Props Making Link and Epona

Legend of Zelda was the first fandom in which I actively participated as a kid, writing fanfics and drawing fanart, so I guess it was only a question of time until one hobby bled into another... and so I now have a Link bjd.

Link is a Resinsoul Song on the more muscular body, in tan skin. The posability of that body is... debatable to be polite about it. But I still like it for the price it cost me, and I really like his face.


Plan of action, for Link:

• finish his Ocarina of Time inspired green outfit [in progress: need to finish the collar, and make belts)
• get better eyes
• make/buy a sword
• make/buy a bow
• improve posability of body and jointed hands [body was wired, might try the same for the hands]
• make outfits from other games (mostly I'm interested in making outfits that aren't the green tunic)

Plan of action, for Epona:

• find a low price Our Generation horse [done]
• repaint [done]
• attach hair [done]
• make saddle
• make bridle (to be determined, Epona doesn't have one in Ocarina of Time art)

 

Making Epona, pt 1:

I found this Our Generation horse for super cheap, mostly because the paint was scratched and its tail had been cut. No problem for me, since I wasn't going to keep it intact anyway


First of all, I cleaned it, removed the hair, and started putting white gesso on it. It took about three layers to cover the darker parts, but to be fair I'm fairly new at this stuff so maybe I wasn't using it quite right (the picture is with only one layer)

first layer of colour. I didn't have the right shade of brown, so I tried to mix some old primary colour acrylics from ten years ago and kept telling myself to trust the process even if it looked awful

adding the white and black parts of her hair, and it's starting to look a little less like a disaster

I really didn't like the main red/brown colour, so I went over with a redder colour, and i like it better. Sadly it started getting dark at that point, so I'm leaving it alone to check how it looks in daylight. I'll probably need to add some details, and then i'll have to think on what to use for the mane and tail

 

An update: Epona is finished!


I used some very cheap acrylic yarn that I had laying around for her mane/tail. It would have been pretty shitty for knitting, and wouldn't look very good for human hair either, but its rough and somewhat messy quality makes it good for horse hair I think.

The tail has a wire in it, partly because it was my only option to make it as long as I wanted, and also because I hope that being poseable means I can get a more dynamic look with it.

Concerning Link, not a lot of progress yet. I've wired him and it helps make him more stable/more easy to pose, especially his arms. I've also fixed his hair with gel. He's currently wearing modern clothes because I need to fix his green tunic but can't be bothered at the moment.

 

Well, that has been set aside for a while, uh?
I'm still very much working on this boy though, but I've had to wait for certain materials, and then to wait for some energy to come back to me. For now, the ocarina of time outfit has been set aside, because I'm not satisfied with the collar. I did make some new eyes for Link, which are drawn on basic white buttons (since the Song eyewell is kind of difficult to accommodate for)



I have also started working on making the hylian set from breath of the wild, since it's one of my favourite from the game (along with the rito set and the gerudu vai set). So far I have the underlayer, and I recently finished some chainmail as well (which I'm showing on a different doll because Link is getting a new wig wrapped in plastic at the moment)



I had read on this forum that a decent chainmail effect could be obtained with knitting, but I much prefer crochet, so I decided to see if an acceptable result could be obtained that way too. I'm happy to say it can! The front of the armor is made by alternating one layer of half double crochet, one layer of single crochet. It gives a very nice result visually, but it took for ever, was difficult to deal with due to the quality of my yarn, and also kind of leaned to one side. So for the back and sleeves, I just made everything in half double crochet, and while it looks a little less nice, my sanity was preserved



what's next?
I need to make the red outer tunic, and embroider it. I have all the material, I just need to actually get to work, and that's no fun. Same for the cloak, I think I have fabric in an acceptable shade of blue. I also should have a previously made pair of cream trousers that should work nicely. And then I'll have to figure out how to make all those leather accessories, which should be... interesting to say the least.

 

I'm glad you like my chainmail method

not a lot of progress lately. I am stuck on how to do certain details of the red layer in the hylian tunic, but I'm starting to think I'll just not bother with those details at all, or else I'll never get anyway.

I've recently received a resinsoul Daytime Centaur in dark tan and... I think I'll turn it into a young lynel (it is the same height as Link, so it can't be a fully grown one. Which also gives me a good excuse not to deal with the beard part of the mane, if I decide that only fully grown ones have that). I'm waiting for fiber to do the hair, and I've sprayed parts of the body for fur details, I'll post that here when I've made progress.

and this weekend, I got to work making some shields. Specifically, I made a pot lid out of popsickle sticks, and a fisherman's shield out of cardboard and paper takeaway bags. I'd seen Aiko-chan post about a cardboard shield a little while back, and I really wanted to try as well. It ended up being easy, quick, and really fun! I just need to attach something in the back so Link can actually use these

 

thanks for the tip!
and I kind of cheated for the design. I zoomed in a picture at the right size to fit on my shield, traced it on paper from my screen, and then just cut out bit to make a template. my paper kind of disintegrated at the contact of paint because it wasn't great quality, but it still helped a lot.

 

Thank you!

Finally made progress again on Link's hylian tunic. I've finished the red layer of it, which I decided to embroider because I'm not really a fan of the look of paint on fabric. It's been years since I embroidered anything and I was never a pro to begin with, so it's a little rough... and I'd cut it too short at first so I had to add a band of fabric at the bottom... but hey, it's a cheap traveler's outfit, so it makes sense for it to be a little rough, right, right?



next step is the fabric belt, and then either the cloak, or I'll start all the leather accessories. Considering leather scares me a bit due to never working with it before... it might be the cloak first (and thus, more embroidery)