Wonder Woman golden armor wings

[AllyBP]

Hello guys.
I'm working on my WW Golden Armor cosplay now, and I've never built wings before, and I'm having a bit of trouble.
I had custom made one, will fix it because I found out the design is a bit wrong, and I want it to be articulate. The issue is to add the feathers.
They are made of a golden fake leather, that's thin, light, and all, and I need to figure it out how to add the feather in a way that looks like hers, but that won't be in the way of the wings to open. Because what I tried before, the wing barely opens and it went so wrong.
If anyone can give me some advice about how to deal with this I'll be forever grateful.

 

[Count Beeham]

I just did hawkman and hawkgirl wings for my kids. A pic of the prototype wing is shown. I used small pieces of string, spaced such that they pull the feathers apart to "splay out evenly" when the wings are open, and then to fold the feathers shut in a neat stack when the wings close. If you look closely you'll see that the spacing on each string is unique to let this happen.

Is that at all helpful?

 

[AllyBP]

oh this helps a lot, thanks.
I saw a few videos I found but couldn't figure out the string part.

 

[Count Beeham]

oh this helps a lot, thanks.
I saw a few videos I found but couldn't figure out the string part.

The trick of it is to space the string such that when the wing closes, it doubles over the edge of the adjacent feather and pulls it closed as the mechanism closes. If you look at the edge-feather (wood), you can visualize how the string will grab the next feather, and so on and so on.

A couple other points - don't put all the strings on the same radial arc off the "elbow" pivot or they get snagged on the knots, I spaced mine 25mm apart, radially, on each adjacent feather. I did several mockups in posterboard to get everything right before I did it in the final material (0.020" white styrene plastic).

Good luck with your build - cheers!