Bard the Bowman Impersonation Cosplay Costume The Hobbit Trilogy

[greenmachines]

Bard the Bowman Cosplay build: First to honor the builds that inspired me, before I even knew therpf existed as the source for both of them: therpf members Anduril and Jessamygriffin. These two builds were film worthy and I had no hopes of bettering these as both looked like on screen replicas.

I was in a remote job away from home and found myself in prime territory for getting a great hide, cheap. Salt Lake, Utah. I got a great full elk tanned for 99 dollars. The original in the film was roo.

I noticed that the hide had very nearly the correct shape to be a one piece coat. I opened slits for the arm holes and added two sleeve pieces made from a nearly similar split leather. The only sewing required was the sleeves.

I then trimmed this back to match the contours of Bard's coat. These trimmings became my leg wraps and hand wraps. I used Dollar Tree 1/4 inch cordage to tie them on.

I spent my weekends looking for second hand thrift matches for shirts and pants. I was away from home at this remote job for 9 months and had a lot of free time. I eventually found a match for the base grey shirt and the very baggy pants, size 8x but had to purchase the material for the near burlap but really silk, overshirt. I draped this on my manneqin form and made a very rough shirt, bound with leather cord.

This overshirt needed some wear and tear so I attempted to match the costume by removing threads near all edges and then sewed a protective and nearly invisible edging to keep the fraying from destroying the shirt.

I had an old moccasin kit that was a garage sale find and colored it to match the shoes but did not go as far as my two inspirations listed above, who had actual fur on the tops.

I continued to let my hair grow and shaped my facial hair to match. No faux hair additions were used on this build.

After nearly a year, the costume was ready but I had gained 30 pounds. I will do another set of poses when I am back down to Luke Evans weight in the show. This first one is me getting caught making a mess in the house and then my final build.

 

[Malibu139]

That coat…. Love it! Looks much more involved than what you actually had to do to make it as you describe.

 

[greenmachines]

That coat…. Love it! Looks much more involved than what you actually had to do to make it as you describe.

I was ridiculously lucky on how it hung like a coat without trying. I was unsure I would be happy that the seams wouldn't be there like the onscreen version and even thought about painting in seams with a stain pen. Even the lapel and collar was already there.

 

[greenmachines]

This was my max facial likeness percentage from my likeness app: