Sandor Clegane for Dragon*Con, Summer 2013
My client had the start of an awesome "The Hound" cosplay prepared for Dragon*Con 2013, but needed some soft goods to fill in the gaps, as well as some work on his wooden shield. I stepped in, and the results not only turned heads at the Con, but ended up on the front page of my favorite cosplay blog, Epbot.
I broke the project down into several components:
Tunic
Altogether, I was pretty pleased with my first foray into Con costuming. It has a different set of parameters for comfort and safety than the theater, which made it an intriguing challenge. Maybe next time, it'll be for a costume I'll take to the Con...
Tunic
- We started with an officially-licensed House Clegane T-shirt, featuring the crest of three black dogs. I sewed a simple lined tunic out of yellow cotton with black trim, then appliqued the T-shirt's design onto the front. (To make the T-shirt jersey behave, I slapped some iron-on interfacing on the back of the graphic area.) I rather like how the yellow stitching contrasted on the black cotton trim.
- My client had already cut out a rough shield from luann, then given it a gorgeous House Clegane paint job. I was tasked with turning this into a easily-carried and authentic-looking prop. I started by neatening up the shape of the luann cutout. My approach was pretty simple: I traced it out on a big sheet of paper, folded it in half, smoothed out the lines, and then cut it out. Laying the paper on top of the luann shape once again, making sure to match up the center lines, gave me an easy template for a smooth and perfectly symmetric shield.
- Next I wanted to give the shield a nice rounded bend across the front. Soaking the wood in water or steaming it was out of the question since it was already painted, so instead I set my circular saw to its shallowest setting and made lots of longitudinal relief cuts across the back. When screwed onto some rounded braces across the back and slathered with some wood glue, this did the trick.
- For hardware, I bolted a sturdy door handle vertically on the back, then attached a foam pad covered in leather with a staple gun. Lastly, I bolted on a sturdy old belt with a antiquated buckle so the shield could be securely strapped to the wearer's arm. I finished off the edges with some roughed-up copper flashing for that iron-bound look. I simply pop-riveted the flashing in place, covering up the modern-looking pop rivets on the outside of the shield with some decorative upholstery nails.
- Ultimately, I was pretty pleased with the overall effect. I did have to go and touch up the paint job where some bolt heads and staple tails were visible, but the original paint job was nearly entirely preserved. My client now proudly displays the shield on his wall, next to his other medieval props.
- My client had already been putting together quite an impressive liquid latex make-up design, so he needed the right hair to go with it. Most memorable from "The Hound"'s TV appearance is how his greasy brown hair is creepily parted over his burns--something that took some serious wig-altering. I scored a nice-quality Lacey wig from Turtle Lane Playhouse at their Going-Out-Of-Business sale (*pours one out for absent homies*) for $10. Its style at the start of the process could be only be described as "Bette Davis," so lots of layering and hairspray and one creepy side-part later, we had a passible "Hound" wig. Major modification included taking a large chunk out of the cap (this lined up pretty nicely with the wearer's hairline) and persistently rolling the bangs under and back.
- I considered countless ways to cheaply cast this helmet with my available resources, but in the end it was more economical to order a replica helmet from Valyrian Steel. I have to say, we were both immensely pleased with the helm, and after some tweaking to the cushioning foam it came with, it was plenty comfy to wear for the whole Con. It even came with a very attractive wooden display stand for afterwards.
- The show version of this costume features a rather distinctive steel gorget that comes to a point at the chest. In order to make it comfortable enough for Con wear, and to cover up all the non-show-accurate straps from the arm plate he would be wearing, we opted for one made out of suede. I quilted it at the appropriate points, chose some studs to make it match the helm, and stitched on a very Westerosi tea-stained neck rag. The gorget laced up at the back of the neck.
Altogether, I was pretty pleased with my first foray into Con costuming. It has a different set of parameters for comfort and safety than the theater, which made it an intriguing challenge. Maybe next time, it'll be for a costume I'll take to the Con...