Cut out my foam but still need to round out the edges. I created mine with a backing border so I could glue it underneath, instead of on top. The movie version is glued beneath.
I cut one pant leg and glued the insert into it. Messy. Looks correct for having the bit underneath but not clean like the movie.
So, I modified the idea. I cut the second foam piece to be only the top part and glued it to the top. I then turned that leg inside out and glued a border out from the part about 3/8 inch. This gave the stiff, "glued from the back" look but allowed a very clean front. In this picture the right hand side of the photo is cut through the pants. The left side of the picture is the faux back glue.
Both have that nice stiff border like in the movie but the one on the left is very clean with no frayed cloth. It is also much stronger.
I worked on the accordian section in the groin and was not happy. I had painted the weather stripping and then the paint cracks and reveals white. This weather stripping is the correct shape but would need to be available in black to be useful. I have now drawn the lines onto the fabric in hopes of fooling the camera when ten feet away.
Today was a lot of finish painting. I am getting the entire outfit to a neutral and shared color pallette. The pants were the farthest from matching and are now very similar.
On top of all the grays and cremes and blacks, I added Khaki. I had really liked the tan on the back armor and then ran out and had none left for the remainder of the time making parts. Today, I took the time to get back to town and picked up the khaki. The sand tan color was not in stock. Because the pants were only in grays, it was an easy fix. I am waiting for an overnight cure of all of the above but will do a fitting tomorrow ... or I might focus on finishing my sleeves.
On the sleeves, I am only doing the two upper arm still suit pads, the ones with the horizontal sets of lines. Because the rest of the original still suit details are lost at ten feet due to all the camoflauge coloring, only the seam transition at the upper arm and the two pads can be seen. I will draw on a lot of the other detail and may hot glue in some of the pinching or under sections that appear as lumps in the outer sleeve.
I went in to the store and picked up some yardsticks for Gurney's swords, making them convention proof. While I was there the store manager asked what I was using them for and after my explanation he showed me a recent project he and his daughter completed of a full size war mace. The school project was to pick an actual museum piece and replicate it. It was stunning. I will try to get a copy of the picture the next time I am in.
Next few days I will try to find a good sword pattern. Because these are House Atreides, they should already exist in 17 versions of stls and print patterns. Fingers crossed.
As for the Baliset, it looks like no one has tackled that either so I need some confirmation on size. In the image above, I have estimated the baliset to be 28 inches long. From that, I can calculate all the other sizes and create the pattern for the leather strap. So, please pipe in with any estimates you have. I am using the picture of him holding the baliset in his lap where it looks like the bottom is on his leg rather than next to it. If I hold a tape measure in my lap and take it up next to my head, like in the picture, I get 28 inches.
I just realized how amazingly cool it is to be able to use yard sticks for the blades. Once you know how long the originals are
the rest is already marked.....hahahaha
My measurement app allows me to show exact measurements to each design detail and the yard stick is already premarked with the measurements. I could laugh myself dizzy.
For Gurney's smaller fighting knife (still substantial) is 18 and one quarter in from end to end.
Still working out the longer one but if these are already known measurements, please post them.
Update- I estimate 27 inches end to end for the longer sword.
I can see that both swords are just router table work so I am lining up some time with my buddy to use the woodshop.
The handles both look to be flashlights but it will be quicker to make them than find them. I believe the larger handle is likely a close match to Maglite, size C batteries. The smaller one is square and I have one somewhere here but can't find it. The ends are square to keep it from rolling when you set it down.
This build has been a challenge in more than just patterning.
I have come across several items for costume and prop that are not consistent. Set aside the idea that as time passes, from scene to scene, that maybe they took a bath.... (sand)... and maybe are holding a different blade than before. But with that acknowledgement out of the way:
Gloves Swords Sword handles Sword length Boot covers Strap color (straps everywhere) Material type and texture
These change back and forth throughout the two movies. Digital photo manipulation, AI and fan created art begin to blur the reality of what is actually used. It is also a certainty that the film has been blurred. Behind the scenes photos are of an entirely different quality level, clear and crisp, as compared to the cinema released final films.
To that end, I point out that there is clearly a square handled short fighting knife in the set of Atreides weapons but within a few scenes it is replaced with the same blade but having a standard Japanese woven wrap over two tubes. I had originally intended to use the square handle but have decided to go with the two tubes style that is in the museum display. It is more comfortable as a grip and I align that with Gurney and which he would choose.
Blades are now shaped but without handles. Both are just a little too-perfectly aligned with being the size of a yardstick so I think we may have some forward planning by the props department showing through here.
