journeyman protector
New Member
Hi Everyone!
Super long time member, highly infrequent poster. I usually stick to Star Wars stuff but have always wanted to build the elven armor seen in the prologue to Fellowship of the Ring. My ultimate goal is Gil Galad and, with this armor build, probably Elrond just to round it all out
First, this build is all based on, and thanks to, Caleb (Kelsohighlander) who figured out this method: https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=229843&highlight=elven+armor It involves rolled vinyl flooring, 1/4" water line, and brass brads. He even provided the templates. This build is almost directly a copy of those templates and methods. My next round will be making some changes to the templates, particularly the shape of the shoulder petals, and hopefully finding some good, relatively flat, edge trim to give a more accurate hammered edge look.
Armor: rolled vinyl flooring; this has wood texture, next version will be smooth. This stuff is super easy to work with and especially after attaching the water line trim it's very sturdy. The vinyl won't take spray paint, not even after trying plastidip spray. Might take it after an acrylic base coat but I don't know. What you see on mine is a four-layer paint job featuring a couple greens and a couple metallics. It's hard walking the line between how golden the armor appears on film and in various figures v. the very drab, dull gold and green of the actual costume. This errs on the side of what we expect to see. Next version will try to fine a better middle ground.
Helmet/Shield/Sword: all official United Cutlery replicas; ultimate goal is to get a casting of the helmet and possibly a vac shell of the shield for lightweight convention options; these things are heavy as hell. May try to replicate the sword in something safe or just make a safe spear.
Chainmail: WETA was kind enough to respond to my inquiry about the infantry chainmail and confirmed it is a spandex material with zig-zaggy pattern that they dyed and then screen-printed with some metallic highlights. It looks chainmailish from a distance. In order to get the really tight coif at the neck and tuck into the bracers I feel you really need to follow the spandex route. I found some chainmail spandex pattern at Joann and am having a couple shirts made.
Cape: I was convinced the cape was lame (lamay) with some dyeing but it's such a pain to work with I felt it was probably something else. Today I found a crushed michonne at a fabric warehouse here in Chicago that looks green/gold to the eye but photographs gold/silver/pewter and both dull and super shiny depending on the light. It's practically perfect and I'm finding it hard to believe it's not what they used.
Left to do: still need to attach leather (faux for this first version) strapping down the chest lames and across the shoulders, sew the cape and line it with blue velvet, make a blue velvet skirt, and find some appropriate boots/gloves.
You can see way more progress on:
my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/philip.cline.5/media_set?set=a.10211087478403654.1073741862.1256916088&type=3&pnref=story
Instagram (Philgalad)
Here's a pic of a film costume and along the side are four separate pics of the cape fabric I found (crushed michonne) taken just seconds apart in the car under overcast sky just at different angles. It's amazing stuff and I'm convinced it's right.
Thanks for reading, I'm likely to be more responsive on my FB and IG accounts but feel free to ask questions here and I'll be checking back in here and there. Expecting to have a relatively complete costume by May and will certainly be sharing more pics
Phil
Super long time member, highly infrequent poster. I usually stick to Star Wars stuff but have always wanted to build the elven armor seen in the prologue to Fellowship of the Ring. My ultimate goal is Gil Galad and, with this armor build, probably Elrond just to round it all out
First, this build is all based on, and thanks to, Caleb (Kelsohighlander) who figured out this method: https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=229843&highlight=elven+armor It involves rolled vinyl flooring, 1/4" water line, and brass brads. He even provided the templates. This build is almost directly a copy of those templates and methods. My next round will be making some changes to the templates, particularly the shape of the shoulder petals, and hopefully finding some good, relatively flat, edge trim to give a more accurate hammered edge look.
Armor: rolled vinyl flooring; this has wood texture, next version will be smooth. This stuff is super easy to work with and especially after attaching the water line trim it's very sturdy. The vinyl won't take spray paint, not even after trying plastidip spray. Might take it after an acrylic base coat but I don't know. What you see on mine is a four-layer paint job featuring a couple greens and a couple metallics. It's hard walking the line between how golden the armor appears on film and in various figures v. the very drab, dull gold and green of the actual costume. This errs on the side of what we expect to see. Next version will try to fine a better middle ground.
Helmet/Shield/Sword: all official United Cutlery replicas; ultimate goal is to get a casting of the helmet and possibly a vac shell of the shield for lightweight convention options; these things are heavy as hell. May try to replicate the sword in something safe or just make a safe spear.
Chainmail: WETA was kind enough to respond to my inquiry about the infantry chainmail and confirmed it is a spandex material with zig-zaggy pattern that they dyed and then screen-printed with some metallic highlights. It looks chainmailish from a distance. In order to get the really tight coif at the neck and tuck into the bracers I feel you really need to follow the spandex route. I found some chainmail spandex pattern at Joann and am having a couple shirts made.
Cape: I was convinced the cape was lame (lamay) with some dyeing but it's such a pain to work with I felt it was probably something else. Today I found a crushed michonne at a fabric warehouse here in Chicago that looks green/gold to the eye but photographs gold/silver/pewter and both dull and super shiny depending on the light. It's practically perfect and I'm finding it hard to believe it's not what they used.
Left to do: still need to attach leather (faux for this first version) strapping down the chest lames and across the shoulders, sew the cape and line it with blue velvet, make a blue velvet skirt, and find some appropriate boots/gloves.
You can see way more progress on:
my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/philip.cline.5/media_set?set=a.10211087478403654.1073741862.1256916088&type=3&pnref=story
Instagram (Philgalad)
Here's a pic of a film costume and along the side are four separate pics of the cape fabric I found (crushed michonne) taken just seconds apart in the car under overcast sky just at different angles. It's amazing stuff and I'm convinced it's right.
Thanks for reading, I'm likely to be more responsive on my FB and IG accounts but feel free to ask questions here and I'll be checking back in here and there. Expecting to have a relatively complete costume by May and will certainly be sharing more pics
Phil
