Hobbit Costume Tutorial – Finished Thorin Scalemail

If you are joining us just now, here are my previous tutorials covering the phases of the creation of Thorin's scalemail armor:

1.       Hobbit Armor Costume Scale Mail Tutorial – Clay Scale

2.       Hobbit Costume Scale Mail Tutorial - Painting

3.       Hobbit Costume Tutorial – Sewing the Armor Shirt

Finally, it’s time to show photos of the completed Thorin armor shirt.

First, an inventory photo of the handmade scales prior to attachment to the shirt. I made a total of 434 polymer clay scales, not including the trials and errors. For Thorin alone, that’s 116 for the sleeves, 110 for the breastplate, 98 for the thighs and belt. The rest are for Kili’s collar, baldric, and vambrace.

Then, here are some production photos I did not include in the previous tutorials:



And here's Oneal wearing the armor the night it arrived in Manila:

Yesterday, Oneal wore his Thorin character in a Geekfight event where his team won!

Thorin and the dwarves will make their grand appearance at the premiere of The Hobbit on December 14th. I will add photos here as they become available.

P.S. At the premiere:

Hobbit Costume Scale Mail Tutorial - Painting

After the scales come out of the oven and cool down, they go to the painting table (which is also my molding table, sewing table, gluing table, and photoshooting table).

By the photos of Thorin that we gathered online, the scales are stressed metallic silver in color. While I created the scales using silver polymer clay, I would still need to paint over the clay to give it the stressed look. I made sure that the raw clay scales are light silver so that when I paint over them, the light silver will reappear after the "stressing" step.

I used water-based acrylic paint: metallic silver mixed with a little black. It's an easy two-step process:

1. Paint the entire scale (front and sides).

2. Slide the painted surface against a rag to wipe off the paint from the protruding portions of the scale, resulting in a "stressed" look.

The scale will then have an uneven coloring -- dark in the crevices, light in the protruding areas.

Because the scales are small, they are best painted by holding them with bare hands. I tried using gloves but they get in the way. Besides, the acrylic paint that builds up on the fingers are easily washed off with soap and water. You'll just have to enjoy having zombie fingers for a little bit.

The next tutorial will be about attaching the scales and sewing the armor shirt.

Hobbit Armor Costume Scale Mail Tutorial - Clay Scale

A group of family members are costumers -- they put a lot of effort in building their attire and accessories as close as possible to the theatrical originals. They already have a lot of experience creating near-perfect replicas of costumes from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and other popculture favorites. Right now they are gathering forces again and this time gearing up some dwarves for the premiere night of The Hobbit in December.

How did I get involved in this? My godchildren Oneal and Rej called my attention to the first photo releases of the Hobbit dwarves back in January when I visited Manila. They said they have decided to be Thorin (Oneal) and Kili (Rej) and wear the costumes when the movie opens at the end of the year. They showed me the photos and presented a challenge: "How do we make the scale mail?"

They posed this challenge the night I conducted a jewelry-making tutorial for them and their friends. One of my sessions was about how to make beads and pendants with polymer clay -- it was easy to conclude we could make the scale mail with polymer clay .

So, as soon as I returned to Florida, I started working on the clay scales. The first thing I did was design clay replicas patterned from the different scales on Thorin's armor (later on, Kili's coat too). I baked those, and from them I pressed and baked fresh clay to create the negative molds.

The series of photos below shows how I use the negative molds to create the scales that will be painted and attached to the armor shirt that will be worn by Oneal.

1. Prepare a "release agent" -- this prevents the raw clay from sticking to the negative mold. I use KY Jelly mixed with a little water (just to water down the jelly a bit).

2.  Paint the release agent on the surface of the negative mold, making sure to reach all the crevices. Don't forget the edges -- the excess clay will stick to the edges if you miss them.

3. Condition a ball of polymer clay, just enough to cover the negative mold.

4. Press the clay onto the mold. The outside surface will become the back part of the scale, so it needs to be flat. Push the excess clay to the sides.

5. Gently pull out the fresh clay from the negative mold. Try not to tug too hard because the scale will get deformed. Lift the edges around the mold before pulling out the entire scale.

6. Lay the clay scale on a flat surface, preferably glass or ceramic. Gently adjust the clay if it got deformed in the pulling process.

7. Use a sharp blade to cut off the extraneous clay from the edges of the scale.

7. Bake the clay scales following manufacturer's directions. (I use Sculpey Premo and it bakes at 275F for at least 30 minutes.)

8. Let it cool down and paint as needed.

And there's the first batch of scales, already baked and ready for the painting phase.



Stunning Sculptures

We all know sculpture chiseled from rock. But with man’s innate and infinite creativity, the world has learned to appreciate sculpture in many other media. Here are some of the most awe-inspiring creations I found:

Polymer Clay Creations by Jon Anderson

Liquid Sculpture by Martin Waugh

Metal Sculpture: Wildlife Collection by Dick Kappel

Contemporary Glass Sculpture by dozens of renowned artists hosted by the Holsten Galleries

Paper Sculpture by Calvin Nicholls

Paper Sculpture at ebaumsworld.com

Ice Sculpture at ebaumsworld.com