Yes, we are big fans of the video game Zelda: Breath of the Wild. When my eldest and I made a diamond circlet in May, she thought it would be awesome to have the ancient armor to go with it. She even did up drawings on how the pieces would go together.

I have been itching to experiment with EVA foam sheets and this was the perfect project to use them. We started construction over the summer, and I have to tell you that I love this foam. It behaves like thick leather, except you warm it with a heat gun and it becomes pliable and will hold its shape when it cools. It isn’t as tough as leather, but it is wonderfully light. To do the trim I purchased foam clay, which I also now love. The clay is very soft and has a long working time. We found that the best way to make trim was to roll long sticks of foam and let them dry. To keep the bottoms from flattening in the drying process, I constructed channels with poster board and lined it with wax paper to keep the foam from sticking. When the sticks were firm, I cut them lengthwise to make half round strips, then spray painted them. Light weight foam is difficult to spray paint as the force of the spray sends it flying. To combat this we used masking tape loops and short bursts of spray. My eldest used hot glue to apply all the trim.

To make the blue lights on the armor we found a blue pill bottle and cut it in pieces with a band saw, then flattened the sections with a heat gun. Rubbing the sections with 400 grit sandpaper gave them a nice soft glow. The lights themselves are battery powered fairy lights that I hot glued to the inside of the armor. The lights on the hand pieces were a little trickier, as I needed to reduce the length so had to do some electrical soldering. In all, there are four battery packs in the armor, secured with wide elastic so the batteries can be changed.

The armor pieces are connected with wide black elastic to give some flexibility and grip. The orange glow around some of the decoration was done with foam brushes; first white acrylic paint, then orange. If I were do do this again, I would paint the glow first, then glue the trim over the top. The shoes are my favorite part because I was able to form a proper toe shape with the EVA foam. We used some old canvas shoes as a base. I had plans to sew the undergarment, but my eldest wisely suggested clothing pieces that could be used again as … clothes. So the navy base layer is store bought shirt, leggings, socks, and gloves.