The Hobbit: Thorin Oakenshield Boot Caps

Another Thorin Oakenshield costume accessory I determined I could also do was his boot caps. Fortunately, there’s a good image of them available online.

Because I would again be making these accessories for Oneal, who’s several thousand miles away, I asked him to take comprehensive measurements of his boots to where the caps would attach. He was quick to illustrate his numbers.

Based on Oneal’s measurements, I came up with a paper pattern of what I figured would be the best way to execute the angular forms of the toe tips. There would be a two-section top panel, and a four-section side-to-side panel with tabs to glue the top panel on.

The caps would be made out of a type of cardboard called chipboard – the kind used as backing for sketch pads. I’ll cut the dwarven designs from craft foam, glue them onto the chipboard, and paint the caps to look just like in the movie. It was relatively straightforward.

I added a tiny strip of foam along the outer edges and gave the chipboard a base paint of light brown. Then I superglued the cutouts in place.

This is how the caps looked on my husband’s biker boots (two sizes bigger than Oneal’s) before the painting phase.

I used a combination of gold, silver, bronze, and black acrylic paints to give the caps the semi-metallic weathered look.

Not bad. I’m a little uncomfortable though, at how the caps look a little too shiny compared to the movie version. I told Oneal to maybe add another layer of matte brown and some more weathering (maybe beat them up some) to make them not look like they came from Lord Elrond.