Aloy Cosplay
(Heavy Banuk Ice Hunter armour)
Heyya Everyone!
This page will be walking through the various stages of how I went about creating my Aloy heavy Banuk ice hunter armour, from the video game Horizon Zero Dawn.
One thing I love about Horizon Zero Dawn, is that they added an in-game 'Photo Mode', where you can pause the game, move the camera around to find the perfect angle, change the time of day to alter the lighting, and then use that to get fantastic screen shots from your game. I used this method to take all of my reference pictures for this costume.
This walk-through of how I made this costume is really long, as there were a lot of parts to it! So if you are trying to look for certain information/sections, use the anchor links below to quickly skip to those specific sections of the tutorial <3
Headpiece:-
The heavy Banuk Ice Hunter armour has a really awesome headpiece, so this is the thing I made first.
I made a template for the headpiece by wrapping my forehead in cling film, then covering that in parcel tape (I would use duct tape if you have it as your template will be stronger, but I ran out of it and all I had to hand was parcel tape, it did the job, but my template was a lot more delicate). Once I had my parcel tape norse helmet base in place, I used a sharpie to trace out the basic shape of her headpiece. This was mainly to gauge the size I needed to make my headpiece, and the sort of shapes I would need to make for it to fit together. I only drew one side, as her headpiece is symmetrical, so all I would have to do is trace the pieces, then flip them and trace again.
After I deigned my template and cut it out, it left me with a shape like this. Not the easiest thing to work with, as it's hard to draw out a 3D pattern on a 2D template. But this did give me a rough idea of what pieces needed to go where, and how thick I would need it to be.
I cut my pattern out, then transferred them to card, as I find card easier to pin onto foam as it doesn't wrinkle. These pieces were then pinned to 5mm EVA foam, and cut out with my snap-blade knife (make sure it's sharp, you want these cuts as clean as possible to minimise sanding later). I placed the pieces next to each other, and used my marker to drew little dashes on the joins, so I could line them up straight, then glued them together with contact adhesive.
Right now, it didn't look like much, as the main bulk of the shape comes from the sanding and the refining of the edges. I used my rotary sanding tool to sand away a lot of the harsh lines, and to create grooves and dips in the headpiece, so it would more closely resemble Aloy's.
Aloy has some extra machine parts coming out of the side of her headpiece, so I sketched out the pieces onto card, then transferred these onto the 5mm foam. I cut the details from 2mm craft foam, and glued them on top of the other pieces.
I sanded the edges down to get the tapered edge that they have, then I sanded some grooves into the back of the headpiece for them to sit in.
I put contact adhesive on both the ends of the pieces and in the grooves, then pushed them together to attach them. Once these were attached, I used a few of the engraving attachments to engrave a few details into the side of the headpiece.
I also cut two thin slits in the front piece, as there are two pieces of ribbon that go through the top of her headpiece, and these two slits would allow me to simply slip my ribbons through when the piece was finished.
Once all the details were sanded and cut in, and the extra pieces added in, I put the headpiece on one of my mannequin heads, and pinned it in place. I mixed up about 15ml of Smooth-On's XTC-3D, and applied it all over the headpiece with a small brush (as I had run out of sponge brushes). I left it to cure overnight, then did another layer in the morning, as I wanted this headpiece to be really strong. When the two outer layers were set, I did two layers on the inside of the headpiece.
The next step was sanding, I sanded over it all with a fine grit sanding block, and very fine grit sandpaper. The good thing about XTC-3D is that it is self levelling, and if applied properly, will not drip, so sanding is very quick and easy.
After it was sanded smooth, I brushed away all the dust, then gave my headpiece a light coat of spray primer. Once that had set, I covered the main bulk of the headpiece in a white satin spray paint, but I left the machine parts at the end uncovered, as these have a different finish.
The machine parts were sprayed with a medium grey spray paint, as this was the closest colour match I could find to it in my local craft shops.
The final step is one I always enjoy, weathering! I used my airbrush to add some light beige shading to parts of the headpiece, to make it look dusty and well worn.
My airbrush and compressor kit isn't an expensive one, but it's easy to set up, and works brilliantly, I got it here.
I highly recommend getting an airbrush, and dedicating some time to practising with it, as it really does make your paint jobs look seamless, and once you get the hang of it, it's one of the quickest ways of painting.
Once the shading had dried, I used an old, dry paintbrush and a very tiny amount of silver paint to dry-brush some scuffs and scratches onto the higher points, edges and corners of the headpiece, and left this to dry.
Final weathering step was to use some brown acrylic paint which I had diluted with water, to add some dirt to the headpiece. I brushed this roughly over and into all the cuts, scrapes, and details, left it for a minute, then brushed it off with a piece of kitchen roll. This left just enough behind to make the piece look well worn and realistic, just what I was going for!
I finished the paint job off by giving it a coat of clear satin spray, to seal in all my paintwork.
The final step overall was to attach the ribbons that attach Aloy's headpiece to her head. She has two ribbons, one on either side; one blue and one yellow. The blue ones goes over the top of the headpiece, through 2 slits, then out the underside of it to rest on her cheeks before going around the back of her head. The yellow ones attach to the underside of the headpiece, then go around the back of her head to hold the headpiece in place
For the blue ribbons, I used some 20mm cornflower blue ribbon from my sewing basket, as it was a good colour match to one of her ribbon colours. Her ribbons also have a pattern on them that looks to me like a reddish pink sort of colour, so I used FrogTape to mask off the areas I wanted to be left blue, mixed together some colours in my airbrush till I had a colour I was happy with, then sprayed this over the ribbon to create the pattern.
I let the paint dry before removing the tape, and once it was all removed, I placed the ribbon under a tea towel and ironed it on a medium heat, just to secure the colours.
I glued one end of each piece behind the headpiece at the top, brought them over the front, put them through the slits, glued them to the bottom of the headpiece, then attached velcro to both ends, so I could attach them together behind my head.
For the yellow ribbons, I used some beige/yellow faux leather fabric, cut it into strips about 1.5 inches wide, and glued the edges for the seam allowance over to the back of it, this left me with a long strip with nice, clean edges.
I used the same technique as before, and used my FrogTape to mask off the pattern, then used my airbrush to add in the brown sections of the pattern. Once this was dried, it was set in place by ironing it under a tea towel, then cut to the lengths I needed.
One end of each piece was attached to the underside of the headpiece with contact adhesive, then Velcro was added to the other ends, to allow me to easily attach them together behind my head.
I found that this alone didn't hold the headpiece on as securely as I would have liked, so I cut 2 lengths of black elastic (the one I used was about 15mm wide), attached one of each ends to the far side of each headpiece, and added more velcro to the ends to allow me to easily secure it behind my head. This gave the headpiece more security, and I had no worries about it falling off!
Wig:-
Aloy's hair is just beautiful. Her hair is very thick, has a slight wave to it, and with a lot of braids and beads running through it. Her hair also has an ombre effect to it, as the roots are a dark auburn, the main length of her hair is a light auburn/medium brown colour, and the roots fade to a medium blonde; there are also various blonde streaks going through her hair.
I originally planned to use a lace front wig I had bought to use as a base for my Jessica Rabbit wig, however that wig is auburn all over, and didn't have of the tones that her hair does. I'm a stickler for detail, and I wanted my wig to be as accurate as possible, so I decided to dye a wig to the exact colour I wanted. I have only ever dyed a wig once before, and thankfully it went well so I knew my technique would work; however that was used to dye a wig from white to lilac, not to add an ombre, and varying tones and highlights! I knew it would take a while to do, but I wanted this wig to be as accurate as I possibly could.