My weekend's work on my blades was while house-sitting for my buddy. He and his wife had taken one of their 3 boys on a birthday trip. Something they came up with as a family, a trip specifically for the interests of the one child. Often enough, this means the other two just simply are NOT interested at all. Could be a trip to a museum, sports event or carting and sometimes the whole family goes. But, on this trip, I had the other two for the weekend and in the middle of all the fun stuff we were doing, there was some down time when the boys were playing on the computer with friends. They have a game about skateboarding that translates pretty seamlessly into actual skating so they practice their timing and then try it out for real. Amazingly, they make big strides in short order and learned 5 or more new tricks, for real, over the weekend. But, I am not so interested in the game side of it, so, I was in the garage working on the blades. My buddy had two routers, wood clamps and several power sanders. I went from two yardsticks to two finished blades over the course of the weekend. They even had some paint pens to start the coating process, not yet complete. I will be creating pvc pipe work for the larger sword and utilizing two smaller pipes to create the handle on the small blade. Following that up with the standard weaving of cordage on the small blade and some possible metal foil work on the exposed blade edges for some flash (not actually necessary for poses but maybe).
i have gone a good deal thicker on the black paint so will need to redo the silver, still hoping to foil it.
On this small fighting knife, I have blacked it entirely and then trimmed the handle in from both edges so the pipes fit into the edge rather than outside. This should keep the final cordage close to the size of the blade.
I chose to slip the pipes over the wood edgewise rather than attempting to create spikes for them to slide onto. I cut the slit on each and opened it up enough to slip on easily without being forced out of shape (the slit is the same thickness as the blade).
After slipping these on the handle, I hot glued and filled them.
I finished with painting all the hotglue black. Next is wrap.
I knew I would hate the cordage and I did. Slow and tedious. But, as always, the result made me smile.
I could not bring myself to do the one over one under but instead did 4 or 5 threads at a time. But the katana style cord wrap (versus traditional samurai ribbon) came out in the end and I love it. No camera will ever get close enough, during final poses, to show the difference.
The longer sword is nearing completion. I slimmed down the wood to receive a pvc handle. Trimming in from both sides.
I burned the rings into the handle and roughed up the surface to mimic the original.
I then cut another section of the yardstick and rounded it for the handguard, also creating the center slot.
I filled the pipe with hot glue, on the end going on first. After sliding it on, I continued to fill the handle until it overflowed into the rounded cap shape that I needed.
I could poke around at these for years. Swords are my happy place. But, they are good enough for ten feet distance to the camera on pose day. So, here is my calling the swords complete with a comp to the movie:
I attached the lower sleeves on the body suit (basically a leo). I trimmed out several layers of overlap. I can see I now need to put a LOT of tan on this to match the armor.
I think the biggest challenge has been the difference in colors from Dune 1 to 2. The still suit is now nearly tan with all the weathering. It started out so dark gray that most cosplayers made theirs black. The in-universe discrepancy here is the Fremen can't weather and age at the same rate as Paul and Gurney or they would have had nearly tan suits in Dune 1 (having already been in the desert for years). Main Fremen characters go from dark gray in Dune 1 to completely desert tan in Dune 2 at the exact same rate of change as Paul and his mother. This weathering would have already happened for ALL Fremen if it only took 2 years, or less, to happen to Paul.
The little section of the arm that still shows, when the armor is on, is packed with detail. I had thought that I could get away with just color matching
But, there are, at least, 5 add-on pieces to be placed on each arm. This will require placing them while it is being worn. I need to convince my son to be my mannequin again.
Comments
So, I modified the idea. I cut the second foam piece to be only the top part and glued it to the top. I then turned that leg inside out and glued a border out from the part about 3/8 inch. This gave the stiff, "glued from the back" look but allowed a very clean front. In this picture the right hand side of the photo is cut through the pants. The left side of the picture is the faux back glue.
Both have that nice stiff border like in the movie but the one on the left is very clean with no frayed cloth. It is also much stronger.
museum display -
My stiffening of the back gave me the flat area but not this trough.
so I waited for the flat section to cool, then folded over the edge on each side and ran a single thin line of glue there and waited for it to cool:
It will lessen when wearing them but at least it now shows more accurate.
This is what has been shown as a behind the scenes capture:
I know I saw some interest in making the strap but now cannot find any references to wip or finished.
