One of the things I've been putting off for a while is these damn boots. Part of it was hoping I'd run into a pair that was more comfortable and closer to the in-game model. Part of it was not knowing what to do with these weird things.
What the heck is that supposed to be? Is it a fake snap? Is it just there to cause me grief? I dunno mang. Time ticking down finally got me into modifying them to look more Hylian and less basic white girl. As build project goes, we start with a pattern! Jam the boots on with a thicker pair of pants than I'll be wearing on the day of and flex them skating/skiing/snowshoeing muscles while wrapping the section to be altered in tape and tin foil. Draw the shape in rough, cut the pattern away carefully along the split where the zipper is and then off to make everything look pretty.
The shape was cut out and transferred to a vinyl that's similar to the one I used for my gauntlets but with coarser texture and heavier backing. The edges were pressed and sewn and then the whole piece was sewn along the cuff of the boot so that it folds over the top and hides the seam between the vinyl and the boot. Little known fact, making an archers guard, a spaulder, six gloves, two bracers, various belts and two boots uses almost exactly one spool of heavy duty thread.
To stop the extended cuff from flapping free in the breeze I added a bit of self adhesive Velcro (yeah, that good heavy duty stuff from before) in strips to hold everything in place. Quick tip on applying this stuff, if you have no idea where your mating surface will be after placing one side, press the hook and loop sides together, remove the adhesive backing and then press the to be glued piece onto the already positioned Velcro. Simple tricks that work every time.
For the weird fashionable fake snaps[?] I decided against cutting off the strapping and possibly finding that there was no pleather underneath it and just covering up the snap with something emblazoned with Legend of Zelda iconography since there's so little in the costume that calls back to previous games designs. So here's the first Triforce to be added to the costume. Yeah. That surprised me too. A Wingcrest and seven circles for the seven sages on a "brass" snap that's effectively a 1.5mm thick shell for the original weird things.
Back to the old reliables for paint, just a quick shot of
Vallejo Model Colour 70.801 Brass drybrushed with
P3 Solid Gold and then hit with
Krylon ColorMaster Clear Gloss to protect it from the likely wet weather we'll be having out here in the Pacific temperate rainforest ecoregion. The work of a short evening and another tick in the box. According to Cosplanner I'm sitting at 99% completion. It doesn't help that I keep adding on fun little side projects to put more nods to Zelda lore. Don't worry folks, I'll keep showing you. I have a bit of a picture backlog to work through and organizing it into posts that I can share takes a little bit of time.