I had a blonde multi-tone lace front wig in my collection, however it was fairly thin, and Aloy's hair is very thick, so I had to thicken it up before I tried dying it.
I bought some blonde synthetic wefts online, a
Now I had my wefts and my lace front wig ready, it was time to get down to the tedious task of sewing them in. It turns out I didn't need to sew in as many as I thought, as I wanted the main bulk to be around the crown, and in the middle at the back. As the wefts were just a block colour, I added them in every 3 rows, instead of on every row, as I wanted them to look natural, and not cause the wig to have blocks of one colour, without any tones. I ended up using about 1/3 of the wefts I had cut from the second wig, and put the rest away, ready to use in the future.
If you're not keen on sewing them in, you can glue them in with fabric glue, just make sure not to use too much, as you don't want to get it on the hair fibres.
Once they were all stitched in, I trimmed the extensions so they were just a bit shorter than the length of the wig.
Now time for dying! I used the ink and isopropyl alcohol method, as it's the only one that would give me full control over the colour application. The ink I used previously had worked brilliantly, so I used the same brand again; Copic.
Copic was the only brand I knew of that did refill bottles for their markers, which made them perfect for dying wigs, as you didn't need to cut the plastic off to get to the core. They can be a bit pricey, as you need a lot to do this, but they gave a lovely finish last time. I bought a few of the brown and orange shades to test out and see how they looked, and my favourites were;
- E008
- E39
- E29
These would give my wig a slightly more auburn colour, which I think is perfect for Aloy.
When you start getting the materials in to dye the wig, be sure to buy the ink refills instead of the markers, as they are much easier to get the ink out of, as you don't need to split the pens open like on normal markers. I bought 2 bottles of each colour, and 3 clear spray bottles to mix the dyes in. The final thing to do was to fill each bottle roughly 60% with isopropyl alcohol (I used 99.9%, but 96% would work too, just get whatever is easiest to get hold of), and fill the other 40% with one of the ink colours. I repeated this for all 3 colours, and my spray bottles were ready to go.
I started from the back as this makes life SO much easier, as I wanted the colour to be even, and to ensure I got it all covered first time. I used 2 large clamps to hold the bulk of the hair up, so only the bottom weft row was hanging down. I brushed this through to make sure there were no tangles, then started at the roots.
I used E39 on the roots, spraying a fair amount onto the hair, and brushed this about 1/4 way down the hair.
I used E29 and a little bit of E008 on the middle half of the hair, then gently combed it down the hair.
I left the last 1/4 of the hair blonde, so it would have the lovely ombre that Aloy's hair has.
Once this section was dry, I washed it out until the water ran clear, then dried it with my hairdryer to check what the colour would look like. It came out a little bit darker than I wanted in the middle part, so I tipped some out of the mixture in the E008 and E29 bottles, and added in more of the 99% alcohol.
Next I just had to repeat this same technique for all of the wig. Not going to lie, this is going to tedious, take ages, and smell strong, so make sure you work in a well ventilated area, and take regular breaks.
When all of the hair is covered, I brushed through all the hair from top to bottom, then left it to sit for about 5 hours, so the dye could stain the fibres. After that, I put it in the bathtub and used my shower to wash out all of the dye, until the water ran clear. Make sure you rinse it until the water is clear, otherwise there will be excess dye in the wig, and if it rains, or you sweat, that dye will transfer to your skin and costume.
I left the wig to dry naturally this time, as I don't like using my hairdryer to dry the whole wig, as it damages the fibres.
When the wig was dry, I noticed a few small areas where the dye hadn't stained the fibres very well, but as this was in the under layers of the hair, it wasn't a problem. If anything it looked nicer and more natural having a few blonde streaks running through it.
Now that I had the base ready to go, it was onto the styling.
Guerilla Games have released an awesome cosplay guide for Aloy, which shows her hair from all angles. If you are doing a specific Aloy costume, use the in-game Photo Mode to see how her hair lays when she is wearing specific headpieces etc.
