A villain in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Zant is dark creature with mysterious powers. The character wears a striking costume with armored head and shoulder pieces. Cosplayer Melanie Colley (her Pan’s Labyrinth Faun costume was previously featured here) made a wonderful replica of the costume and bonus: I’ve never seen this costume done before. I like flipping through her work in progress photos because her impressive costumes often start with cardboard and foam. For Zant’s helmet, she built the base from those materials and built up layers of foam to get the proper thickness. Then she covered it with paper clay before painting.
She also used foam to make the character’s distinct feet. The feet began life as a pair of white tennis shoes (you could easily find something like them at a thrift store), and Colley used foam to craft to build around them and get the look she needed. She added further detailing with paper clay before painting them gold.
See more photos of this and other projects at Melanie’s Cosplay account.
Top photo by Anime North