Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research and SHOW-Off (All Done)

[piglady]

Re: NBC's Third Watch (3rd Watch) Officer Badge Research + Show off

Got the badges in! Great work by the maker and fast shipping to boot. Took less then a week to arrive from Germany.

I recently found a website claiming to have provided the badges for Third Watch and apparently the badge maker I used can do custom hallmarks, so in the spirit of full accuracy, I may have them add that.

Here are the two hallmarks on the back of the badge.

And the two badge holders I ordered on the 7th of this month (and shipped the 9th) arrived on Saturday, taking 2+ weeks to arrive.
The citation bars I have fit just fine, except the NYPD 150th bars. But I've ordered from a different person that have them with a Clutch backing (instead of the Pin backing I currently have) that should fit.

Also, the badge holder from "Perfect Fit USA," seemed to be too large of a gap for the badge to reach and the bottom hole was too small. So I've sent an email to them asking if they could do a custom order. I'm glad I didn't place a massive order on these citation holders or I would have about 20 unfit pieces of leather.

So, I'm going to place another order of badges and am waiting to hear back from another company for the bars.

Hi . am new to this - i was wondering if you could pass on the info of the good badge maker in germany you found, thanks

 

[piglady]

Re: NBC's Third Watch (3rd Watch) Officer Badge Research + Show off

Hi, - Can you please send me the details of the good german badge maker

Got the badges in! Great work by the maker and fast shipping to boot. Took less then a week to arrive from Germany.

I recently found a website claiming to have provided the badges for Third Watch and apparently the badge maker I used can do custom hallmarks, so in the spirit of full accuracy, I may have them add that.

Here are the two hallmarks on the back of the badge.

And the two badge holders I ordered on the 7th of this month (and shipped the 9th) arrived on Saturday, taking 2+ weeks to arrive.
The citation bars I have fit just fine, except the NYPD 150th bars. But I've ordered from a different person that have them with a Clutch backing (instead of the Pin backing I currently have) that should fit.

Also, the badge holder from "Perfect Fit USA," seemed to be too large of a gap for the badge to reach and the bottom hole was too small. So I've sent an email to them asking if they could do a custom order. I'm glad I didn't place a massive order on these citation holders or I would have about 20 unfit pieces of leather.

So, I'm going to place another order of badges and am waiting to hear back from another company for the bars.

Hi . am new to this - i was wondering if you could pass on the info of the good badge maker in germany you found, thanks

 

[nypd55sergeant]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

I was wondering if you could help me...I am looking to get the stuff to make Bosco and Cruzs badge and pins. Could you help me get started and tell me where to look? Thanks so much.

 

[mrwilmoth]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

nice props! I loved third watch!

 

[Hogosha]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

Could you please post a few pics o the Detective Badge?

 

[Kingpin]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

A couple of years back, I was going through the same process, rabbit... possibly a tad easier, as I live in the UK, and laws on American police badges are a lot less strict.

The shield was from policebadges.de (auctioned through eBay) as I recall, same with the name badge. The citation bars and holder (as well as the cap) were also from eBay (although the cap badge came from the same German supplier as I wanted it to match the chest shield). The Precinct 55 badges were from eBay.

Obviously the blue shirt isn't accurate, but I wasn't trying to replicate a Third Watch costume, instead just a classic NYPD one.

Nice to see another person's documented foree into replicating the uniform. All those badges together makes for a dazzling display.

 

[Kennyd]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

I love the old blue shirts. I used to have a lot of NYPD uniform stuff and different ranks caps.

 

[rabbit4x]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

Great setup Kingpin! I remember stumbling onto your thread over at the Ghostbuster's forum when I was searching on google.


I have big updates for this project. I finally scrounged up the last bit of money to get the last set of bars and everything has arrived.

My first step is to glue all the gold numbers and gold stars onto the citation bars.

Second step is to drill holes into the leather backings so that I don't have a bent/curved badge display. (I experimented by hammering nails through the leather, but the holes were inconsistent and plus, it looked pretty ragged.)

