TurboCharizard's Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Link Build Log

[TurboCharizard]

You know how there's some games that you sit down, play for a bit and then check the clock to see that a couple hours have gone by? Yeah, Breath of the Wild is that sort of game for me. I've had it for just over a month and have easily logged 40 hours which is out of the norm for me. The whole time though I've been looking at various equipment sets and thinking "I can make one of those!" to myself, so I'm just going to pull the trigger and do a full build and call this my big costume for the 2018 convention season, I might do more but this will probably be the most labour intensive to pull off.

In this thread I plan on documenting all products used, rough estimates of costs along with links to the materials for anyone who wishes to follow along. Basic build procedures and tools used will also be included so the 405th hivemind can either learn from my process or tear it to shreds for being stupid. Since each item is roughly a project of it's own I'll be logging hours spent per piece to help anyone following to gauge the difficulty of each section.

As I work through the project I'll be releasing patterns and templates for each piece on a slight delay so that they can be cleaned up and made simpler to follow after I've worked with them once or twice and notice the kinks.

Warning that this thread will be picture heavy and I'll be putting as dense of text as possible to support the images so sit back and get ready for a couple months of me blasting your face with information and pictures from the workshop and various CAD programs.

This first post will be reserved for linking to individual build sections within the thread and will be updated with progress as it continues.

My version of Link that I will be building is going to be affectionately called "Scrub Link" because of the gear selection being super common and relatively terrible in terms of strength. The reason I'm doing this is to help lessen the chance of spoilers for others like me who have been waiting to play and to make pieces that are less likely to have been built by other cosplayers because honestly, junk tier.

Snowquill Headdress - [Complete]

Patterning - 3.5 hours
Print Time Elapsed - 20 hours
Paint and Prep Time - 4 hours
Wig Styling - 6 hours
Ears purchased

Hylian Tunic - [Yes]

Patterning - 6 hours
Mock Up Sewing - 6 hours
Sewing - 20 hours
Chainmaille - 30 hours
Spaulder - 3 hours
Archers Guard - 7 hours
Gauntlets - 10 hours
Belts - 3 hours
Pouches

Hylian Trousers - [Complete]

Pants - Purchased
Boot Modification - 4 hours

Hunter's Shield - [Complete]

Patterning - 1 hour
Construction - 7 hours
Paint - 4 hours

Traveler's Spear - [Complete]

3D Design Time - 15 minutes
Print time - 3 hours
Patterning Time - 1 hour
Construction - 5.5 hours
Painting - 1.5 hours

Soldier's Bow - [Complete]

3D Design Time - 1 hour
Print time - 22 hours
Patterning Time - 1.5 hours
Construction - 16 hours
Painting - 5.5 hours

Sheikah Slate - [Complete]

Modeling time in Fusion 360 - 10 hours
Print time - 86 hours
Sanding Time - 6 hours
Masking Time - 1 hour
Painting Time - 3 hours
Assembly Time - 2 hours
Electronics Time - 3 hours

Link's Quiver - [Complete]

Patterning Time - 1.5 hours
Construction - 5 hours
Painting - 3 hours

Arrows - [Complete]
Modeling time of arrows in Fusion 360 - 6 hours
Print Time Elapsed - 18 hours
Patterning and scaling of other arrow stuff - 1 hour
Sanding Time - 2 hours
Construction - 8 hours
Painting - 6.5 hours
Electronics - 2.5 hours

Arrow
Ancient Arrow

Bonus Goodies - [Complete]
Korok Plushie
Korok Rock
Music Pouch
Spoils Bag Business Card Pouch
Silent Princess

 

[TurboCharizard]

The first piece to get out of the way is one that's going to be following a similar workflow to another build I've done, the Wind Wakers Hero's Shield, but this time it'll be the Hunter's Shield.

To build the shield I'll be layering EVA and using craft foam for the raised rim on the outside of the shield as well as the central boss detailing. For the boss itself, I'm heading to the craft store looking for an acrylic dome or something similar to use either as the boss or to form worbla around. All rivets will be googly eyes of two different sizes, as is tradition. In my craft supply bin I have an old leather belt tucked away which will be used as strapping. The details on the front will be applied with an airbrush for base colours.

The pattern was created in SketchUp, scaled to my size in Inkscape and packed into a single .pdf file using Soda PDF. SketchUp and Inkscape are both free and simple to use which is part of the reason why I keep them in my toolkit. SketchUp is effectively a CAD program that leans towards architectural design but has enough community built extensions to help pull it's weight through other uses. Inkscape is a free drawing tool similar to Photoshop which I use primarily to properly size drawings, I could draw directly in it but my engineering background pulls me into a 3D drawing program easier and there's some tricks and shortcuts I have setup in SketchUp already. Soda PDF is one of those weird things that came in a Humble Bundle and I use to minimize clutter of multiple documents per pattern on my hard drive.

