Golden Age Blue Beetle Chain Maille

[mattd43]

Okay, I want to make a Golden Age The Blue Beetle Costume, which is Chain Maille. But, Im having ALOT of difficulty with the maille. The way the rings overlap it kind of folds up on me. Ive looked at and watched and printed off numerous tutorials about the process but it doesn't work. The way the links (I use jump rings) overlap, makes them fold up. Any ideas?

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Can you show an example of how you made your chainmaille? The usual 4 in 1 works quite well. But it takes ages to make chainmaille. In addition, you will have a hard time keeping the finished maille shirt completely blue, since the rings will scuff each other, rubbing off any paint you´ll throw on them. Unless you have blue rings, I don´t think you´ll be really happy with that concept. Not to mention the sheer weight of such a shirt, IIRC being in the 25 to 30 pound range, depending on the rings you are using.

 

[Bizarro Lois]

I don't have any suggestions, but I'm very impressed that you took the time to make chain mail.

 

[weaponx82]

Do you have the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings movies? In one of their extras DVD's they show that they bought, rubber air hose or some other type of black rubber hose with the correct thickness and diameter. They built a little machine that automatically cut the hose into rings of the thickness they wanted, built their chainmail with the cut pieces and painted them.

It's been a few years since I watched it but I seem to remember them saying it was lighter and more comfortable than actual metal rings.

I don't know if it would be easier than the traditional method but I'm betting there must be some benefits to it in production.

Just another option I thought I'd throw out.

 

[Ttaskmaster]

It took me about 2 months (every evening and all weekend) to make my maille shirt.
I was making the rings myself from bending wire coat hangers round a spindle and clipping them off with BIG bolt-cutters.

I made the majority by hanging the rings off a line of nails, set into the top of a board. you then 'knit' the lines of rings in, one ring at a time. Eventually you build up sheets of maille.

This shirt was the open-pattern. For the standard 4-in-1 European pattern, I usually put that together with the piece sat on my lap.

One thing I would have done in hindsight is buy the links. There are quite a few maille ring suppliers and not only are their rings square-section, but buying them really saves some abuse on your hands!!


Some places offer various finishes. Stainless, antique, brass, rusted, satin (my favourite) and so on. I know at least one that offers a 'blued' finish. However, the finish can (and does) wear off with use.

An option may be to heat the rings - how is up to you - and then dunk them in oil.
Oil quenching hot metal gives it a blue taint. I suppose you could do this in small pieces with a blowtorch and then link the pieces together to finish the garment.

However, I've never done oil quenching myself, so you'd best ask someone like a blacksmith for advice.

 

[dreaminspired]

Do you have the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings movies? In one of their extras DVD's they show that they bought, rubber air hose or some other type of black rubber hose with the correct thickness and diameter. They built a little machine that automatically cut the hose into rings of the thickness they wanted, built their chainmail with the cut pieces and painted them.

It's been a few years since I watched it but I seem to remember them saying it was lighter and more comfortable than actual metal rings.

I don't know if it would be easier than the traditional method but I'm betting there must be some benefits to it in production.

Just another option I thought I'd throw out.

that's exactly what i was thinking. surely you could find some type of plastic hose in blue. they make engine dress up kits for cars with all types of color hose replacements.
personally i would prefer a chain mail shirt in plastic opposed to metal. the odds of me getting into battle nowadays is pretty slim. (i just turned 35.):lol

 

[Hamsterstyle]

I have some pics on my General Kael thread with my chainmail.

I did mine with 1/2in pvc pipe. It takes paint pretty well, it's light weight, and it's dirt cheap. Although it takes a long time and will kill your hands cutting them if you do it by hand...which I did.

Chain Maile collapses and clings to you. So if you wan't the 'heroic' build for a costume you will need to make a muscle suit and build the chain on top of that.

 

[SmilingOtter]

If you do want to use metal, The Ring Lord Chainmail Chain Mail Maille Supplies offers blue anodized aluminum rings.

 

[The Wolf]

I've thought about this costume also.
The old movies used knit clothes like crochet that was painted silver.
Maybe you could do something like that.
I do think actual chain mail would look best, though.

Good luck,
Wolf

 

[Siyoum3434]

One thing you can do to save a little time is to open half of your rings, if you buy them from ring lord, or if you use hose/pvc/whatever, you then leave half closed. As you knit an open ring into the pattern, you sling a closed ring onto it. When you do this it means you knitting two rows at once. Kinda nifty once you get the hang of it.
And Hamsterstyle is right, cutting all those damned rings out of pvc is a wicked pain! I should know, I cut a ton of rings for him. Now he doesn't bother with it. He did have a good idea of going to home depot and getting some day-laborers to cut rings for him, lol!

Cheers and good luck

 

[GBrittelleJr]

This is awesome! One of my friends is doing the Jamie/Blue Beetle III for Dragon con next year and I'm doing Ted Kord/Blue Beetle II.