Kíli Project - Dwarf ears and Kili's sword!

I hadn't planned to do anything about my fella's ears for the costume, as I didn't really have any means to do anything about it and it'd be one more thing to worry about, but then, whilst in the ticket queue, a friend of mine said that she could help me sort it! She's currently doing a course in special effects and movie make-up, and knew exactly how to do it, however, she needed a cast of my fella's ears to make them. So after the queue, we met up and she equipped me with everything I needed to do so!


With the usual bribe of tea, dwarfy boy lay down on the floor and got his ear covered with alginate goo poured into the bottomless q-tip holder I had him hold in place around his ear. It didn't take very long to set, and we could easily wiggle it out of the holder and off his ear. The same process was repeated on the other side, and then I made a sort of wall out of plaster tape around the mold, so I could pour in the plaster to make a cast. A word of advice, though, use duct tape instead. It'a a lot easier and a lot less messy! ;)




After a while, the plaster had set, and I could peel off the alginate, carefully, so I didn't break anything, to reveal two lovely casts!
























After that, all that was left for me to do, was to wrap them up and bring them to my friend, who sorted the rest out and made us, not just a set of gelatin ears, but also a silicon mold to go with the casts so that we can make new sets ourselves! ^_^

Now, also whilst in the queue, I was showing another friend of mine a picture of Kili's sword from United Cutlery's collection, and telling her how much I wanted it for the costume, but that it's too pricey for me, unfortunately. She loved it too, and then she surprised me by saying, 'you know, I could probably make that in wood, as long as you can paint it'. I was kind of gobsmacked and asked her how much she wanted as payment for making it for me, and she just said she didn't want anything; she'd just do it for fun! I still feel like I owe her big time, because she really did an awesome job! It turned out to be quite the co-operation project as dwarfy boy helped out with the base coat layer of the paint and did the blade, and then I finished it off by painting all the details and sorting out the leather on the handle. Here's the result: