Wonder Woman Corset Part III

My Wonder Woman corset combines the flexibility and strength of leather and the comfort of fabric with some additional support built in.  Similar to the WW gladiator skirt, the corset features two layers- a soft interior and a leather exterior.   Parts I and II show how to complete the basic corset construction and now Part III has instructions for painting and finishing.  I recommend you read Parts I and II first.

I started by painting a base layer- gold for the eagle and maroon for the rest of the corset.  For the maroon color, I mixed the alizarin crimson, autumn red, and black paint.  For the gold, I mixed gold and black paint.

Next, I added highlights, shadow, and a metallic sheen to the maroon portion to make it appear more three dimensional.  For this, I mixed several shades using alizarin crimson, thalo gold, and black paint.  Below you can see that I painted along the stitching with the darker shades and used the lighter shade in the center of each stitched section.

I then painted black 'seams' over the stitching and thin highlights along the seams to add further dimension.  The photograph below shows 'before' and 'after' I painted the seams and highlights.

 For the gold eagle, I used high contrasts in dark and light gold to add dimension.

I painted the belt using shades of gold, as shown below.

Originally I designed a back panel that would Velcro to the back of the corset to cover the lacing.  The design was simple- two rectangles of leather with soft Velcro stitched to the back of the bottom piece.  I glued the two pieces together and painted a base design, as shown below.

I added additional shading to complete the panel, which I planned to attach to the Velcro strips that I had sewn into the back of the corset in Part II.

However, it didn't stay in place as well as I had planned, so I had to reevaluate.  One of my friends informed me that this back panel is something that has already been invented for corsets- it is called a 'modesty panel' and goes on the inside, not the outside.  So, when I wore the outfit on Halloween, I placed the panel on the inside. 

It worked out well, but left the original Velcro on the outside of the corset exposed, which I didn't like aesthetically.   You may choose to leave the Velcro here out altogether in Part II.  To cover the Velcro, I cut four strips of leather- the length was sufficient to cover the exposed Velcro in the back and the width was 0.75".

I sewed soft Velcro to the back of two of the strips as shown below and then glued a second strip on top of each using Ecoweld to cover the stitching.

Then I painted the strips gold to match the corset, as seen further down in the final product.

I brushed the entire corset, including the panel and strips, with a few layers of acrylic finisher.  Once dry, I then sprayed it with two layers of Angelus repellant to add some protection.  I still would not recommend getting this outfit wet!  Here is the finished product: