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

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You have to guess what the ring represents......look at TurboCharizard's earlier post.....his last comment w/ a pic of a ring.

Also to be perfectly honest TurboCharizard...it is a poor quality pic......and yes more shots fired...... 200w_d (1).gif
 
It's been a while since I updated on the Soldier's Bow but I've been otherwise preoccupied...

Last we left our heroes we had two halves of a primed bow, what I haven't been showing you is the mess of a spray booth my workshop has become. There is no image, there is only madness down there.

There was a sneaky plan to this build in that I knew parts would be spray painted separate from each other because of the use of texture paint and me being lazy and not wanting to mask things off to deal with that mess. So I masked off (ironic, I know) a section on the interior of the bow where a strip of red fabric[?] is on the model so that raw worbla would be available to attach another strip to and make a strong bond. This would save cussing at glue and make the winged details one piece that's wrapped tightly around the foam. The only trick here was feathering with the heat gun on the painted piece to prevent bubbling of the nicely painted finish and distorting finished external Worbla.
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Everything got a primer coat of Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Satin Black because old miniature painting habits die hard and I like to work my way up from darks to lights and leave shadows and recesses in my painting. The wood sections were coated with Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Satin Espresso and the metallic sections were hit with Rustoleum Universal Hammered Antique Pewter for it's awesome texture. With spraying done the interior of the winged sections were lightly heated to activate the unpainted worbla adhesive and a strip of worbla was jammed in quickly, rolled around the foam arm of the bow, aligned, pressed into place and clamped while it cooled. Definitely a nail biter and had my heart racing with the possibility of messing up a smooth surface finish being very real. EVERYTHING WORKED OUT GREAT THOUGH. THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING. The raw worbla strips were then primed with acrylic gesso, sanded smooth and painted red.
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Red is great. I love red. Painting red onto white always leaves brush strokes visible so I cheated and used P3 Sanguine Base to give a good tone and then a layer of P3 Khador Red Base to be top coated with Vallejo Game Colour Transparent Red to smooth everything out and add a bit of shine. Honestly I was just trying it out and I really liked the effect so I just went with it.
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I've been looking at how to hide the join between the halves effectively and was spit balling ideas with Mrs. Turbo last night about velcro strips to hold a fabric wrap in place. She came back with "when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail" since I've been using so much Velcro so I went back to the drawing board. I came back with this which I think is way better since it adds stability and structure to the overall piece, a 1" ID Schedule 20 PVC length filled with a foam sleeve to snug up to the 1/2" slip joint adapter and a slightly thicker foam sleeve to snug up to both PVC halves. The 1" PVC was covered in white 2mm EVA craft foam to hide the MADE IN CANADA stamp and was then wrapped in a white broadcloth strip to match the grip in the game.
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For the fins I have a lot of fun stuff going on. The lower angular guard for the recessed sections is painted in DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Rich Espresso and the raised sections are a 2/3 part mix of DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Glorious Gold and Folk Art 506 Silver Anniversary. The brassy sections were given a light edge highlight drybrush of the gold and the silver sections were given a drybrush of the silver. To further exaggerate the raised details in silver I painted a thin line around them in P3 Pig Iron to kill that 5 foot rule to death.
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To add to the wood grain it started with Folk Art 231 Real Brown and slowly added in Folk Art 2906 Coffee Latte and became lighter and lighter drybrushing passes to highlight edges that were left from carving with the belt sander.
Going back to my original pattern I had drafted up I matched up the details for the white bands at the top and masked them off loosely. I want a rough edge since this is a junk tier bow after all but I want it to be accurate so the tape is pressed lightly and rough edges aren't a huge concern. Then the stippling technique was used to give an overall uneven finish after two coats to simulate wear, not get into all the recesses from carving and prevent bleeding through since I didn't know how great the bargain bin painters tape was. I wash my chip brushes if I'm using them for paint. Yes, it's chaos.
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Demasking is fun.

Playing around with toys is even better. Now to strap this thing to my back. Did I mention it's the same height as Mrs. Turbo? Piggy back rides as practice I guess.
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Paints
Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Satin Black
Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Satin Espresso
Rustoleum Universal Hammered Antique Pewter
P3 Colour Chart
Vallejo Game Colour Catalog
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Rich Espresso
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Glorious Gold
Folk Art 506 Silver Anniversary
Folk Art 231 Real Brown
Folk Art 2906 Coffee Latte
 
Tuesday and Wednesday are usually busy for me and I don't get too much done so here's a smaller update that will be added onto later once everything is buttoned up.

Electronics day has arrived! I had planned out the circuit for the Ancient Arrow way back and finally dug into it to start piecing everything together. The painted parts were glued together in halves and 5mm diameter N35 rare earth magnets are inset to hold the final piece together which will allow battery changes in the future. I was looking at adding a microcontroller with a battery charging circuit but decide to go with the lower tech and way cheaper solution.

The prototype board was loaded up and everything was tested. Holy cow are these bright when clustered.
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The circuit is rather simple, a quick LED array that'll remain bright all the way through the discharge cycle of the rechargeable 9V battery that I use for projects like this. A 9V was selected because of the forward voltage of the blue LEDs I bought (3.2V) and a discharge down to ~6.8V at the lowest. A small slide switch is installed and can be accessed at the back of the arrow easily when drawn from the quiver so I can save juice!

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LEDs are done in pairs and are soldered at different distances between depending on where they need to go in the arrow. The blue for the tip are on their own smaller board so that I can adjust things later if needed. The orange have recesses modeled in so that they just get set in place and do as they do.

If that image is just a bunch of squigglies to you, I'm sorry for the spaghetti wire here. I'll be hot-gluing everything in place today and properly spacing everything so that it looks like the real deal. The diffusers work like a charm and I'm really happy with how it looks even when just mashed in at all the wrong points. Getting the blue pairs into the right sections will definitely help highlight the blade.
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UPDATE
The electronics are in and man, this thing just puts a big ol' goofy grin on my face. Below is a picture taken in normal lighting conditions.
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Here is an image taken in the same setting with my camera sensor struggling to adjust to the intensity of light coming out of this thing. The best part is that the LEDs are directional with a 60° viewing angle cone and none are pointing at the camera without diffusion. I love it.
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In the less blown out image you can probably see the 10 N35 Neodymium that hold everything together, there's also another 4 inside the blade arm to make that removable to access wiring in case of issue. Don't pay attention to the spaghetti wires. They're ugly, I didn't have any heat shrink tubing on hand so it's just electrical tape, thoughts and prayers keeping this thing from shorting out. It's fine, I went to engineering school to tell you it's fine, don't worry about it.
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Because I'm a paranoid sonuvagun I went looking into my other cosplays for rechargeable batteries left behind slightly drained, one was sitting at 6.4V which was perfect for a test case. Compare it to the Beacon of Minas Tirith at 8.6V. I'd say the math checks out in the real world.
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All that was left after running around like a maniac with this thing was to strap it to a shaft. Hot glue (yes I know, tsk tsk, I'm better than that) was used to hold the wood dowel in place and then it was tied with a suede lace that I picked up due to the fact is had the colour name "toast". A simple reef knot was used like in the game and it can be easily undone to split the halves apart and change batteries if needed.
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Since I haven't talked paint about the Ancient Arrow I went through the normal process of sanding through to 200 grit, spot filling with Bondo Glazing Putty, sanding and then using Dupliolor Filler Primer, sanding and then priming with Rustoleum 2X Painters Touch Canyon Black and then masked off after waiting a day for full cure of the primer. Then came a new favourite of mine, Rustoleum Multi-Colour Textured Autumn Brown for it's gritty stone finish.
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The piece was demasked and the black sections were painted with Vallejo Model Colour 70.801 Brass and then edge highlights done with P3 Solid Gold.

That's it. That's how you make an Ancient Arrow.
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Electronic Components
5mm Amber LEDs
3mm Orange LEDS
5mm Blue LEDs
1/4W Resistor Matchbook
5mm Slide Switch
Rechargeable 9V battery EBL 6F22

Paint
Dupliolor Filler Primer
Rustoleum 2X Painters Touch Canyon Black
Rustoleum Multi-Colour Textured Autumn Brown
Vallejo Model Colour 70.801 Brass
P3 Solid Gold
 
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It's at this point when the techno jargen come in and I zone out......zzzzzzz,zzzzzzzz,zzzzzzz,zzzzzzz.........But it looks great!!!!! (said as my head slowly raises off the counter....and then thumps back down.......zzzz,zzzzz,zzzzz,zzzzz).
 
Ha. I'm really good about getting distracted about posting only updated for the things that I'm not good at. BACK TO OUR SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.

The Sheikah Slate has all the things I like to do in cosplay so here it is.

Upper Half Circuit Diagram
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Back Half Circuit Diagram
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One arm of 2 5mm Blue LEDs and a 47Ω current limiting resistor.
Two arms of 3 3mm Orange LEDs and a 10Ω current limiting resistor.
Three arms of 3 5mm Amber LEDs and a 10 Ω current limiting resistor.
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Much like the ancient arrow the painting procedure follows adding texture paint and adding sweet brass colours. Add some magnets, give em the old razzle dazzle and bam. Everything is friction fit anyway and the magnets are just icing on the cake for keeping it together.
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I SEE YOU
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Strap it onto the belt and all that's left is to style the wig and *shudder* learn how to do my makeup.
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I lied, celebrating remains.
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*begins reading...sees the word diagram
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Every so often, Schankerz dies of boredom

But maaaaan does it all look so good! All the lighting is really gonna make you stand out. And I’m with on the makeup dude...ugh...I will only ever do helmet cosplays I swear I cannot handle stuff on my face.
 
The name of the game this weekend was small detail that I know is there but is likely that nobody else will notice. Yay cosplay! For now though I'll just be posting Snowquill Headdress details since some of the stuff worked on falls under that redacted section of the build outline. You get to see the secret stuff after I go on stage just like everyone else!

