Brienne of Tarth - Season 4 - CC is welcome!

[QueenZero]

Just like the title says! I wore this to DragonCon 2014, unfortunately only for Friday. This is the first time I've used expanded PVC sheet, and although I definitely ran into problems and there's certain things I don't like I'm quite proud of my build. I think my Oathkeeper is actually my favorite part, though. I'm planning on wearing this to Katsucon this year, and I want to do some extra details since I rushed this costume for D*C. So if anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Here's the list of stuff I'm already planning to do:

Build a sheath.
Add detail to the gold belt plates.
Strip Oathkeeper's blade and repaint it with the Damascus steel pattern from the show. (Could definitely use some suggestions on this: as of now I'm planning on hand painting each line.)
Figure out a better way of attaching the armor pieces that go over my shoulders from front to back (still haven't been able to find out their actual name.) They're very loose right now and it bothers me a lot.
Get a wig (I'm not keeping my hair short, and mine doesn't fit her well anyway.)

There's a lot of talent on these boards, so I'm a bit intimidated, but here's hoping I'll be able to improve on what I have!

Edit: Here's a reference pic for you guys! I based mine off of the scene where she fights the Hound (basically she's just not wearing all of her armor.)

 

[Cameron1138]

Awesome job! How did you make Oathkeeper, specifically the hilt?

 

[Yrien]

I believe the shoulder pieces are called pauldrons. You may want to look into how historical examples were attached for some ideas.

Really awesome job on this costume! I love the detail work on the sword hilt.

 

[QueenZero]

Thanks for the kind words guys! Yrien, thanks! That's what I've been calling them in my builds but I wasn't sure it was right. I'm definitely going to look into historial arming points. I did for the rest of it, but I was so rushed before the con I ended up just tacking on some velcro. I'll have to do more research.

Cameron: I started my build with a cheap wooden waster broadsword. I stripped off the crossguard and handguard pieces so that only the blade and tang (all the same piece of wood) were left. After trimming and sanding the blade and tang to my liking I drilled a hole in either side of the tang to seat a thin dowel. I also did this at the end of the tang to add length to the handgrip. The dowels served as structural support for the god of all sculpting materials, Apoxie Sculpt. It was built up in layers and sanded after each layer to make sure' I had an even base. I then sculpted the details in multiple layers and sections, letting the Apoxie Sculpt cure in between each. The tail you see wrapping around the grip is actually made up of 3 separate pieces of jewelry wire. I used armature wire for the ring separating the crossguard and grip.

I'm still not totally happy with the amount of weathering on the armor, but it's such a strange color I'm not sure where to go next with it. If anyone has suggestions on that I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[Yrien]

I'd go with silver/grey/blue for the weathering, and maybe a bit of brown. If you find it's too light afterwards, you could do a wash of watered-down black overtop again.

 

[Galacticat]

Hi other Brienne!

I think we briefly talked at the GoT shoot about how my armor was all strapped together, particularly the pauldrons, but I can take some photos if it would help, as it's probably easier to show than describe. (Which reminds me, I keep meaning to update my build thread with more info!)

 

[Galacticat]

I'm not sure if you could rig yours up the same way, but this is how I strapped up my pauldrons and arm pieces. Please ignore how terrible the inside of the armor looks, haha.

Basically, I have a loose piece of webbing that slides under the back piece, across my shoulders, and then snaps into the pauldrons with buckles. The arm pieces are all connected to the pauldrons (via cotton webbing and hot glue), so once those are strapped on, it more or less keeps the pauldrons in place. The leather cording is tied around the leather straps/buckles that connect the top of the chest and back pieces and helps keep the pauldrons from slipping back too much, but from what I can tell her new armor doesn't appear to have the cording.

 

[QueenZero]

That is fantastically helpful! And yes, we did talk at the shoot! It was kind of hard to picture so thank you for the pics Strapping the armor down is pretty tough to figure out sometimes.

And the advice for weathering is helpful too. I rubbed a black acrylic into the edges and dry bushed some silver on edges but since the color is so dark it doesn't show up well. I'm definitely going to have to go further with it.

Galacticat: You used worbla for you build, right? How hard do you think it would be to match the texture of it with the PVC sheet I used? I just couldn't get the right pauldron shape for this armor with the sheet and am thinking of remaking it the more I look at pics.

 

[Galacticat]

Yeah, I used Worbla. We got it pretty smooth but we had to sand the hell out of it. The pauldrons were also one of the hardest parts to put the Worbla on, as I had to shape them and add the lines first, then put on the Worbla - it's much easier to put on a flat piece of foam and then shape it. Her new armor doesn't have the lines on the pauldrons, so it might be a bit easier to work with.