready for the next step.

I drew chalk onto the back of the velcro and then placed the armor in the correct location while wearing the suit. This will mark the spot the opposing piece of velcro needs to be sewn on. This is also why the adhesive velcro won’t work… it just gums up the sewing machine.

I had to do this step by step, especially with the chest and abs and ribs. I started with the chest and worked down to make sure each piece worked together. The velcro does give a little flexiblity in the placement, but not much. Placement is really important to make this look good. Make sure there is good placement before sewing.

In all, we ended up having somewhere between 80 & 100 individual pieces of velcro sewn to the suit.

Read more about the build at Instructables.