Gladiator - Maximus body armor / full costume WIP

Well she has the right idea - we do need horses!

Looking forward to working with you on this project mate.

looking good Al, are you going to put a beading around the edge of the shoulder armour ?

Chris27989 said:

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looking good Al, are you going to put a beading around the edge of the shoulder armour ?

Thanks, yup doing that as I write!

multi-tasking!! but thumbs up to that its really looking the part

Loving this Al

What Primer did you use, since you are from the uk? :P

Cannot wait to see the full finalised.

Thanks, it's Halford's filler primer.

Sweet, is that the make? Or is it isopon?

how did you do the silver paint on the details Al ?

Halford's is a car parts, paints etc. place here in the UK, they produce their own brand of paints.

Chris, that was just a superquick job to see how the raised details looked silver. I basically just dipped my finger into some silver paint and rubbed it on the raised detail, then touched up a few areas with a brush and sprayed a mist of matt black over the top from a distance to make it appear weathered.

I'll be redoing it once all the other elements are complete. The trim has had 24 hours to dry (primed it last night too) so I'll be working on that later, now I'm back home from work!

My Gladiator sword arrived whilst I was out, very pleased with it, so the costume is coming together bit by bit!

After reading through your Threads on the gladiator costume helmet, shoulder armour etc.. you've inspired me to get/make a Maximus costume. Ill PM you if thats ok about details on the rest of your costume?
Chris

You added more spikes to the helmet didnt you? But it does look a stunning piece now! did you use the same weathering effect on that silver then mist of matt black over the top from a distance to make it appear weathered..

Just two extra spikes needed at the temples, I'm sending you those too.

No, the helmet weathering was a bit more time intensive, I used silver, then black dabbed on with a sponge/cloth, then more tweaking and messing about over several hours until I was happy. The distance spray techinique didn't work on the helmet as it looked too obvious on the steel.

oh Al your a star!
I take it after the black dabbed on your distance sprayed silver on it? or dabbed silver on?

Chris27989 said:

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oh Al your a star!
I take it after the black dabbed on your distance sprayed silver on it? or dabbed silver on?

Chris, over the course of several glasses of vino I sprayed a thin mist of enamel silver, let it dry, then watered down some acrylic black and gently dabbed that on with a cloth, then went back and carefully touched up with more sprayed silver, then added more sponged black...until I was reasonably happy with how it all worked asthetically.

Fantastic work indeed! I am going to be watching this build closely!

Hogosha said:

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Fantastic work indeed! I am going to be watching this build closely!

Thanks Hogosha. To be honest, there are still a few things I'd like to change and may well still do so, but that's the perfectionist in me rearing it's obsessive head. There's always something to tweak, isn't there?

Overall, I'm pleased with progress and glad to be working with Nate, so I think we will manage to reach our goal of making the complete outfit with minimum expense and hopefully maximu(s)m effect! lol.

Cheers for the help Al
Will be hoping to pick up some soon.

No worries, it's nice stuff to work with and wetsands really smooth.

Here's another (grainy iphone) pic of the new sword:



It's a nice solidly built piece, but I plan on adding the channel in the 'egg' pommel part, weathering and a few other little tweaks.

One thing I have already done, the hilt is held together by a top screw and an inner screw - I have loosened the parts and readjusted the alignment to replicate the screen used sword set-up, as well as coat the leather parts with pecards dressing to loosen them up and give it a nice deep sheen.

Here's the latest progress shot.

I took a long close look at my decorative parts sculpt and realised it wasn't good enough, so I went back and redid the whole thing. It's much closer to the screen used prop now.

I also scrapped the idea of using the edge trim I had bought and opted instead to sculpt the edge trim. It's a much more solid piece this way and will be easier to mold:



I've also bought some great coloured brown leather to use for the straps today.

Still looks amazing man, SIMPLY AMAZING!

PS. Which primer do you use, if any? Sorry, I'm asking loads of question but you are one of the few UK members I've seen that has topics.