After getting back home from Cropper's Model Shop, doing dinner, walking the dogs and nipping up the allotment, I was just about to settle down to a bit of boot mutilation when who should walk in through the door but that constant monkey on my shoulder, DCOS! So, I had time to drill a hole through the heel of the boot only tonight. This will go far enough into the leg so that when I cut the boot into 2 parts across the ankle, I can fix a cocktail stick through it to hold the 2 parts together while the sugar paste dries and then remove the respective parts from inside the sugar paste once it has done so; the foot from underneath and the leg from the top. At least DCOS made herself useful and took the pictures for me!