As mentioned in other posts on the website, my original Boushh costume was used in the film ‘Paul’ and I have now boxed it away and I am working on an upgrade. It has been over five years since I finished the last costume and since then more information on the costume has become available and I have seen the original at the County Hall in London. My new costume has a lot more attention to the small detail, more accuracy than practicality.
Firstly I worked on the tunic, I sourced a new pig skin with more texture and made the pattern more accurate. The front is self faced and the overall fit is much better.
Next came the under tunic. There is quite a bit of difference between this under tunic and my last one. This time the body of the tunic is made from a brown cotton chintz which is overlocked at the hem and the suede collar is top stitched to the cotton. The tunic now has a brown zip up the back and the sleeve ends are lined with suede. The sleeves are still long enough to gather, have the tree spikes and the thumb slots. Above the wrist there are the opening slots in the seam, these are held closed with large stitching. The sleeves are also now lined with black satin.
The cummerbund was the next piece I made. It is piped suede and then unlike my last cummerbund it is lined with suede, this makes it a little more expensive to make but finishes it off nicely. At the back the cummerbund laces with black cotton tape and has a wrap over cover to hide the lacing. At the top of the cover a hole has been cut into the suede. I have yet to discover why but I have put it there for accuracy.
I have just finished putting together the trousers. The trousers are similar to the old pair but have more detail in the pleated knee sections. The trousers have been made from a new leather which I then spent a whole week dying to the correct colour and weathering. This took hours of painting, sanding, re-painting, weathering, sanding, finishing… extremely time consuming but I had to keep going until I achieved the correct look. Lots of studying the original costume to get the marks in the right places.
The gloves I purchased from Sierra Trading, the suede matched quite well but they are fleeced lined which created difficulty when dressing. I have had to remove the lining and put a cuff on the wrist which makes it easier to fit them comfortably under the under tunic.
I am now working on the boot covers. These have been completely re-patterned. The striped detail is more accurate and the back fastening has been completely upgraded. The boot covers now wrap around the boot and velcro at the back to an underpad. They also have the vintage hook and bar fasteners and the ski clasps. The boot covers have the suede stirrup that feeds under the boot. I am still on the look out for accurate boots. Across the front of the cover is the strap which again has been completely re-patterned. This has been scaled from the tie fighter model part on the new boot discs we are making. The strap is piped up to the boot disc and then stops. The edge of the strap is also piped. We are making the discs removable again in case I damage them. This time we have strengthened the attachments so they pull tight against the strap.
Whilst I have been working on the soft parts Jude has been busy making progress on all the new hard parts. Using sourced correct model parts he has scaled up and sculpted new boot discs, made the basic sculpt for the helmet and is working on the staff.
For the new bandoleer again using sourced correct model parts he has built the bandoleer resin parts, we have the webbing and the correct sliders and fasteners. We just need the correct size of the armour so we make the bandoleer up and fit correctly.
Jude has also been working on my armour. We built a basic mould which he has then covered in body filler and now he is sanding to shape and creating the imperfections for the mould to pick up. I will then line it with the suede for comfort.
It has been an extremely challenging upgrade to build and we still have a way to go. I have attached lots of photo’s of the work so far so please enjoy. If you require more information or help please email us at info@clothearscostumes.com we are happy to try and help.
