The brackets have been made from sheet styrene so I didn't need to grind metal outside and retain the good flex of the nylon shield.
The sheet styrene was measured and cut into 2.5 inch wide strips using score and break. Just use a metal straight edge and a sharp hobby knife to score the line and then break the styrene by pushing down on the edge of a table.
This only works with straight edges. For curved holes, drill a hole at the intersection of the two surfaces and for a curved corner just file the point down to the contour using a nail file.
The leather straps are belts from Amazon. Free shipping! And I don't have to dye, punch many holes, stitch the edges, or buy the buckles. Find a good local sale or if possible a quick trip to Ross, or other such inexpensive clothing store, and the cost could be even less.
The steel shield was done with two belts. This time around I bought three so I could have more leather to work with and do the straps differently.
The leather cross straps attach to the brackets with the chicago screws. Drill a 3/16" hole in the bracket, it doesn't matter if the bracket is metal or styrene at this point. Also, punch matching holes in your leather.
The belts that I am using this time are padded so I have to remove material from the backside of the belts. This was done with an old stone grinding disk and a proxxon, any brand will do, I just prefer proxxon after destroying two of an other brand in less than a month.
If you don't want to do this buy wider chicago screws or unpadded belts.
Now when putting the bracket on the shield this is when metal vs plastic is important. The chicago screws are on the backside of the bracket and sit on the shield. For the Nylon shield I drilled a counter sink hole to accommodate the blind head of the screw. For the Steel shield I punched a lip on the metal bracket.
