Captain America: The First Avenger (Belt Rig/Shield/Gloves)

[BananaBlitz]

Figured I'd make a thread encompassing what I'm remaking at this point in time from my previous costuming experience. I was far from satisfied with my first attempts at all of the objects in my title, so I've started redoing everything from the ground up. The first step is the belt, then the shield, then the gloves. Wish me luck!

Here's my progress so far with the belt. What I've done so far is take a three inch wide leather work belt from the local hardware store and attach to it a few rivets and one of the amazing functional aluminum buckles from the recent run by DMachinist in the junkyard. So far so good! Just enough room left on the current belt loop to attach the pouches that I'm in the middle of stitching. Thanks to Sandman0077 for the patterns found here : http://www.therpf.com/f24/first-avenger-belt-holster-rig-completed-07may2012-138838/index2.html

And also a thanks to the users Rikarus and SteamShovel for their own TFA archives. Both have been an amazing help.

Lastly, thank you to Valor for the guide on the metal sled shield, I hope I'll do it justice!

Cheers!
Blitz

 

[BananaBlitz]

One pouch down, and this one appears to be appropriately sized. I was thinking of perhaps adding a line of stitching to every area that the leather bends at? Anyone with experience know if that would help maintain the shape? Anyway, other than that, hopefully dyeing this will go better than the last time I tried it. Going to be using a British Tan dye, which I'm told is the right color. Hand awls take forever, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!

 

[BananaBlitz]

Last night I took a pair of rose gardening gloves and modified them to better suit my needs. There's a before and after, going to dye the stitches and add the loops sometime, probably tomorrow. Other than that, got a clearcoat on my shield andwetsanded. Definitely buffing that out tomorrow. Cheers!

 

[BananaBlitz]

More updates! Finished off the holster for the most part, but I was thinking of lining the insides of the pouches and the holster with sheepskin. I'd probably have to redo the stitching, but eh, I think it would be a good up close touch to something that is never seen on screen. Getting pretty quick with a hand awl. Still need to make the other three pouches, but I have a much better idea of how to do them now. Also put on the first three coats of clear on the shield and am waiting to put on another couple after already having smoothed it out. Using the Duplicolor acrylic clear. Anywho, pictures!





Not sure if I should stain the stitching on the holster? Kid of like it, but I'd love another opinion. And since I had not stamp or tooling skill I just brushed on the US logo with stain.

Cheers!
Blitz

 

[BananaBlitz]

This week has been good for the shield. I have my old one, but it always left me somewhat dissatisfied. It is a sled shield, and while I liked the concept of rivets on the front, pop rivets were kind of eh. In retrospect, I would have used bolts to hold the two sleds together. As it is, I found a 28" round disc from an old combine tractor for $30. Rusty as all hell, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Here is what I started with:



It is 3/8" thick tool steel. As such, it currently weighs about seventy pounds. I suspect it is high speed steel. Feels incredibly sturdy, and all warping from use as a combine wheel is on the outside perimeter which I am going to take off. The first step was to take off the rust, which was largely successful.



There it is, generally rust free and with a matching square of tool steel welded in the center. The old one is 26" in diameter for reference. I just rigged a homebrew power supply, so I should be able to zap the rest of the rust off of it quite easily and finish it by hand. This time around I aim to machine out the circles, tap holes in the back for the brackets to use hex bolts in (no more pop rivets, yay!), use heavy duty leather straps, and make a more matte finish with Testor's paint. Anything else we can come up with? I want to keep it reasonably movie accurate this time.

 

[Fly4v]

70 lbs!?
What do you estimate the final weight will be after you machine it down to its final size.

I can just imagine what will happen when you are in costume and a kid asks to hold your shield.

 

[BananaBlitz]

Final weight if I did the math right should be around 55 lbs. I live in a college town, so I'm more concerned with someone drunkenly punching it than anything, hahaha

 

[BananaBlitz]

Just a quick update! Set up the electrolysis bath. Left it running while I'm at work, we'll see how it goes.

 

[BananaBlitz]

It was a grand success! considering my power supply was home made, I was pretty worried that it wouldn't handle the high amperage for the amount of time that it took (around 18 hours, nine per half). Here's a terrible picture of the aftereffect. The coating on the surface is cupric phosphate, a byproduct of the reaction. The only rust left on it is the stuff that formed overnight, which will be incredibly easy to buff off.



Cheers!
Blitz

 

[BananaBlitz]

Just a small update on a combination of things. Firstly, coming to appreciate the sheer amount of research that went into making TFA a period piece. The rivets on the front of the star and the back of the shield brackets are supposed to be flush rivets, which were developed during WWII to make planes more aerodynamic at high speeds. Here's the Walt Disney educational video on riveting using animation as a teaching method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DVPG8go4Jk

Neat.

