#also sorry for the lack of photos in this one and the shittier quality of the ones I do have

[vaimetanyx]

Part 2 of my cosplay breakdown - Zagreus' skull belt

(Full process under read more)

[Skull pauldron] [Belt] [Greaves] [Toga + sash] [Wig + Laurels] [Armbands] [Flaming feet] [Satyr Sack] [Stygius v1] [Stygius v2] [Nectar]

Thankfully this one was a lot simpler than the skulls. My main issue was once again comparing inconsistent official art and trying to figure out what approach I wanted to take. I ended up with this pattern, with skulls at the front and a flat back.

I also had to consider how I was going to put it on and take if off, and went for a hidden buckle clip to make things easy. The strap was threaded through a white loop of material that I would later hot glue to the belt so it would be able to be adjusted if needed in the future, and to have a more uniform appearance. Unfortunately it turns out I didn't take any photos of this process but you can see how it looks attached here.

Back to foam work! After cutting out the base pattern and heat shaping it to have a slight curve, I cut out the circles for the skull bases, and and additional top half for depth. I should have dremelled these sections separately but instead contact cemented them together after heat shaping and had to be very careful with those teeth and eye sockets so I didn't dig into the base.

After attaching the flat backing piece and the skulls, using a bit of foam clay to fix up mistakes and add some detail/depth, and hot gluing the actual belt section, it was time to plastidip the whole thing. You can also see where I added some velcro to the opening side to better hide the opening and make the belt look like one solid piece. I over-sprayed way too much when using the plastidip, but it ended up with a lovely smooth finish.

Then time to paint. I added some very dramatic shadows before bringing it all back with several layers of off-white blending into the darker colours. Once all the 'bone' sections were done I gave it a coat of the same matte spray that I used for my skull pauldrons, and then finished it off with another layer on the gold details so they'd stay nice and shiny.

The belt may actually be my favourite part of this cosplay, not because it's impressive, but becuase i turned out exactly how I wanted! It wasn't super tricky to make, and it's so easy to take on and off (and with the nightmare that was getting that toga sitting right I had to do that many times)