Feature. The King of the Golden Hall Philip Gust*

Transcription

1 Feature The King of the Golden Hall Philip Gust* Encouragement from the designer of King Théoden s spectacular battle armor from the Lord of the Rings movies lead the author and his wife on their own epic journey to recreate it. It was the release of the Lord of the Rings movies with their incredible costumes that lead my wife Kathe to get back into costuming after being away for many years. She studied costume design, and even designed costumes for several productions for our university s theater department as part of her Fine Arts undergraduate degree. She also made some nice costumes for us when we were in the SCA in college. But graduate school, and then getting established in our careers, took up much of our time. However, when the Lord of the Rings movies came out, they sparked Kathe s imagination and made her decide to try recreating costumes from the movie. Kathe especially liked the Rohan costumes, and decided to make costumes for us to wear to the OneRing.net Oscar Party in Hollywood for the second movie. She made Eowyn s green court dress for herself, and King Théoden s court costume for me. Copyright 2010 Silicon Web Costumers' Guild With appropriate wigs, and restyling my beard into King Théoden s goatee, we looked enough like the characters to attract notice of fellow fans and even a few of the movie s stars who attended. With everyone else costuming as dwarfs, elves, and hobbits, we were the only ones cosplaying those characters. In fact, Kathe discovered to her surprise that whenever she wandered off, King Théoden became a chick magnet, at least until she returned. Later, we traveled New Zealand with with Red Carpet Tours for the premier of the third movie. [See Kathe s chronicle on her website Ed] We also visited Mt. Sunday, the location used for Edoras, and brought King Théoden s court costume along. On the summit, at the site of the Golden Hall, I performed the Arise Riders of Rohan! speech for our group. I was so thrilled when a videographer who was also on the tour for his honeymoon sent me a video of the performance, complete with sound track! We also met actor Bruce Hopkins there for the first time at a premier party, where Kathe and I were both in costume. Bruce portrayed Gamling, King Théoden s lieutenant. When he saw me, Bruce did a deft salute, and I instinctively asked, Who am I, Gamling? to which he instinctively replied, You are our King, Sire! At that moment, we knew that we were Rohirrim for life, and we began thinking, what s next? -17ISSN Philip Gust as King Théoden on Mt. Sunday (Edoras) New Zealand. Costume, wig: Kathe Gust. Photo: Robert Ng.

2 The obvious choice was King Théoden s spectacular battle armor, one of the most complex and elaborate costumes in the entire trilogy. What could Kathe cosplay? Eowyn s Dernhelm armor was always a possibility. We toyed with the idea for a couple of years, but always shied away because of the technical difficulties, including materials, tools, and skills that we did not possess. We both believe in costuming kismet, so after those two chance encounters, and the encouragement we received from Daniel and Bruce, we were well and truly committed to the project. I won t cover Gamling s armor here. For full details on its construction, see Kathe s article, King s Man in the May 2011 issue of VC. Overview of Construction Then, when we were at a One Ring Celebration in Pasadena, two things happened to push us forward. I met Daniel Falconer, who had designed much of the Rohan armor, including King Théoden s. I told him about what we had in mind. He was really thrilled that someone was willing to tackle such an ambitious project to recreate his design, and he encouraged me to go for it. We spent several hours discussing the techniques that Weta used to create different versions of the armor, and some construction approaches I might take. The other thing that happened was Kathe meeting Bruce Hopkins again. They seemed to hit it off, and Kathe told him about what we where thinking. That s when she decided that instead of Eowyn, she d portray Bruce s character, Gamling. Bruce was so tickled by the idea that he spent quite a bit time with Kathe, talking to her about his approach to portraying the character, major themes he bore in mind and what emotions colored his portrayal. He also coached her through the physical presentation of the character. King Theoden s battle armor is made of embossed brass covered by embossed leather pieces, including a helm, a segmented cuirass that covers the torso, pauldrons that cover the shoulders and upper arms, vambraces that protect the lower arms, a leather belt with metal fittings, a scabbard for the sword, tassets that protect the upper thighs, a split scale mail skirt, and greaves that cover the lower legs. I will discuss the design of each of the pieces and our recreation in the following sections. Under the armor are an embroidered shirt and a split knee-length tunic. According to Daniel Falconer, the hero version of King Théoden s armor is rather heavy. Though not as heavy as real armor, it must be heavy enough to stand up under abuse from filming. We wanted to make our armor as light-weight as possible, since it would not need to stand up under such heavy use as the hero version. Philip Gust as King Théoden in battle armor. Costume by Philip and Kahe Gust. Photo: Richard Man Daniel pointed out that Weta used PVC pipe for chain mail rings to reduce weight in the non-hero versions of other armor. He

