Build your own steampunk chicken-walker mech

Step 2 Mech feet

To get the extra height I bought some boots off of eBay that had a 2" platform and 5" heel. I then hid the shoes inside of the mech's feet / lower legs, which are made out of foam core poster board. I designed it so the mech foot would extend in front of the boot by several inches to help the reverse-knee illusion. I also went with a tapered look in front to make the foot look less boxy. The bottom three holes are for short lengths of ½" PVC -- the front pipe is just to add structural support, the middle pipe goes across the top of the toe of my platform boot, and the rear pipe goes under the heel of my boot. The top holes are for attaching the upper-leg pistons with 1" PVC pipe, which bind around the front and back of my leg. I originally thought I'd use
three pistons instead of two, thus the extra hole up top, which I later ignored completely.

I used fiberglass resin to strengthen the feet so they could withstand the pressures from walking. If you've never worked with it before, fiberglass resin is basically the daemon-spawn older brother of paper-mache, only instead of paste you use a resin that sticks to everything and has toxic, explosive fumes. And instead of newspaper you use a fiberglass cloth that feathers into these long thin strands that always float into whatever you don't want them to stick to. And since they're fiberglass, they give you nasty little splinters. And then once the resin
dries around them they become sharp little needles poking out of your piece that you need to sand down. It's pretty nasty stuff, but it did protect the feet well. I found the best technique was to essentially upholster my foam-core shell with the fiberglass cloth using a stapler, then paint the resin over the cloth. Use as few pieces as possible to avoid feathering.