Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster - My first replica prop project (Update: Completed!)

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

Now that the buckles came in, I was able to continue making progress on the leather bits. I went down to Tandy and spent a bunch of money to get all of the supplies I thought I might need. I decided to just cut the straps as straight pieces of leather. I thought maybe they would need to be slightly curved in order to get a proper fit, but it doesn't seem that way now. The only one that might do better as a curved piece is the bottom right strap. It just has to bend in a way that makes the strap parallel to the floor right next to my side. It's not the most comfortable thing, though I think it does match what the holster looks like in game most of the time. Of course the game is not real life and doesn't have to conform to the laws of physics

Sorry for the poor quality of these photos. I had terrible lighting and I only had my phone camera. Also, the wood table/floor background makes it difficult for my camera to auto focus. I was just working with what I had at the time.

I decided to use Chicago screws (screw posts) to put the whole thing together. I'm guessing Leatherworker actually used rivets for his replica, but I wanted to be able to take mine apart. I'm considering making a second back plate that has my own initials. That way I can have a more accurate version with NDI stamped in (still haven't stamped yet) and another with my initials for the fun of it. I considered going with snaps but I couldn't find any snaps with posts long enough to go through this many layers of leather. Chicago screws seem to work well though. I had to carefully measure the holes and then I used a rotating punch to make the holes.



Next I cut the top straps. Then I measured and punched holes for them.




You can see the top right strap is made less wide at the end. That's because the buckle is only wide enough for a one inch strap. This is how the game designers made the holster for some reason. It was the reason I couldn't find any buckles that matched properly. Oh well! Moving along.


More plain straps



All four main straps.


And the final fifth strap. This strap attaches to the holster. The other end with be sewn onto the buckle. I decided to use Chicago screws for this as well, rather than sew it together. That way I can more easily replace the holster later if I want. I figure if I can replace the holster piece, I can use this same holster to carry many different firearm models if I want and I'll only have to replace one piece of leather instead of all the straps. I think sewing may have looked a bit nicer... but I don't think this will look bad either and it will make my life easier later.


Now I have all the straps cut. The next step will be to start fitting it together. Most of these straps are probably a bit too long. I did this on purpose so I could more easily cut it down to size later. Once I get them cut down to the exact right size, I'll create the grooved outline like I did on the other pieces months ago. Then I'll bevel the edges. I also need to cut a few smaller pieces of leather. Two attach to the back plate and one attaches to the holster. Difficult to describe in words, but you can see them in the reference images. Then I'll move on to staining, finishing, and sewing!

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

Oh I forgot to mention this part. I took some of the chicago screws and tried to age them. eI placed one in a small container of lemon juice with just about 2mm of the post sticking out of the juice. After an hour or so, I noticed that the 2mm that was NOT resting in the juice actually was getting dull. The nickel inside of the juice actually stayed shiny. So it seems like maybe if you suspend the nickel over the lemon juice, you can let the vapor age it.

I also tried using a PCB etching chemical. That worked REALLY well. After about 20 minutes it was already getting very dull. Unfortunately, it wasn't the look I wanted. I think I prefer the shiny look to be honest. I'll decide later once I stain the leather. At least now I know I can easily dull the nickel plating if I want too.

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

I've made a bit more progress on this in the last couple of days. I don't have many photos though. I decided to put the paper mock-up back together now that I have the buckles. Having the buckles meant that I could actually build it out of the paper and figure out the proper hole locations and everything. I put it all back together and then mounted the real leather holster piece to it. Then I put it on and fiddled with all of the lengths until I felt it was right.



Once I felt good about it, I took the paper template apart and used it to measure out all of the leather straps. I had already cut all of the straps, but most of them needed to be trimmed down. I'm not 100% happy with how the holster sits under my arm, but I'm not sure I'll be able to fix that without making another one. I'm just going to keep building with this one for now. Since I am building this all with Chicago Screws, it should be trivial to replace any piece that I want at a later time.

Now I have all of the leather straps cut out. Next I want to get the whole thing put together temporarily so I can make sure it still fits and looks correct with the leather. If it does, I can move forward with making it all look pretty. I just need to figure out how to temporarily attach the buckles to the leather straps. I don't want to actually sew the straps on before staining the leather. I'm thinking I might be able to use some masking tape to hold it together. I'm just hoping it won't leave a sticky residue behind.

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

I put the leather pieces together as best as I could without sewing. I think it's going to work. With that in mind, I beveled most of the edges of the straps and cut the outlines into the leather. I've got a couple more edges to bevel and that should be done.

Over the weekend I decided to mess with the leather dye I got to make sure it would look good. I stained four pieces of leather with anywhere between 1 and 4 coats of dye. The idea is that each coat will darken the color a little bit more. I wanted to see how much dye I would need to use to get the look I wanted.


Unfortunately it's tough to really tell the colors on camera. I was using my cell phone camera and I can't white balance it or anything. The little bit in the upper left corner is the raw leather, with no dye. Next is one coat. The NDI piece is four coats. There isn't much difference between three and four coats. Unfortunately, this dye turned out a little too orange for me. It's difficult to tell in the photo, but there's definitely an orange tone to it that I just do not like. I went down to the local leather supply store today and bought three more colors. Tan, light tan, and buckskin. I'm going to try each one and see which I like best. I suspect at least one of these should work.

Even though I didn't like the color, I still wanted to try slicking the edges as well as applying a finishing coat, just to get practice and see what it would look like. I slicked a few edges with gum trag and you can really see a difference. The edges are much smoother and sealed. They are also much darker, which I didn't expect.

Pre slicking:


Post slicking:

I applied some super sheen to one of the leather pieces and noticed that it makes the dye just a tiny bit darker. It definitely make it shiny though, which is what I wanted. I applied it and let it dry for around ten minutes. Then I buffed it up with a synthetic wool buffing pad. I think it turned out well, although I might add a second coat just to see how it affects the leather. I have a photo but you really can't tell that it's more shiny in the photo. You can tell up close, though it is subtle.

Next steps are to test out the new dyes and pick my favorite. Then I need to finish cleaning up some of the edges on the straps. I also still need to cut and finish the smallest strap pieces, but that should be a piece of cake. Then I'll punch some stitching holes and then move forward with the dying and finishing. It's getting pretty close now!

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

I tested out all four colors of dye. Some of them I tried only between one and three applications to see what the different shades would look like. here's a photo that shows all of the test pieces I've done.


Most of them are either too "orange" or too dark. My favorite is definitely the buckskin. The two pieces that look like straps in the bottom left are the buckskin dye. The lighter color is with one application and the darker color is two applications. here's a closer look. I've included the beige colored leather in the below picture as another color reference.


I really like how the buckskin turned out. I was hoping to copy what Leatherworker did on his holster by making the larger backplate a bit lighter than the rest of the holster. That's why I'm looking at two colors. However, I really like this lighter color for the overall color of the holster. I'm going to do another test and see if I can get a shade a little bit lighter than that one. Regardless, I now know what color dye I'll be using. I've also been cutting some of the remaining small pieces of leather. I haven't taken any photos of those yet since they aren't finished.

Next I'm going to try and get a slightly lighter shade of buckskin. I'm also going to apply a finishing coat to these test pieces and make sure it still looks good and doesn't get any darker. If all goes well, I'll know exactly what type of finish I'm using!

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

So I got a wild hair over the weekend and went crazy. It's almost 100% completed at this point. I just need to make the leather loops that go around the straps and then put some white tape on the back and it will be done. It's not 100% accurate, I can see it now that it's mostly put together. It's close enough though that I'm happy. I might go back and try to change some things later in order to make it a bit more accurate to the game but even if I don't, I'm very happy with how it's turning out.

I tried getting a lighter shade of buckskin but I just couldn't really get it any lighter. I ended up just applying it so I wouldn't get stuck forever trying different shades. Before I could do that, though, I had to glue the holster shut and punch the stitching holes. I also had to stamp the NDI stamp onto the back plate.

I used contact cement to hold the holster together. I was originally just going to sew it only, but I decided it would be easier to punch through two layers of leather if they were stuck together and couldn't shift around. I didn't want to clamp them and risk marking up the leather.


Once the glue dried, I used a small punch to make all of the stitching holes. I had to go over each hole twice to get it through both layers of leather.




Then it was time to do the NDI stamp. Unfortunately, the right side of the stamp shifted ever so slightly while I was making the impression. It's not as noticeable now that it's been dyed and finished, but it still pisses me off. I practiced a few times before, and this one shifted more than any other. Oh well.



Now it was time to do the dying. I couldn't get a uniform shade of dye for some reason. I was a bit disappointed in that, but I think the "marbled" look works well anyway. It's also darker than I wanted but it still looks nice. It seems like dying leather is somewhat of a black art. The same dye can look different on leather depending on where the leather came from, how it was tanned, etc.





Once the dying was completed, I added two coats of SuperSheen to everything. This is a finishing coat that really makes the leather shine. In hindsight, I think one coat would have been enough. At this point it's so shiny that it almost looks kind of plastic. It does look really nice though. You can see the shine in some of the below photos.

The next step was to sew the holster shut. I went with a saddle stitch. I found a nice video tutorial online that made it easy! It took me about 45 minutes to do the whole thing having never done it before.



I still had to attach the buckles to the straps. I cut some holes for the tongues to go through. Then I used more contact cement to glue the straps around the center bar of the buckle. Unfortunately, I didn't leave enough space at the end of the straps to make very good contact. It's holding, but there isn't enough room for me to add any real stitching. I had originally planned to stitch them on for extra strength, but I think I'm going to end up having to skip that unless I make some longer replacement straps. At least it's holding.

Then I put the whole thing together and put it on... It fits! As I said earlier, there are a few finishing touches I need to make but at this point it's usable and would definitely pass as an Uncharted 2 holster. Pardon the low quality selfie. Once I put on the finishing touches I'll get some better photos of the whole piece.

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

It's done! After months it's finally done. It's funny, the buckles are really what made it take so long. If I had those from the beginning I could have built this in a month. I'm pretty confident I could build another one in a few days if I had the free time available and all of the materials on hand.