3 with appliqués of embossed finished latigo leather that matches the color of the leather used for the hero armor. I studied the actual hero armor up close several times when it was on tour. The embossing brass was handembossed with the appropriate patterns flat, then applied to the pieces before final assembly. Variations of this technique were used for all the armor pieces. The result was very strong but lighter-weight than Daniel Falconer quoted for the screen-worn hero armor, and somewhat lighter than even the molded non-hero versions. Earlier sketch of King Théoden s battle armor with more metal and less leather. Image: Daniel Falconer. also said that non-hero versions of King Theoden s armor had been molded and then finished. Only the hero armor was metal. With that in mind, I set out to find a technique that combined the durability and ease of working of plastic with the shiny appearance that could only be had by using real metal, and the texture and feel that could only be achieved using real embossed leather appliqués. After research and many experiments, I developed a technique that creates a sandwich with a thin layer of leather that goes against the body, ABS sheet plastic heat-formed into the desired shapes, a layer of heavy embossing brass. This was covered All of the armor pieces were patterned using several techniques. The first was direct measurements made on either the hero armor or one of the molded replicas they made based on the hero armor. They were also on tour during the project. Kathe and I visited several venues, and in most cases I was able to get close enough to the armor to make direct measurements of key parts without actually touching the armor. The other technique was the use of photogrammetry on higher-resolution images of the armor that were either studio stills, photos taken by me in two cases where the exhibitions did not prohibit photos, or photos taken by others and available online. All measurements were compared to direct measurements or with scales available in the photos whose sizes were known. In almost all cases, measurements from multiple sources agreed Bernard Hill as King Théoden in battle armor. Photo: New Line Cinema. -19-

4 very closely and provided the basis for patterning the pieces. This will be lined with thin leather, and covered in a sheet of latigo leather. (left) The Segmented Cuirass The upper front chest piece is also cut from a sheet of ABS plastic and lined with thin leather. However this piece and the segments will all be all be covered on the outside with heavier sheet brass that does not require detailed embossing. I used an industrial spray adhesive for the job. The back of the cuirass is a single piece. The segmented front piece is made of an upper chest plate, and overlapping segments that are riveted together in a way that allows them to articulate as the body moves. The segments are arranged opposite from a normal Lorica Segmenta. Here a lower segment laps over the one above it like cummerbund folds. The first step was to create a pattern from poster board to see how the segments articulated. The number and size of the Creating a pattern from light-weight poster board. Photo: Kathe Gust. Back of cuirass cut from sheet of ABS plastic and shaped. Piece will be covered with latigo leather. segments were computed based on measurements of an actual cuirass on exhibit and cross-checked by measuring photos. Once the pattern was created, I took it apart and used it to cut segments from a sheet of ABS plastic. The back is a solid piece that was hand-shaped to conform to my body. Shaped upper chest piece of ABS plastic. Pattern for leather horse head appliqués used to check sizing Once the adhesive had cured overnight, I used the pattern to cut pieces of latigo leather that would be appliquéd onto the chest piece and the segments, to form the Rohan horse head design that is repeated throughout the costume. The pattern is complete once the segments are joined. First, the leather must be embossed. Front chest piece and one segment of articulated cuirass covered in sheet brass.

