Altair Vambrace Armor Plates: Looking for help/ideas, please

[pseudodigm]

Hi all. Long-time lurker here.

I'm doing an Altair costume so I started trying to learn some leather working. So far I've created the belt, the left vambrace (except for the hidden blade and armor plates), and the right bracer. I still have some dying, stitching, and details for those things but they're mostly done. Not great, but not bad, in my opinion. Especially for a newb.

Next I'm doing the throwing knives and swords so I can do the various sheaths. The clothing will come last because I can't sew and I'm afraid of it. I'll either create a nice, working hidden blade or a static (closed) version that looks right so I can wear it to cons.

The part I'm REALLY hung up on currently are those 5 armor plates for the left vambrace. I'm just not sure how I want to do it or how best to do it...

I have the patterns for them and I have the ability to vectorize the patterns. I have *some* skill in basic 3D modeling so I *think* I could model them.

I've seen and have thought about these:
* Tooling them from leather (but I'm not sure about the texture nor my ability to make the designs very crisp)
* Acid etching metal (I found a set of metal ones wile googling that were GORGEOUS but have no idea how they were done)
* Using very wide PVC to cut out the plate shapes and either 1. dremelling the designs or 2. using some overlay to "raise" the design (I got that idea from someone online).
* 3D modelling them and trying Shapeways ($$$)

So each one of these presents a problem...Are there any I'm not thinking of? Or any tips for any I've mentioned? Hell, I'll accept any knowledge about any part of the outfit, really. I have searched the forums and have found great tips for other parts of the costume and I value this place as a great resource.

Thanks so much,

A humble noobie.

 

[Kolin86]

I have done both Styrene and leather. Both are easier to work with than you would think.

I highly suggest you get a print out of the template, scale it to the size you need and use that to make the design. I used it for both the leather and styrene sheets. I would suggest thin styrene for starting out and work up to leather as, at times it can be hard to make it look like metal.

 

[pseudodigm]

Hi, thanks for replying! For the styrene, did you use rather thick pieces and then heat/bend them? As for the design did you dremel it into the plastic?

I'm pretty good with painting so I think I could get the plastic painted correctly if I could find the perfect silver paint...

I made a first attempt to cut the shapes out of leather and they were pretty foul. Very rough edges, not clean at all. There also seems to be a bit of differences in the shape from source to source...the one that I used was from a black and white scan (from GIS) and it was...curvier than some other's I've found...

 

[pseudodigm]

Here are some pics of my progress. I didn't want to show them because of the insanely awesome work I see on this board and my stuff is pretty amateur and unfinished.

The Vambrace was the third thing I ever made in leather (I made a cuff and a bracer out of scrap because I was terrified to cut into my decent leather). The front of the belt came next.

Vambrace Side 01

Bracer Side 01

Belt Side 01

Belt Front 01

Vambrace Top 01

 

[fleefromme]

part of the greatness of this community that everyone is very helpful and supportive, so no worries. so far your work looks great! keep it up!