Cool Bane Costume

Here’s how I made this Bane costume:

Materials:

Brown shirt
Black military pants
Waist harness
Mask materials (read below)
Vest (read below)

MASK:

To make the Bane mask to look accurate but not Cosplay quality, I started with an old 3M respirator mask that I had and cleaned and disassembled it to leave only the basic mask and attachment points. I then bent a piece of scrap metal rod I had into the basic shape of the outside rim of the mask to make a mounting point for the head strap since it does not attach in the standard locations. Once it was bent to the shape I attached it to the mask using the mounting points with Velcro straps. I left the bottom of the rod split to allow the straps to be put on later in the process.

To make the basic shape of the mask look more like the movie mask I took an empty aluminum can and cut it to shape with scissors. I bent it to shape and dulled the edges with a file. I cleaned and painted the now-formed metal pieces of the can to make them black. While that dried I started to work on the pipes of the respirator using old copper tubing. I used a tubing cutter to cut to length and then bent them carefully using tubing bender, plyers and vice-grips. (I would use spring type tubing benders to get sharper bends if I were doing again). I then made a pin-board to paint the copper tubes. Basically it is a piece of scrap wood with small nails pounded into it to hold the tubing pieces while they are painted. I cleaned and painted the tubing using a metallic silver paint and while that was drying moved on to the straps.

To make the straps I got three neoprene can koozies from a store. Since they didn’t have any all black I got them grey with black on the inside. I removed all the seams to get to the basic neoprene fabric surround and threw away the round bottom piece. I then cut the neoprene to the shape of the side pieces and the top piece oriented them and sewed them together with black thread and sewed loops into the ends of each piece as well. With the base pieces made I started assembly by first putting on the straps to the metal rod. I then taped the metal to the face mask front with Gorilla tape and did final forming of the metal to the mask. Next I prepared a piece of scrap sheet metal perf plate. I cut it to shape to fill the space between the top and bottom metal can pieces so none of the original mask was visible. I would have liked to use smaller perf since it would have been closer to the real mask but this was on hand and I was on a budget.

I taped it to the mask from the back as I did the can so the tape could not be seen. I then attached the metal tubes to the mask using the Gorilla tape cut to size and tried to form them to look like the ridges on the inlets of the real bane mask. If I were doing it again I would get some black silicone RTV from a home store. I had some clear silicone on hand left over from bathroom work I had done recently and used it when the tape did not hold in all the places. I tried hot glue, crazy glue and other adhesives and nothing stuck to metal and or the silicone of the 3M mask. I used the Silicone RTV in places that the tape would not stick and it worked perfectly. If it had been black I could have shaped it to look like the inlets as well as use it to hold the tubes.

VEST:

As the majority of Bane’s costume is fairly ordinary military fatigues and a brown Henley shirt, I concentrated on the items that were unique to the character, namely the vest and suspenders. As with the mask, I was not going for exactness as much as representation and budget. After studying the movie images carefully I found that the outer suspenders were nothing more than surplus H-harness and load harness pieces put together. I went to a surplus store and got a used H-harness for $12 and set out putting on the red paracord ties and adjusting to fit. Since I could not find all red paracord I got some red shoelaces and used them instead. I then used an old back support belt to give the wide appearance of the belt and a place to attach the harness.

To make the vest I used some coyote colored nylon fabric and cut it to fit like a tunic in vest shape. I then cut some fake tan leather that I got from the fabric store as a remnant for $10 to the shapes of the leather panels on the vest from the movie. I did not have a chance to distress the panels as I wanted to but that would make them look more used. I tried to use fabric glue to attach them to the nylon to give them a seamless look but it did not adhere so I sewed them on instead. Once sewn together the vest goes together in layers.

I shaved my head practically bald. Got tons of compliments.

Total Cost: $30

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