Gandalf The Gray......Hobbit to LOTR

Here is my Gandalf The Gray costume posed in 3 versions: Hobbit, with scarf and swirl staff, Moria Staff and Hobbiton Staff.

That's awesome. How did you make the staff, Is it real wood? And did you dye the beard, if so what did you use?

The Hobbit Staff is the UC staff, the Hobbiton staff was made from a broken Radagast Staff, and the Moria Staff I made with a wooden pole and a Gandalf Candlestick and lots of wood putty and carving.

Great job on the staves! Your robes look really good as well. That also looks like the Weta hat. I had to put in a wire in the brim to help keep its shape on mine and some binder clips on the inside to give its folds.

Stivie, yes I need to wire mine too. I already stitched the folds, but I may make them slightly more prounounced. I plan to do the brim this week. Thanks for the comments folks. I've been researching this costume since Fellowship first came out. about a year ago, I found a seamstress that made the costume and it only needed minor tweaks. She worked with me graciously and added in all the bells and whistles I desired on the costume. She is a dream to work with and has a great eye for detail. She taught me details about the costume that I missed as well. She did all the hand stitching in the correct patterns. There is a somewhat hidden pair of Culottes beneath the robes, which are giant skirt like trousers. The robe is split up the front and back to the waist so you could literally ride horseback in this costume. I couldn't get the boots on the mannequin, but I used a pair of brown moccasin boots that lace up the front. I need to weather them before Halloween. You can see the pants below the robe as I pulled them lower to hide the white feet of the mannequin. She hand weaves the simple belt around his waist. She also hand weaves the strap on the utility pouch on his side. As you can see, it's pretty much the only fan made costume with the yoke across the shoulders cut in the correct design. The Scarf, Hat and fingerless gloves/arm covers are by WETA. All made with the original Stansborough Wool. Found only in one herd of sheep in New Zealand. I tracked down Stansborough wool yarn for all the detail stitching throughout the costume. There are many tears that have been repaired by Gandalf all over the costume. She added the patches and hand stitched them in place. I just need to weather it all. The sword belt is a labor of love. I made some 3D designs on my computer and had the buckles and strapends 3D printed. Made silicon moulds and purchased a mini forge and cast them in lead free metal. They are hinged like the originals with Gandalf's runes designed in. I've also done some ringwraith buckles and strapends which I'll be showing off soon with any luck. Just waiting on my robes and gauntlets to arrive. I hand cut and dyed the Gandalf sword belt, Had some custom leather stamps machined for the rune designs per the original belt, then stamped and hand applied metallic ink to the stamped design. It looks even better in person. I still need to make a second strap for the scabbard for it to be accurate. Just haven't had the time. The scabbard has one buckle, and the belt has one buckle, so when it's worn properly, you can see them both. They basically all strap together to secure the scabbard. I also need to cut a hole through the robe for the scabbard to pass through. That is seen on both the hobbiton and moria cloaks. My moria cloak is not shown as I need to shorten the sides slightly. It's a work of art all by itself. It's the hood free cloak with the really long sides that sort of drapes over the arms. The sleeves are tied closed. Hopefully I can show that one off soon as well. The hobbiton staff is sporting Gandalf's tobacco pouch which I made of leather and also his signature churchwarden pipe which is a functional pipe. And yes I have tried it out. The ring is the official replica of Narya, Gandalf's magical ring given to him by the Elves as seen in the opening of Fellowship.

Dave

Reworked the hat shaping today, will be running a wire through the brim tomorrow.

I got the wire sewn in the brim, but I may have the hat on the wrong crazy old wizard!

here's the altered hat and a longer beard. Also added a cheap rubber old man mask.

All great improvements!

This is the best I have seen. Your placement of the repairs on the robe are just great.
Congratulations!
Is there a special name for the linen fabric used for the robe?

Awesome.

The fabric is just linen. It comes in lots of weights and degrees of coarseness. You just have to dig through piles of fabric and find what looks right to you.

Thanks Vaderdarth, I'll keep pawing around the fabric stores.
Hope you send that seamstress something nice for Christmas!

Here are some updated pics of the sword belt system. I've been tinkering with it....

The belt looks good, and the buckles are especially nice, great job there.
I am afraid that the asymmetrical mess of my first buckle casting is rather embarrassing by comparison,
time to melt and start over.
Thanks for the new photos, inspiring.

Thanks for the kind words. I hope to someday get a decent McKellen bust to do the display up right.

This looks like a great thread but the images appear broken for me. Seems they use expired facebook URLs. vaderdarth Would you mind updating when you have a chance? Thanks! =D

I am about the start work on a Gandalf cosplay from the Fellowship of the Ring Moria version. Do you know what color hilt, sheath and leather belt is used? In the film it looks black. However, I have seen pics of the actual prop and it looks blue. The liscensed reproductions are also blue. What did your research show? Your picture links are broken and I could not see what you had used.

Foolishmortal42 said:

I am about the start work on a Gandalf cosplay from the Fellowship of the Ring Moria version. Do you know what color hilt, sheath and leather belt is used? In the film it looks black. However, I have seen pics of the actual prop and it looks blue. The liscensed reproductions are also blue. What did your research show? Your picture links are broken and I could not see what you had used.

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It's a dark blue.

Thank you for the great picture and the confirmation of the color.

Stivie said:

It's a dark blue.

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