Easy Iron Throne Wheelchair costume

Talofa everyone,

Here in New Zealand we have our own version of Comic Con called Armageddon. This year was Armageddon's 20th anniversary since its humble beginning at the Avondale Raceway in 1995. I decided to make Eugene a costume after being inspired by Mica Bethea's Iron Throne costume at MegaCon 2015.

Eugene pondering over which kingdom to over take next!

I started on Wednesday and we were going to Armageddon on Sunday. It only took ONE DAY to make and ONE DAY to paint but you could probably do it all in one day if your in a rush. It was much easier then I expected so lets begin with the instructions.

You will need:

Cardboard boxes

Big piece/ pieces of cardboard for the back

Craft knife

Hot glue gun/ hot glue

Ruler

Marker/ Vivid

Paint (White, black, silver)

Masking tape (Optional)

First I took photos of the wheelchair to really look at how I could make this work. I wanted something I could easily take on and off the wheelchair so I could transport it in my little car.

This is the back of the wheelchair and I designed over the photo using a paint app on my iPad  If you don't have that just roughly sketch on some scrap paper. Its just to help you visualise how you want it.

Here we cut some holes to fit the handles into. These were quite large so when I was walking around I had a backpack at the back to hold it steady and to add some weight to it.

After sitting in the chair and realising it wasn't tall enough I hot glued another big piece of cardboard to give it more height. Then I cut it into a rough semi circle to give it a more Iron Throne shape. 

Next I drew a rough outline of where I wanted the different swords to go. There is the fan of swords that sticks out at the top the small swords just under that then lots of swords facing downward down the back of the chair. I skipped the short swords cos ehh Im a bit lazy. 

And now... Its sword making time!!!

This part was pretty easy. You just need a vivid/ marker, cardboard, ruler and a craft knife. 

 I used the first sword as a stencil and just made heaps of blades (10 large blades). Too easy mate! I also cut 8 thinner and shorter blades cos if you look at the throne there are lots of layers of swords.

 Had a look at the kind of height I got on the wheelchair and was loving it. WARNING: Think about how big your car it when doing the height and fan of swords. I forgot about that but luckily we made it work.

These are my sword handles and I made 3 different shapes just to get some variation  Not all the swords on the iron throne are exactly the same so this gave some randomness to it. Cut those out!

Next I lay my baby on the floor and kinda work out where I want each sword to go. Then matched up the sword handles randomly and glued that all down. Take your time. Make sure the hot glue is hot enough.

I was quite happy with the layout of the swords. Although I could have gone a bit higher cos I didn't have that second, short layer of swords in front of the long fanned out swords. But all good.

I also cut where the swords met the chair because I didn't see the point of painting them when no one could see it.

YEEEEE BOY check that out. Now, time for the paint job.

I have my own tarpaulin but if you don't, just grab lots of newspaper and put it on the floor. Don't want to accidentally paint your carpets, right? 

I drew some jewels and stuff on the handles but probably not necessary if you want to just paint everything grey/ silver. It is the iron throne after all.

I didn't take a photo of this step but I painted everything white before any other colour. This is like a base, if you don't do this your colours could dry darker or duller then you want so take the extra time to just do 2 quick, light coats of white paint. I used acrylic paint from a $2 shop. 

Next layer will be grey. I went for a medium grey by mixing black and white paint till I got the colour I liked. I didn't paint the sword handles cos for some reason I wanted to paint some gold and black. I just made things harder for myself to be honest. Well, ya live and learn I guess.

After all my painting was done I had this small container of silver/ metallic face paint that had been under my bed for at least 2 years. Finally I had a use for it! I started painting over the swords lightly but found it looked much better when I heaped it on. So Everything had a coat of silver on it. It would be better to use silver acrylic paint I think.

I also made Jon Snows sword 'Long Claw'. Sorry I didn't really take photos but the quick version of how to make it is: Google the dimensions of the sword, Draw it on cardboard and cut out, use that as a stencil and trace and cut 2 more swords, then glue all three together, I had a plastic cardboard so I put masking tape over it so the paint would look better. For the wolf head on the end I made a ball of masking tape for the head and snout and taped that on then just heated up my glue gun and tried to make the eyes, ears and 'fur' of the wolf. Paint and voila!

Honestly this costume was such a big hit! We had people coming up saying they loved it and asking for photos and I could hear people commenting as we wheeled on by. It really made Eugene happy and I remember when he first started using his chair he resented it and hated going out in public with it. This, to me, is progress and I was so proud of him for staying as long as he did because he's usually very tired.

Side note: This isn't very good in the wind! We had Auckland weather that day (four seasons in one day) and the wind was bending the swords back. So lucky I took my masking tape with me and patched it up inside the expo. If you want to strengthen the back swords maybe hot glue skewers or chop sticks to the back so to wont bend so easily.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps anyone. Comment if you have any questions and if you still have time Ive got a quick story for y'all.

My dad used to collect comics in the 80s and 90s. He gave them all to me and I read them when I was younger. Now they sit in our garage and its time to declutter. I emailed Mr J at Arkham City Comics and he said he didn't mind sorting them out. Over 1000 of them! And he was sick so when he finished I said thank you very much and left. But I felt bad because I got something out of it and it took a few hours and he was sniffing and getting over a cold.

So I emailed again and asked if he he wanted a chocolate cake or carrot cake. I knew he had a stall at Armageddon and gave him the cake straight away. He really liked my husbands costume and knelt before him before accepting the cake and he looked happy. 

Of course usually Im broke but making a cake to show my appreciation is one thing I can do! If someone does something for me, the least I can do is think of someway I can afford to pay them back. Hope it was yummy! 

Thanks for reading, Ofa atu.