Dining in HELL - the second course

As an update to the original post, here's some new and additional news:

Leatherwear

David completed the "speedo" and damn, it's comfortable. When I went for the second fitting, everything was absolutely perfect. David suggested that I wear it the rest of the day (under my suit - get your mind out of the gutter!) to make sure. He did forget about the shoulder harness ("Oh... so that's why I drew the figure-8 there...") but I'll be getting that in a short time - he was working on some leather coats for a new Steven Seagal movie and had some pretty tight deadlines for delivery.

David gave me a call today and the harness was finished! The leather is the same stuff he used on the Seagal coat - dark brown with a hint of scarlet to it. I went down and tried it on - again, a few adjustments here and there, a couple of hole punches and it was complete. I'm following his advice again and wearing it (under my shirt) for the day - I don't anticipate any problems since this really soft leather and fitted to me. Although I have very good posture (8 years in parochial elementary school with nuns and 4 years Catholic high school with brothers will beat that into you), the harness is also having a nice side-effect of pulling my shoulders back a bit and squaring them off more. I just have to be careful moving around work today and hearing the leather creak a bit!

Armor and Sandals

No real new news from JJ ... He was able to find some dished steel shield blanks, so I bit the bullet and decided to go for the shield also - in for penny, in for a pound! I've learned from rather painful and nasty experience if I scrimp on something, I always wind up paying more for it (in more ways than one) in the long run. I put out a query to one of the costume groups on Yahoo! and got the name of a Greek sandalmaker, but he never returned any emails and I'm not in the mood to call Greece and follow up.

I came across a Greek re-enactors group here in NYC - thegreekwarriors.com. These people take their reenactments seriously. They build their own shields from scratch! They are more of the historical Spartan/Greek Hoplite soldiers rather than the Frank Miller versions. I contacted Peter - their designated Spartiate officer - and a got a great lead on sandals. I got them today and they are extremely comfortable. I'll see which version looks better with the outfit - these or JJ's. The only issue I had with the sandals was that the foot bed was a lighter color than the straps - and again, my good ole' standby - Fiebing Leather Dye (chocolate brown) came to the rescue. Swabbed everything down with a coat of the dye and let it dry overnight - perfect!

By the way, did you know that the proper term for the Spartan shield is not a hoplon (as the Greek foot soldiers were called Hoplites) but an aspis?

Spear

There are a lot of crappy looking knockoffs going around right now. I did find a place that has a beauty though. Strongblade.com. Not an official replica, but a beauty all the same. This has a battle-used look to it that will fit right in with JJ's shield and it also separates into two pieces for easy storage!

Falcata

The date has been moved again, so it should ship by end of May or early June. The falcatas are coming in from Hong Kong and they are not in the country yet. Like I said, I may have David re-do the scabbard so it looks better with the speedo.

Cloak

Andrea's queue is semi-full right now, but my Han Solo outfit will be ready soon and I'll be sending the shoulder harness down to her this weekend. JJ will send the cloak pin directly to her when he finishes it.

"Wolf's Tooth" Medallion

I'm not doing a wolf's tooth, but Russ and I are working on a cast bronze item. The design is in the "scribble on a napkin" phase right now, but I can promise you this - it will be striking, original and somewhat disturbing. Just what you need to freak out a Mede or Persian at close quarters !!! Russ was doodling some ideas during a thunderstorm and managed to creep himself out a bit - which is EXACTLY the response I'm aiming for!

Now, I can't draw worth a tinker's dam, but I can put together some superb photoshop collages. This is something along the lines that we're looking to do: