Chell: Long-Fall Boots Weekend

I rewrote my to-do list for Tidewater Comicon this weekend, because I have a better idea of how I'm actually going to do most of the things. Here's the new list:

Some of the things have already been done now, at time of posting.

So I worked on the long-fall boots this weekend. They're one of the tricky parts of the Chell costume, and one that I really need to get right, or I'll sprain my ankles and fall on my face and get a concussion and who knows what else.

I nailed it at the thrift store. These boots were just about as perfect as I was going to find. Ten bucks and they fit like a dream:

First things first, I had to remove the studded/buckled straps from them:

Voila.

Then we took them to the house and used a Sawzall (okay, Birk's dad did, because he's helpful and knowledgeable like that) to take off the heels:

Some advice, if you want to try this.

(1) We started with a fine blade (which got through the metal rod/screw/nail/whatever runs up through the entire heel) then switched to a coarse blade (which got through the rest). It kind of melted the plastic of the heel a little, and it was pretty tough to get through.

(2) Don't wear flip-flops. You won't want plastic/metal shavings in your feet. Just trust me.

(3) Be INSANELY CAREFUL. The shoes were jumping around, and like I said before, the plastic melting makes it a little hard to saw through. One person holding the shoes down, another doing the sawing, and COMMUNICATE. Otherwise, someone is losing a finger and you'll have blood everywhere.

(4) Put something under the shoe while you saw. The vibrations rubbed the side of the shoe on the table, and you can kind of see the result on the shoe on the right in the picture. The other one turned out worse. I figure it's okay, because we're going to paint or Plasti Dip or something these things, but still, there was a genuine possibility that we were going to go right through the shoe and leave a hole in the side.

We didn't go any closer to the sole because we didn't really have to, and it was hard to be especially accurate, since - as I mentioned - the shoe and saw were bouncing all over the place. But I'm going to use a little Bondo to smooth everything out and make it look nice, so accuracy wasn't really essential.

I also used some packing foam to create a prototype/template for the foam part that will go around the boots:

I thought I was going to build boots from scratch.
After I got this far, I decided to go to the thrift store.

The finished template, with notes in case I don't get
back to it for a little while. I'll have to remeasure now
that I'm using the thrift store boots but it should be
close enough.

The current plan is to make those out of stiffer packing foam (not the EVA foam mat pieces), but only if Plasti Dip or Bondo will adhere to it, so I can get the shiny white look I need.

I also managed to finally hem the legs of the jumpsuit:

Still a little big, but taking them in will be a different day.