Thorin Oakenshield costume - keeping busy over summer break

[BeanFactory]

Long time lurker, first time posting a new thread. I discovered a love for costuming this summer and this is my third one so far. I've been meaning to make myself some kind of Tolkien dwarf costume for a while now, but I've been dragging my feet because I swore to myself that my next costume wouldn't involve a fake beard. Still, I have the body type and the nose for a decent dwarf, so I figured I'd cope with beard sweat and spend my summer break elbows-deep in fur, leather, and other things that I'll regret when August rolls around. For a while I played around with a Fili costume (I'm a dead ringer for Dean O'Gorman in his dwarf nose), but my students insisted I could pull off a great Thorin. I can hide my dreads under the longer, darker wig a bit better and that armor looks like way too much fun to pass up.

So far I've gotten a good start on the boots (see the bajilliondy photos) and I'm waiting on the materials for the rest. Here's my progress so far:


Toe cap pattern. I had to make these a couple of times because they were always just a smidge too small for dwarf feet. Thanks, art school, for teaching me to save all of my patterns just in case.


Toe caps. I made these out of Worbla and I'm pretty happy with the result. They're still waiting for another coat to give them more of a copper color, though I quite like this rusty iron look.


Boot hardware. I made the texture on the originals by rolling a ball of twine over the clay. It left perfect ridges and scratches. Then I cast them in resin and aluminum powder and rubbed paint into the scratches to weather them up a bit.


The boots as they are so far. There's still a ton to do (sculpt/mold the buckles, finish the fur, add the leather spines up the back, finish painting the toe caps, weather the hell out of everything...) but I like them so far.


I've been wearing them around the house despite the heat. My cat hates them. I wish they were a touch bigger, but still, they definitely make my feet look much more dwarf-y than my usual size nines. I think these are about a size fifteen?

I'll post more progress shots as I make more progress. Fingers crossed for cool evenings so I don't die up in my hundred-degree attic studio.

 

[DamnItSasha]

Aaaayyy! Fellow Thorin!
Your bootcaps look awesome, and I love your boot detailing, let's hope mine comes out as good. And I feel you on that trying to avoid more fake facial hair route. It never works.

 

[BeanFactory]

Heck yes. I love what you've got for yours so far! That coat was a great find.

I swear off beards every time and then immediately buy/make a new one. I can't help it. It's just so much fun to get that "HOLY CRAP, you're a WOMAN!?!" response when I say "sure you can take my picture". We'll see if this one does me in, though.

It came in the mail yesterday and I spent the afternoon walking around the house pretending to be a sea captain.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DamnItSasha]

Oh my gosh, you ARE a majestic sea captain! And with your bangs, I'm seeing Ori as well.
Yes, the "oh, you're a girl!" is always the best!

 

[BeanFactory]

Forward progress on the boots. I spent the past couple of days covering, dyeing, and weathering the cheap knock-off Uggs I've been using as a base, and I'm pretty pleased with them so far.

First I made the leather loops up the back of them to hold the straps in place. I dyed them shortly after taking this photo because they stood out so badly:



I spent a good chunk of time weathering the straps because they looked way too new. I didn't have my usual pile of sandpaper and files handy, so I dragged them across the drawer pulls of my desk and smashed the crap out of them afterwards with a mallet. It worked pretty well:

I've been wearing them around my classroom. Thankfully I have a lot of wonderfully geeky students in my computer graphics classes (surprise surprise) and they're getting into watching me slowly turn into Thorin from the toes up.


I've also gotten a great start on the plates, though I'm still in the "cast hundreds and hundreds of the same thing" stage. I'll post photos of that process once I have more than a series of photos of growing piles of white geometric shapes.

 

[BeanFactory]

I've been working on the plates for a few days while I wait for more supplies to arrive. This is the first time I've made so many resin pieces in a short span of time, and I've really been enjoying watching my pile of plates grow. Being able to actually measure progress is pretty neat.


First I made a mould of each of the pieces I'd need, then I cast them to make a larger mould so I could do more pieces in one go.


The bigger mould and some fast-setting resin made this process go really quickly. I rapidly took over the whole room with my plate production line.


After a few tests with gluing the plates on, I decided to be extra thorough and leave some holes to either rivet or stitch them on. I'm really rough on my clothes and costumes, so I figure better safe than sorry. I'm worried that some of the holes are a touch close to the edges, but so far my stress tests have held up just fine.


