Costume Help. (Willow)

Alright so after thinking more and more about it I have decided to spend what little cash I have and what I can build up, and over time build a Madmartigan(Willow costume) this would be the costume Val Kilmer wears when he enters the ancient castle and gets armor and sword to fight the hyrda. here is a picture of what I mean



The problem is I have no idea where to start. I am pretty sure I can cannibalize some old jeans/wear them for the pants. The rest I have no idea what to do. The sword and armor plates I think would be the most expensive part. I am pretty sure, if I could find the files, I could get the armor plate pieces built using foam/pep by someone(I suck at folding). However not sure if there is files for it anywhere etc Any ideas for help on how to keep this costume cheap would rock.

Slowly overtime this will become a build thread, just you wait and see.

Looks like it will be a fun thread. I look forward to seeing your photos! :thumbsup

Willow is coming out on blu ray next year, so hopefully we are going to have much better sources for willow costumes pretty soon. I did a Kael costume a couple years ago. ( http://www.therpf.com/f24/bavmorda-general-kael-finished-81855/ )

Copy my method here.
http://www.therpf.com/f24/wip-witch-king-angmar-86074/

You can build just about everything the same way I did for my witch king armor. Styrene, heat gun, rivets for the armor. Thats it, super simple. Lightweight and cheap.

You can hit up ringlord and buy aluminum rings for the chainmaile parts, or go super cheap and make PVC chainmaile like they did in LOTR. I made some for my Kael costume.

Don't use jeans for you're underclothing, just find some black "Pirate pants" kinda things. Or look for some solid black cotton athletic pants if can't find pirate pants.

I see a lot of people trying pepakura for Medieval style armor builds. But I really don't like the results. Pepakura is awesome for helmets or sci fi armor, it is really awful when trying to simulate metal plates of armor.

One think about vals costume is the thick leather belt, you could use an old weight lifters belt as the base and attach brass/copper rings or broches to it. Keep us updated with work and or ideas.

Armor is cake I can do that no prob but I doubt you would stay in the budget you want .

for armor you can use a material called wonderflex, thin sheets that can be built up and is easy to paint and carve details in to it.

Here's my budget build armored knight, might give you some ideas...

http://www.therpf.com/f67/3-night-build-budget-medieval-knight-170820/

omel said:

Here's my budget build armored knight, might give you some ideas...

http://www.therpf.com/f67/3-night-build-budget-medieval-knight-170820/

Click to expand...

Got any tips for doing this such as steps you did to go from illustration boards, and mostly house hold items to make such nice looking folds and such for the armor plates?

Chevyh0tr0d said:

Got any tips for doing this such as steps you did to go from illustration boards, and mostly house hold items to make such nice looking folds and such for the armor plates?

Click to expand...

used images from armstreet.com to get basic ideas on the armour plating shapes. cut pieces bigger than what you think it should be ( easier to trim to shape rather than start with a brand new piece if it turns out too small) i used a ballpoint pen to score the illustration board on where i want the folds/bends to go,then press the lines against a straight edge while bending. the forearm armour is a 1.5 liter soda bottle :lol. the pauldrons are just rectangular pieces of boards bent gently to desired shape then used duct tape on the inside part to help hold the shape or if not pressed for time you can glue another piece of same shape to the inside while you hold it in the bend you want till the glue dries and it will maintain that shape. but you still should add duct tape on the inside so it doesn't absorb ( the illustration board) sweat/moisture. am currently working on a soda tabs chainmail to replace the anti-slip mat i used to simulate the chainmail. parts are held to the body by garters but can be replaced with leather straps for more accuracy. hope that helped in any way