Aloy has 4 french plaits, and 3 large twists on the top of her head, which pulls her hair back and away from her face. These are french plaits where the hair is put underneath the previous strand, not to be confused with a dutch braid, which is done the same way but with the hair going over the previous strand.
- Two very thin french braids are just above her ear, one on each side.
- Two small french braids are the side of her head, one on each side.
- One chunky twist right in the middle at the top of her head.
- Two medium sized twists are right next to the large one at the top of her head.
Once you have these done, use hair elastics to tie off the ends of the top 3 twists, about 6 inches back. The ends of the centre 3 braids are folded under themselves, to create a rough pleat at the back of her head at the top. Secure these with bobby pins and Got2B freeze spray (also be sure to spray over the twists at the front of the wig, as you want them to stay where they are).
The two side braids, and the two braids just above her ear, should be done as french braids for about 4 inches, then finish them off as a normal plaits, and tie them off with elastics.
She also has about 6 thin braids just random throughout her hair, I did mine on the underneath part, near the sides of the wig, so they would sit on my shoulders and be visible from the front.
With these braids done, all that was left to do was to curl the hair that was left at the back of the wig. As both the wig and the extensions were heat resistant, I was able to curl the hair with my hair curlers. Make sure you have curlers where you can select the temperature, so you don't accidentally melt the wig fibres.
* If you don't have a hair curler with variable heat settings, or you've used a wig/extensions that aren't heat resistant, you can roll the hair up in regular no-heat hair curlers, or even sponges, and then soak the wig with warm water. Leave it to drip dry overnight, and when it's dry, unroll the hair from the curlers (or sponges), and it will have lovely bouncy curls *
All I had left to do was to give it a gentle brush through with a wide tooth comb (you get less frizz this way).
The final finishing touch was to add in the coloured beads that Aloy has going through her hair at the ends of her braids. I had a bunch of large hole beads from a previous costume, and I gave them a paint job, as most of her beads are red and blue. I threaded some of the thinner plaits through the beads, and added a few on the ends of random curls.
Shoulder armour:-
After using the photo mode in game to zoom in on her costume, it appeared to me that the shoulder armour she wears, is a separate piece worn over the top of her other clothing.
It looked to me like the pieces on her outer bicep, the armour pieces on her shoulders, and the triangular piece on her chest, should all be attached to each other, and worn on-top of her other clothing. So I decided to make her armour in that way, and used cling film and duct tape to make a template on my dress form. After looking at the screenshots I'd taken, my pattern piece ended up going into a point at the front that ended between my boobs, and the back piece ended in between my shoulder blades. I gave it a rounded neckline that sat very close to my neck, that way the scarf she has could sit on top of it, and hide the seams.
I found a gorgeous turquoise faux suede fabric that would be perfect for her costume, so I cut my template shape from this fabric, and put it to one side.
This piece would need to be strong and it appears to be thicker than the rest of her costume, so I used the same template to cut a piece from some wadding/padding, and some buckram. Buckram is a stiff cotton type fabric that is usually used to cover books, and it is fantastic for stiffening clothing; I prefer it to interfacing, as you don't have to worry about bubbles when you iron the piece, and it is very easy to work with.
I used the template to cut one final set of pieces, this time from plain grey suede. It didn't really matter what this fabric was, as it isn't visible once the costume is on, I just wanted a piece to put on the back to keep it neatly finished.
I also used some wine/purple coloured faux leather into strips and used this as my trim, as it was a similar colour. I would be be airbrushing the colours and patterns onto this trim later on.
I used my wonderclips to hold my pieces together ready for sewing; purple faux leather border, then turquoise suede, then the wadding/padding, then buckram, and finally the grey suede.
I used my sewing machine to stitch everything together on both the outer edges, and the other edge of the border.
Once these were stitched, I ran it through my machine again to secure the shoulders, and the base was complete!
