Vader Boots

First thing I want to give credit to the folks over at the 405th Halo costuming community. I forgot to do so when mentioning my Halo armor. If it was not for that place I could not have done anything with the Halo helmet. They have all the files, and information on how to use them. From scaling, to printing, to using pepakura, all the way to finishing. The forums there are a wealth of knowledge on how to make props.

That being said, I accomplished adding all the slats to the fence and constructing the stool. They are both in need of paint jobs next. Desk is clean (I forgot it was made of wood). I got new tires on my truck. I replaced them with what I already had, some Firestone Destination AT's. They eat the snow like it isn't even there, and my truck rides like it was new again, amazing difference. I had two big tests, got a C in math and a B in economics. Not too bad but I can do better. I engraved my PS90 but more on that later. I also finished another T-shirt design. It is the two most annoying floating "helpers" ever created who finally got together in a dating site. It can be purchased HERE:

I mentioned my Vader boots earlier, and thought I might expand on that topic. I had made some wooden internal lifts that would fit in the boot and raise my height about 3 inches. Problem was they were very painful. I used foam on the sides to make them wider without compromising the fit into the boot, and bought an insole to put over them. Then I put a small pad widget that my wife had in my sock. That helped, but they were still painful after about ten minutes.

So in revisiting the issue I thought of many things. One was to cut up a cheap boot and use that instead of my lifts. I scrapped that one and tried stuffing my slippers in the boots. That worked but was too cramped inside there with my foot and all. At least it was comfortable. So I needed something similar but without the top part. Enter a pair of my wife's flip flops. If I removed the strap it covered the bottom of my foot. And viola, problem solved. With all that in the boot and a thick pair of socks I can walk around for hours and only have slightly sore feet.

The boots themselves are actually Nazi marching boots. Not that I would normally own these but it is screen accurate to what Vader wore in the movies. After searching and searching for ones that had the nails in the soles and the horseshoe in the heel I found a place that sold them and acquired them. With all the metal in the bottom they make me sound more machine than man while walking about in the costume. Right now they are at a local shoe repair place that is giving them a spit shine. Not that as a Marine I couldn't do that myself, but for $12 it was worth my time to let a professional take care of it in probably 5% of the time it would take me. I pick them up tomorrow, so I will edit this post and add the picture of the boots below here at that time.*

*(could have sworn I took a picture of the boots before I left to drop them off, but it went AWOL)