I started to play a bit with different foam sheets from various sources to get a bit of a feeling for it.
Since I’ve seen a few trailers of the new Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild I’ve decided to make my own Sheikah Slate.
Especially one that functions as phone case.

So, for the basic form I’ve used 3 black 5mm sheets and one 3mm sheet in grey.
Cut out the base pattern and put my phone in for the second layer of foam to get the best fit for the display.

These are 2 black 5mm sheets where the upper layer functions as phone bedding.
2 magnets are squeezed between the 2 sheets on the bottom part.

I now cut a 3rd layer of 5mm foam sheet for the display window and a layer of 3 mm foam, because the bedding wasn’t deep enough for my phone at first. So, this additional layer did the trick.

The front panel has the 5mm and 3mm sheets glued to each other and the back has 2 black 5mm sheets glued together.
Between the 3 and 5mm sheets there are 2 other magnets inserted so they can connect with the back panel and hold the phone in place while closed.

When everything fits, the 2 halfs are now glued together.
I left the lower 3/4 open though so the magnets can do their part of holding the case together. I then sanded the edges with a dremel to get a smooth effect of the slate.

The details are eye-balled mostly, drawn onto the Sheikah slate. To have 2 identical sides I folded a piece of heavy paper, drew the pattern and cut it out, so when I open the paper again the pattern is perfectly mirrored.

The details are mostly cut foam, then the edges dremeled and glued onto the base. Nothing too fancy it’s just a work that needs to be done to get nice results. I worked with 5 and 3 mm foam here.

For the coating I mixed a bit of flexbond into regular acrylic paint. It needs a few layers of it to cover the black foam sheets entirely, but it works after 4-6 layers of acrylics. I don’t let it dry naturally I usually use my heat gun on the lowest setting (50° C) to accelerate the drying process.

More details with regular acrylics and flexbond. I also decided that the Sheikah Slate has gold details on it instead of the brown-ish color that was shown in-game. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be gold or not, the cell shading isn’t really helping to determinate what material is is, so I used my artistic freedom to decide on gold.



2 Comments

  • Em says:

    Hello, I’m a huge fan of the this! I was hoping to make one of these myself when I came across yours. (Lucky for me, as I wasn’t sure how to go about it) I was wondering if you could provide links to the materials used. I am amateur in the prop making world and it would be a big help.

    • Folkenstal says:

      Hey there!
      Most of it was foam, it doesn’t matter if it’s EVA of ProFoam or any other kind of craft foam.
      You can make this by using the foam you’re most comfortable with.

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