TDH Support of my Nazgul Build
- Thread starter Astro Builder
- Start date
Astro Builder
Hunter
Well, Halloween has come and gone and I didn't quite make it. The shin and foot armor is still remaining, but I got enough of the costume together to terrify the neighborhood kids. I felt a little bad for the ones that cried (but only a little). Here's few pictures from the office.
xxDreamWalker
Hunter
Dude, that's just... How... Yeah, I'm speechless. Incredible! Absolutely stunning! Just... Wow. More pics, please! 
Astro Builder
Hunter
Well the costume is still incomplete, the armory has gone radio silence, and my company is moving me to Peru for a couple of years. Eventually this will get finished, but who knows when. Yesterday was foggy, so I snapped some photos in the field beside our house yesterday. A couple of joggers saw us in the field through fog, stopped at a distance to look, but did not get close, then turned around to job the other direction. Hilarious. Well done Christi, you know hit the mark when you can get that kind of reaction.
We followed it up by playing football in the Nazgul costumes. Ahhh, the little things in life like giving other people a chance to have a "what the @$%" moment.
We followed it up by playing football in the Nazgul costumes. Ahhh, the little things in life like giving other people a chance to have a "what the @$%" moment.
crazy4BobaFett
Active Hunter
Justin...all I can say is those pictures are tremendous! I love the effect the fog gave, amazing!
I think if I were the joggers I'd have done the same. =) Scary as Hell!
This was alot of fun to do, it was alot of fabric and a great time to create!
Thank you for the confidence in me to allow me the chance to do something so fun!
Anytime, anytime.
Peru??? really? You'll still keep in touch, right.
I think if I were the joggers I'd have done the same. =) Scary as Hell!
This was alot of fun to do, it was alot of fabric and a great time to create!
Thank you for the confidence in me to allow me the chance to do something so fun!
Anytime, anytime.
Peru??? really? You'll still keep in touch, right.
Ghostsoldier
Active Hunter
Awesome work, Justin....and kudos to crazy4BobaFett for her amazing robe-work. Although a Mando at heart, I'm going to build a Nazgul for the Hobbit premiere next year, and your build is quite an inspiration.
Through all of my research, I've noticed the biggest detail people miss is is the unnatural shoulder shape the Wraith's have....there's no appreciable 'neck' to the costume, just a smooth curve up to the top of the hood. A lot of folks have used football pads, but without that distinctive transition, they look like pumped-up Grim Reapers, Sith or Jedi.
My question for you (if you have web access in Peru), or crazy4, is to ask what you used for your headpiece framework, and if you have any photos of it you could share. I've heard a lot of folks describe how it works, but I have never actually seen any photos of how it's done.
Also, for crazy4...I know you make a living from your craft, and have your own personal patterns for this (so I'm not going to ask for "freebies", lol), but do you have any tips for us non-professional seamters for modifying a store-bought McCall's or Simplicity pattern, into Nazgul robes? I know it's about layers (5 is what I've read), but I'm not clear on the individual pieces that have to be made to achieve the effect.
Anything you guys could share would help tremendously.
Again, Justin....incredible costume!
Rob
Through all of my research, I've noticed the biggest detail people miss is is the unnatural shoulder shape the Wraith's have....there's no appreciable 'neck' to the costume, just a smooth curve up to the top of the hood. A lot of folks have used football pads, but without that distinctive transition, they look like pumped-up Grim Reapers, Sith or Jedi.
My question for you (if you have web access in Peru), or crazy4, is to ask what you used for your headpiece framework, and if you have any photos of it you could share. I've heard a lot of folks describe how it works, but I have never actually seen any photos of how it's done.
Also, for crazy4...I know you make a living from your craft, and have your own personal patterns for this (so I'm not going to ask for "freebies", lol), but do you have any tips for us non-professional seamters for modifying a store-bought McCall's or Simplicity pattern, into Nazgul robes? I know it's about layers (5 is what I've read), but I'm not clear on the individual pieces that have to be made to achieve the effect.
Anything you guys could share would help tremendously.
Again, Justin....incredible costume!
Rob
crazy4BobaFett
Active Hunter
Rob
Thank you for the kind words. This was one of those things much like Mojo's Dog collar. Where I knew what I wanted and how it should look but it came to fruition as it came together.
I do create alot of patterns, with this it was started from my standard jedi robe pattern I made about 15 years ago.
I was alot of fun to work on and really it was a ton of fabric! I know theres a pic somewhere, 8 bolts of fabric I think.
I ended up using 3 different textiles to achieve some texture and variance to the look.
Justin and I talked about the shoulder shape and the neck quite a bit. We both wanted the look you speak of.
He did go with football pads in the end and I built a separate hood piece for the shape of the head.
I wanted to avoid wire and ended up using hat buckram to build the base of the hood.
There basically is 3 robes in one if I remember correctly. I can't imagine 5!!!! The 3 is heavy enough I'm sure Justin would agree.
