1/6 Hot Toys Arkham Knight Batgirl

[TheBatman]

Here goes nothing. First of all this thing is horrible trying to clean the dust off the sticky rubber. Its like you look at it wrong and dust appears lol. But anyways here some work in progress of this particular attempt. A before and after.

Edit: Any thoughts on how this would work on the cape? Would it crack? would it look good? Terrible?

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Daggoth]

For anyone thinking of trying this be careful. The matte varnish i used doesnt flex well. You probably want to use something with more flex to it. Because too much rubber stretch causes this.

On the bright side, if it becomes an issue the varnish seems to come off fairly easily, just could be time consuming

 

[TheBatman]

That's probably better, although I don't know if it will add some texture like the Mr Super Smooth does. Check out the sample:

Do you know if this matte clear coat hardens similar to the what @Daggoth used?

 

[Daggoth]

Edit: So after scrubbing on the suit with a wet rag, i think i dried out the rubber too much, and some spots didnt look so good. So now im going in the opposite direction, and was trying to find something to save the suit with and came upon some tire shine in the garage lol. However i think it has helped quite a bit. All in all a bit of a bummer, but at least a good learning experience.

 

[Jay Virtual]

For anyone thinking of trying this be careful. The matte varnish i used doesnt flex well. You probably want to use something with more flex to it. Because too much rubber stretch causes this.

On the bright side, if it becomes an issue the varnish seems to come off fairly easily, just could be time consuming

Damn, it's seems that's a full membrane coat?

Do you know if this matte clear coat hardens similar to the what @Daggoth used?

It doesn't harden on mine and the suit is flexible. And a bonus is that it doesn't attract dust now that the suit isn't slimy and gross.

Edit: So after scrubbing on the suit with a wet rag, i think i dried out the rubber too much, and some spots didnt look so good. So now im going in the opposite direction, and was trying to find something to save the suit with and came upon some tire shine in the garage lol. However i think it has helped quite a bit. All in all a bit of a bummer, but at least a good learning experience.

I like your mindset. I think either way you're improving the figure. I fired up the game again and had Batgirl indoors where there's no rain and used photo mode-- the suit is FAR weathered than we got in the figure that I think the figure looses a lot of character. The suit has scrapes and scratches, the gloves and boots show heavy weathering and yes the costume is matte. It feels grounded in the game and the figure comes off a Cosplay Batgirl by looking so mint and plain. I think slowly weathering her (even with failed coating) is only helping the figure.

 

[Jay Virtual]

Just snapped some in-game shots and you can clearly see the weathered look on the costume, it has scratches everywhere even on the gauntlet fins, cowl etc and her boots are grimy. And of course it's not supposed to be shiny. I think I might proceed with weathering the costume since I just feel like the stock figure looks way too Barbie.

 

[Daggoth]

Just snapped some in-game shots and you can clearly see the weathered look on the costume, it has scratches everywhere even on the gauntlet fins, cowl etc and her boots are grimy. And of course it's not supposed to be shiny. I think I might proceed with weathering the costume since I just feel like the stock figure looks way too Barbie.


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Wow you're right. We kinda got gypped on the hot toys quality standard. But it just seems their choice of rubber material wont cut it for that kind of weathering. Wish they would've tackled this a different way, because even though the split legs give some freedom its not on par with the rescue articulation. Wouldve been nice to have an actual suit.

However i look forward to seeing your progress. Your figure already looks improved. Keep us posted @Jay Virtual

 

[Jay Virtual]

Wow you're right. We kinda got gypped on the hot toys quality standard. But it just seems their choice of rubber material wont cut it for that kind of weathering. Wish they would've tackled this a different way, because even though the split legs give some freedom its not on par with the rescue articulation. Wouldve been nice to have an actual suit.

However i look forward to seeing your progress. Your figure already looks improved. Keep us posted @Jay Virtual

Will do. The Mr Super Smooth does add a layer of flexible texture to the suit so drybrushing will definitely stick.

While I can live with the hip joints, it's very unfortunate that the figure was so flat and shiny which no doubt made some people assume "Well, it's a videogame, there's not much detail to replicate" yet you can clearly see the actual game-model is loaded with minute detail missing from the high end toy.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

 

[RainJP]

Loved the color palette on this version of batgirl

 

[Jay Virtual]

I'm still working on the figure and the more I work on her, the more I realized how totally inaccurate the figure is. The face is flat and dull, the suit is the wrong texture and lack detail and weathering, there's this very toy-like appearance to her, from the overly glossy sheen to the super plasticy cowl and the doll-like face. All these are not faithful to the game whatsoever.

Thankfully it's nothing that can't be fixed with mods. One of the ones I HIGHLY recommend is the matt mod I posted earlier, it really tones down that Barbie-doll like sheen on the costume. (The suit is supposed to be matt similar to say, Bale's Dark Knight suit.

 

[Jay Virtual]

Finally had some time to work on this figure. A bit of preface, I always thought this was one of HT's laziest releases to date and those reviews praising the figure were misguided as this looks nothing like her game counterpart. While the sculpting is fairly accurate, the texture, detail are completely wrong-- the texture of the suit and cowl looks cheap and plasticy, something you expect a cosplayer to wear. In the game, her costume was flat matte with a lot of wear and tear, and with those details lacking on the figure she comes off as looking like a doll, the figure just never looked "high end" to me.

I've posted this before, but the EASIEST mod you can do is to spray the entire figure (sans hair and face) with Mr. Super Smooth Matte, I've use it on the body for about a year and and a half it doesn't cause issues or dry the rubber. I finally did some on the cowl and it feels transformative, gone is the nauseating plastic sheen and the sealer even adds texture to the figure, which looks amazing in person.

I still need to repaint and weather the figure, but until then, this is what a simple spray does to the figure:

 

[Captain Clown]

Wow, that really is a massive improvement. Looking forward to seeing her after the painting and weathering.

 

[Jay Virtual]

Finally completed my Batgirl makeover, I used the game as reference with the insane amount of weathering on the game model, but I think some folks would rather have it pristine without the off putting sheen. You can fix the gloss issue by using Mr Super Smooth Clear Matt spray and that alone should do wonders, but for the full game mods that I did:

- Weathered the boots and gloves.
- Full repaint of the plasticy cowl.
- Painted the suit stitching and rivets.
- Color corrected the armor on the side abs, side thighs, underboob and collarbone grey.
- Added tints of gunmetal grey to the suit.
- Weathered the entire suit with Tamiya Weathering Master.
- Weathered the belt and painted the belt pins.
- Added scratches and wear to simulate weathering in game.
- Weathered cape.

 

[Time_killer]

This should have been Yvonne Craig Batgirl
What's wrong with research and development with HT
dang!