Lord Flashheart's (Blackadder Goes Forth) Costume
I don't think it comes to many as a surprise that I was going to do some sort of Flashheart costume. I've had people ask me after my last cosplay "So what's next? Oh please say it's Flashheart!". For a character who only appears once a series, he is well loved amongst the Rik Mayall fans and I happen to be one of them. So, strap yourself in, go get yourself a cup of tea and a biscuit because we're in for a long haul flight. We're doing this a bit back to front, usually I'll release a photoshoot all in one go but as I ran out of time to photograph myself before going to the con I'm going to, I thought I would post them after the con. The photoshoot is in the works, keep your eyes peeled!
When deciding which era of Flashheart I wanted to do, I settled with the WWI era as to my knowledge pre research, it was going to be the easiest of the bunch to do. As much as my heart sings out to Elizabethan Flashheart, my sewing skills are nowhere near good enough for that yet. I knew I wanted to get this costume totally right so I gave myself a fairly big budget and indeed the biggest budget so far in my cosplaying journey.
Go big or go home, I researched into actual Royal Flying Corps uniforms people were selling and saw just how difficult they were to find. I visited a local war memorabilia shop armed with a few questions about RFC uniforms. When I explained what I was doing, they smiled and laughed fondly about Blackadder. They very quickly informed me that finding an actual RFC uniform that's not in a museum is extremely slim and they were totally right. I had a back up plan though, I had found a company that did tailormade historical re-enactment uniforms from all sorts of eras and rather perfectly, a RFC tunic and trousers. I got myself measured by my lovely tailor friend and purchased them. I actually purchased the drill trousers instead of the breeches as the colour looked more correct. (not pictured, you'll see those when I take proper photos of me wearing it.)
The breakdown of the costume: The Royal Flying Corps tunic.
The RFC tunic was going to be a huge part of the costume and in my eyes all of the tiny elements of the costume to bring it together had to be properly researched. The base of the jacket only came with the RFC patch on the right side of the jacket so everything else had to be found. For the first part and actually the first purchase I made for this project was the collar pins. These are original WWI RFC collar pins that came in perfect condition. I also went back to the same local war memorabilia shop again and very luckily, they had a full matching set of original WWI captain's shoulder pips, with metal pins. It makes this costume more special to know I have an actual piece of history on my shoulders.
As I was informed, all pips during WWI were as standard and the more pips you have, the higher the rank. As Flashheart is a Wing Commander he technically holds the rank of captain, meaning he has 3 pips on each shoulder. With both the collar pins and the pips, I had to attach these extremely carefully. I was told that either I would need to sew them on (meaning I would have to tack them on and they wouldn't lie flat to the jacket) or I would need to pierce holes and put them in. I opted for piercing. So with an extremely delicate hand (and because this tunic was expensive) I carefully measured each one out and cut slits with a scalpel. The length of the blade was perfect because I could poke the loops through and it be in enough that if a pin slides out, I won't lose the pip. The collar pins didn't come with pins to keep them in place but the lovely gentleman I bought the pips from gave me some to cut down.
The medals:
The medals I struggled to find for a bit of time. I had researched a bit and found that someone had identified a few of Flashheart's many medals which helped but my original plan was to find actual medal bars. However, I came across a gentleman who recreates medals and could do custom medal bars of any medals I wanted. I immediately messaged them and showed them the photo that had all the identified medals on. He said he was able to do it and whether I wanted the medal that someone hadn't identified yet that was just slightly poking out of the jacket in the reference photo. I couldn't believe it! And i'm so glad that medal was identified by him because it turned out to be a good addition to the bar. Now I know Flashheart has a lot more medals than what I've got here, but trying to get all of them would be a nightmare and rather expensive so I got the ones that are visible kind of when he wears his coat.
(top left) OBE, (top middle) Royal Victorian Order, (top right) Distinguished Service Order, (bottom far left) Military Cross, (bottom middle left) Ashanti War Medal, (bottom middle right) India General Service Medal and (bottom far right) 1914 Star medal.
I did research into them and what they all mean but this post will get even longer if I put all the info. I do encourage you to have a look into them if you're interested though! What I find fascinating is the level of detail Blackadder's costume designer went to. I found out that the Distinguished Service Order medal was apparently just short of being awarded a Victoria Cross (which is an extremely prestigious award) and were normally given 'for service under fire or under conditions equivalent to service in actual combat with the enemy'. However between 1914 and 1916, a number of awards were given to individuals, often officers, for circumstances not under fire. This caused a lot of resentment towards those who got it and especially from front line officers. Which to me, makes me think no wonder Blackadder didn't really like Flashheart! That did make me laugh a little bit.
The 1914 Star medal was awarded mainly to officers but approximately 1000 were awarded to members of the RFC which is another really good touch!
The tunic is attached with 5 buttons up the person's right side and attached with two hooks at the top near the shoulders.
The Sam Browne belt and gun holster were another important addition to the tunic. Often officers or higher would have worn a Sam Browne belt and there would be space to hook a gun holster and an ammo pouch could be added too. I didn't get an ammo pouch in the end but the gun holster was a must. Which leads me onto Flashheart's massive weapon (ooer!).
The gun Flashheart uses is a Webley MK VI. Now, I did look into these guns and there was no way on earth I was going to get a real one or an airsoft one for that matter. I looked into 3D printing instead! I had got a guy to 3D print me a gun but his printer unfortunately broke half way through meaning I had to find an alternative quick. A work colleague found me one on Etsy and it was perfect! It came in about 7 pieces that I had to carefully glue together but it was easy enough as I live in a tabletop household. Flashheart's gun has a loop on the bottom to attach a lanyard to. So me using my creative initiative, I salvaged a picture frame hook from an old frame, filed down a section in the middle so the metal part would lie flat, glued it together and bob's your uncle! a loop that looks like it was meant to be there!
The lanyard loop didn't fit in the loop so I used an old keyring loop to attach it.
The next bit after gluing was to sand the gun down slightly, prime it black and then dry brushed the metal part using Citadel's Leadbelcher silver paint. I also then used Citadel's Agrax Earthshade wash to dirty it up on the metal and then once dry, I did a couple of coats both sides of a matt varnish spray just to seal it all together and none of the paint will rub off.
Another fine detail is the hinge where, if it was a working gun, you'd pull the barrel down and load it. (I don't know the correct terminology for guns!) There was just a hole and I wasn't a fan of it. So I used the small screws from the frame I got the fixtures from and screwed one either side before priming black. It worked perfectly and looked effective.
I can't believe how much time I've put into this costume, loads of research and hard work finding and piecing everything together. I just hope I can do him justice when I wear it properly!