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Thanks dude.

I am SO making one.

i want to make one too, but i don't have half the materials needed. (or the money to get them)

Any other X related projects that we can do?

put strange notes in strange places?

This should be put in the wiki in my opinion.

>>2501
http://x.datchan.org/index.php?title=How_to_make_plague_doctor_mask

>>2094
I know this picture is old, but to me it looks like white spy in a black suit

>>2510
that would be the big fear come halloween. too many people going "SPY VS SPY! I love Mad magazine!"

I'm just going to make one with plaster bandages.

>>2562
Yeah that really sucks. I hate Mad for ruining the creepiness that is Plague Doctor.

i tried making one with paper mache but its difficult to smooth over. so in the coming weeks i think im just going to stalk the aisles of my local micheals arts and crafts superstore until i find what i want.

anyone made one yet?
i want to do it, but for some reason the masks seems so... fragile.
the beak looks like it's about to fall off at the first blow from the wind...

you can buy one, but they are so freaking expensive!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Brown-Bird-Doctor-Plague-Costume-Halloween-Leather-Mask_W0QQitemZ290343710433QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Clothing_Masks_JD?hash=item4399
d56ee1&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

good thing is that its actual leather.

>>2766

Turkey/Wembly

>>2767

Good God my spelling is atrocious today. I won't spam this thread anymore. Great topic though. And >>2750 £44 isn't that expensive.

Yeah I do love the plague doctor look. Unique.

Although I keep wanting to ask "Hey doc, why the long face?"

Has anyone made one of these? Other than whoever made the guide? With Halloween coming up....

>>2772
i'm definately going to make one for halloween, even though i'm considered too old to celebrate this awesome tradition.

>>2782
What you need is the love and support of a local neighborhood bar. We dress up every year at mine. The sluts.... omg omg omg. Not lying here I had two girls blow me at the same time in back of my dive bar on Halloween. Fucking magnificent. Get thee to a pub!

>>2786
cool story bro, but in my country, anyone who is over 14 years old and still dresses up for halloween is automatically considered a retard.
god i hate living in Norway, sometimes...

>>2789
Awww. In america we have no shame. Hardly a concept of shame. It's not good, but we make do. Enjoy the hottest blonde vag fucking anywhere. Speaking of which, tell me a norse halloween legend or something.

>>2790
i wish i could, but halloween is not a norse tradition.
the only reason some kids celebrate halloween in Norway is because of all the american influence they get from various TV-shows and other mediums.

>>2798
I'll compromise. I know absolutely no ghost stories or creepy legends from your people. C'mon what did your old men scare you with while sitting around the fishing hole swilling mead?

>>2800

swefag here.
there are numerous childrens stories that have sprung up recently, but only a generation or so ago relatives of mine (farmers) told their daughters about "lysgubben" which means the "light man" but let's call him the "lantern man" ... he's kind of a shapeshifter moving around at night in the woods, luring lost children to him with his light, upon which they are never seen again

it scared the hell out of my cousin Emma but that story is really old. they used to tell it in the 1800-1900s i remember a story of two sisters. they were late one winter night and winter nights are long, cold and dark here .. and a storm was brewing so the village went out to search. of course with LANTERNS ... they didnt find them. a traveller found them the next day as they had hidden under a large pinetree

they survived but the younger sister had to amputate both legs and the older one arm or something like that. the SAD part is that the rescue workers had gone right past that tree several times, calling out their names. the two sisters had huddled together and covered their mouths not to scream - otherwise they would have been eaten they thought. by the twisted, evil lanterman

>>2800
ah the memories... my grandfather was great at scaring the living shit out of me when i was younger. he'd tell me a lot about norse mythology and legends, scandinavian folklore about the trolls- giant woodlike marauders who loved nothing more than brutally slaughter people and eat their children.
Nøkken- the ever-famous swampmonster who always would be watching you when you were near a pond or a lake. if you failed to give him some of your food, he would come to your house at night and let you wake up amongst the corpses of your newly-drowned family.
Huldra, described as a mysteriously beautifull woman with a cowtale. she would lure men into the dark forests with her charming voice and songs and then torture the men before eating eat them alive.
and the list goes on and on with Fossekallen, Jordsjø-ormen and other creatures.
but that belongs in another thread.

>>2802
shit, i remember those stories.
we called him Lyktemannen.
fucked up stories...

>>2802
>>2803
These are great! Ok, delete these and repost under a new thread. We'll call it "What our old men say" or "International Ghost Stories" or some such.

I have some american ones but I don't want to hijack this thread any more.

>>2807

get a thread up and i'll repost.

