Brienne of Tarth (Game of Thrones)

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Sadly I've been way too busy to make much progress on this, but I'm determined to have it done for DragonCon, so it's crunch time! We haven't gotten too far with the armor yet, but the gambeson skirt panel thingies are almost done. Just waiting on some more rapid rivets so I can finish those up.



I'm going the lazy chainmail route and using a sweater. I found a sweater dress in a great color that when turned inside out, has a chainmail-like weave, so I've ripped that apart and will be sewing it back together, then probably spraypainting it to get it a bit metallic.



Hopefully I will have some armor updates soon! I know that's a lot more exciting than this stuff.

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

3 weeks later, and I'm actually starting to make some progress on the armor. Yay!



The stripes were giving me issues for a bit. Superglue was.. dangerous. Apparently I can't be entrusted with it, haha. Hot glue was just too damn messy. Then my boyfriend suggested trying Contact Cement and it's working wonderfully! I also tried out a few different types of cord, and settled on this pony bead lacing. Gluing on all the cording is rather tedious, but I'm hoping it's worth it and I'll get some nice clean lines out of it. I'm excited/a-tiny-bit-nervous to get all this gluing done so I can start covering the pieces in Worbla.

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Hey look, finally got to the Worlba-ing stage on some pieces!



Obviously the chestplate and backplate need to be shaped. The other shin is ready for Worbla, and the shoulder pauldrons are almost done getting lined up. Then it'll be time to move onto the arm pieces, which should be relatively simple, minus those damn elbow cops.

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Some WIP shots of the armor...





Progress is slow, as I have very little free time and I don't always have an extra set of hands available, which is necessary to do a lot of the shaping and patterning. But, I'm getting there! I just need to make the rest of arm pieces and the elbow cops, clean up some messy spots on the Worbla, and then it'll be time for Bondo and sanding!

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Heeeeey, someone wanna make these for me? :love

Gonna try to tackle these bad boys this weekend (in addition to completing the other arm pieces). I've been trying to wrap my head around the shape and.. nope. Hopefully my boyfriend can figure it out.

 

[davidwall]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Hi Galacticat,

Here's a pattern template for the anterior & posterior portion of the elbow guard. Hope it helps. The design is symmetrical so its not too bad. Just break the design down into 2 major parts. Anterior elbow & posterior elbow cop. With the anterior part simply flip/mirror the image. I found that worbla didn't really like all the subtle compound curves in the design. Could be my lack of experience with the material. My preferred medium is plastic. Craft foam and plastic dip however produced great results. The 2nd last picture shows my complete piece - a 15th C milanese arm armour. Planning a 1;1 scale suit one day... My elbow guard is asymmetrical so ignore the shape. In about 2 weeks i'll produce a 3d design for the coutter/cop piece. The blue piece is the pattern for the cop (back of the elbow guard.) Work is just killing my spare time at the moment. With your design ignore the triangle cut out at the bottom, thats just how decided to attach the two pieces. Have fun with the build. David.
View attachment PDF.pdf
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[King of Kittens]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Loving the work so far, and the bear pic from C2E2 is great!

 

[Athanasios]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Subscribed, this looks promising. Great work so far.

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Thanks for the info and photos, David! Chris (my boyfriend) was able to figure out a pattern that works pretty well.



Unfortunately, I destroyed one of them trying to put Worbla on it today (but fortunately foam is cheap, and it won't take too terribly long to make another one). Worbla is extremely difficult to put onto complex 3D shapes, as I learned when putting it onto the pauldrons, and I was worried about how the cops would take it. With good reason, obviously. I'm going to try cutting the Worbla into pieces and getting them as seamless as possible. I *think* it's gonna work.

The goal for this weekend is to start spackling (probably gonna use Bondo putty) and sanding. Probably the part I'm least excited about, haha.

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Everything now has Worbla over it, so we're in the spackling/sanding/priming phase, and it's pretty slow-going. I'm REALLY hoping to have all the prep work done so we can paint this upcoming weekend and start strapping things together. But for now, some WIP pics!

