How to Make a Batman: "Red Hood" Costume: Version 2.0

As the second Robin, Jason Todd was killed by the Joker. After being brought back to life through means of a Lazarus pit, a slightly more deranged, unstable, and very pissed off Jason goes after the Joker and starts to kill villains. Eventually, Jason and Batman reconvene and make some amends. In the reboot, Jason is now the leader of the Outlaws and is still linked to the Batman family.

After a few years, it was time to upgrade my original Red Hood outfit. The New 52 version of Jason Todd had come up and I was looking to fix a few things like the jacket, body armor, and helmet.

Let's get started

- dark pants

-black boots

-Caulk

-two toy handguns

-Black shirt/ underarmor

- elastic

-plastic buckles

-car window tint

-EVA foam

-Hot glue

-Craft Foam

- light brown motor cycle jacket

- string

-masking tape

-sunglass lenses

- balaclava

-Fabric

1) i originally had a black motorcycle jacket but wanted to find something more accurate. Luckily my friend had the exact jacket i needed. ( pic 2)

2. Make sure you have black leather gloves. I didn't want to ruin this pair, but if you want, you can glue on a rectangular piece of EVA foam on the back of the hands for guards. I think the rendition of Red Hood just depends on the artist drawing him. (pic 3)

3. don't forget your black slacks and boots. The higher the boot, the better. Id say a biker/ military boot would be fine.if you wanted to wear dress shoes, i don't think anyone would knock you for it.

4. I use a motorcycle balaclava to cover up my neck. (pic 4)

5.Despite wearing a balaclava for the build, sometimes your neck can still show. I created a bib out of some fabric. You can take even an old black t-shirt, cut a circle from the middle and stick your head through. This method allows for you to wear just a black shirt or even tank top underneath your jacket instead of having to wear something overly warm like a turtle neck or under armor. (pic 5)

The helmet is a little tricky. It’s made of cardboard with fabric over the entire thing.

1. First begin by making a strip of cardboard into a headband. It should rest comfortably above your ears (pic 1).

2. Then take 3more strips and put them over the top of your head. One long one that goes from front to back, and two smaller strips that go on the sides (pic 1)

3. i sometimes add another strip in between the cross. so the crown has 7 strips across the top (6 short ones, and 1 long one from front to back) (pic 1)

4. Now, you add triangle pieces of cardboard in between the cross (pic 2)

5. Keep going until you have a cap (pic 3 + 4)

6. Once you have your cardboard cap, glue the hockey mask onto the front (pic 5, sec C).

7. From there, start with putting cardboard on the sides of the helmet. (pic 5, sec D). If you can do this with one solid piece of cardboard per side, more power to you, if you use several pieces, that is fine too. Make sure you build over your ears, because you will need a reference point to finish the back of the helmet.

8. At this point, you want to carefully cut the mask in half, just past your ear, which will give you a front and back (pic 5, sec E).

9. lastly, finish the back half with cardboard to cover up the back of your head (pic 5, sec F). When you put it together, it should completely cover your head.

1. Next, you want to temporarily put the mask back together so that it looks like one piece before you bondo it. i took a very small amount of hot glue and glued the front and back piece together. From here, i attached the door hinge on the LEFT side of the helmet (pic 2) and the hook latch on the RIGHT side (pic 3).

2. i put bondo on the entire thing. Remember to do this outside and wear a mask, as this stuff can’t be good for your health. (pic 4. *pic is not from this build, but the premise is the same)

3. When you bondo it, you have several stages. One is the base layer (which is the processes of just getting the bondo on the helmet. it's rough and ugly. (pic 5. *pic is not from this build, but the premise is the same)

4. From there, it is a process of sanding, and reapplying bondo, sanding, and reapplying bondo until you are satisfied. (pic 6. * pic is not from this build, but the premise is the same).

I was getting tired of continuously having to re-bondo my helmet, so i decided to make a foam version that could somewhat get a little smushed. This requires you to already have a completed helmet done from option 1. Or, you can just find a paper template and go from there. There are a few options if you look around. You can also try typing in the work "pepakura" Here are a few places to check out templates.

JF custom on the RPF.

Xieng Prod

1. Print or draw out your template, (pic 1, not from this build, but premise is the same). Since i already had a bonded helmet, i took masking tape and applied it to my bondo Red Helmet helmet. I then cut the masking tape off in strategic areas that the tape functioned as my template.

2. Transfer the templates onto your EVA foam an cut out the pieces.(pic 2, Not from this build, but premise in the same)

3. Cut out your pieces from EVA foam (pic 3)

4. Glue seams together with either contact cement or hot glue and then hit with the heat gun to allow for shape (pic 4). If you plan it carefully, you can cover most of the seams up with a strip of craft foam to use as an accent. I eventually thinned out the black accent lines.