Here's a terrible photo of some of the painted scales. They still need lots of weathering, but I'm pretty pleased.

 

[BeanFactory]

Lots of progress since my last post. First I made the bracers. I do a lot of leather working, so this was easily my favorite part of the costume to make. At first I was using a pattern someone had posted to Pinterest a while back, but I noticed that the bottom half had a few odd spots and I ended up redoing it from scratch in Illustrator. If anyone wants that vector file let me know. It's exactly the right size for my big-for-a-lady-but-small-for-a-guy hands, but it can easily be scaled.



Then I did the wig. I bought a Matilda wig in natural black from Arda wigs, ventilated the lace front, and added the white streaks. Once that was done (so... many... hours...) I braided it, steamed the braids with my tea kettle, and brushed it all out. I'm very pleased with how it turned out so far, even though I have to loosen up the front and add the beads. I took some photos with the untrimmed beard and it looks so weird without the mustache! Once the mustache comes in I'll do some shaving to make it more of a Thorin-ish shape.



Then it was time to make the brigandine. I took the mountain of plates I had cast in resin and finished drilling holes in them, and once I had sanded and painted them all I glued them in place with some contact cement. I still need to cast about fifty more, but this is well on its way to at least looking vaguely complete.



I brought it into work today so I could stitch down the plates during quiet moments. It's a nicely mindless process - perfect for doing on the bus, in front of the TV, or while we watch Spirited Away in my animation class (I have the best job ever). My students are getting into it. One wanted to wear it around the classroom today, and she looked so wee in my more dwarven-proportioned outfit.


Still to come - yikes... basically everything. Beard trimming, over tunic sewing, furry coat making, buckle sculpting, prop making......

 

[DamnItSasha]

Great progress! Do you go to Dragoncon, by chance?

 

[BeanFactory]

I wish I could! I primarily stick around Boston, but one of these days I'd really like to go check it out. That's assuming I don't completely lose my mind from the tedium of sewing every one of these plates in place. These slightly-too-far-apart plates. Grrgrrhhhghrrgrgggrgrgrr.....

 

[fallimar]

This build makes me happy
Gorgeous work so far. Subscribed!

 

[BeanFactory]

Thanks! Dwarves FTW, eh?

I'm trying to squeeze in a little more progress before I have to move shop to VT for a few weeks. Here's what I've been up to in between bouts of grading finals and packing up my super messy workshop:

I trimmed the beard and mustache and they look pretty decent. I hadn't quite finished shaping a few raggedy parts when I snapped these photos, but you get the idea:


I put lacing up the back of the brigandine so I can wear it around the house now. It's still too blue and I want to hem the bottom a bit more.:


And I went on a crazy tangent on day 1 of summer vacation and thought I'd build my first prop ever - his totally nonessential-to-the-costume axe. I have no idea why I got such a bee in my bonnet about this, considering it's barely used in the film and I already have the replica Orcrist and a more convention-safe version. Still, it'll be another cool axe to hang on my wall, so I can't complain:



I'm sure anyone with proper woodworking experience/tools is probably cringing at my wobbly lines and rather ad hoc sanding setup. I think I probably broke every single rule and guideline I learned in carpentry in junior high (I did this with a rotary tool, I mean, sheesh) but somehow it turned out really well. One of these days I need to get some decent equipment.

And finally a picture of me brandishing my axe at my dog, Goblin.


I still have to cover it with Worbla, paint it, and age it. That'll be tonight, depending on the temperature up in the attic.

 

[BeanFactory]

Long time no update, mainly because I've been crazy busy working on this costume in a place with a very really spotty internet connection. Therefore there will be TONS of photos. First, photos of the axe. I gessoed, and sanded, and gessoed, and sanded, and eventually primed it in black with a top coat of silver. It looked like this after rubbing black paint into the recesses and dry brushing lighter silver in the raised areas:


I made hair beads out of scrap copper and nickel silver from the jewelry studio where I was working. I hammered the patterns into them with some stamping chisels I had from my jewelry-class-taking days back in art school. Not pictured: oxidizing them, which made them look nicely brown and aged.



I made the buckle out of cork and covered it in epoxy to keep it from crumbling. The belt itself is mostly leather, with the French binding in blue matte vinyl because there was no cost effective way to get my hands on a very thin strip of leather that was that long. I cast the stones in resin, and while they came out a bit streaky, I liked the effect and chose to keep them.