>>2807
norfag here, i don't feel like making a thread now.
i'm going outside to trim a little.

how about you, "Søta Bror"? care to make a thread?

What other items/tools does a plague doctor carry?

>>3376
black cloak. and a stick to poke infected people and spread the disease.

>>3432

i see what you did there

>>3376
They were doctors from around the time the Black Plague struck Europe. They wore those "beak masks" which not only hid their identity, but they also filled the beak with herbs to mask the smell of the dead, and also for mental support. They used small sticks to either point out infections on the victims body or to defend themselves from angry peasants.

But most of the time the doctors themselves were sick, seeing that they were the closest to the disease victims. As for how much help they gave, well trying to help a disease without any type of vaccine is almost impossible.

The darker side of these characters comes from them having been plague doctors and thus the image is embedded into our collective fears. A human-bird like silouette is always going to be scary (think carrion birds) and the imagery has an historical resonance given their role. They have been depicted in artworks ever since the plague and this is why they have the aura you sense. They are, in short, a meme.

If they have a darker side, it's just that part of their duty also consisted of designating buildings and authorising the burning out the living accomodations of infected.

The costume: The long trenchcoat was coated in a film of wax to prevent blood and mucas from sticking, they wore fishermans breeches underneath. The sinister looking hat was how one identified a trained physician in those days. The cane was also used to direct people to the plague doctors bidding without the inconvenience of touching them. They would wear thick lenses in their masks because it was thought looking directly at the sick would infect you. The long beak part of their mask was used as a place where they would stuff herbs and sweet smelling stuff to protect themselves because it was also believed that disease would spread by way of smell.


It was all very primitive, but surprisingly effective for 15th century medicine.

>>3442
I'd think that all the herbs and stuff in the 'beak' would do a good job of catching all the particulate crap people were coughing up. They were doing the right thing for the wring reason.

I just went to DragonCon in Atlanta last week as a plague doctor. I didn't make my mask like this, though. Mine's made out of leather.

>>3471
Pics?

>>3473

This is from before we left. It was too hot to wear very often, as Atlanta's still pretty warm even in September. I'm gonna try to re-do it next year with modifications to make it cooler.

>>3475
Paintball geeks have little electric fans that go inside their masks to keep them from fogging up. They're relatively inexpensive and very very quiet. Maybe you could jury-rig one for your mask.

>>3487

Possibly, but that mask is only just a front. It covers from about the hairline down to just below the mouth at the bottom and just before the ears at the sides. It looks bigger than it is, mostly due to the scarf I have wrapped around to disguise that there's really not much to it. The scarf is fleece, which I didn't think through very well, as fleece is very thick and retains a lot of heat. So I'm definitely changing that out for something thinner. The gloves, also, aren't as form fitting as I'd like. And I've got to worry about warping the mask, as it is leather, and too much moisture (i.e., sweat, condensation from any kind of cooling) could cause it to lose shape.

Currently, my goals are to get some thinner fabric for the cowl and get some sort of head covering to go under the mask to trap sweat, like a do-rag. I'll see how that feels and then possibly make some other changes.

The top hat is quite big (Size 8, if you're familiar with hat sizes) because I've got a decent sized melon and the mask is about 1/4" thick on its own, plus the scarf. So I could theoretically put some cooling device in there, pointing downward, but I'm not even sure where to begin on that, as I'm not extremely technically minded. At best I can put a computer together, which requires about the same skill as building a lego house, in my opinion.

This picture also doesn't have the staff I used, which was a large gnarled piece of an ash tree that I borrowed from a friend. (His grandfather makes them.) Traditionally, plague doctors used a forearm length stick for pointing, as it was difficult for them to talk. However, since I was going to a con and I didn't want to be mistaken for a Harry Potter cosplayer or something of the sort, I opted for a staff/walking stick instead.

The goggles also, while looking pretty sweet, may have to be switched out. They're WW2-era Swiss Tank Commander goggles, and they're not the same shape as the mask's eyeholes, so it leaves a bit of an obvious gap that I'm not sure I care for.

Overall, though, I think I had a good trial run for the costume. I was intending for that to be the final look, but since I just couldn't wear it much without sweating buckets (Some parts are 3-4 layers. The robe is my college graduation robe, and under that I had on a long-sleeved black shirt and long gloves, for example.) and I loved the mask and general look so much, I figured I'll just work on it and try again, instead of going for something else next year. I did manage to freak out a horse, though. That has to count for something. Atlanta has horse-drawn carriages on the street, and as I walked up to one, the horse became visibly nervous, backing up and snorting. The driver had a bit of a difficult time calming her down.

>>3500

Holy crap that was tl;dr. My apologies folks, I just get really excited talking about it.