5. That should be it with construction one (Bondo) is on your left, Version 2 (Foam) is on your right. (pic 5). The only thing I'm not too crazy about with the foam build is that it doesn't hug around the jawline and sits more as a "bell shape on your head" rather than an oval.

Regardless of you go with option 1 or 2 for your helmet:

1 Pop your lenses out of the sunglasses and apply the window tint to them.

2. use your exacto knife and cut out a center triangle from the lenses (pic 1 + 2)

3. Glue the lenses in place from the inside of the helmet. You don't have to put hot glue completely around the lens. It is actually important you don't, so that you can have some space to help the moisture from your face to escape. if not, you will have super foggy lenses when you put it on. it will also allow for some breathing room.

4. Lastly, after you paint the mask, drill small air holes within the black line. they aren’t visible in pictures.(pic 3 +4)

1. Just like all my tutorials, i start off with a paper template. I first take a measurement of the persons chest from armpit to armpit.. then from shoulder to waistline. I cut out a paper rectangle from those dimensions, bend the rectangle in half (length wise) and start drawing the outlines i want. (pic 1. *picture is not from this build, but premise is still the same)

2. Once the pieces are drawn, i number them and draw and cut out the WHOLE completed chest piece from EVA foam.

3.Then cut EACh piece out with an exacto knife and set those pieces to the side. (pic 2) .I DO NOT tear the template, because i use it as a grid for where i am to glue the pieces.(pic 3)

4. Once that is done, i should have an indication where ALL my pieces are to go. (pic 4)

5. All the pieces for the armor should be drawn into the EVA foam and cut out with an exacto knife. (pic 5)

6. For the pectoral pieces, i usually cut it from one piece of EVA foam. then i use a heating gun and bowl to round the pieces a bit. (pic 7)

7. I typically use a dremel to sand off the edges from the EVA foam for a nice clean look.if i want some indentations or lines (Ab pieces) , i make a shallow cut in the phone and apply heat to it from the heating gun. (pic 6)

8. i then used a thin piece of craft foam for the batman symbol on the chest (pic 8)

1. Take your EVA strip and cut a strip that is the length of your waistline. I made mine 2 inches wide also.

2. I took some craft foam and added a few things like a buckle and some decorations on it.(pic 1)

3. i used a hole puncher and craft foam for the circles.

4. For the straps that connect to the holders, i just made strips and cut shallow lines in them. then i expanded those cut lines with the heating gun. (pic 2)

5. I glued some fabric onto the strips so they wouldn't tear. (pic 3

1. get your guys first, so you can have something to measure on. (pic1)

2. create your template out of paper. I wanted it to be relatively one piece for the holster so i knew the 1 piece of EVA foam would have to fold into 3 sides. (pic 2)

3. Use your paper template to trace out the design, then cut it out, and then use a soldering iron to carve in the grooves. once done, you can glue those grooves closed (pic 3 +4)

4. Now you can add your closing flaps to the case. (pic 5)

5. i added a strip of craft foam for design and to also keep everything secured together. (pic 5)

6. To secure your closing flaps, i used tiny magnets on the inside of the lid, and then a washer on the body of the holster so it "clicked" closed. (pic 6)I used elastic and plastic buckles to secure the holsters around my thighs

7. now glue everything in place. i used a few scrap pieces of fabric to join the pieces on the back so the foam wouldn't rip at the seams.

8. Once finished, i attached the whole thing to the chest piece.

At this point, the suit should be fully assembled. However, a few more things to do to finish it for good.

1. i use caulk around all the foam seams. it allows me fill up any gaps to be sealed.

2. i paint anything that is foam with modge podge prior to using acrylic paint. if you paint directly on foam, the color tends to absorbed the paint and looks dull. you need some type of seal on the foam first. some people use plastidip, but i find it to be expensive for my purposes.

3. In order to paint the belt a dirty metal color, i first sprayed it down with silver spray paint. then i use a paint and wash method of black paint, where i apply really watered down black paint to the dry silver and then quickly wipe away. Repeat process until satisfied.

4. Once everything is painted the designated colors, i spray the whole thing down with a clear coat.

5. In order to secure the entire foam piece to my chest, i hot glued key rings to the corners and used show laces to tie it around me underneath my jacket. (pic 3)

That should be it! Get your poses down and find some Batman cosplayers and prepare to duke it out.

This costume was actually used in my engagement proposal to my fiancé. feel free to check out the the entire engagement at this link. Red Hood is holding up the A in "Marry"

Thank you for the support and feel free to find me on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Youtube for more geeky goodness!!.

Here are the links for some other featured costumes in this post:

- Scorpion

- Agent Venom

- Baymax

- Shredder

- Subzero

-Boba Fett

- Judge Dredd

- Storm Shadow

- Hiro

- Bowser