DIY Spartan Hoplite Costume: How to Make Greaves

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I wanted to make better greaves (shin-guards, more or less) this year, and I decided to try out Paper Mache.  I haven't tried this much before, so I thought it would be interesting to see what the medium can handle.  I used a very simple recipe for the paper mache: half glue (white) and half warm water.  The final result isn't too bad.  The two greaves aren't very symmetrical (probably could improve on that if I did it over again), but they are surprisingly strong and I believe will hold up well.  Here's how I did it:


First, I wrapped my legs in plastic garbage bags so I would have something to build the paper mache off of.  Hoplite greaves should be custom-fit, so this way I would make them as accurate as possible.

I mixed my paper mache (half warm water, half white glue), mixed it well, and cut up newspapers into inch-wide strips.  I dipped the newspaper in the glue mix, used my fingers to wipe off excess liquid, and started laying the newspaper onto my shins.  I paper mache'd from my ankles to the tops of my knees, and around the sides of my calves.  I made the paper mache about 4 layers thick.  Once I had my 4 layers, I waited about half an hour so the paper mache could dry enough to stay in the shape of my leg.  Then I cut the garbage bags at the back of my leg and removed the greaves.  I let them dry completely overnight by putting them over the backs of chairs.



The next day I reinforced the greaves by putting a layer of duct tape over most of the greaves (but not the entire surface; I wanted to make sure the next layer of paper mache could fuse to the previous layer).  Then I added another 4-layer round of paper mache.

I repeated this a few more times, before I was finally satisfied with how thick and solid the greaves were.  I then cut off the excess garbage bags and trimmed the greaves into the proper shape.  It turned out I had made one of them too short, so I used duct tape to build a top (knee cap) and then put one final layer of paper mache over that (and also around the edges where I had cut the greaves out).

Once the paper mache was dry, it was time to paint the greaves.  I used an Xacto knife to make 6 holes in each greave for straps.  I used spray paint to paint the greaves brown, then a light layer of gold over that for a final bronze-ish appearance.

I made the straps out of fake leather laces, and tied double knots one one side so they wouldn't slide through the holes I had made.

Finally the greaves were finished! They aren't perfectly smooth, or shaped, but they are decently strong and were super cheap and easy to make.  It was also nice to experiment with a new medium and see how strong paper mache can be made to be if you layer it enough.

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DIY Spartan Hoplite Costume: How to Make a Spear (Dory)

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One of my favorite parts of the new Hoplite costume is a much improved spear.  Last time I made a spear out of PVC pipe and a poorly crafted wooden point, and the whole thing was painted vaguely bronze-ish.  This time I made a far prettier and sort of accurate looking spear.  The Dory is supposed to be 6-9 feet long, roughly, but it is really a pain to try to walk through doorways with a 9ft spear so I went for the shorter end of things (also Menards' materials were appropriate for a 6ft spear only).  I originally was planning on buying pre-finished hand-rail wood for the spear, but it was much more expensive than a simple wooden dowel and I determined I did not want a 9ft spear.  The dowels are very cheap, the right length for a shorter spear, and it is easy to make them look finished.  A standard Dory has a butt-spike in the back to counter the weight of the spear point, and while I did not wish to have a double bladed spear, I did want some sort of counter-balance for the spear.  I ended up using the pipe fittings because they are heavy but appropriately sized and easy to fit onto the dowel. 

Materials: 
6ft wooden dowel (1 inch diameter) (about $3)
Thick balsa wood (I used some left over scraps)
1inch diameter steel (possibly iron) threaded pipe joiner and 1inch diameter steel pipe cap (about $3 for both)
sand paper, duct tape, painters tape
wood stain
brown and gold spray paint

To start, I carved a piece of balsa wood into a spear point.  I used a leaf shape and made it about 7 inches long (the size of my piece of left-over balsa wood).  I sanded the edges to make it 'sharp' and more importantly to hide the ugly cutting job I did with the Xacto knife. 
I then sawed a knotch two inches into the dowel on one side to make a place to slip the balsa spear tip into (see pictures).  This required sawing into the dowel once, and then making a second cut as close to the first one as possible and removing the excess material in between (the saw blade itself was too thin to fit the balsa wood into a single cut).  I used Goop to secure the spear tip in place, and wrapped duct tape around the base of the spear tip to make a fake hilt.

Now I had to attach the counter-weight at the end of the spear.  The pipe fittings are for a 1inch pipe, which should be perfect for a 1 inch diameter spear, but that does not take into account the thickness of the metal of the pipe, so the fittings are actually just a hair too wide.  To fix this, I put a layer of duct tape around the end of the spear and then slid the fittings over.  I think I ended up with 2 layers of duct tape to make it a really tight fit.  I also used Goop to secure the pipe fittings.  Once the linker pipe fitting was set around the spear end, I threaded the cap fitting onto it to make sure it was all as secure and tight as possible.

Now that the spear tip and butt were finished, I had to paint them.  I followed my paint scheme I had used previously for fake bronze and painted both the front and end of the spear a matte brown and then applied a light coat of gold over the top of that (spray paint).  I used blue painters tape to keep the shaft from getting painted.  Once again I am quite happy with how this effect worked.



Once painted, I had only to finish the shaft of the spear.  For this I sanded the shaft, then applied a layer of wood stain.  I let it dry, sanded the shaft, then added another layer and repeated.  All done!
I'm extremely happy with how the spear turned out.  The balance is about a foot and a half to two feet from the base of the spear, which means when you hold it the spear sticks out farther without straining your arm! The Greeks were some clever folks.
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DIY Spartan Hoplite Costume: How to Make a Helmet

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This year I'm re-vamping my old 300 costume and making it better and shinier!  First off, a new helmet!
Any good Spartan needs a helmet, but unfortunately I am not a metal-smith.  So I made mine out of items I had around.