On top of all the grays and cremes and blacks, I added Khaki. I had really liked the tan on the back armor and then ran out and had none left for the remainder of the time making parts. Today, I took the time to get back to town and picked up the khaki. The sand tan color was not in stock. Because the pants were only in grays, it was an easy fix. I am waiting for an overnight cure of all of the above but will do a fitting tomorrow ... or I might focus on finishing my sleeves.
On the sleeves, I am only doing the two upper arm still suit pads, the ones with the horizontal sets of lines. Because the rest of the original still suit details are lost at ten feet due to all the camoflauge coloring, only the seam transition at the upper arm and the two pads can be seen. I will draw on a lot of the other detail and may hot glue in some of the pinching or under sections that appear as lumps in the outer sleeve.
I went in to the store and picked up some yardsticks for Gurney's swords, making them convention proof. While I was there the store manager asked what I was using them for and after my explanation he showed me a recent project he and his daughter completed of a full size war mace. The school project was to pick an actual museum piece and replicate it. It was stunning. I will try to get a copy of the picture the next time I am in.
Next few days I will try to find a good sword pattern. Because these are House Atreides, they should already exist in 17 versions of stls and print patterns. Fingers crossed.
As for the Baliset, it looks like no one has tackled that either so I need some confirmation on size. In the image above, I have estimated the baliset to be 28 inches long. From that, I can calculate all the other sizes and create the pattern for the leather strap. So, please pipe in with any estimates you have. I am using the picture of him holding the baliset in his lap where it looks like the bottom is on his leg rather than next to it. If I hold a tape measure in my lap and take it up next to my head, like in the picture, I get 28 inches.
I just realized how amazingly cool it is to be able to use yard sticks for the blades. Once you know how long the originals are
the rest is already marked.....hahahaha
My measurement app allows me to show exact measurements to each design detail and the yard stick is already premarked with the measurements. I could laugh myself dizzy.
For Gurney's smaller fighting knife (still substantial) is 18 and one quarter in from end to end.
Still working out the longer one but if these are already known measurements, please post them.
Update- I estimate 27 inches end to end for the longer sword.
The handles both look to be flashlights but it will be quicker to make them than find them. I believe the larger handle is likely a close match to Maglite, size C batteries. The smaller one is square and I have one somewhere here but can't find it. The ends are square to keep it from rolling when you set it down.
I have come across several items for costume and prop that are not consistent. Set aside the idea that as time passes, from scene to scene, that maybe they took a bath.... (sand)... and maybe are holding a different blade than before. But with that acknowledgement out of the way:
Gloves
Swords
Sword handles
Sword length
Boot covers
Strap color (straps everywhere)
Material type and texture
These change back and forth throughout the two movies. Digital photo manipulation, AI and fan created art begin to blur the reality of what is actually used. It is also a certainty that the film has been blurred. Behind the scenes photos are of an entirely different quality level, clear and crisp, as compared to the cinema released final films.
To that end, I point out that there is clearly a square handled short fighting knife in the set of Atreides weapons but within a few scenes it is replaced with the same blade but having a standard Japanese woven wrap over two tubes. I had originally intended to use the square handle but have decided to go with the two tubes style that is in the museum display. It is more comfortable as a grip and I align that with Gurney and which he would choose.
Blades are now shaped but without handles. Both are just a little too-perfectly aligned with being the size of a yardstick so I think we may have some forward planning by the props department showing through here.
On this small fighting knife, I have blacked it entirely and then trimmed the handle in from both edges so the pipes fit into the edge rather than outside. This should keep the final cordage close to the size of the blade.
I chose to slip the pipes over the wood edgewise rather than attempting to create spikes for them to slide onto. I cut the slit on each and opened it up enough to slip on easily without being forced out of shape (the slit is the same thickness as the blade).
After slipping these on the handle, I hot glued and filled them.
I finished with painting all the hotglue black. Next is wrap.
I could not bring myself to do the one over one under but instead did 4 or 5 threads at a time. But the katana style cord wrap (versus traditional samurai ribbon) came out in the end and I love it. No camera will ever get close enough, during final poses, to show the difference.
I burned the rings into the handle and roughed up the surface to mimic the original.
I then cut another section of the yardstick and rounded it for the handguard, also creating the center slot.
I filled the pipe with hot glue, on the end going on first. After sliding it on, I continued to fill the handle until it overflowed into the rounded cap shape that I needed.
Then began my hunt for the one ring.....
The very front edge of a plumbing pipe joint.
Paint, masking, more paint, fixing paint edges, hot glue addition of the scabbard catch, more paint.....
But, there are, at least, 5 add-on pieces to be placed on each arm. This will require placing them while it is being worn. I need to convince my son to be my mannequin again.