There's another cool-cat cosplayer that's local and together we'll be working on shields today. Misery loves company and they want to do a Link costume at some point as well, so as a bonus I also created a pattern of the Traveler's Shield. I'll be posting more over the weekend with in progress photos and hopefully a finished shield or two.

 

[TurboCharizard]

A day or two late but construction of the shield is complete. I'm going to be taking it slow and steady on painting this one so that it's as close as possible to the in game model, there's plenty of interesting wear and tear in the form of paint chipping so there'll be lots of masking and layering to take care of. The plan of attack going into the next piece will be to get patterns finished off and work on painting the Hunter's Shield so that there's always something being worked on. Gotta keep that efficiency up!

As for the build at hand though, everything was rather straightforward but it was just a matter of getting the time to work on it over a super busy weekend. During the craft night I managed to get a prototype together which made me realize that it was time to rethink some parts of the build. The initial plan was similar to The Hero's Shield build with two laminated sheets of EVA but for a large round shield this wouldn't work without being flimsy on the edges and there was noticeable sag around the points where the shield was held. The curvature of the other shield helped strengthen the overall design but for this one, being a flat disc we won't be getting any added strength from shaping the material unfortunately. The solution here was to laminate a 1/8" Hardboard sheet between two sections of 6mm EVA foam. One side was glued with contact cement and left to cure. Holes were marked and drilled to place 8-32x1 Chicago Screws through to later connect the handle and strapping. The screw bases were locked in place with super glue and then the other side of the shield facing was glued on with contact cement.


Edges were evened out and smoothed using a belt sander and roundness was checked using the template. Then using the template, panel lines were marked to simulate edges where wooden boards met. These lines were scored with a knife and then opened up using a heat gun. The panel lines were then made more dramatic and less uniform using an aluminum oxide grinding bit on my Dremel at a rough 45 degree angle to widen the upper section and give an uneven edge. Damage to the shield as on the in game model was then marked and ground out using a similar technique with the rotary tool. As any Canadian worth his toque, I know how wooden boards look so I then added faint grain using a series of long lines, "v", "u" and knot shapes to add exaggerated texture but still look like the wood was roughly planed into boards. Both faces were sanded with a 220 grit sanding sponge to remove stray fuzzies and then a heatgun was used to close the foams pores.


I'm going to preface this next section with I'm either insanely lucky or a scaling wizard. When doing up the pattern there was no consideration of material sizing because I'm a dope but everything when printed out was a standard sizing exactly. Not sure how that happened but I'm not complaining.

Craft foam was then cut into 1" strips for the outer band and 3/4" strips for the inner band that surrounds the boss. Strips were glued on with contact cement and trimmed to shape as they were laid down. The outer edge was rounded first using a aluminum oxide grinding bit by adding a chamfer slowly to remove stray edges of the craft foam at low speed and then blending the two foams at a higher speed. A final curve was added using the belt sander and a final pass with a 220 grit sanding sponge to remove fuzzies. I surgically removed the googly bit of the googly eyes (which was just about as fun as you can imagine) and used them as rivets that can be seen on the outside face of the shield, 10mm for the outer banding and 8mm for the inner. I decided to do this after rattling my way through downtown Vancouver with the Hero's Shield on my back and not wanting to sound like I have a Korok in my pocket. These were all tacked on with super glue along with half of the 5" acrylic dome which was inlaid as the boss.


For the handle I heated and bent a length of 1" Schedule 40 PVC. When doing this, wear all your damn PPE. Heat resistant gloves and a vapours rated respirator and ventilation are a must. There's some pretty nasty stuff off gassing when PVC is heated enough to be formed by hand. Holes to feed the Chicago Screws through were drilled on the drill press and edges of the cut PVC were sanded with an 80 grit sanding wheel. and then that brings us to where we are now.

Leather has been left off for now but will be added after painting is done which will be covered in the next post which will most likely be sometime this weekend. I'm not sure how I'm going to be laying everything out yet but having a shopping list of materials and consumables makes sense to me as a extra bit at the end so that you can just skim over it. I'll be linking as much as I can find and prices will be listed as their everyday price, I try to get things on sale and stock up so actual costs may vary especially since I only had to go out and purchase the globe, screws and some paint for this build and everything else was in my stockpile of craft supplies. Usage is also listed so that you can see how far your purchases will take you for other builds as well as this one. Tools used will be left vague, if people are interested I can do a post of what's all in my shop later but for now a rough description of the tool use process will be included in the build notes.

