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[Pesh 'katar]

Awesome stuff, I am entranced by that backplate!! I wanna reiterate how incredible those warning labels are, they really do add a great depth!!

[Kyr Vykos]

You, sir, have some nice tricks. Well done. The back plate may not be weathered, but the work you've done on it is top-notch.

[Niabi]

 8) Oooooh Yeaaaa Looking smexy vod

Those greabs really finish off the back plate and the stickers are awesooooome

Great work on the weathering too and all round excellent job ! 

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

Awesome stuff, I am entranced by that backplate!! I wanna reiterate how incredible those warning labels are, they really do add a great depth!!

You, sir, have some nice tricks. Well done. The back plate may not be weathered, but the work you've done on it is top-notch.

8) Oooooh Yeaaaa Looking smexy vod

Those greabs really finish off the back plate and the stickers are awesooooome

Great work on the weathering too and all round excellent job ! 

Awwww shucks Vode!

Y'all are gonna make my buy'ce to small for my noggin' with compliments like that!

Well, I pulled out some of the leatherwork tricks this time...
I have been somewhat dreading making the cross-draw holster for my DL-44, primarily because I've never designed or made a holster before
So I pretty much attacked it like all the other parts... time to make the pattern! (Sorry, I forgot to get pics, will get some up later)
- The pattern was pretty much as simple as laying the gun down on a cardboard box, using one of the straight edges to line up with the top of the blaster just under the scope and roughly mark the points where I wanted the holster to fit snugly or wrap around (tips of the muzzle, corners of the radiator to where the trigger guard meets the grip and then the rear point of the sight rail and grip. then pretty much played connect-the-dots to make the base for the pattern.
- Next I copied the pattern over and measured the width of the blaster at various points to figure out how wide to make the top and bottom sections
- Once I had everything figured out I did a test fit with my cardboard mock-up and tweaked where necessary (like cutting out around the switch on the left side)
- Now that the pattern pieces were sorted I transferred the pattern to the leather... unfortunately I didn't have a piece wide enough for the top piece so I decided to divide the top up into sections to be riveted together later to match the pattern, besides I like the layered look it gave it.


To make the corners tighter I cut a V-notch along the inside of the leather along the corners the riveted everything together with a combination of 1/8" pop rivets and 1/8" leather rivet (pop rivets went where the connection was more mechanical and would not be seen:

 
And the fit...   Like a gllllllove!


Here are a couple pics with it mounted on my belt:

I have to re-do the top of the snap and add an extension tab to make it a little easier to pop the snap and will probably tea or coffee dye the leather to grunge it up a bit!

But I'm pretty pleased with the results ... What do ya think???

[Kelan Ord]

Looks awesome man!
I'm currently working on a cross draw holster for my blaster, might borrow some of your ideas! 

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

Looks awesome man!
I'm currently working on a cross draw holster for my blaster, might borrow some of your ideas! 

Vor'e! Vod 8)
    ...And, go for it bud!!

One thing I did forgot to mention was that the belt loop was made wide to avoid the holster from twisting down on the belt!

[Niabi]

oooo Love that holster vod very cool  8)

[Thaxos]

That's a real nice looking holster, well done!

[Pesh 'katar]

Awesome holster, ner'vod! Stahp with the awesomeness, my brains can't handle the magnitude...

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

oooo Love that holster vod very cool  8)

That's a real nice looking holster, well done!

Awesome holster, ner'vod! Stahp with the awesomeness, my brains can't handle the magnitude...

Vor'e! Vode... Glad it came out as well as it did

Oh, And I got my backplate weathered and ready for the clear coat:


I also got the first clear coat on the rest of the plates

But I may have to re-do a couple of them because I got some bubbling on a couple of the pieces

Ah, well, back to the grindstone...

[Ronin Tavic]

I never clear coated any of my armor................. it's funny though cause i have a rivet from my pauldron that rubs my collar piece, and it's only worn it down to the primer coat.. not through it. looks mighty realistic too..  so for me bumps and scratches are just free weathering lol

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

I never clear coated any of my armor................. it's funny though cause i have a rivet from my pauldron that rubs my collar piece, and it's only worn it down to the primer coat.. not through it. looks mighty realistic too..  so for me bumps and scratches are just free weathering lol

The main purpose of the clear coat (besides protection) is to even out the finish on the parts, some were painted with gloss black and others were painted with matte black
The matte clear coat evens it all out to a nice evenly colored finish!

Oh yeah here are a couple shots of the greeblies installed and weathered on the fuel tank (the whole thing also has 1 coat of matte clear too!)


So I was trying to figure out how I was going to mount both the boba pouches and my holster and got to looking at my Jedi belt for inspiration:

I figured that if I use a 2 layer belt I can slide the boba pouches over the under belt (2.5" wide) and then mount the ammo pouches and holster to the top belt (1.25" - 1.5" wide). So I'm about to order a leather strap to use for the under belt and use a nylon belt that matches the one on my grab-it pack for the outer belt! Just gotta decide if I want dark brown to match the other leather that I'm using or black???

[Kelan Ord]

Personal choice, I would go with brown.

Also, VERY nice work my man! This is shaping up to be one heck of a kit!!

[Kyr Vykos]

Once again, you, sir, have blown my mind. Great work. I really love that holster, too.

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

Personal choice, I would go with brown.

Also, VERY nice work my man! This is shaping up to be one heck of a kit!!

Vor'e Vod! And that was the direction I was leaning anyways, should have the brown one today!

Once again, you, sir, have blown my mind. Great work. I really love that holster, too.

Much appreciated Vod!

Speaking of the holster...

I was trying to fit it onto the web belt and realized that the belt loop is actually too small for the buckles to fit through! 
So I did this:

Adding the snaps will let me snap it over the belt without having to worry about the buckles...
... I also added a tab to the snap for the tie-down strap to make it easier to open!


And I also attached a belt to the codpiece with some leather backers:


And a test fit:


I also got the knees done... Riveted the slide adjuster on using some leather strips and added a heavy duty elastic straps from a pair of shin guards I picked up at a recent toy swap, again riveted down with leather backers to prevent tear-through. I also painted and weathered the rivets


And the test fit:


Just waiting on the dark brown under belt to wrap that up that piece and some weathering to do on the half chaps
(should be pretty easy considering I have some dirty snow hills outside I can go tromping through!)