On one hand, I managed to complete the assembly of one of the legs. On the other, I hate how it turned out, and I need to completely re-do it. This is frustrating and exhilarating all at once. Here are some pictures:
This first image is of the piston assembly that will be featured on the feet of the costume. As you can see, this part came out awesome. I'm really pleased with the look of the assembly, and Curtis was impressed enough to decide to copy them for his own stilts. He won't have the same ladder extensions, so I do worry about the stability of his feet, but that's a bridge to cross at another time.
This second image is the completed foot. It's pretty gnarly, and I think it looks really great - except for the shape of the top and bottom pieces. They both started off as squares, but as soon as I assembled the foot, I noticed that they didn't line up. This is a result of a flaw I failed to anticipate. I bought two different sized flanges, since I wasn't certain which I would like better - a 3/4" and a 1". Each of the pistons is a 3/4" on top and a 1" on the bottom. The problem is that the holes aren't positioned the same in the different sized flanges, and I can't make a template that works for all of the blocks. I had to free-hand it, and obviously that didn't work. Then I attempted to make it look less shitty by cutting away the excess portions of the blocks, but in reality it just made the whole thing look worse. I planned to just say forget it and run with it that way, but it gnawed at me and I couldn't just let it go. I plan to correct the mistake this weekend by re-doing the whole foot. On the other foot, I've planned ahead and made 1 piston entirely out of the 3/4" flanges, and the other out of the 1". This should allow me to make a template and match the feet up the right way. I may try to fix the pistons from the first foot to do the same, but I'd rather not need to paint them again and just figure something else out.
This last picture is a close-up of the "Action" portion of the feet. I don't like the wood block I used as a spacer for the ladder part - I'm going to try and find something that's round and useable instead. I kinda wish I had a bunch of AOL discs to use...
I also managed to successfully attach the bike rack to my shoulder pads. It looks really amazing. I'm starting to get pretty excited about the whole costume, now that I'm seeing pieces of it come together. I don't have any pics ready for you on that part, but as we finish up the feet and move upward I'll keep them coming.
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