And 3500 get too, wee.

>>3475
>>3500

Is your mask the same one from eBay linked in this thread? It looks/sounds like it. The lady seems to make a lot of them.

>>3502

It is. Sorry, I should have been clearer. I didn't make my mask, that particular lady in the UK did. As I said, I'm not very good with my hands, so making it myself wasn't much of an option. So, I took a chance on hers and it looks fantastic. She does several colors, too, like blue and black. I just really liked the brown, although it is a break from the traditional white. (I broke tradition in several spots, though, so I wasn't too worried. Top hats didn't exist in the 1300s, for example.) It got to me pretty quickly too, about 5 days from the UK to Tennessee.

hmmm, Helloween is only a month away. Any other /x/philes going to make one for Helloween?

>>5371

Yes.

>>5371
hmmm even though i'm a little old, i'll dress up as a plague doctor, yes. that, or Hitler.

sweet! thanks, OP!

>>2095
>>2096
>>2097
>>2099
As the original author of this guide, I'd like to add a few points for anyone who wants to make a mask using this. Consider this an official errata to the guide:

-The "beak" is a bit too long, probably by a good four inches. Adjust accordingly.
-The mask is very heavy, too heavy for the cheap, elastic strap on the hockey mask. Try adding a strap that runs from the top of the mask along the top of your head. You could probably use some double sided adhesive padding and have it stick to your face, but I don't foresee that lasting very long. :\
-No one will understand a word you say while wearing it. You can try hollowing it out more with an X-Acto or Hot-Wire Foam Cutter tool, but I don't know if it'll make much difference.
-The mask leaves the jaw-line exposed, so while my face was covered, my beard wasn't. Where a cowled hood or wear a scarf like others have suggested.

Pic related; it's the finished mask wearing a Scribblenauts hat.

It's beautiful

Thanks anon, going to make one asap.

>>7113

would a reaper mask work to cover the face?

It's October and I want to see some finished masks in HERE!!!

>>8747
I've been meaning to make one for a while, but I've been working hella overtime. No work this weekend, I'll probably crank one out.

I just purchased on of those leather masks from the lady in the UK. Can't wait for it to arrive!!

I think I'll try and make one using the guide some time anyways though. it looks like fun.

  I don't know how many of you are Assassin's Creed fans, but I was watching a gameplay preview for the sequel. Wait for the 51 second mark.
Shit bri/x/

>>9110
Nice.

>>9110
Good eye.

Appealing to another sense, did PDs carry around fresh flowers or whatever to mask the smell of death? Some overpowering aroma on Halloween could be a nice touch (or get you thrown out of wherever.)
Send...more..props..

>>9153
It would make sense, I know of people who will carry peppermint oil to put into a mask and cover up the smell of something dead.

>>9153

They had herbs and spices in the nose of the mask to cover the scent of the dead, plague blisters, etc. They also believed the plague was an airborne disease so they added herbs they thought would counter things of that nature.

>>9170
I've been getting into herbal tonics and mind-affecting plants lately, and now I'm really curious about what sort of herbs the plague doctors put in their masks. Fuuuuuuuuuuuu-

>>9184
I don't know what they used, but I'd use some twigs from a broom of cinnamon. Maybe some nutmeg. Nice, good smelling, Autumny smells.

Don't let this awesome thread die :(

>>9184
That's easy. Medical theory back then held that the SMELL was what spread disease, or 'ill humors'... which isn't an unreasonable assumption. Sweet smells were held to be good for you, and counteract the bad ones. Elizabethan ladies, for instance, would carry around little silk balls filled with cinnamon and sniff at them periodically to keep the bad out.

But spices are expensive as fuck. So what our beak-nosed heroes did was likely stuff their masks full of sweet herbs like marjoram and basil. And flowers. Probably dried so they could be re-used. Anything they could grow locally. I imagine they also used the herbs as cure-alls for their many patients. Crush them up in a mortar and make tea out of them, then say your prayers. They had a powerful belief in prayer, back then. I've just got through reading a book on magic in medieval England, and it all involves prayers and incantations and passages from the Bible, along with some truly weird ceremonies. (They weren't called witches, BTW. They were called 'cunning folk.') Maybe plague doctors did the same sort of faith healing, along with the herbal remedies and just the solid reassurance of having a healthy human being not being too scared to come in and look at you and give you some comfort.

The neat thing is all those grasses and herbs and stuff seems to have done a good job of filtering out the floating globules of crap that sick people were hacking into the air. So they observed that it worked, and kept doing it, you see.

Our ancestors may not have had all our *knowledge.* But they were just as smart. Dig it.

Garlic. Lots and lots of garlic.

Any other costume making guides?