Time Spent on Construction
5 hours with one prototype and one working piece
Materials Cost
6mm EVA Foam - $25/roll [1/4 roll used]
2mm Craft Foam - $12/pack [1 sheet used]
5" Acrylic Dome - $2/ globe [1/2 used]
1/8" Hardboard - $5/2'x4' sheet [1/2 sheet used]
10mm Googly Eyes - $4/160 [16 googs used]
7mm Googly Eyes - $4/160 [8 googs used]
8-32x1 Chicago Screws - $4/pack
1" Schedule 40 PVC Pipe - $6/10' [8" used]
Consumables
LePage High Strength Contact Cement
DAP KwikSeal Alex
Gorilla Glue Gel

Any comments and criticism is appreciated because I'm willing to try out new methods when building and if I'm doing something glaringly stupid and you know of a better approach I'd love to learn it.

Thanks for checking the build out and we'll see you next time.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

WOW TurboCharizard that is some impressive sculpting of foam. The grain looks very wood-like. Looking forward to seeing what the front end will turn out to be. Nicely done man.

 

[TurboCharizard]

WOW TurboCharizard that is some impressive sculpting of foam. The grain looks very wood-like. Looking forward to seeing what the front end will turn out to be. Nicely done man.

I'm hoping that I didn't overdo the grain of the wood, there's a pretty fine line when carving up foam between plank of wood and looking real bad real quick. I've laid down a few layers of paint and will be busting out my best "miniature painting but bigger" skills to help make this thing pop.

 

[PaiganBoi]

The shield is looking awesome. Really good attention to detail. Love the fact that you have the rough edges on each plank of wood and not getting carried away with the wood grain.
Most people would have prob missed those details and done simple straight lines, with quick and dirty wood grain.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

True, may time its the small details that are missed that make the piece less authentic......like one thing I don't see.........Knots. Its very rare to see wood planks w/o wood knots.

 

[PaiganBoi]

True, may time its the small details that are missed that make the piece less authentic......like one thing I don't see.........Knots. Its very rare to see wood planks w/o wood knots.

Uh oh... TurboCharizard, Dirtdives is calling you out on missed details. You are slacking man.

 

[TurboCharizard]

Uh oh... TurboCharizard, Dirtdives is calling you out on missed details. You are slacking man.

Guess I'll be doing those in paint now that it's already coated in FlexiDip. Luckily I have "U" and "V" shapes to paint them into.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Don't get me wrong......it's a great piece.......Looks fantastic, but like I said, it's those minor details that miss the true realistic look. I wasn't calling you out.....just an observation.

PaiganBoi....So, you like stirring the pot huh? me likey!!! he he he.

 

[PerniciousDuke]

I think that the grain is good enough on its own that it doesn't need knots. The pieces of wood are not so large they would have to have knots either so still realistic imo.

 

[TurboCharizard]

STIR THE POT!
STIR THE POT!

Wait... Am I supposed to do that in a thread I started?

Dirtdives I'll take a look at the in game model and see what the back of the shield looks like for knots and base the paint from there. I was most likely going to do a bunch of layering to add texture anyway and use the added grain for dramatic lows and contrast. Realism is the goal though and there's still time to save that aspect but who knows what textures they use in game, it might be worth a look.

Thanks gang for the (mostly) positive feedback (FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT) it's much appreciated.

 

[mblackwell1002]

Looking really good so far, man! You'll have to try out a woodburner next time, too. I've used it before on organic looking stuff and I was pleased.

Now get to work! Hop outta that dumpster and be productive for once! Sheesh!

 

[TurboCharizard]

Looking really good so far, man! You'll have to try out a woodburner next time, too. I've used it before on organic looking stuff and I was pleased.

Now get to work! Hop outta that dumpster and be productive for once! Sheesh!
View attachment 251381

I've got a hot knife hiding in my cosplay bin somewhere, I could probably jimmy something up with that and various blades or soldering iron tips to use there. Definitely would help with removing a step of carving and grinding and then heat sealing.

That smell, it's totally me. It was my birthday this week so I'm full of all the good foods. Burritos, pad thai, poutine and Tim Horton's did not mix in my stomach well

 

[mblackwell1002]

That smell, it's totally me. It was my birthday this week so I'm full of all the good foods. Burritos, pad thai, poutine and Tim Horton's did not mix in my stomach well

Um...what? By all standards of deliciously unhealthy foods, that should have mixed excellently. Take it from me, if anyone. This Christmas holiday, I plan on making some pineapple casserole, which contains about 3 cups of sugar. Fortunately, I don't eat most of it. My goal is to make other people fat to feel better about myself. Works like a charm.

EDIT: I just re-red your post, lol. Happy Birthday, man! Sorry I missed that. Have a good one and eat unhealthy stuff. It's good for your health!

 

[TurboCharizard]

Paint update time for the Hunter's Shield because I'm overdue for an update. I'm currently doing the finishing touches for brush on highlights so here's a wall of prep stuff to get to where it is now.

I've been a bit slow on the paint just to give everything a chance to cure properly in this weather that's hovering around 0°C and my shop/basement being maybe ten degrees warmer. All acrylic and plastic parts were masked off and EVA foam parts were given a coat of Rustoleum FlexiDip to get a solid seal coat on the foam. Masking was then removed and plastic details were lightly sanded with 220 grit sandpaper for better paint adhesion. Everything was then coated in Krylon Ultra-Flat Camouflage Black because that stuff just doesn't scratch off plastics and I love it. And that's what I call a solid primer coat for everything.

First off for colour coats was the silver of the banding and the boss which was done with Rustoleum Flat Metallic Soft Iron and then light highligting was done with Vallejo Game Air Gunmetal. The silver areas were masked off with press and seal and painters tape after being left to cure. Next was the base brown for wood paneling on the front and back which was done with Painter's Touch Satin Espresso. The back side of the shield was given a protective coat of Krylon ColorMaster Clear Coat which will make weathering easy later on in the build. More painters tape was applied to cover the seams in the boards and the damage which digs deep into the wood. Then a dusting of mysterious chalky white paint that I found in my paint bin was used to help make the green more vibrant on the front and keep some of the wood grain uncoloured to make it look like the wood has expanded and contracted with heat and moisture changes over time.


This airbrush paint is weird. On the left is two coats, on the right is one. Three is not pictured because it's goofy as all hell. Again this was coated with a clear coat to protect against painters tape that was done next.


Painters tape was laid down on my OLFA cutting mat in an overlapping pattern and then the printed out pattern was taped down on top of that. The design was cut out and then pieces were removed to make a large mask for the shield.


And this is as far as you get to see for now. I'll probably post a video with the unmasking because that's my favourite part of any paint job.


Time Spent on Paint
3 hours over a week
Materials Cost
Rustoleum FlexiDip -$12/312g can
Krylon Ultra-Flat Camouflage Black - $7/312g can
Rustoleum Flat Metallic Soft Iron - $12/312g can
Vallejo Game Air Gunmetal - $5/bottle
Painter's Touch Satin Espresso - $7/312g can
Krylon ColorMaster Clear Coat - $7/312g can
Golden Artist Colors Green-Gold - $12/bottle
Consumables
1.5" Painters Tape
1" Painters Tape

 

[TurboCharizard]

I am totally the best at Fusion 360. Decals are awesome.

2 hours in, the front cover of the Sheikah Slate is just about there. Once I find my digital calipers I'll measure out the size of the board and battery pack that I'll be loading into this for lighting and model in some ribs and holders to keep them in place. I also haven't figured out if I'm going to make this a snap together, screw together or a magnetized thing so that might change a bit of the design as it progresses.

Madlad update edit. I am burning vacation time so here's an animation of where I'm at right now.

Also now 5-6 hours into the model. I'll just be calling it six because it's easier that way.

 

[TurboCharizard]

Ghosts in the machine man... I've gone through and updated drivers, DirectX versions, fiddled around with hardware acceleration and even sacrificed a few brain cells to the craft beer gods over this issue. I'm just calling my machine haunted for now and resigning to the fact that I'll only be able to do partial renders for the time being. So that's what you get.

Doing this model I learned that there's a different in game model for when you're in the overworld with the slate holstered and when it's used in cut scenes such as placing it on a pedestal which is also different from the menu screen version. All of them have slightly different filigree on the front panel which is definitely one of the more annoying things to try and find a happy medium between the three versions so I decided to stick with the overworld version since it'll allow more light to pass through. Glowing costumes are awesome and that was pretty much the main argument for it.

It's broken into six main components which are in reality going to be about 20 printed pieces. The front and back cover will be split to fit on the print bed and then there's the matter of a bunch of clear prints to diffuse LEDs. It's going to be goofy and I can't wait for it to be finished printing. Due to Christmas I have a feeling I'll be waiting on electronic components shipping in so I may have a very well sanded shell ready to rock when they show up.