Last step is to assemble and display everything in an organized manner.

It took a long time, but this project is finally coming to a close.

 

[Kingpin]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

If it's easier, I'd suggest using a leather belt hole punch to widen the holes rather than a drill.

 

[rabbit4x]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

If it's easier, I'd suggest using a leather belt hole punch to widen the holes rather than a drill.

I looked into that, but I'm not sure of the really heavy duty tools can punch a hole through the leather. And I think the leather is not really leather, but pieces of leather smashed together to make the badge holder.

But I'll look into it some more as I want the badge to sit perfect on the badge holder without having a bow to the overall display.

 

[rabbit4x]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (3/30/10)

Here are all my citation bars laid out.

These bars are my "error" bars that didn't work out for the Third Watch badges.

These are my "screen seen" bars from companies such as Smith and Warren and Somes.

And these are patches I bought along the way to display alongside my completed badge display.

 

[FSURobbie]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (1/27/11)

Wow, great work man. I was a huge fan of TW and was sad to see it go. I never understood why it wasn't more popular, it was quite possibly my favorite cop drama ever, and that's saying a lot because I love me some L&O. I'm going to have to go look up some episodes!

Those badges are awesome, you did a great job.

 

[rabbit4x]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (1/27/11)

Wow, great work man. I was a huge fan of TW and was sad to see it go. I never understood why it wasn't more popular, it was quite possibly my favorite cop drama ever, and that's saying a lot because I love me some L&O. I'm going to have to go look up some episodes!

Those badges are awesome, you did a great job.

Thanks! Glad to see another fan on the forum.

 

[rabbit4x]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (1/27/11)

I had a chance to get some work done on some bars. I attached all of the numbers onto each bar and all came out perfect. I accidentally used too much glue on one of the bars and it spilled over, but I managed to scrap it off with the screwdriver.

From Left to Right: Bosco, Sully, and Yokas.
Yokas is the top bar, and Captain Elchisak is the Star and "30".

 

[rabbit4x]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (1/27/11)

Borrowed a drill and did a test run on the leather backing.

For the most part, the holes came out looking great. Some of the leather took the drill better than others, but there was some nice clean holes. Once I placed the badge on, the hole is hidden.
Where the nametag goes, I drilled too high early on and a few backers were sacrificed, but once I got the hang of it, I managed to get them lined up right.

Test fitting with the backers and some pics of how they look from the back.

 

[rabbit4x]

Re: Third Watch (3rd) Officer Badges Research + Show Off (1/27/11)

2 years, 4 months, and 6 days since my first post, this marks the end of this project. It's been a pretty long journey with long breaks in between updates and purchases, but I've managed to get a very tedious project to conclusion.
I had no idea it would take this long, but in the end it was worth it. There was alot of trail and error, lots of purchases made from numerous venders, as well as a big chunk of money poured into it. I hope you've enjoyed my project.

And here are the pics!

And it's not fully done as I forgot to double check my list when I was ordering, so I have a few more stores to purchase from.
I also thought of a way to display the extra bars that I bought for each character. Rather then letting those pricey bars sit in a bin, I'm planning on getting extra leather backers and putting all the extra bars on. So a few more days before I can wrap this up.

 

[rabbit4x]

With the help of a very awesome RPF'er, I was able to get a few more badges for my display. I have a few "undercover" badge display in the works. I'm also planning on getting a Detective Yokas badge once I sell a few more things.

I'm now trying to track down the correct badge holder for the Det. Yokas badge as well as the shoelace that Cruz wears. I'm going back and re-capping Season 6 right now, so it's bringing back a lot of memories as well as a renewed interested in the show and my badges.

 

[eltee]

Incredible collection you assembled there. VERY impressive, nice job.

 

[rabbit4x]

Incredible collection you assembled there. VERY impressive, nice job.

Thanks, badge collecting is an addictive hobby.

 

[rabbit4x]

And now they are displayed! I bought some card stands for the upright badges. The ones that are almost flat are actually acrylic photo frames from dollar tree. Cheap and helps me prop up the badges pretty well.