Limited Run LOTR Bilbo's Mithril Shirt

[drccarr]

Here is a quick video of the kit as I received it. Very nice job on the embroidery and the chain mail is done very well and has a heft to it.

So far I have painted over the bright yellow thread with some 18K gold Angelus leather paint, with a very small brush. And airbrushed the chain mail with some iridescent pearl high flow acrylic paint from GOLDEN. These are subtle differences, but a bit closer the prop.

I do think you could get the chain mail a bit brighter by using a white primer first.

View attachment 1792452And here are the paints I used. It did take a bottle and a half to spray the mail, both inside and out.
View attachment 1792453
I still need to assemble everything and will update more as I go.

How goes it with the mods? I've ordered the kit and seriously considering following in your footsteps with the iridescent pearl airbrushed on. Any issues/tips with application? Is it worth it?

 

[N2darkness]

How goes it with the mods? I've ordered the kit and seriously considering following in your footsteps with the iridescent pearl airbrushed on. Any issues/tips with application? Is it worth it?

I haven't progressed any further.

I still need to attach all the crystal rhinestones and sewn on the collar.

I did have some flaking of the iridescent paint when moving the chainmaile around, my guess is from all the areas of the paint overlapping from link to link. Hopefully will get this finished soon.

Would also be curious to see anybody else's mods or finished shirts.

 

[drccarr]

Serious question to all the much more competent modders than me: what about applying ultrafine automotive-quality white iridescent glitter to the steel chainmail?

Automotive Glitter | White Iridescent | Metal Flake Custom Spray Painting | White Iridescent / Microfine / 100g / 3.5oz

Add a brilliant shimmer to your vehicle with automotive glitter flake. Perfect for custom cars, motorbikes, and boats with long-lasting sparkle.

us.hemway.com

 

[greenmachines]

Serious question to all the much more competent modders than me: what about applying ultrafine automotive-quality white iridescent glitter to the steel chainmail?

Automotive Glitter | White Iridescent | Metal Flake Custom Spray Painting | White Iridescent / Microfine / 100g / 3.5oz

Add a brilliant shimmer to your vehicle with automotive glitter flake. Perfect for custom cars, motorbikes, and boats with long-lasting sparkle.

us.hemway.com

In theory, this would be wonderfully close to the in-movie shimmer of mithril but in application it might be very tricky. Because it would require a bonding agent, clearcoat or similar, it will bond one link to another. In order to apply a flake and bond coat evenly across each link, it would be necessary to create a tumbler for the chain during application. I have done similar and had decent success with just applying the extra coat and then continuing to move the piece about to stop sections from bonding to each other. not easy and can create blobs at each contact. Mine was for jewelry linear chain, not mesh. If the bond were easily broken then it could be dried completely and then gently separated but my experience in doing that is chipping and debonding that is visible when done.

I say, I love this idea and would test it first on a dollar store chain or metal mesh for practice. There are some cleaning scrubbers of woven metal that could be great test objects. But I can very much appreciate how it would push this mithril into the realm of near screen match. I am curious if the powder coating ionization/magnetization idea could assist here but while it is still being tumbled.