The over tunic made me absolutely crazy. I couldn't find a suitable printed velvet (nothing even close) so I had to make it myself. I used some chipboard to make the basic shape for the pattern and ironed the velvet over it to create the design. Lining this up took ALL DAY. I never, ever, ever want to do this again. It was so tedious and finicky.


I made the pattern for the knees in Illustrator and printed them out to make a template, then cut them out of some thick scrap leather. I slathered the designs with contact cement and glued them between two pieces of thin black suede to create the embossing effect.



After that it was a matter of sculpting and moulding the buckles for the boots and vambraces, making myself a fake collar to go under everything, making the rune ring out of Worbla, and a few other things here and there that I don't have any decent photos of.



And finally the fun part: actually putting it all on and wearing it to Boston Comic Con:


I didn't get there in time for the costume contest (I was still working in VT... boo) but at least I got to go to the last day of the con and show this off a bit. Hopefully I can make some final tweaks to it and go to another local event and actually compete. The plus side is this will give me time to make props like the map, the fur collared coat, and the shield.

 

[TinkeringPirate]

Wow, this is very impressive work! I've wanted to make a Thorin costume for some time. Your work is really inspiring!

 

[Yrien]

OMG this turned out completely awesome! You look amazing!

 

[Neoproks]

Love this thread, and I love this build . The detail work here is amazing, and the final costume came out perfect. You make a great Thorin!

 

[BeanFactory]

Thanks! I'm pretty proud of what I managed to put together for the maiden voyage. I've finalized plans to go to a couple of events in the coming months, so now I have to get back up off my butt and finish this costume. Making hotel reservations lit a costume-making fire under my butt again so I have some more updates.

I tackled the bulk of the shield yesterday and today and I couldn't be more pleased. This was my first ever attempt at working with foam, and I'm really proud of the way it turned out.


I'll paint it tomorrow when I have better light. Until then I'll just sit around my apartment watching Middle-Earth-related movies while holding my shield lovingly. I feel so safe and well-protected now.

 

[BeanFactory]

The paint so far. Clearly it's waaaaaay too shiny, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty good about it. Next on the agenda is de-shining it and then covering the metal bits on the end with something that's less foam-textured.

 

[Yrien]

Wow, that looks spectacular!

 

[BeanFactory]

Thanks! I made some tweaks and I think it looks a lot better. I hated the metal prongs because they looked too... foamy, I guess? I shaved them off and re-did them as separate pieces in Worbla and pinned them into place with some thick armature wire. Note: the foreshortening in the photos is making them look disproportionately huge.

 

[BeanFactory]

It's been a while since I last posted, but I've been very productive. I've nearly finished the entire costume and have made a ton of props to go with it.

First, the map. I drew Thror's map by hand in waterproof ink on some nice watercolor paper I already had, soaked it in tea and coffee, then wrinkled it and added smudges using shoe polish.



Then I made Orcrist. I took a plastic toy Orcrist and rebuilt the handle using epoxy putty, sanded off various imperfections on the blade, and painted the whole thing so it didn't look like a cheap piece of plastic:



Next came the scabbard. I built the base out of EVA foam and carved out a cavity in each half so the sword fit perfectly. Then I covered it in Worbla and built the details out of that, and painted it in about 20 layers of gesso to get it as smooth as possible. I sanded it for what felt like forever and then painted the metal and the wood grain before starting on the baldric and the buckles. The strap is all leather that I tooled myself, and the buckles are made of Worbla, gessoed, and then finally painted.



Then I drafted a pattern for the coat and sewed the whole thing by hand over a period of about three weeks. My supposedly "heavy duty" machine couldn't handle the 3oz leather, so I had to bust out my lacing chisel and saddle-stitch until my fingers felt like they were about to fall off. The fur started out as a weird rabbit skin throw rug from a thrift store, and it was a giant IQ test to try to cut it apart in a way that would hang properly.



I still need to mess up the fur so I can hide the seams a bit more easily, but this is what it looks like so far. It's super comfy and warm, and I've been walking around the house in it pretty much constantly because it's so much fun to wear. Now that it's done (well, minus weathering, of course), it was totally worth it. During the process? Oh god, I wanted to set it on fire.


I wore the whole costume to a local renaissance faire, so once I get photos of that I'll post them. I'm definitely in the end stages of this process, but I'm sure I'll find tons of little things to tweak and improve long past the point I decide to call it "done."