Space Battleship Yamato belt buckle.

Galane

New Member
I just had to have a proper belt buckle to go with my SBY costume. The problem is in the TV series there's at least four slightly different designs that change from scene to scene, so I chose the simplest version.

I fiddled around with various things to make a master but wasn't getting anywhere. Then I found this soap dish that had the right curves but was too large. Easy fix, cast some Crystal Clear 202 in the dish to the thickness the buckle needs to be, then cut a slot across it on the mill and super glue the halves together. The joint is horizontal in the master.

Next problem was the dimples from the bumps in the bottom of the dish. I bondoed them but no matter how much spot putty and primer and sanding I did they were always visible. Argh! Deal with it later.

For the X in the middle I routed a pocket in a chunk of plywood on the mill, filled it with 202 then milled it flat and milled an X in with a 1/4" ball end mill. Primer, sand, mold release then fill with some more 202. It lifted out clean and got trimmed up, super glued and blended into the outer ring with some bondo.

The most expedient thing I could think of to hide those @#%@ circles from the dimples was plain old masking tape. That was a bit of an oops. Something in masking tape adhesive inhibits the curing of platinum cure RTV silicone. I had to force cure the mold in the dehydrator. Turned out OK because it gives the recesses in the buckle a rough cast texture... which in the two buckles I made is buried under a filling of black tinted 202.

The hook and loop embedded into the back is made of welding rod, spot welded together so it will never come apart. I made two buckles because that's how much 316 part B I colored yellow. ;)
 
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