I used my airbrush to add the pattern onto the border, as this would give it more a smoother, cleaner finish. I used my FrogTape to mask off the areas I wanted left the colour of the leather, and left open the areas I would spray the paint onto. I mixed up a few colours to get the shade I wanted, it ended up being about 2/3 white, 1/3 bright blue. I sprayed two layers of this onto the border, making sure each layer was dry before moving onto the next one.
Once the second layer was sprayed, I very carefully peeled off the tape, to reveal the pattern. I had a few bits where it had bled through because I hadn't smoothed the tape down enough, but this was easily cleaned up with some acetone on a cotton bud.
Aloy has a necklace of machine parts on a blue cable which rests on her chest, just before the end of her chest armour. I used 2mm foam to make the parts, sanded down the edges, drilled a few small holes in the top and bottom, and sanded down the edges. I heat sealed each piece, then coated it in XTC-3D to harden them. Each piece was then sanded down, spray painted with white spray paint, made to look scuffed up using silver acrylic paint on a dry brush, and then weathered with watered down black and brown acrylics, and some kitchen roll. They were given a spray with some clear satin gloss spray paint to seal the finished paint job.
These were stitched onto the from of the chest piece using
I free-handed the templates for the pieces that are on her outer bicep, as my tailors dummy doesn't have arms. I ended up with a shape that looked a bit like an shield.
I transferred this piece to the same turquoise suede fabric as before, and cut out two pieces, then put them to the side.
I also cut the same pieces from the buckram, the fluffy wadding, and the grey suede from earlier, as I wanted all the shoulder pieces to be tough and strong.
I used the template to trace the shape once more, onto the damson coloured faux leather from before, and used it to cut a piece around the edge, to act as a border.
I used my wonderclips to hold my pieces together ready for sewing; this was put through my sewing machine and carefully stitched around the edges, and on the edge of the border to keep it held down.
My airbrush was then used to once again add on the pattern along the border, and then to add some depth around the seams of all my pieces, and some weathering over the middle and edges.
The final detail on the arm pieces were the machine pieces. I drew out some more templates for these pieces, and cut these pieces from 2mm foam. I only made one of each piece, as I knew the quickest way to create them and have them all identical would be to cast them from a mould.
The edges were sanded down with my dremel, and I added in a few small slits and holes to help me sew them on later.
I primed them with XTC-3D from Smooth-On. Once this was coating was set, and my piece had a nice strong, protective layer, I used my old Lego bricks and board to make a wall around each piece.
I mixed up some medium-shore silicone, and added it over each piece so they were fully covered. I left this to cure overnight, then de-moulded them, now it was time for casting.
I used my usual resin to make the casts, I needed two of each piece, and once they were done, I covered them in white satin spray paint. I used a little bit of silver acrylic paint and a dry brush, to add scratches and scuffs onto the pieces, and make them look worn. A little bit of watered down black and brown paint was brushed onto the pieces, then wiped off with some kitchen roll, to finish off the weathering. They were all given a coat of clear gloss spray paint to seal in all the paint work, and protect them during wear.
They were then stitched onto the shoulder pieces using strong white thread. Once they were secure, I stitched over these seams with a decorative thread in a burnt orange/brown colour, so they more closely resembled how Aloy's parts are attached.
The final piece that was needed to finish off her shoulder armour, was the blue scarf she wears around her neck. I found some beautiful medium blue suede, which was almost perfect in colour, so I used this for my scarf.
I gave it a quick once over with my airbrush to add some depth and weathering, and finished it off with a press stud at the back, to make it quick and easy to put on.
And this was what the finished shoulder pieces looked like!
Clothing (torso and legs):-
I looked all over the website I usually buy my patterns from
I used the same turquoise suede fabric to make the main body of the costume.
Aloy's skirt pieces are lined with animal fur, it looks like a wolf pelt. I never use real fur, so I looked for faux fur alternatives, and found a gorgeous imitation wolf pelt. The colours were perfect, as it was a mix of grey and beige, just like the fur she wears.
I made some leggings out of
I used my airbrush to add some weathering and shading to my fabric, and make it look more lived in. I used black, brown, beige and medium blue colours, focusing the darker colours around the stitching to add depth. and the lighter colours nearer the centre of the piece, to show wear and make it look faded.
Accessories:-
Belt:-
Aloy has a length of fabric wrapped around her waist which acts as her belt. It's a mixture of white, blue, red and green, in diagonal stripes, and held together with a machine piece.
I used some off-white cotton fabric as my base, and used it's diagonal length as this way it would be long enough to wrap round my waist with extra to spare, and sectioned off the stripes with my FrogTape.
I mixed up some bright blue, red and green paints in my airbrush, and used it to spray the stripes onto the fabric. This was ironed under a tea towel, then rolled up into a long strip. I used a running stitch to hold the ends in place, and stop it from unravelling when it was worn.
Final thing I needed for it was the buckle, which is a jagged triangle shape. I sketched the design out on some scrap paper until I was happy with the size and shape, then transferred this to 2mm craft foam.
I used my rotary sanding tool to sand down the edges, and carve in some extra details, then covered the piece in XTC-3D. Once this had cured, I sanded it smooth, then gave it two light coats of white gloss spray paint, then left this to dry. Last thing was to weather it, I mixed up some watered down brown and black acrylic paints, and brushed these all over it, then wiped off the excess with tissue paper. This was all sealed in place with some clear gloss spray paint.
Once all the paint was sealed in, and the clear coat had dried, I glued a large safety pin onto the back of it. This would be the easiest way of securing the belt around my waist, and ensuring the buckle wouldn't fall off.
Pouches:-
Aloy has 3 rectangular pouches hanging off the side of her belt, and one triangular one which sits further round the back. I started by sketching the templates for them out on paper, making room for seam allowances, and once I was happy with how they turned out, I transferred these designs to some medium brown faux leather.
I ended up with a long centre piece, and two smaller side pieces for each pouch.
I attached the side pieces to the centre piece using my wonderclips, and stitched these in place with my sewing machine. Once the pouches were sewn together and had started to take shape, I cut some strips of the faux leather, and hand stitched these on the back to make loops. This would be how I attached them to the belt.
The triangular pouch was made the same way, I put the right sides of the fabric together, held it together with my wonder clips, then put it through my sewing machine.
Once it was stitched, I turned it the right way round, then used some brown faux leather cord to stitch the details along the bottom edges of the pouch.
Bracers:-
Aloy has a different bracer for each arm, I made her left one first as it was the quickest.
The left bracer was really simple to put together, I used some faux leather in a beige/yellow colour, to make a cuff that covered my whole forearm. I stitched velcro along the edge so it would be easy to put on and take off, and this seam would be hidden under the brown leather piece that sits on top of it. I used beige embroidery thread to straight stitch around the top and bottom edge of the cuff.
Using some medium brown faux leather, I drew out the shape of the leather piece she has on the top of her forearm. I cut this out, and cut a trim for it from a lighter brown faux leather, and made a lining for it from grey faux suede.
I pinned these on top of each other with my wonderclips, and stitched them with my sewing machine.
These pieces are held onto her forearm by a blue cable, however I didn't have any spare cables that were long enough to use for this, so I had a rummage around my workroom draws, and found a few metres of clear plastic piping that would work perfectly. The piping was very flexible, the only issue was the colour, so I bought a metallic blue paint for my airbrush, and sprayed this inside the tube, and all over the outside; this gave it a brilliant finish that looked great when it caught the light.
To attach it in place, I glued a 10mm rare earth magnet onto each end, so when I folded it around my arm, they simply attached to each other and held all the pieces in place.
I hand stitched a press stud onto each end of this piece, and did the same on the cuff for my forearm, that way if the cable loosened, I wouldn't have to worry about one of my pieces falling off and becoming lost.
Final step was some weathering, as they looked far too clean and tidy! I my airbrush to add some depth with black around the seams, and some light brown over the yellow faux leather piece to dirty it up a bit.
The right bracer has a base which is pretty much the same, only it has a few extra pieces added on. I made another bracer in the same way as before, and put it to one side.
This bracer has machine parts around it, so I sketched out the rough pattern I needed them to be, then transferred this to 10mm foam. Each piece was cut out, sanded down and shaped with my rotary sanding tool, and any extra details were either added on with 2mm craft foam, or carved in using my sanding tools engraving attachments.
Shin Armour/Boot Covers:-
To make the various layers that wrap around Aloy's shins, I made a template
Spear:-
I decided to make Aloy's spear first, as it would be the quickest weapon to make, and would be a lot easier to carry around conventions!
I normally make all my templates and blueprints myself, however Mellowmind Cosplay has made a fantastic blueprint for her spear. I used his spear blueprint to make mine, and it was a perfect match!
I printed out all the pieces for the blueprint, taped them together, then cut it out. It had already been sized to the dimensions shown in the Horizon Zero Dawn cosplay guide, so I didn't need to make any adjustments.
I cut the blueprint into separate pieces, as Aloy's spear is not one large piece; it is a mixture of wood and various machine parts and cables.
Each piece was then transferred to 10mm EVA foam, and cut with a sharp knife. I used 3 layers of 10mm foam for the handle, and 2 layers for everything else. Smaller details were transferred to craft foam, cut out with the long, thin blade from my hobby knife set, and then all pieces were glued together using contact cement.
After these had all been glued together, they were sanded and shaped with my rotary sanding tool. I also used my engraving attachments to carve in some extra details, and add some depth.
Now that all the pieces were finished, I applied 2 layers of XTC-3D to every piece, and once they had both cured, I used a fine grit sanding block to smooth them out, and get them ready for painting. I ended up using a layer of Plasti-Dip over the sanded down resin layer, as I prefer to have a layer of it on my props for protection, plus I find it makes the prop easier to grip, as it is basically a spray on rubber.
Once my Plasti-Dip was dry, I painted the spears handle using brown automotive spray paint, and the machine parts with the same white satin spray paint I have used on all the other machine parts so far. These were given some scratches using silver acrylic paint and a dry brush, and then weathered using my airbrush and some grey, black and beige paints.
The paint job was sealed in place with some clear satin spray paint.
Now came the most time consuming part; construction. This part was only time consuming as I often needed Luke to hold pieces together for me whilst I tied them up, as I didn't have enough hands!
The machine parts were glued on in places with contact adhesive, then I used various strips of fabric and leather cord to make it resemble her spear.
Aloy has a lot of feathers attached to her spear, and they are in really vibrant colours, so I bought some basic goose feathers off of eBay, then used my airbrush to add some extra colour and depth to them. These were glued onto my spear with contact adhesive, and then this seam was wrapped with leather cord, to really secure them, and fit closer to Aloy's aesthetic.
The bottom handle of her spear is wrapped with what looks like medium brown leather strips, so I
If you would prefer to watch my tutorials, rather than just read how I put everything together, here are the links to my Aloy tutorial videos:-
- Aloy's costume walk-though.
- Aloy's wig dying and styling walk-through video.
- Aloy's make-up walk-through.
- Aloy's spear prop walk-through.
- Aloy's bow prop walk-through.
If you want to use the exact same fabrics I used, I have made a post with links to all the fabrics I used to make my costume, and a download for most of my templates for the machine parts on my Patreon.
It is available in my $5 tier, along with a few behind the scenes pictures from the photo shoot, and information on where I did my location shoot for Aloy, in case you wanted a good place to shoot some pictures.
All your pledges help me create new costumes and walk-throughs for you all, and I appreciate everything you guys have done to support my work!