Making of 'Conan the Destroyer' Headband

[Leatherworker]

Hi there,

was absent from RPF for more than 7 years now. So I guess it is time to start a new projekt! First, I have to appologize for not answering several messages during my absence!!!! I fear it is far to late to answer them now ...

As a huge Conan fan I want to add one replica to my Conan display. The iconic leather headband ...

There is another cool thread providing already very nice closeup pictures and some important findings that are important to be considered (Conan closeups?).

So the first problem is the metal hardware. I spend several days trying to find something commercially available. Without any success so far. The original ones are in my opinion furniture or upholstery nails...


1) Brass or bronce square pyramid nails

So if anyone has an idea where to find the original ones, please let me know. From my measurements they should have 19 x 19 mm. Each face of the pyramide has 7 groves. Since I fear the originals are not available anymore, I have to build them on my own ...

 

[Funky]

I am SO watching this thread! I've wanted one of these for a LONG time!

 

[Leatherworker]

So ... some evolution after chemical treatment to mimik the oxidized "old" look ...

2) Nose piece nails

These (see picture obove) can be found easily online. Upholstery nails with spherical heads (6,5 mm), nickel plated. The length at least 1,5 cm, since the leather will be quite thick ...

 

[Leatherworker]

3) Large round iron nails

Ok, this one is not easy, since I am not a blacksmith. The originals look like hand forged iron nails with cone shape and 24 mm head diameter. I found a nearly perfect offer online ...

Hammered barbarian appearance, cone shape, oxidized surface (needs to be a bit more grey) ...Perfect match! NOOOO! What they send has 26 mm :-( i.e. 2 mm to large. Also the shaft is very thick (more difficult to attach to the leather). So I will have to see what the offerer says and hold my eyes open for better alternatives ...

Meanwhile I will start with some first tries concerning the nose piece section.


The Nose piece

Here we find an extremely important finding about the history of the headband in the mentioned thead above. At first it was desiged with the nose piece under the headband ...

This was removed and squeezed between the two front round nails above the headband itself (I guess because otherwise to much of the face was covered), the central decoration element was therefore removed. If I was the prop maker, I would have used the following setup:

The top stripe (left) is decoration (thin leather 1,3mm). Front also thin leather. Steel spring to provide enough stability. Very thick leather in between ( approx. 4-5mm). The last layer as the front one (perhaps this will only cover the lower part under the headband – since I have found no picture showing the inside of the headband this point is unclear ...

Staining and antique look is business as usuall ...

The decoration stripe is definitely machine stitched with thin yarn ...

The cuts and sewing of the original is pretty unclean an crooked. Not sure if I want to reproduce it ...

 

[Leatherworker]

To proceed with the nose piece, we need the main head band first ...



What means screen accurate???? (philosophical considerations)

In the following screenshot, we see some interesting details:

1) One of the round nails (last one on the right side) is missing throughout the film. Underneath, I think, we see the brighter cognac color of the version made for Conan the Barbarian. Was it lost during shooting the action scenes? Or was that on purpose? Here's the other side (note that the distance between the eyelets and the nail is larger) ...

2) The lacing is made of brown textile shoelaces and runs through black eyelets. Both modern and not really barbarian stye. But it is as it is. That way it is presumable much easier to adjust than with leather lacing.


It would be cool to get some opinions about the missing nail. Reproduce or not? I think I will proceed with the missing nail. Will require some additional steps during staining ...

 

[triburito]

To proceed with the nose piece, we need the main head band first ...



What means screen accurate???? (philosophical considerations)

In the following screenshot, we see some interesting details:

View attachment 1688180

1) One of the round nails (last one on the right side) is missing throughout the film. Underneath, I think, we see the brighter cognac color of the version made for Conan the Barbarian. Was it lost during shooting the action scenes? Or was that on purpose? Here's the other side (note that the distance between the eyelets and the nail is larger) ...

View attachment 1688187

2) The lacing is made of brown textile shoelaces and runs through black eyelets. Both modern and not really barbarian stye. But it is as it is. That way it is presumable much easier to adjust than with leather lacing.


It would be cool to get some opinions about the missing nail. Reproduce or not? I think I will proceed with the missing nail. Will require some additional steps during staining ...

The headband of Conan The destroyer is slightly different from the one used in The barbarian, can be seen mainly in the nose metal pieces.

The different colour you say here is not related with the colour from the other movie, as the headband is not the same, they didn´t use the same for both movies.

Im curious about this project, as I was making something similar time ago, I think you are gonna make a good job.

 

[Leatherworker]

Another interesting point raised by triburito that was discussed in the conan closeups thread Conan closeups?. I hope it is ok to repost one of their great comparison pictures here ...

The nose piece is definitely a different one in both movies. The nails, shape and in particular the stitching on the decoration stripe is different. The build quality of the barbarian nose version is great and matches the band itself (even stitching, nails in optimal position above and underneath the rolled edges). The nose of the destroyer version looks like it was done in a hurry (uneven stitching, two nails go right into the rolled edge) whereas the hadband still has a great quality.

So the question to me: Was only the nose piece replaced or is it a complete rebuild? Why should they replace the nice nose piece from the first movie? Unfortunately I have no idea who build this piece and wheter she or he is still alive to answer these questions.

I tried to find any pictures to provide clear evidence that the headband is the same (positioning of the nails, marks on the leather) but to be honest this is exremely difficult. Here two other shots from the barbarian version (had to brigthen the images a lot) ...

At least this proves that no nail is missing in the barbarian version ...

 

[triburito]

Not sure...

 

[Leatherworker]

The hadband with "rolled" edges

Some first tries to figure out the details for the main leather part (since there was a lot of discussion about the used technique, I decided to show them and add some info) ...

The technique is called "french binding" and a three piece construction. I used it before for my Pirates of the Carribean part one baldric. Here are some example pictures – front and back (four seams, two hidden underneath the envelopes and to visible ones) ...

For Conan we simply skip the two seams that secures the envelope on the backside. This is not as durable because the backside is only glued in place, but otherwise, we would see the seams on the front. Here a quick test (one thick leather part in the middle and two thinner borderparts) ...

Step one: Sew in one border part. Use saddle stitching because this seam has to be very durable.

Step two: Bend it over and simply glue to the backside. Et voilá ... we are done ...

Same on the other side and its finished ...

Comparison with printed 1 to 1 reference shows we are quite close. The borders are 1,5 cm thick. However the complete band has to be 2-3 mm wider. This I have to consider for the final build ...

The tricky thing with this technique that there are several parameters that define the end result. The most important one is the thickness of the used leatherparts, but also the stiffness and the distance of the seams from the borders. Since there is nor rule for that one have to adjust everything to the materials and dimensions ...

 

[Leatherworker]

Hi,

Just looked again for pictures to figure out more details of the destroyer nose piece construction. Thereby I found this shot with 3 characteristic dents in the leather ...

Here again the barbarian version ...

May be its hairsplitting but I would bet its the same hadband. But than again, why was the nose changed (i.p. because it is not easy with the multilayered construction)? We will never know ...

 

[triburito]

It seems you are right.
I think there were 2 different headbands.

 

[Leatherworker]

Since I am still desperately waiting for a new batch of leather to proceed, I will further improve the pyramid nails. Thereby I started to ponder wether all of these square nails are gold / brass colored? From some of the images it seems that we have brass and silver colored nails alternating. However I am not sure about this point since it could be also depending on the light direction and reflections ...

Does anyone has further info or opinion about this point?

 

[OzReturner]

The bottom pic looks to me like 3 gold in a row, with a 4th silver one. Which makes me think that they are all the same with different lighting like you mentioned. Maybe try taking some pics of yours, trying to mimic the different shading effects. If you can make your identical ones look different in the same shot, I think the movie ones are all the same too.

 

[Leatherworker]

As suggested I used an old belt to make some quick and dirty shots from different angles. Here alternating brass and silver nails ...

Here with four brass ones (below some first tries concerning aging and attachment of the nose piece and its nails) ...

Two more movie shots with color saturation set to max ...

Think I will go with alternating brass and silver nails – until there is evidence proving I'm wrong ...

 

[OzReturner]

As suggested I used an old belt to make some quick and dirty shots from different angles. Here alternating brass and silver nails ...

View attachment 1691728

Here with four brass ones (below some first tries concerning aging and attachment of the nose piece and its nails) ...

View attachment 1691733

Two more movie shots with color saturation set to max ...

View attachment 1691734

View attachment 1691735

Think I will go with alternating brass and silver nails – until there is evidence proving I'm wrong ...

Now I agree. Alternating definitely seems more accurate.

 

[Leatherworker]

I think I have the pyramid nails ready. Here's the final result ...

Machined the grooves deeper in the metal and changed the aging process. This should be pretty close to the original.

Since my new batch of leather finally arrived (vegetable tanned full grain leather – my goodness this has gotten expensive ), I proceeded with the headband itself. The main parts (headband 4,1 mm thick and borders approx. 1,7 mm) after first round of staining ...

These anthracite eyelets – I would not have used them. Not sure if I will change that to aged brass. Desperately waiting for the round nails. I probably found something that may serve as a good starting point ...

 

[nick daring]

Wonderful research and build! I did some work trying to figure out the construction on this piece too. Great to see it getting tackeld so accurately!

I was studying the build details of this other leather piece from a guards helemt that seemed to be using similar leather contruction tricks. I wish the auction had shots of the inside. SOuld reveal important info.

I also wonder what's going on in this photo where the leather is at Arnie's forehead.

I'm guessing what we are seeing is maybe the edge of a soft suede layer that was glued down to make the leather strap and all the stitching and exposed edges more comfortable for the wearer.

 

[Leatherworker]

I think you are right. I also plan to add a thin foam hat band layer covered by suede. The nail ends, if one add them before sewing in the borders are in principle covered by the french binding. But there is still the final stiching of the nose piece that has to go completely through the construction and - depending on their length the nails on the nose piece. And otherwise 4 mm full grain leather and steel spring etc. will definitely be hell uncomfortabe. Another – more unlikely – explanation for this extra layer that we see at the forehead would be a conterpart of thin layer corresponding to the first layer of the nose piece that follows the stiching (You see this one in my picture above showing the planned nose piece construction – last layer to the right) ...

 

[Leatherworker]

So, the post man made me happy The round nails arrived and I could start with the modification. They have a ugly brown finish and a not 100% accurate cross section, but the important things are that they have the right diameter, have a thin shaft that can easily attatched to the leather and are made of steel. Here is the evolution process I chose from left to right ...

After removing the original coating, adding the 3D shape, chemical oxidation and some mechanical aging I think this comes pretty close. The originals seem a little bit more cone shaped. So in the end we will have four different metal surfaces combined in the headband: The brass/ gold and siver pyramid nails, chrome nosepiece nails and oxidized / burnished round iron nails ...

 

[Leatherworker]

Second round of staining and aging and everything prepared to sew in the borders, as announced, I will go with one nail missing as seen on screen in the destroyer movie (see next image as comparison – only the nail hole in the original is off center??? How??? ) ...

By the way, I decided to sew in the top layer of the nose piece together with the border instead of adding it later. Therefore it was already attached at the desired position