I hope I’m allowed to weigh in here. If not, mods please delete and forgive me. I like being a member here and can’t entirely separate my personal interest in the hobby and my business.
Both my TDK cowl and my V2 Begins cowl are based on scans of screen used fiberglass mold masters, NOT rubber cowls.
For TDK I was lent a fiber glass master from the production of Rises and had it scanned at a professional studio here locally in Los Angeles. Their laser scanners are accurate to 0.01mm. I made some minor edits to the cowl to account for changes once worn and padded out to look right on screen. I’d say even with those edits what I print is 95%+ identical to the scan. So that cowl wears very true to the master.
For Batman Begins I was given a scan that pre-existed my involvement in the project but I trust my source for it. It’s not something I found online.
Due to the shape of the Begins cowl and it’s one piece construction as well as the type of rubber it was cast in for the film, I think it shifted appearance a lot more from mold master to as worn. I’ve had to make a lot more revisions to it to get it looking like it does on screen. At one point I was considering modding my V1 cowl to be more accurate but decided against it, so the final product will still be truly based on the screen used assets. The first image below is a print of a nearly unchanged scan.
The rest of of the images are my V2.3 prototype with revised facial details and some tweaks to overall proportions. Both are wearing a chin from my old V1 cowl which was a heavily modified Enterbay shrink. For the final product I plan to revise the predominance of the nose, neck length, enhance and retextured the three chin plates, and add a socket that works with the neck adapter for the new figure. The cape clips are my own design and integrated into the cowl.
I won’t comment on the work of anyone else except to say my most well known competitor is selling shrinks of the Enterbay and QS001 cowl and I know they will never volunteer that info so I am sharing it because I think you have a right to know. I’ve stared at all the Hot Toys and screen used cowls long enough to know a scan of an existing sculpt vs something based on the screen used cowls. This competitor also recently started calling their TDK cowl “based on screen used” even though it’s the same sculpt they’ve been selling for years and obviously a shrink of the QS001.
I guess Batman’s not the only one who’ll rattle their cages.
First prototype with mostly unchanged cowl details.
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V2.3 Prototype with major revisions to capture how the cowl looks when worn. These are all unedited photos and the paint work is up to my standards for a prototype not production.
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