Other than that, this is just a quick and small update on the 'machining' (No spinning lathes for me) of circles on the surface of the shield. Saving up the steel dust to fill in the words on the front with a combo of resin and steel dust to buff it and make a continuous surface. Somehow, if it says 'Made in Canada' on the front, it just doesn't seem right for Captain America. I may go pick up another steel disc for this project for the back brackets, but boy is this a hard one to work with. The chemicals that I used to get rid of the surface rust had the added effect of removing the annealed effect of the metal by disturbing the crystallization, which was a godsend. Without it, I never would have been able to mark the surface. By hand. With a dremel. The outside diameter I'm going to do with a fixed angle grinder and a pillow block bearing to spin the shield as it cuts, hopefully making a smooth finish on the edge. Otherwise I have a looooot of sanding and filing in my future. If anyone follows in my footsteps, use a respirator mask of some kind.

Steady hands! Just one more ring to go. Here's some pictures of progress so far. For those wondering, the inner circle diameter is a hair over nine inches. Ten seemed too big on the last one

Imgur album : http://imgur.com/a/ITH8X

 

[Fly4v]

The WIP attachments don't work. :cry

If you are going to use actual flush rivets how are you going to hide the dimple on the backside?

 

[BananaBlitz]

Well that's strange. I'll put 'em on imgur and swap them out. To answer the question, I was going to drill in a secondary hole the width and depth of the bottom 'bump' to hold it. With 3/8", I've got some wiggle room.

 

[Fly4v]

The links work!

The pitted steel really has character.

Look forward to seeing how the homemade JB weld will fill the markings.

 

[BananaBlitz]

I got a bee in my bonnet to finish the grooves on my first day off in three months, and maybe the finish if I have time. Here's the progress since last night, easily looks 100x better with the last groove done. The pictures are doing it great justice. Here's a before and after, using the previous picture from last night.

Finishing and Final Groove - Imgur

 

[BananaBlitz]

It's been a long time coming, but the plasma cutting of the whole thing was finally finished. Cool bit of info, but the whole thing ended up being free because the cutter took so long on it when he promised a few days turnover time. He made the outside ring a little large, but for free I'll go with it. I'll probably be the only person to notice anyhow. As it turned out, I was right in assuming it was 3/8" thick the whole way through, confirming that it'll be a half inch thick at the star and 9/16" thick at the edge.

The back bracket was actually cut twice due to a dimensioning error going from draftsight to solidworks, so I ended up with one 26" back bracket and one 27" bracket. If anyone needs the large one, just send me a PM, otherwise it's going on the junkyard when I get around to it.

Here's the small imgur album of the update, just finished the surface again. Currently (quite literally right now) measuring out the spacing for the holes I have to drill into the bracket to mount it. I'm using 1/4" stainless steel allen head screws with 20 threads per inch. I'm blanking on the length, but it was certainly enough to not go through the whole assembly. It's looking like I'll need somewhere around 92 of them (aaaahhhhhhhh...!). This is why a drill press was invented. The outside rim of the back bracket is going to be welded on, and the 'C' brackets are going to be bolted, with the pentagonal buckles held in by a 3/4" threaded rod welded into the base. If that's not enough, I'll weld the C brackets as well.

Plasma Cut and Applied Finish - Imgur





Cheers!
-Blitz

 

[BananaBlitz]

The pilot holes took about four hours total. Good lord. Here's the update picture! Still sourcing the proper sized flush rivets, I've found close, but not quite what I'm looking for, so for now the star is just JB Welded on. Tapped out the holes for 36 of the 1/4"-20/ 1/2" allen head screws so half(!) the back bracket can be attached. That's 64 screws in total, for those of you wondering. Trying to finish this by the fourth, but bits and pieces of it still need a good resurfacing that no amount of sanding is having any luck with.

Other than that, it's just peachy. The final weight is looking to be about sixty pounds including the back bracket, have yet to figure out the weight of the leatherwork. Not coincidentally, today is gym day. I still need to make the heavy duty pentagonal brackets

 

[Joshcfii]

Would you happen to have some drawings of the dimensions you used for your back bracket and buckle pieces?
i have access to a shop that can do this for me, I just need some guidance on the dimensions.

 

[BananaBlitz]

Ow. Made myself do half of these at once, because doing this by hand hurts a lot.



Currently welding the outside rim and finding suitable bits for all the buckles. Settled on 1/2" threaded rod for the pentagonal buckle mounts with 13 threads per inch because with nuts on it there is an inch wide round of steel below and above the buckle. Which should be sufficient for most anything. The only worry is the buckles bending, but then that's why I'm making it all removable.

Cheers!
-Blitz

 

[BananaBlitz]

Just a small, miscellaneous update, the spare back bracket is taken and shipped.

Cheers!
-Blitz

 

[BananaBlitz]

Finished tapping the first, and largest, bracket. Now I'm just doing a quick mock up of everything for measuring purposes. Still need to get the pentagonal buckles cut, my buddy has access to a manual mill that he was willing to use. This is gonna be really, really, ridiculously heavy duty.



I'm liking the contrast of the stainless steel to the darker grey of the bracket, any thought on whether I should match the movie or do my own thing? My other thought was having the back gaps between the bare shield and the brackets filled with a black or dark blue carbon fiber because it would look awesome. All that's left for this is to match it to the back, drill out the holes on the back of the shield, tap them, and bolt the whole thing on. 'All'.

Sewing the jacket and pants is going to be cake compared to this.