Materials Used:
Heavy Gold Poster Paper (JoAnn Fabrics, about $2)
Pink Foam Board
Duct Tape
Gold Paint
Glue
Fake Feathers (black) Trim (JoAnn Fabrics, $2 with coupon)
Thin Plastic Helmet (party favor from Party America, $1)
wire (I use 14 Gauge Cerro Wire; rubber coated wires, same as from my batman costume)

Step 1) Find scaffold for helmet:  I knew I needed something to build my helmet around, and didn't want to go the same route as the batman costume (where I made a duct tape mold of my head).  So I went to Party America to try to find a cheap hat of some sort that would have enough structure to be able to build on it but not cost much.  I was fortunate to find pretty much exactly what I was looking for in the form of a $1 party favor military helmet.  It is made out of super thin plastic, but fit my head (many other options were too small) and was crazy cheap.

Step 2) Make crest:  I used Pink Foam Board to carve a crest for the helmet.  I set the helmet next to the board to get an idea of the general curve of the helmet, then cut out the foam accordingly.  It took a few alterations to get the final cut right, but since I knew I was going to cover the base with duct tape it didn't matter if it wasn't too pretty.  I glued the foam board down, then added duct tape to make sure it stayed there!

Step 3) Make Face Mask:  I used the single piece of gold poster paper for this, and actually only used half of it.  The basic idea was to first wrap the helmet entirely around with the paper to get an idea of how wide it needed to be, then cut the shape. At this time I also had to trim the edges of the plastic helmet (they made a tiny brim).  The schematic drawn here is the best explanation, but I'll also try with words alone.  To get the right fit, wrap the paper around the helmet tight enough so that the helmet stays in one place but does not bend/collapse (do not connect the two yet though).  From the inside, duct tape the paper together so that it keeps its cylindrical form.  Now flatten it, so that the seam of the paper is on one end and the front/nose of the helmet is on the other end.  Cut out the rough shape of the helmet while it is flat so that each side cuts the same (do small cuts, then put the paper back around the helmet to see how it is going).  Once you have the right shape, put the helmet and mask on to figure out where the eye holes go.  TAKE THE HELMET AND MASK OFF, then cut out small eye holes.  Test to make sure they are in the right place, then expand them.  Once you have the eye holes correct, duct tape the mask to the helmet (from the inside).  Now you can cut from the bottom of the face of the mask to the eyes (along the nose) to open the mask.  This will cause the mask cheeks to flare out, so duct tape wire to the inside of the cheeks (see schematic) and bend them back into place.

Step 4) Paint the helmet and crest.  I used a gold paint from Menards that is used to paint frames/vases/etc to make them look fancy.  The small sample jar was plenty for me to paint everything I needed (about $3).  The helmet I used was shiny plastic, so it took a lot of thick paint to cover.  Once I painted the helmet I also painted some details onto the gold paper (note: do not use too much paint or it will warp the paper).

Step 5) Now to add the feathers.  Technically I should have used horsehair, but fake feathers were much easier and cheaper.  I bought them as trim so that they were already all lined up and I wouldn't have to put them in individually.  I cut a groove into the top of the foam board crest from the back to the front and then back again (the trim is too thin if it's a single layer thick).  It took a little extra digging to make it wide enough for the trim, but once it was fitted I glued it in.  You may need to then touch up the gold paint on the crest depending on how much you have to cut. 

All done! More coming soon!  For my original DIY 300 Spartan costume, click here.  For all costume related items, click here.
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Horse Limb Bones

The past few days I've been trying to learn how to draw horses.  Horses are not easy to draw, so I've been spending some quality time doodling in my notebooks (an example is below).  Frequently I have annotated these doodles with notes on what is incorrect (I often don't make my horses long enough).  Horses (and other hoofed animals) have an odd bone structure that makes their legs a little less than intuitive when drawing.  Essentially they have one extra major joint, which occurs because their hooves are like the tips of their fingers, and their 'wrist' is what appears to be their front knee (also odd is that they have knees below their elbows). 

To show what's going on inside, I drew a horse with the bone structure showing through the skin (bones not quite to scale).  The horse limbs have 5 big zig-zags compared to the 4 in humans.

Screen Printing: Coveralls

My coveralls were very plain and boring, so I decided to screen print them.  I used a new screen this time; a fine wire mesh stapled to a wooden frame.  The screen was originally made for making home-made paper, but it worked really well for screen printing, so I may start making my own screens this way.  The one thing you need to be careful with is that when you wash your screen to re-use it, the glue can come off, so you need to be gentle/re-touch between use (and I would recommend doing all the prints you need in one sitting so you don't need to wash the screen between prints).  For more on the basics of screen printing click here. For all my posts on screen printing, click here.

Canine Osteology: Forelimb, Hindlimb, and Pelvic Bones

Sketches (pretty rough) of bones I made for studying.  Focused on the aspects needed for the class.  Really would love to do a nice ink drawing of these sometime, but not sure when I'll have the time. NOTE: Oops! missed the proximal sesamoid bones on phalanges II-V on the forepaws!

Knots

Some knots for school.  Surprisingly hard to illustrate/describe knots on paper.  Hard to do first few times, but once you can remember the hand motions it is much easier than actually following the steps.

Bowline

Quick Release Knot

 Tom Foolery Knot (2 or 3 step)

Don't Lose Your Swagger

Shout Out to U of M DVM class of 2015.  Permanent marker on cardstock, hopefully will make into a t-shirt sometime.  I should probably learn how to do letters one of these days...

On the right is my version after playing around with fonts for an hour...

More on permanent marker t-shirts and screen printing here!