5 Leather appliqué pieces that make up the front horse head design are cut from latigo leather that match the pattern pieces. Collar of embossed brass is attached around the neck opening of the cuirass front. Detailed photos and close examination shows an intricate pattern of embossing for the leather appliqués on the chest pieces of cuirass. Neither of us had any previous experience with leather embossing. Luckily, a large Tandy Leather store was ready to offer advice about tools and techniques, and even invited us to a regular Saturday meeting of leather workers who met at their shop to work on their own projects and socialize. These people were fascinated by our project and incredibly generous with their time as they taught us the techniques we needed to use. We are so grateful to Tandy Leather and this talented group of crafts people! Once the leather was embossed, the last step before assembling the cuirass was to create the decorative brass collar that goes around the front neck. Using images of that area, I drafted a pattern, and then embossed the pattern into the embossing brass. For this task, I used an orange stick, which can be any wooden stick, whose end is sharpened like a pencil to only a blunt point. First I embossed by tracing the pattern backwards on the back side of the metal, then I turned it over and de-bossed the pattern on the front side. This traced around the pattern shape to sharpen its edges and give it more definition. Once I was satisfied, I glued this collar around the neck hole on the front piece of the cuirass and waited for the glue to dry before proceeding. Closeup detail showing intricate patterns embossed into the leather appliqués. -21-

6 Finally, I was ready to assemble the cuirass. First I glued thin leather to the backs of the front pieces, then glued strips of brass colored auto body edging over the top edges of the articulated segments. This achieved a look similar to the beading done to the hero costume. because he thought Théoden would want to keep this symbol of Rohan close to his heart. We followed suit and attached the leather horse head pattern inside the upper chest of the cuirass. On several screen caps and at one exhibit, we also noticed that there is another copy of the horse head design on the back of Théoden s cuirass, so also included this extra touch. The overlapping segments were joined together by riveting two thicker strips of leather to the back sides of the strips. We used special Tandy rivets with an embossed flower pattern similar to Simbelmynë, a Rohan flower of remembrance. Finally, I carefully glued the appliqué leather pieces onto the fronts of the pieces. This also hid the rivets on the front. The final step was to trim the ends of the articulated segments and rivet leather straps to the front and back of the cuirass with buckles to hold the two pieces together. The straps were all embossed with the same design I saw in the hero version, and we used the special flowered motif rivets to attach the leather straps to the front and back of the cuirass at the sides. One detail that Daniel Falconer mentioned during our discussion was that Bernard Hill, who portrayed Théoden in the movies, asked Weta to include another horse head design on the inside front of the cuirass Pauldrons A pauldron protects the shoulder and upper arm areas. It consists of a cop that covers the shoulder joint, and three articulated lames that protect the upper arm. Since I did not have direct measures for these, I relied on measurements from photos, correlated with other objects in the photos whose sizes I knew directly. I drafted a pattern for the cop and the lames. The cop pattern was a more complex shape which required bending the piece into shape, and used interior tabs to hold the edges together. We used moderate heat to bend and fold the plastic, and a special ABS cement for extra strength. Inside assembled front of cuirass showing straps holding articulated strips together. Hidden horse head was requested by Théoden actor Bernard Hill. Left: Side view of hero armor showing helm, pauldron, vambrace, scabbard, and detail of design in scale mail. -22-

7 Next, I drafted a pattern for the embossing on the cop that is seen in the photo. It would be be covered with embossed brass embossing metal, and the pattern needed to leave empty spaces for attaching the various embossed leather appliqués and the shield shape with two horses heads facing one another. The three articulated lames were made from ABS plastic covered with sheet brass. Embossed leather straps were riveted onto each one. Strips of leather inside held them together and to the shoulder cop. Straps attached the pauldron to the cuirass at the top, and an arm strap with a buckle secured it at the bottom. Vambraces Vambraces protect the lower arms by wrapping them in protective material that can ward off or deflect blows from weapons. King Théoden s vambraces also provide protection during mounted combat. I did have a few direct measures for the vambraces, and was able to correlate them with measurements from objects in photos whose sizes I knew. I drafted a pattern and cut them from a sheet of ABS plastic. I also drafted the intricate knot work embossing pattern based primarily on photos. The vambraces needed to be rolled to a tighter diameter for my lower arm. To make them conform, I rolled newspaper bundles to about that diameter, tied them off, then lightly heated the vambrace plastic and wrapped them around the rolled newspapers. Next, I continued to heat the rolled plastic, shaping it with my hands. Once they became slightly pliable, I set them aside and let them cool before unwrapping them and doing final fittings on my arm. Finally, I cut out the liners from light leather and glued them inside the vambraces. Above: Forming shape in ABS for pauldron cop, and embossing metal covering. Below: finished cop with leather appliqués added. The next step was to create the embossing pattern for the brass sheet that overlays the vambrace. I created the pattern based on examining several dozen photos of the vambrace The pattern is an intricate Celtic knot pattern with additional leather horses heads that were be appliquéd over the metal once it has been attached to the vambrace after embossing. Here is a pattern. Foreground: completed pauldron with cop and three lames. -23-