Test fitting to make sure the pauldrons are even and the arm pieces fit together:





I couldn't resist taking a silly photo in that pink "chainmail" sweater with my hair clipped back. My actual sweater is currently in pieces and I'm waiting on the armor to get done before I put it back together.

Armor pieces with Gesso and Bondo putty and primer... the arm pieces are getting pretty smooth!



Here's one of those damned elbow cops. They both still need to be shaped properly, but I'm happy I was able to get the Worbla on them successfully.



Back piece with a coat of Bondo putty and primer. Gonna need a few more coats to get it smooth enough:



I've also been working on acquiring the accessories I'll need. I originally bought a wooden sword, but didn't like the thickness of the blade, so I ended up getting the one below. Just need to paint it and the scabbard for accuracy. I'm also dyeing my own belts, and cutting one of them down to a smaller width, because for some silly reason I want belts that are as accurate as possible, haha. A friend suggested using wood stain, so I'm trying that out. Hopefully that isn't a terrible idea... not sure if it'll need a sealer or not. We also figured out a way to make the little prongy rivets on her belts, using hardware we found at Tandy. Also pictured is the belt buckle I decided on after hours and hours of searching. It's not super accurate, and it's a bit big, but I think it has a similar feel and should work well enough.

 

[smoothrat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Really coming along well. The pink chain-mail sweater is classic!

 

[Athanasios]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Lookin good!

 

[BeanFactory]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Gorgeous. I love, love, love Brienne of Tarth and it's awesome to see someone doing such a great job with her armor.

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Nothing too important to report. Just been sanding, and sanding, and sanding.... I am being extremely nitpicky about little blemishes in the armor, and it's probably dumb. I have a feeling that weathering is going to cover up a lot of it. Only two weekends left until DragonCon, so I have GOT to start painting and assembling this weekend. I ordered a few different colors of Rub N Buff to try out, and they should be here Thursday.

My goal is to have all the main pieces and connecting arm pieces ready to paint this weekend - the elbows, bracers, and shins can be done later - so that I can throw on the armor and figure out how long the chainmail and gambeson skirts need to be.

The back plate is about ready for paint. It has some blemishes that I am agonizing over, which is probably stupid. At this point I just need to deal with them.


Chest plate needs more sanding...

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Slow project is slow.

Finally got the first coat of paint on the big pieces today. I'm a little nervous about finishing this in time for DragonCon, but I think we can do it...

 

[Athanasios]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Looks really good! Good luck!

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

We're on the painting stage, and admittedly, I'm a bit worried we're not going to get an accurate color. We started with a bronze-y gold base, and are playing around with Rub N Buff (specifically European Gold and Antique Gold) to get a better color. In exactly a week, we'll be driving to Atlanta, and I'm starting to freak out a little bit about getting this done in time...

I did a paint test and took some photos in various lighting, and the color fluctuates quite a bit. Antique Gold on top left of the armor piece, European Gold on bottom left and on right side. I added more Antique Gold in the last photo, so it's a little more obvious what it looks like. It's a lot more reddish and coppery, whereas the European is more brown. I almost feel like I need a mix of the two.

 

[booksandcorsets]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Looking so good! Don't be afraid to make it super dirty, Brienne's costume was USED I used bronze acrylics and did some pretty intense weathering when I did mine!!

 

[Athanasios]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Yeah, I agree with booksandcorsets. Weathering and dirt are key. Also, seriously. I wouldn't stress about finding the EXACT color. In all likelyhood they randomly grabbed a particular shade of gold and just went with that. Plus, if you use a mixture of both of them, using the darker gold in the recesses of the armor, and the lighter gold in the high points, not only would you have a very nice-looking piece, but you'd also have a nice blend of the two colors which would make it impossible to say that you used the wrong color. Because they would all be contributing to the overall effect. : )

 

[Galacticat]

Re: Brienne of Tarth armor build (Game of Thrones)

Aaaaaaand it's done. Except for that whole assembly part. Was hoping to get to that tonight (or rather, a week ago), but everything takes at least twice as long as you expect it to.



I leave for DragonCon early Wednesday morning, and I still have 3 costumes to finish and need to pack. Wish me luck, and hope that assembly goes smoothly!