Prince of Persia - Dastan Combat WIP (Pic Heavy)

SMP Designs · Mar 12, 2015

Hi all!

Here's a look at the Prince of Persia project. Yay leather!

The first thing we noticed from our reference images was that the vest leather actually has a semi-floral embossed pattern in it. So, while looking around and deciding how best to do that, we happened to find two hides of pre-embossed leather in almost a perfect pattern. The first image is the reference image and the second is the leather we used.

We mapped out all the overlaying and interlocking vest pieces and cut them all out of the leather. For the lower section that goes all the way around the ribs and holds the large medallion, we actually glued the thinner, embossed leather to a thicker, smooth piece and then cut it out to make sure it was heavy enough to hold up. Since the upper part has so many overlapping pieces and we wanted to make sure it was still flexible enough for him to move, we left it the original thickness.

The pieces were all riveted together, the edges burnished and the entire piece hand-dyed.

We found some belt blanks that were a good color match for the vest, so we beat those up a bit and used them for the two vest belts, the back straps and the straps that hold it all together. The vest actually goes on over the head, closes using two 'plates' on the shoulder and the lower part laces up the back. We used Worbla to create the shoulder plates, riveted them down on the back and used Chicago screws to secure the front. We also went ahead and put the Worbla collar band down at this point. I'll come to the 'metal' accent bands in a bit.

Next, I got the pants and waist sash together. The pants are made of a brushed cotton with accents made of a rough woven silk. The pants cross over in the front and close at the waistband. The sash is a heavy linen that we dyed to make look distressed (though this picture washed it out a bit).

With all of these pieces together, it was time for an initial test fitting. This image also includes the 'waist wrap' that he wears under the vest to cover the midriff between the belts.

More to be posted soon...

Risu · Mar 12, 2015

That's looking awesome! I never got this far on mine. FWIW, the screen used pants were corduroy with faux suede stripes.

SMP Designs · Mar 12, 2015

Risu said:
That's looking awesome! I never got this far on mine. FWIW, the screen used pants were corduroy with faux suede stripes.

Thanks Risu!

Yeah, I know - we didn't find a mico-cord that worked so we went with a good alternative. We wanted to get the effect and - let's face it - in real life, corduroy only looks like corduroy (ie: Brady Bunch). We wanted something that looked a little more period.

Risu · Mar 12, 2015

Yea, Jo-Ann used to carry a wide range of it, but they discontinued it all a couple years ago.

I had my doubts about the cord as well, so I looked it up. Turns out its actually very period accurate for royalty of that time.

SMP Designs · Mar 12, 2015

The cord that was in stock through my sources just didn't look right, though. The brushed cotton had the right hand and weight, so we went with that. Bigger budget and more lead-time, sure, the micro-cord could have been tracked down. But, you have to take license sometimes and go for the bigger picture.

SMP Designs · Mar 12, 2015

Part 2:

The next thing to attend to was all of the decoration on the vest. We decided that the best route for all of the small pieces was to scuplt them in Sculpey, bake them off, pull molds and cast them in resin. We tackled the large center medallion first.

The actual piece is very intricate. Rather than try to sculpt the whole thing, I found this medallion on Amazon that was a good size and thought it would be a great starting point. We used this as the main detail of the piece and then sculpted the rest around it.

We tried to sculpt everything at once so that we only needed to pull a few molds. For all the little tiles that go around the bottom of the vest, we only sculpted 3 different ones and just kept casting them until we had enough. Same for the 2 pieces on the middle belt on the vest and the little buckles for the belt that goes around the sash.

When they were all done and baked, we pulled the molds. I'll note here that we did all of the left-hand gauntlet pieces as well. To get a curve in the pieces that have to go around the wrist, we cast them almost flat and then were able to pull them before the resin completely set. We formed them around a mannequin arm and masking taped them down to finish curing and they had a perfect curve to fit his arm. I didn't get pictures of that process, but I wanted to mention it anyway.Here are the final baked pieces and the molds. The baked pieces were spray painted to help them release from the rubber molds.

Here's a little more detail of the sculpts and all the little carvings that were included. For the pyramids on some pieces, we used furniture tacks stuck into the Sculpey before baking. To create the filigree patterns on the backgrounds of the gauntlet pieces, we found an embossed coat button and just pressed it into the Sculpey like a stencil. Everything else was sculpted by hand using modelling tools.

Here's how they turned out in resin after being painted.

The bands that go around the center medallion and edge that section of the vest and also make up the collar were made from Worbla. The pieces were cut and contact cemented and riveted to the leather. We then went along the pieces and used a heat gun to soften it and carve in the edge detail with a butter knife. For the symbol motif that runs along the center of the bands, we created a stamp out of Sculpey. As the pieces were being heated and the edges carved, the motif was stamped into the soft Worbla.

With the main pieces well on the way, it was time to move on to the accessories. We began with the left arm. Having the pieces already cast, the rest of the gauntlet was made using a combination of faux and genuine leather. Once the base pieces were assembled, the cast and painted pieces were epoxied on and the pieces were finished with grommets and laces.