CelticRuins
Sr Member
Another Tolkien costume by CelticRuins?? NOOOO.
. I've wanted to make Gimli since FotR came out. He's one of my favorites in the books as well as the movies, and much to my Legolas' chagrin...it's happenin'.
I've started out making the chainmaille and the helmet.
I'm making a dicky for the maille, mainly because it doesn't need to be a full shirt, as only the sleeves and a bit of the skirt can be seen. I'll just be making sleeves and a vinyl/leather trimmed tunic that the rings will attach to. His rings are actually hexagons...but where the hell am I going to find hexagons? So I just opted to get plain, nylon washers. Yes I'm going to be a wuss and use plastic rings. I'm making a FAT SUIT for this and wearing it at Dragon*con....all metal maille is not an option for this chick with a bad back lol.
The middle rings are in fact metal chain rings, but this baby is baby will be light as a feather. I think they'll do fine.
For the helmet, I toyed around with using a batting helmet as a base. When I couldn't find a decent batting helmet at a good enough price, I decided to just say the hell with it and cut my own base.
I have a bunch of EVA foam laying around, as excess from our Skyrim costumes, so I started with that. Drafting out a base pattern with reference shots. (picture of the wool fabric and the dye for the tunic as well)
A trashcan makes a great helmet holder btw...
After much filling, sanding, filling and sanding, etc. I put a 1 layer coat of resin over it and then spray painted it to see what else needed to be filled and if there were any pot holes. There's still some leveling to do, but it's getting there.
Wanted to get started on the knot work while that was all drying, so I drafted up the cheek guard pattern and the emblem in the middle of the helmet (not pictured).
Got the foam base all set up with a vinyl stand-in for the soon-to-come leather flap in the back.
Build thread continues below! PROOF PIC COMING SOON!
The most challenging part of this entire costume was probably the helmet build, and then eventually wearing the entire piece. It was the warmest costume I've ever worn due to the fat suit and all the prosthetics. I could only wear him about 2-3 hours at a time, unless I was sitting down! But I learned so much through this process and Gimli was so fun to make and to wear regardless of the heat! And tricking people into thinking I was a man when I walked into the woman's bathroom at Dragoncon...LEVEL UP!
This costume allowed me to delve, briefly, into chainmaile working and making beards and mustaches. I had ventilated wigs in the past, but this was my first time completely constructing a piece from the ground out! The beard consists of tracks sewn on to lace tulle, and as you get towards the face, I've ventilated all the hair in to look more natural and to cover up the tracks. The mustache is all hand knotted onto a piece of lace tulle. All of my prosthetics are made from your basic gelatin prosthetic recipe. The sugar free syrup is used solely for the sorbitol it contains. But it's not a requirement, it just allows your gelatin to hold up a bit longer. These are one time use, usually. Mainly because they melt, but the edges can be blended away seamlessly with witch hazel.
. I've wanted to make Gimli since FotR came out. He's one of my favorites in the books as well as the movies, and much to my Legolas' chagrin...it's happenin'.
I've started out making the chainmaille and the helmet.
I'm making a dicky for the maille, mainly because it doesn't need to be a full shirt, as only the sleeves and a bit of the skirt can be seen. I'll just be making sleeves and a vinyl/leather trimmed tunic that the rings will attach to. His rings are actually hexagons...but where the hell am I going to find hexagons? So I just opted to get plain, nylon washers. Yes I'm going to be a wuss and use plastic rings. I'm making a FAT SUIT for this and wearing it at Dragon*con....all metal maille is not an option for this chick with a bad back lol.
The middle rings are in fact metal chain rings, but this baby is baby will be light as a feather. I think they'll do fine.
For the helmet, I toyed around with using a batting helmet as a base. When I couldn't find a decent batting helmet at a good enough price, I decided to just say the hell with it and cut my own base.
I have a bunch of EVA foam laying around, as excess from our Skyrim costumes, so I started with that. Drafting out a base pattern with reference shots. (picture of the wool fabric and the dye for the tunic as well)
A trashcan makes a great helmet holder btw...
After much filling, sanding, filling and sanding, etc. I put a 1 layer coat of resin over it and then spray painted it to see what else needed to be filled and if there were any pot holes. There's still some leveling to do, but it's getting there.
Wanted to get started on the knot work while that was all drying, so I drafted up the cheek guard pattern and the emblem in the middle of the helmet (not pictured).
Got the foam base all set up with a vinyl stand-in for the soon-to-come leather flap in the back.
Build thread continues below! PROOF PIC COMING SOON!
The most challenging part of this entire costume was probably the helmet build, and then eventually wearing the entire piece. It was the warmest costume I've ever worn due to the fat suit and all the prosthetics. I could only wear him about 2-3 hours at a time, unless I was sitting down! But I learned so much through this process and Gimli was so fun to make and to wear regardless of the heat! And tricking people into thinking I was a man when I walked into the woman's bathroom at Dragoncon...LEVEL UP!
This costume allowed me to delve, briefly, into chainmaile working and making beards and mustaches. I had ventilated wigs in the past, but this was my first time completely constructing a piece from the ground out! The beard consists of tracks sewn on to lace tulle, and as you get towards the face, I've ventilated all the hair in to look more natural and to cover up the tracks. The mustache is all hand knotted onto a piece of lace tulle. All of my prosthetics are made from your basic gelatin prosthetic recipe. The sugar free syrup is used solely for the sorbitol it contains. But it's not a requirement, it just allows your gelatin to hold up a bit longer. These are one time use, usually. Mainly because they melt, but the edges can be blended away seamlessly with witch hazel.
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