Roman Gladiator
21 Aug2010
If you have seen the movie Gladiator,..and the performance of
the danish actor Sven-Ole Thorsen, you would also be inspired to
dress up like a gladiator for Halloween or a costume party. I had
for a long time wondered how to make a costume like that, but
never had a purpos for such a costume. So when such an
opportunity arose i resided it was time to start planing and
forging.. here is a blowout drawing of the pre-draft design.
Before i start any project i do my research first, after my
research faze i start doodling and planing out the build. It helps
to plan before you start cutting metal to avoid any unexpected
surprises (c: Metal don't come cheep.
After I've made all the helmet templates in paper, it was time
to cut in to metal with plate shears. It is a good feeling.. (c: I
started out by dishing the two halves of the helmet dome. As you
can see on the picture below there are plenty of bulges in the
metal. The next stage is to planish the two halves to remove the
unwanted bulges. This is done with a planishing hammer.
Many of the gladiator helmets found in the museums today are
highly decorated and I wanted the same for my helmet. I wanted it
to be stunning and have some of that gladiator glamor (c: But
decorations in metal don't come easy it is wary consuming work. But
the end result is worth it. In the following stage i started
applying the pattern to the metal by chiseling out the leafs from
the inside of the helmet and then cleaning them up with a hammer
from the outside. The progress of the oak leaf pattern can be seen
on the pictures below.
You should not underestimate the ancient craftsmen, by walking
in their footprints you can only start to comprehend there level of
toolmanship. Like these
ancient helmet cheekpieces, i was amazed to see that they had
ears. So i when i started researching this helmet I've decided that
my helmet should not be cheated of such details. On the picture
below you can see the how i interpreted this in metal.
As the work progressed more and more peaces got finished, and it
was time to poot it all together. For that i've used 5mm metal
leather rivets. They can't handle as much mechanical loads as
the real rivets, but they are perfect for LARP equipment. And now
for the big finally, here is the finished helmet.