8 Then, I created and riveted embossed straps with buckles to the vambrace. After embossing the leather pieces using leather embossing tools, I attached them to the metal and let the entire assembly dry thoroughly. The result is pictured along with a pauldron on the previous page. Tassets Tassets are additional shield-like panels of armor that hang from the cuirass and protect the upper legs of horsemen from blows of infantry on the ground. Embossing vambrace patters into embossing brass. Ready to laminate embossed brass to plastic. As with the pauldrons, first I embossed from the back side to raise the pattern on the front side, then I de-bossed from the front side to make the pattern stand out and appear more crisp (above). This is the result after embossing and de-bossing the pattern into the embossing brass for the vambrace, (above right) with the leather appliqués placed on it to show how I left space for them in the embossing pattern. and then applying the brass to the rolled plastic. Trying to roll the plastic after attaching the brass flat is asking for trouble. I applied an adhesive to the plastic vambrace that was a little slower to set up to give me time to make adjustments if necessary. The next step was to apply the embossing brass to the vambrace. I definitely recommend rolling the plastic first Then I placed the brass face down and using a rolling motion from the right edge to the left, I gently rolled the brass onto the plastic, like you would pie dough onto a rolling pin. The important thing is to work slowly and carefully to avoid ruining the brass by bending or creasing it Although we do not know for sure how it was done for the movie armor, we attached King Théoden s tassets using buckles and straps at the bottom of the cuirass. They are solid pieces of armor that are decorated with a pair of appliquéd horses. I patterned the tassets from photos as I had no direct measurements, and scaled the appliqué patterns accordingly. The tassets were made like the upper chest plate of the curiass: they were cut from a sheet of ABS plastic, covered in heavy sheet brass with raised borders, and then appliquéd with the leather horse patterns. Buckles at the top of the tassets attach them to straps at the bottom of the cuirass. Greaves Greaves protect the lower legs, especially important for battles on horse back. Again, I had a few key measurements and enough photos to measure and to get the metal embossing patterns from.

9 Greaves Embossing Pattern Paper mockup of skirt to determine size of scales. Scale Mail Skirt Tassets (back row), greaves (front row first and second from left, pauldrons (second from right), and vambraces (right) The process of creating the greaves is very similar to creating vambraces. The one consideration with greaves is that they are larger than vambraces, so the embossing step is correspondingly harder, and so is handling and applying the much larger pieces of embossing brass. A rendition of the greave embossing pattern is shown at left. Skirt was hung on rings from a mesh belt. The skirt that King Théoden wears is known as scale mail. The skirt is split in the front and back to accommodate riding a horse. We used ABS plastic to make the scales, and Kathe sewed them on to a skirt made of heavy twill in two panels. Kathe put grommets along the tops and hung them on rings from a mesh belt we found at a thrift store, to support the weight of the scales. We determined the shape of the scales from photos, but to determine the size, we made a paper mockup (above) and adjusted Scales made of ABS plastic in strips were trimmed, creased, and punched before finishing with pounded metal paint. -25-

10 the size of the scales until they matched what was shown in the photos. The goal was to have the same number of rows and the same number of scales across. Scales were sewn onto twill skirt panels. Rather than using individual scales, we made them in strips, then used a pair of Cutco kitchen shears to split adjacent scales and trim them to a coffin shape. We created holes in the top edge of the strip using a GBC comb binder punch. The scales of the original costume had a distinctive cross crease, and we were able to achieve this by simply creasing them on the edge of our kitchen counter. The scales on the original armor were mainly steel colored with a pattern of gold colored ones mixed in. We created scales of both colors using special paints that produce a pounded metal effect, and Kathe sewed them on to match the pattern. Above: Embossing mold used to create horse head scales. Below: finished embossed scales. A special challenge was that some of the scales had an embossed pattern of two horses heads looking away from each other. I was able to recreate the pattern from several photos that showed sufficient detail (I was getting pretty good drawing horses heads by then) I uses a technique of embossing the design in metal, and laminating that over scales that had not been creased or painted. Trying to hand-emboss 125 of them would have been a tremendous amount of work, so I created a special mold with a negative of the pattern using heavy embossing metal, then stamping them out of very light metal. It turned out that extra heavy-duty aluminum foil worked well for the purpose. To support the shape, I filled them with liquid polymer and let them harden before gluing them on to the scales, then I painted the scales gold. Kathe sewed them into the pattern to match the original skirt. Belt and Scabbard Theoden s belt was very elaborately embossed with Roherric patterns, and both the belt and scabbard also had heavily embossed metal fittings. For the leather embossing, we once again consulted our friends at Tandy Leather, and they were again very generous with their advice and suggestions about the right tools to use. I had been lucky to have the opportunity to examine the belt of the hero costume fairly closely

11 possible to remove the fixture for repair or replacement if they were ever to be damaged, which has never been necessary. Belt patterns and section of embossed belt. and was able to make detailed sketches of the designs on them. One of the designs was an elaborate Celtic knot and I found a stamp that, while not exact, had the same character. The other designs I drew patterns and recreated them by hand. I used a similar technique with the scabbard for a commercial reproduction of Théoden s sword. The scabbard was made from two pieces of ABS plastic, and covered with light leather. The sleeve at the top of the scabbard had rings used to hang it from the belt. The sleeve was also made from ABS plastic and covered with brass. Helm I built Théoden s helm on a baseball helmet. I began by removing the brim, then painting the helmet with pounded metal paint. Then I took measurements from photos of the helmet and created cardboard and paper pieces that I used to test the measurements, and would also use as patterns when I cut them from ABS plastic and embossing brass. The pattern pieces fit well, and needed only minor adjustments. For the hardware, I again fell back to the use of metal embossing. This time, I cut the shapes of the hardware out of wood and ABS plastic, and then attached the embossed metal over that. The pattern for the hardware came from a combination of photos from exhibits of the hero armor and sketches that I made at the time to capture details. Because these pieces also needed to be functional and carry loads, I attached them to the belt using small jewelers screws from the back side. This also made it Hardware fixtures were made from wood, ABS plastic and covered with embossed brass. Test fitting pattern pieces for Théoden s helm -27-

12 Re-creating two sets of Rohirric armor from Peter Jackson s Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers took Kathe and me working for five-months, nights and weekends included. It was definitely a labor of love. Thank you, Kathe, for joining me on the journey. Philip Gust enjoys sci-fi and fantasy costuming, and has particular interests in props, special effects, and prosthetic makeup. He also costumes in historical periods, including Regency, Victorian, and early 20th C. Cross supports with embossed brass and copper. I began by creating the cross support pieces that would run from front to back and side to side from ABS plastic and both gold and copper embossing brass to match the photos. I used copper leafing to fill in areas on the gold where the photos showed that. I rimmed the cross supports with heavy gauge copper wire to to produce the effect of beading, and heavy duty cabling along the bottom back, which corresponded to what is seen in the photos. Finished helm of King Théoden. hand-sculpted and hand painted basswood, a soft wood that is easy to work with by has a reasonable degree of strength. The crest is attached to the helm using a bolt that runs from the inside up through the top of the helm and into a molly inside the crest. Next I created the brass elements that attach directly to the helm. That left just the face plate, cheek guards, and the horse crest to complete. The cheek guards and face plate were built on an ABS base and covered with embossed brass. The cheek guards can actually pivot. The horse crest is made of Cheek guards and face plate ready to attach. -28-