Before I get to the chainmail, I forgot to mention I shortened the legs. As Wor Gar mentioned, the figure body is extremely long legged, more like an anime figure. Since we're modeling this after an actual human named Miranda Otto (who from celebrity photos on the red carpet and such looks to be of average proportion), the calf had to be shortened. So I ground it down with my dremel, over a half inch! Essentially, I wanted the boots to come up to the bottom of the knee. I might add back a few millimeters by stuffing some spare plastic or wood dowels into the boot, because she looks a little squat now, but it looks much more realistic to me. BTW there are no issues with the boots coming off because they are extremely tight to the calf. You don't need the foot pegs at all.
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I like the bunching up around the knee because it disguises how tight these "leggings" are. Like I mentioned in a previous post, she wore pants, not stretchy leggings.
Finally, the "full mail hauberk," as it's called in my LOTR sourcebook. As YDG mentioned, the color is too black and not gold enough. Essentially they slapped on some gold paint randomly, basically doing a poor job of dry brushing over the black micronet fabric. More than that though, they hemmed the sleeves and overall length too short. Why hem it at all? 1:1 chainmail has no discernible hem, it just stops, so hemming this fabric further ruins the illusion that this is actual chainmail. And, as I've noted above, you don't need to hem these synthetic fabrics if you heat treat the edges,
which they did anyway! So out came the sharp thread snips, and I undid all the hems (not easy as the stitching is black on black). This essentially lengthens the hauberk to the correct length. They also incorrectly cut in side slits and neglected to put in a rear slit. So, I hand-stitched the side slits closed (did I mention how much I hate sewing?
) and unstitched the rear to create the slit. I then soaked the garment in acetone to remove all the gold paint, washed it, and painted it. I began with a coat of Flat Metallic Grey (all paints are Tamiya), then put numerous alternating coats of Gold Leaf and Metal Brown. I used thinned coats, essentially dry brushing it all. Depending on the scene Eowyn's chainmail can look either yellowish or white metalish, with a strong undertone of brown. It took several coats to get a multitonal effect. The lighting in the pics washes it out a bit--it looks darker in hand. The pic also doesn't really show any of the weathering I did on the dress, but it's there.
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Now the extra fabric in the dress works better under the hauberk as it now folds and undulates more like the real one. Still a little puffy in the pics but the fabric futzes well and responds well to water treatment. Also notice how the length now hits right above the knee and below the elbow, as it should:
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