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1)Pretty ambitious project, considering the most I'd ever made from leather was a few pouches and a belt for my ROTJ Luke. Well, I'm not one to back down from a challenge, so I took to the internet and Facebook to learn everything I could about making leather armor. I came up with a plan, and took a trip to Tandy for a few sides of leather and some buckles, rivets and other little whatnot.
I had previously purchased a steel breastplate that I was going to try and convert into a previous season version, but the work involved with that was going to be insane, and I wasn't going to be happy with the end result. The plus side? I ended up with an amazing form.
I cold soaked the leather and stretched it over the chest:
2)Pardon the sink. I lightly heat-gunned the armor to harden it up. Think of it as boiling the armor without having to wear gloves or worry about burning myself. After I trimmed it down, I used an awl to scribe the line between where the colors would be different. Don't know if this has a technical term, I'm not a properly trained leathersmith.
3)After two coats of black, I was pretty pleased, and starting making straps. In hindsight, I made more of a headache by attaching the straps before dying them, but now I know (and at the time, that was exactly 0% of the battle).
4, 5)The next day I started work on the backplate. I didn't take any pictures of it, specifically, but I used the same method (only with a thinner leather). Soaked it in cold water, then stretched it over a form, and heatgunned it to harden it up and set the detail. In the end, it seems like a lot of work for something that is going to be covered by a cloak, but *I* know there is detail back there.
I did a better job on the straps where they were going to be visable. Not bad for my first time making straps.
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