The Snowquill Headdress is probably one of the more simple looking helmet slot armour pieces in Breath of the Wild but there's nothing but small detail everywhere. Luckily I got to do modelling and printing for the majority of it and then got to learn a couple cool tricks from a good friend. Everything is broken down easily into sections for your reading pleasure, I'm trying to fiddle around with HTML markup so that I can section link but I haven't yet gotten that down on the forums so for now, bulleted list as a mini table of contents type deal.

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  • Wig
  • Ear Cuff
  • Earrings
  • Sideburn Anchors
  • Half-ponytail Circlet
Wig
The wig is an Arda Inigo Classic in Ginger Blonde and is a fairly close match to Link's hairstyle already, it just needed a bit of styling and a slight trim in spots. That on it's own is a terrifying sentence to me. My experience with hair is "oh, the tops of my ears are hidden, time to go to the barber" and putting a straightening iron, blow dryer and various hair products in my hands basically turned my brain off and was a sure way to watch me flounder but Julie Hoso is an awesome cosplayer local to me that has a massive well of maker knowledge and made it so that I went from the neglected wig in the bottom of the left thumbnail to the right image that I'm actually happy to show.
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I didn't get many in progress photos because like I said, I was in over my head and my hands were coated in glue for the most part. The process to get it to where it is isn't too taxing but it's just methodical and pretty similar to heating and forming foam. Like floormats you prep the wig by removing texture but in this case it's brushing out and straightening the wig fibres. Then you divide up the sections that you need using clips and ties much like the patterning stage of an armour piece. On each individual spike you heat the fibres with a blow dryer and then press them into place as you would for heat forming a complex curve and then glue the tips to hold the shape of the spike. See! It's easy if you just think of it as fluffy armour!

Ear Cuff
Challenging modelling! Easy painting!

The measurements in scaling everything were based on the size of Link's head in comparison to mine overall, ear size was not a thing that I paid huge attention to because cartoony anime styling makes for non-human proportions. After a few hokey measurements with a combination of digital calipers and feeler gauges I managed to get a decent estimate for the ear cuff fit and then the feathers were just a piece of cake from there. A bit of printing, a bit of sanding and then several revisions on paint and here we are. Somehow it fit perfectly first time, yay measuring twice and cutting once!
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The paints were some of the ol' reliables hanging around in the various paint bins around the house. The cuff and feathers were a Bright Aluminum (can't find a link, might be discontinued), the crescent pin is Vallejo Model Colour 70.801 Brass highlighted with P3 Solid Gold and the gems are P3 Sanguine Base, P3 Khador Red Base and Vallejo Game Colour Transparent Red.
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Earrings
I am very much not a Hylian and have decidedly round ears. Or so I've been told, I can't see them on the sides of my head. To fix that I ordered a pair of Nomad Elf ears from Aradani Costumes to slip over the tips of my ears and glue down. It's as fun as it sounds.
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As well as things getting glued to my ears, I get to have them pinched by some clip-on earrings since I wasn't feeling like getting both ears pierced for the sake of the costume. Maybe later, but I don't know, I'm a Zelda fan but I'd rather show my fanboy nature with tattoos instead of piercings. I mixed up a base tone for my airbrush using a 3:1 mix of Vallejo Mecha Colour Metallic Green and Vallejo Model Air Arctic Blue Metallic which I could get behind as a colour for my next car, it's damn nice. I sprayed past the edges with just the green to highlight and blend with a smooth transition. Since I'm super clumsy and will drop and dent these I used Krylon ColorMaster Clear Gloss to seal everything and prevent any scratches showing through the original parent metal.
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Sideburn Anchors
These things... I honestly don't understand them but they're cool. I went through like three revisions of paint schemes on these so they've been painted, sanded and painted several times because I just wasn't getting the right red or texture. This one is one of the random details that won't be seen past 5 feet but it's just a little something extra for people that know the game. The Snowquill outfit grants cold protection and the anchors and earcuff have rubies that emit a soft glow which I'm pretty sure are the source of heat. To give the stone texture that it's emanating some sort of energy I went back to my Warhammer painting days of energy weapons by doing a metallic base, adding cracks in a pseudo-random pattern in a thin line and a brighter non-metallic of the same shade in the thin line to add a bit of contrast. At arms length it you can see individual lines, at five feet everything blends together, or that could be my eyesight, I don't know. I like it overall, I may do a fine pass over everything with the metallic airbrush paint to blend everything together but then I might lose some detail, help me out 405th.
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Half-ponytail Circlet
A quick donut model with a raised section, Rustoleum Universal Hammered Antique Pewter for the base coat and then drybrushed with P3 Pig Iron and shaded with Citadel Color Black Ink.
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All these parts plus a bit of hot glue (not on my ears) and it's another tick in the box. I need to do a quick heat on the sideburns to adjust how they lay but everything is awesome.
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Nice fluffy armor. (y)


At arms length it you can see individual lines, at five feet everything blends together
I think that's what you want in a detail like this. If every little piece "pops" at 5 feet or more then its too much for people's senses. Having detail "emerge" as someone steps closer I think is a bonus.
 
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