While this is printing I'll be moving onto other weapon type things so look forward to work on the spear and the bow.

 

[TurboCharizard]

Dead thread is not dead. I've just been doing a butt-load of other things related to cosplay and getting a business together because reasons.

Progress on Link has been slow but steady, the shield is up and on the wall, I've ordered a wig, chain mail links and electronics for the slate and the arrows that this post is about. I modeled a bunch of arrows and those are more interesting to look at than a big bag of galvanized steel loops!

My quiver is going to have one of each type of arrow that's in the game.

Arrow

Ice Arrow

Fire Arrow

Shock Arrow

Ancient Arrow

Nock

I also went and did some updated reference photos because screenshots from the WiiU are better than random internet photos.

 

[TurboCharizard]

Incoming posts of cleaning out picture backlog from my phone. Everything is separated into individual posts based on which item is the main focus so that they can be linked in a somewhat sensible manner from the original post. If you're not a fan of my multi-post conventions, meet me outside in the parking lot at 1500 so that we can skeedadle.

I had the new years resolution of taking more in-progress photos for builds, this one just seemed to slip through the cracks though. Probably because of the timing and a lot bigger things being constructed at the time (cough Kill la Kill Scissor Blades cough). The first arrow out of the production line was just a normal arrow from the game, I wanted to get a basic one together to test the colours, length and construction of the parts that went into every other arrow. Consider this one a test run, I really like it and it's definitely something I'd hang on the wall later on.

Components of the build are pretty dirt cheap and honestly overall the most expensive part was picking up consumables which I now have tucked away for other projects. The base component is a 5/16" pine dowel, because I'm doing one of each type of arrow, I grabbed six three foot dowels from Michael's and stained them with a Cherry wood finish while set up in a super legitimate painting support jig.


The nock, beads and arrowhead were all printed out using my go-to filament eSun PLA+ in a sort of "PRINT ALL THE THINGS" fashion that was super haphazard and didn't take into account tolerances so I had to reprint all the beads again to get a fit that was snug and able to fit over the dowel. It was a good reminder to always add a bit of wiggle room to make sure everything fits together when there's variables such as filament retraction, ambient temperature and others when 3D printing. Luckily the wastage was minimal with each bead being about a gram of filament. Also the undersized beads just went into the bits box because I'm sure there'll be a use for beads/cylinders in the future.


For the fletching is a case of go with what you know and make things out of foam. I could have used real feathers but I wasn't certain of how the paint would turn out and I wasn't feeling brave enough to dye them. So 18 foam parallelograms scored with a butter knife and roughed up with a utility knife to make them look less uniform was the plan for all my fletching. Paints were a simple assortment of cyan shades from the dollar store and to prevent further marking up my work space with paint I used wax paper to keep it all clean. I'm trying to make cleanup easier overall and currently wax paper and painters drop sheet paper are my MVP items for keeping contact cement and paint off of work surfaces.


As you can see in the top image, the arrow head and nock were painted in a hammered iron colour, everything was affixed with CA glue. A section of leather lace was used between the beads to match the orange portion between the beads. In the game reference it looks kind of like braided cord or similar but I wanted to mix it up and use a texture that would show up well on photos from various distances. Below are a screen shot of the end of the shaft and a game rip by Harikya on DeviantArt which definitely proved useful in scaling everything. It's a bit of a shame that I found the rip after I modeled everything but practice is practice and I needed all mine to be hollow to fit lights which you'll see in an upcoming post once electronics are delivered.


Glamour shot because reasons.

I'll probably add some more weathering before I take it out for any cosplay contests or for photoshoots, I'm just waiting until all of them are together so that I can be consistent between all of them. I'm undecided if I should add some extra colour to mark the index feather of the arrow as well so that I don't fumble around and have the arrow nocked weird on the bowstring in photos. Thoughts?

Time Spent
3D Design Time - 1 hour
Patterning and scaling of other arrow stuff - 1 hour
Construction - 3 hours
Painting - 2 hours
Materials Cost
5/16" Pine Dowel - $1 / 3' length
eSun PLA+ Black 1.75mm - $25 / 1kg spool (60g used)
Craft Foam - $12 / 12 pack of 11"x17" sheets (half a sheet used)
Leather Lace - $12 / 25 yards
Consumables Cost
Minwax Wood Finish - $9 / 250mL can
Craft Paints - $1.50 / bottle (3 colours used)
Rustoleum Hammered Antique Pewter - $13 / 340g can
BSI Insta-Cure+ CA Glue -