The Easterlings are really in the Lord of the Rings movies, honest. You can see them for all of 5 minutes when they’re marching through the Black Gates in The Two Towers. It’s the scene where Sam and Frodo go tumbling over the side of the cliff and you are then wow-ed by the awesome camoflauge capabilities of elven cloaks.
Those 5 minutes were enough to make us decide we had to make those armor suits. 5 minutes of coolness on screen = 5 months of work. Oh the things we do for costuming.
There are about 800 pieces in the 5 suits we made. The bulk of the armor was made from cast polyurethane resin. The helmets are cast resin pieces on top of a vacuum-formed base. The shields are heat formed polycarbonate foam and the halberds are resin and wood.
Photos by dmk26, Oscar Chang, Arthur Chang
Awards
- San Diego Comic-Con International “Best Re-Creation” 2004