Fauns

Aketon

Faun warriors' outfits start with an oliveish brown aketon: a quilted tunic worn under plate armor, to diffuse blows - hopefully, for our fauns, there will be few of those!

The sides under the arms are not sewn, but have rivets down the sides, and somehow these connect to one another. Do these loop through the ties that connect the breastplate with back of the aketon? (see below)

See enhanced image, below; the faun in the middle of the enhanced image wears his aketon bound at the top and middle of the sides, but not at the bottom, showing that he has a satchel bound to a belt beneath.

The aketon forms a tight collar above the top of the breastplate, and looks to be laced in the back from the top to around the shoulderblades. Sleeve caps protrude underneath the pauldrons.

Armor

The armor looks to be plate, covered in maroon leather.

Breastplate

Torso protection is made up of two pieces: the breastplate, all one piece, is edged in gold, but above midway up the gold edges come across and intersect in the design shown on the WETA statue logo, below. The rivets on the armor actually have the same design on the face as the logo image rivets.

The neck of the breastplate has a V shape, made up of two layers; a strip of darker maroon/brown, then another strip of the lighter maroon, both edged in gold. The neck extends all the way around the head and secures to itself in the back. (Is this what Richard Taylor is fastening on Josh's plate armor, in the Disney Channel's promotional screencap?)

The neck piece is riveted down to the breastplate near the top of the neck.

Second Plate Piece, Pauldrons, Vambraces, Helmet

The second piece of torso protection is worn below the breastplate, but not so far seen connecting to it. If it does connect to the breastplate, it would likely be through points attached on the underside of both pieces. Or, it could be hung on a separate belt or somehow attached to the aketon.

(In the separate battle cry images below, you can see that the piece moves freely, allowing movement at the waist.)

Next are the pauldrons, consisting of three layers of leather, each cut like feathers, with about seven "feathers" on each row. Attached with more gold rivets!

Faun warriors have bare arms, except for a pair of maroon leather vambraces, from wrist to nearly elbow. The faun legs are also bare.

The faun's helmet has adjustable cheek pieces and openings for his
horns near the top of his forehead. The helmet also has a casing for his extraordinarily long ears that protrude (see the faun in the bowing image, the one to the right)!

Film Images

also enhanced

Behind the Scenes, WETA Maquettes

Super high-rez images ~ courtesy the Photobox

Costuming as a Faun: Early Ideas

First, make sure you have a skin-toned shirt, or a jacket, or else you will be inside most of the time! December is not the best time of year to costume as an unarmored faun.

For the faun legs, we'd reccomend checking out fabric stores: in the back, larger stores will often carry heavy-duty fabrics, such as furs. Look for a black or brown fur.

Instead of making simply "woolly chaps," or just straight furry pants for the faun legs, use foam, cardboard or another stiff material to get the goat leg shape.

Fluff up the thighs of the legs in the front so your own knee is indistinguishable, then use the cardboard/other material just behind and past the knees, making a pointed backward joint as goats have (called a hock).

To keep that in place, you might choose a spare pair of thin trousers (probably elastic waist), and add cardboard, or tack down foam. Then add the fur, so you have one solid pair of faun leg pants.

To make the transition from skin/skin toned shirt look more "natural," you could cut off some of the lap on spare fur (if it's long enough) and place it under the waist of the fur pants, tufting it around. Note that Mr. Tumnus has a high waistline - the fur looks to come above navel.

For horns, the most likely suggestion would be plastic or foam, or white FIMO clay, baked, with holes through it for a string so it can go about your head!

Wear a red scarf (carry an umbrella!) to be Tumnus. If you'd like to be armored, you could buy some dark maroon vinyl, and make a sleeveless vest, edging it with gold.

We'll have more info about costuming how-tos as we go along - these are just preliminary, untested ideas!