Robert - South East Asia

Aragorn in Gondor Livery

We had a comic/video game convention in our country last Dec 13 and 14 and I decided to go as RotK Aragorn for kicks. Since I got word of it only recently, I only had a month to prepare (not to mention juggle it with my school work). As a result, compromises and shortcuts were made to beat the deadline. Nevertheless, I was quite satisfied with the finished product.

Here’s the breakdown of my costume

1. CLOAK - this was made of black leatherette and red satin .. Actually, it was from my Vampire Hunter D Costume and I merely reused it by removing the collar

2. OUTER COAT - Also from black leatherette and silk (inner material), this was done like a sleeveless trenchcoat. I had it tailored though since I don’t stitch. However, to save time, the chest area is a whole piece. It doesn’t open, has a zipper at the back and it is worn like a shirt. Embroidery just cost me $2 (when converted) and non-metallic silver thread was used. The gold lining was this special (and ugh, costly) gold cord which I bought from a lace shop. I decided to lower the slits because I don’t want it to be flapping around too much when I walk, and consequently, I want to keep the chainmail in place.

3. INNER ROBE – Made from crimson satin. It is basically a simple robe with a stiff collar. I decided to forego the gold embroidery at the moment

4. CHAINMAIL HAUBERK – the hardest to do and the part where I poured most of my heart into. This was done with 2600 key rings (those seen in the keychains we used). Yup, I bought them by bulk. This took a long time to do but since it was the type seen in a keychain, it was easy to link, requiring no pliers whatsoever. I used the big rings (majority) for the body. That was a shortcut in itself since big rings are easy to link and they would be covered by the coat anyway. The small rings I used to make the sleeves. I found it more tedious since they required more rings per row. I used a simple pattern of linking (Italian method, I think) and I made it as one whole piece to facilitate easier wearing.. It was quite heavy though and I had to sit down after long periods of time

5. VAMBRACERS - I bought this glossy and hard piece of black rubber for the armbands. I followed the curves from the action figure and translated it into a pattern on the rubber which I promptly cut. To connect the two ends, I overlapped it a bit and bore small holes and inserted those screw type metal fasteners. To simulate the metal, I got this metallic silver leatherette with etched designs. I was already rushing at this point so I didn’t bother using real metal.

SHOULDER GUARD - same rubber plus silver and same silver leatherette. I added leather straps (cut out from those cheap black belts) via those screw type fasteners again. To get the illusion that it is tightly suspended from the sleeve, I just used carefully concealed black twisty-ties and looped them from the strap onto the rings of the sleeve

SPAULDERS - I used 6 pieces of aluminum sheets (3 on each side) which I bent and molded to my shoulders, then layered and connected with paper fasteners (those single paper fasteners you see around) which I substituted for rivets. I then connected them to the sleeves of my chainmail

BOOTS - a pair of black leather boots. For the metal plates, I imitated what I did with the vambracers

ARWEN’S PENDANT - no construction here since it is the replica I used

Stuff that I lack / need to work on:

Belt - didn’t have enough time to have one custom made .. so I got a brown belt I had in the closet .. to bad it also wasn’t long enough for a knightly knot

Cloak clasps - I wasn’t able to construct those little silver triangles lined with gold since I had no idea how to attach them to the fabric

2 Outer coat clasps (near the neck and in the center) - I didn’t know how to fashion the clasps from steel .. also, I didn’t know where to acquire the raw materials

Elven dagger - since it is hidden I chose to bypass this first

Anduril - Sadly, I regret not attending to this very important detail

This page was last updated 11/21/09