This is where I fail
I don't note as I build and on a first time build I create and manipulate till the effect or desired look falls into place.
The base robe was a heavy black twill with a shirt yoke in the back and down sized sleeves to alleviate some bulk... but a full robe hem to give the fullness at the base.
If I remember I added in the other two robes into to the yoke opposed to making extra bulk at the neck with 3 robes.
The cowl or short cape is attached to the base robe. It was made from the gauze.
The second layer robe was a real nubby textured black hopsack linen and the outermost layer robe was the black gauze.
I believe I left the center and side seam on the two outer robes slit midway and not sewn to the hem.
The outermost sleeve layers were way over sized almost extreme (think of gandalfs sleeves sort of, longer at the back)and gathered up and actually cinched to the inner robe. I built in an adjustment for Justin on the inside to lengthen or shorten them to his desire.
The weathering is alot of shredding and paint. the shredding is hard to explain and almost needs to be shown to someone. =P sorry that isn't much help I know. There is a very old look to the edges like rotten fabric.
I padded the edge of the hat buckram on the hood base with cotton batting and covered it in the linen fabric to give it the roll edge and then there was an overhang of fabric from the hood itself that was also very oversized.
The outer hood was cut to drape down into the neck of the robe and blend and disappear into the robe, almost like an A-line haircut hangs, that's the hairdresser in me...lol
There is also the scarf like piece that hangs down in the front, which is over the hood & drapes down the back making the second layer on the cowl, over the shoulder then down the front making that scarf look. Which is essentially two big rectangles.
I just took a long maybe 4 yards length and the width of the gauze and sewed in the two lengths creating the rectangular bottom edges and the rest just drapes over the top of the hood.
You can start with either of those patterns I'm sure and work at oversizing almost everything. Widening and lengthening the hood and sleeves.
All the edges of the textiles are left raw.
Most important is to prewash everything.... but the gauze, cause it shrinks like crazy.
The robe hem I utilize the entire 60 inch width for each panel, so you end up with appx 237 inches or so at the hem.
If I can offer an other help, lmk. I don't know if this is of any help.
I'm all over the place with recalling the build.
pm me here email me at thejediscloset@yahoo.com
Christi
Thank you for the kind words. This was one of those things much like Mojo's Dog collar. Where I knew what I wanted and how it should look but it came to fruition as it came together.
I do create alot of patterns, with this it was started from my standard jedi robe pattern I made about 15 years ago.
I was alot of fun to work on and really it was a ton of fabric! I know theres a pic somewhere, 8 bolts of fabric I think.
I ended up using 3 different textiles to achieve some texture and variance to the look.
Justin and I talked about the shoulder shape and the neck quite a bit. We both wanted the look you speak of.
He did go with football pads in the end and I built a separate hood piece for the shape of the head.
I wanted to avoid wire and ended up using hat buckram to build the base of the hood.
There basically is 3 robes in one if I remember correctly. I can't imagine 5!!!! The 3 is heavy enough I'm sure Justin would agree.
This is where I fail
I don't note as I build and on a first time build I create and manipulate till the effect or desired look falls into place.The base robe was a heavy black twill with a shirt yoke in the back and down sized sleeves to alleviate some bulk... but a full robe hem to give the fullness at the base.
If I remember I added in the other two robes into to the yoke opposed to making extra bulk at the neck with 3 robes.
The cowl or short cape is attached to the base robe. It was made from the gauze.
The second layer robe was a real nubby textured black hopsack linen and the outermost layer robe was the black gauze.
I believe I left the center and side seam on the two outer robes slit midway and not sewn to the hem.
The outermost sleeve layers were way over sized almost extreme (think of gandalfs sleeves sort of, longer at the back)and gathered up and actually cinched to the inner robe. I built in an adjustment for Justin on the inside to lengthen or shorten them to his desire.
The weathering is alot of shredding and paint. the shredding is hard to explain and almost needs to be shown to someone. =P sorry that isn't much help I know. There is a very old look to the edges like rotten fabric.
I padded the edge of the hat buckram on the hood base with cotton batting and covered it in the linen fabric to give it the roll edge and then there was an overhang of fabric from the hood itself that was also very oversized.
The outer hood was cut to drape down into the neck of the robe and blend and disappear into the robe, almost like an A-line haircut hangs, that's the hairdresser in me...lol
There is also the scarf like piece that hangs down in the front, which is over the hood & drapes down the back making the second layer on the cowl, over the shoulder then down the front making that scarf look. Which is essentially two big rectangles.
I just took a long maybe 4 yards length and the width of the gauze and sewed in the two lengths creating the rectangular bottom edges and the rest just drapes over the top of the hood.
You can start with either of those patterns I'm sure and work at oversizing almost everything. Widening and lengthening the hood and sleeves.
All the edges of the textiles are left raw.
Most important is to prewash everything.... but the gauze, cause it shrinks like crazy.
The robe hem I utilize the entire 60 inch width for each panel, so you end up with appx 237 inches or so at the hem.
If I can offer an other help, lmk. I don't know if this is of any help.
I'm all over the place with recalling the build.
pm me here email me at thejediscloset@yahoo.com
Christi
slave1pilot
Well-Known Hunter
^ and that's why I keep saying she is the best there is.
crazy4BobaFett
Active Hunter
Thanks Nate, so apparently that made sense right?
Ghostsoldier
Active Hunter
Wow...that is simply amazing...that's a GREAT description!
Sorry for the late reply; real life and my job has been robbing me of my time lately, but I haven't forgotten about your post. And I want to reiterate how thankful I am that you share this with me...it will help IMMENSELY with my Nazgul build.
I'm going to design a set of pattern for the robes, based on your data, before I get started with the build; being a draftsman in real-life, it's ingrained in me to build it on paper first, lol.
I've ordered a UC Ringwraith sword off of eBay, and found a pair of baggy cotton, double-warp basket weave black pants that will be perfect for an undersuit (at the local Goodwill, to boot). I'm doing some research to find an articulated Gothic gauntlet pattern, so I can make those myself, and will be hitting the fabric store this weekend for more black fabric. I've also designed a hood framework for the cowl, to give it the proper shape, that I will be building out of Sintra.
I'm on my way!
Rob
Sorry for the late reply; real life and my job has been robbing me of my time lately, but I haven't forgotten about your post. And I want to reiterate how thankful I am that you share this with me...it will help IMMENSELY with my Nazgul build.
I'm going to design a set of pattern for the robes, based on your data, before I get started with the build; being a draftsman in real-life, it's ingrained in me to build it on paper first, lol.
I've ordered a UC Ringwraith sword off of eBay, and found a pair of baggy cotton, double-warp basket weave black pants that will be perfect for an undersuit (at the local Goodwill, to boot). I'm doing some research to find an articulated Gothic gauntlet pattern, so I can make those myself, and will be hitting the fabric store this weekend for more black fabric. I've also designed a hood framework for the cowl, to give it the proper shape, that I will be building out of Sintra.
I'm on my way!
Rob
crazy4BobaFett
Active Hunter
Great that it was of help to you Rob.
I know life tends to deter us a bit from the things we love to do for fun.
Sounds like your off to a good start, I know nothing of the armor details. I went into making this costume blind all the details and specs were foreign.
If I can help in any other way just let me know.
Christi
I know life tends to deter us a bit from the things we love to do for fun.
Sounds like your off to a good start, I know nothing of the armor details. I went into making this costume blind all the details and specs were foreign.
If I can help in any other way just let me know.
Christi
Ghostsoldier
Active Hunter
Thanks, Christi....I'm sure when I get to the part of assembling the robes, I may have to ask a question or two!
Rob
Rob
Astro Builder
Hunter
Rob,
Sorry I am just now getting back to you. Life has been "transitional." My move to Peru was ended suddenly in the middle of transition. Now I am in Denver, but all my stuff is in storage in Oregon until we close on a house in June. If you can wait until early July, i can send pictures. I used shoulder pads and it you position the robes Christy made correctly, you get the effect are talking about. My wife tries, but those types of details are just not in her. For the shoulder pads I used wide receiver shoulder pads, removed the pads that actually covers the shoulder, and used a size for a smaller player. This way you avoid the grim reaper on steroids effect. Bought them used in EBay for about $20. They smell, but so do I under the weight of that fabric. For the head, i used a hardhat harness and some plumbers metal straps. Literally took less than an hour to make and that way the head turns with my head, but you can see into a void of nothing, Again, give me a couple months to get my stuff and I'll post some photos.
Sorry I am just now getting back to you. Life has been "transitional." My move to Peru was ended suddenly in the middle of transition. Now I am in Denver, but all my stuff is in storage in Oregon until we close on a house in June. If you can wait until early July, i can send pictures. I used shoulder pads and it you position the robes Christy made correctly, you get the effect are talking about. My wife tries, but those types of details are just not in her. For the shoulder pads I used wide receiver shoulder pads, removed the pads that actually covers the shoulder, and used a size for a smaller player. This way you avoid the grim reaper on steroids effect. Bought them used in EBay for about $20. They smell, but so do I under the weight of that fabric. For the head, i used a hardhat harness and some plumbers metal straps. Literally took less than an hour to make and that way the head turns with my head, but you can see into a void of nothing, Again, give me a couple months to get my stuff and I'll post some photos.
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Ghostsoldier
Active Hunter
Hey Astro...thanks for the response, and the excellent info. I would love to see the photos when you get settled in, because I understand your situation, and you've gotta take care of that first!
I'm gearing up for Celebration 6 in Orlando myself, so Star Wars costuming is taking precedence over the Nazgul costuming at the moment....once that is out of the way, I'm going to turn my attention back to the LOTR project!
Rob
Astro Builder
Hunter
And now that I recently completed the leg and foot armor (Greaves and sabatons), I am seliing in the Cargo Hold. Time for a change after being a Nazgul for 2 years.
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