Hey everyone! Been quiet here because uni, work etc had to take priority to costuming.
My husband and myself were privileged enough to be invited by the local Disney rep to attend the Perth Aus VIP screening of Solo: A Star Wars Story as smuggler costumers and droid operators for our droid M4 on Thursday. This lead to a mad scramble getting our smuggler belts made in time!
We are still new to leatherworking, and all of this was learn-as-you-go, as the only previous experience we have was our Jedi belts for The Last Jedi screening. We are by no means master leatherworkers and our methods may not be particularly standard
Below are some WIP shots from the belt and some photos from the event. As a note, the holsters and pistols used in each belong to me as my character is a dual wielder, however hubby doesn't have a SW blaster yet and we didn't have time to make 3 holsters anyway. This has worked well enough for the sakes of the VIP screening and the midnight launch we are attending next weekend
This was a team effort with hubby.
We used wetforming to make the holsters. the first step was making an mdf form of the blaster.
The leather we are using is pre dyed, sections sold for making belts. its not the highest quality and is a bit spongy, but we didn't want the hassle of dyeing our own stuff yet. A section was cut out, soaked in warm water for about 30 mins. The blaster was wrapped in plastic wrap and sat on the bottom piece of mdf, then the leather draped and formed over the blaster. The mdf form was put in place, loosely clamped and the leather formed and adjusted until happy. Then clamped firmly. The first one was sat in the sun for a while before being brought inside and left for the next day and half while we went away. The second was sat in front of a heater (at distance of course)/ hit up with a heatgun since we did it at night, then left for the next 24 hours.
In the meantime I cut out the main belt pieces, finished their edges with a brown Edge Kote, burnished them, waxed etc. I had previously 3D designed and printed the buckle and holster pieces from PLA. These were based on a Han belt model I had found on thingiverse by seankfields
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:883687. I used his design ideas to make my own buckles, based on a SWTOR belt my in game character has. These pieces were coated with spray putty, sanded down, and sprayed with silver paint. Then I attached the pieces to the belt sections of leather.
I had done a rough pattern for the holster backing. After we trimmed down about 1cm from the edge of the molded section of the holster front and trimmed the top section to suit the scopes that are eventually going on these blasters we used that to finish making the holster pattern, cut it out, then mocked it up on my side, refining the top section of the backing and cutting the strap sections the right width.
The two halves were awled then stitched. The leg strap pieces were stitched on.
Then attached to the holster attachments, and these attached to the belts. Studs were added to the leg straps. I added a black insert piece to my buckle. Hubby's buckle, and both our rear buckle pieces are going to have black in the lines to make the designs stand out more. Everything still needs weathering, but we didn't have time for such things. Still a bit of tidying up to do on the leg straps etc.
And some images from the screening! My jacket is a cheap pleather one, I removed all the zips (minus the breast pocket zip, but this is going to be covered by a commpad that I have designed, printed in PLA and waiting to be painted with lights added etc), used a soft fabric paint to paint the shoulders a darker brown. The pants were second hand, and I added the grey stripes. I will be adding more to cover the zips on the front. My boots are bikers boots I found and I love them! So comfy, I wanted something solid that would last and look more like a combat boot. Add a bandana, fingerless leather gloves and cheap goggles. My outfit is currently a fusion of my GCW era and TOR era smugglers, until I get more individual components made up for the two separate outfits- my GCW era character Belyra Vekraa wears a tight flgihtsuit with that jacket. Hubby's jacket is a women's jacket we picked up hell cheap, added the shoulder patches and did some modifications. Pants are old leather padded bikers pants, boots are currently his Jedi ones until we find something more appropriate. His shirt is an old one he had in the cupboard and will have tags, zips etc covered or removed. This is his TOR smuggler outfit. His GCW era one will be overalls and additions to make him look more like a mechanic/ technician. We already have a pile of SW tools printed and waiting to be painted.
So very much two work in progress smugglers, with much more to come