Over the last couple of days I made the buckle keepers. These are the leather loops that go around some of the straps. Three of them are just for looks. One of them actually keeps the strap held down over the holster. I also added the white tape on the back of the holster. I used white athletic tape. Here are some photos of the completed thing.











I don't have any of me wearing it yet. I'm finishing up my Nathan Drake costume and then I'll take a few photos of the complete getup and post them here. That should give a better idea of what it looks like while being used. I'll likely post those either next week or the week after Halloween.

 

[Moosh89]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

This is really cool! You've done a great job for not having done it prior!

I'd like to get into leatherwork too, I've watched a few videos and picked up a couple Tandy beginner kits, and this build makes it seem less intimidating!

I love Uncharted as well! It's my favourite game franchise!

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

Thanks for the compliments! I worked really hard on it. I did a lot of research on leatherworking before starting the project. I basically started by going through Leatherworker's old posts and copying down all the notes about what he did. Then I figured out what his terminology was so I could figure out what kind of leather he used, which tools, techniques, etc. There were a lot of knowledge gaps to fill though. Then I did some more of my own research by just watching some simple leather work tutorial videos on YouTube. Then it was just a matter of buying the leather and some tools to get started.

You just have to be prepared to make mistakes and make pieces over again. But if you take your time and pay attention to what you are doing and try each new tool on a practice piece of leather, it will help prevent you from wasting too much time making mistakes. If I can help you at all, I'll be glad to give you any tips. Just keep in mind I'm a novice myself!

 

[jimmydellamorte]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

Turned out fantastic! Would you be willing to make more? =p

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

Thanks for the compliments. I worked really hard on it. I've been contemplating commissioning a few of these, since you are not the first person to ask. I likely won't have much time in the next month or so since I'm moving to a new house. I need to take some time to figure out what it would cost me to make another one and then estimate how much time it will take now that I know what I'm doing. Then I can work out a price and decide if I actually want to do it.

A lot of time goes into making this, and as a result it would likely be a few hundred dollars after all the time and materials. Another problem I have is trying to build the holster so it will fit another person. I designed mine to fit a dummy I made of my own body, so I knew it would fit. If I tried to adjust the size to fit another person, I would have to guess and with my lack of experience it might not fit properly. I might be able to make it work if I had you take a few measurements first. So I guess I have to figure out how to solve that problem and also figure out the price and I'll get back to you!

 

[jimmydellamorte]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

Lemme know. If it's under 250 I could do it. Could also pay as ya go so it's nog a huge lump sum. Could also send a bubble wrap reinforced duct tape mannequin to insure it's fit!

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

This is going a bit off the rails here since the original post was just for the holster and it's all done already. I thought this stuff makes sense to put in here though rather than start a new thread.

To finish off my Drake costume I also ended up making a belt and a leather cuff. It's going to be a mish mash of Uncharted 1 Drake and Uncharted 2 Drake. I was able to buy the belt buckles from Uncharted 1 and 3, but the Uncharted 2 buckle doesn't actually exist in real-life and I didn't have time to make something. So I went with the Uncharted 1 buckle and made the belt look the same as the Uncharted 2 belt. It works for me, and no one is really going to know the difference. I'll get some photos of that to post up soon.

Yesterday I had the day off and I spent a few hours making the leather cuff from Uncharted 1. in U2 and U3 he has a leather cuff with a watch and I didn't want to spend the money on a watch. Therefore, I decided to make the cuff from U1.

I started out with a 2" buckle from Tandy Leather. It looked about right except for two things. It has a roller and it also had these annoying things that prevented the tongues from moving too far out. They were in the exact spot that I needed to put the tongues to get the proper look.


I started out by cutting the roller apart with my Dremel. It was pretty easy. The metal underneath is not as shiny as the rest of the buckle but it still looks good.


Then I took the Dremel to those metal nubs. I cut them off and then took them to the grinder so I could move the tongues to where I wanted them.


Now it looks much better! Next came the leather. I used 2" wide leather for the buckle. I really just had to shape it, bevel the edges, dye it, and cut a few small pieces for the little accessories. Then punch a few holes. Very similar to making the holster but much easier and faster.






It's not as dark as the one in the game, but I like that it matches the other leather I have for my costume.

I should have some photos of the completed costume up after tonight! It's nice to finally be done with this several month long project.

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

This is going a bit off the rails here since the original post was just for the holster and it's all done already. I thought this stuff makes sense to put in here though rather than start a new thread.

To finish off my Drake costume I also ended up making a belt and a leather cuff. It's going to be a mish mash of Uncharted 1 Drake and Uncharted 2 Drake. I was able to buy the belt buckles from Uncharted 1 and 3, but the Uncharted 2 buckle doesn't actually exist in real-life and I didn't have time to make something. So I went with the Uncharted 1 buckle and made the belt look the same as the Uncharted 2 belt. It works for me, and no one is really going to know the difference. I'll get some photos of that to post up soon.

Yesterday I had the day off and I spent a few hours making the leather cuff from Uncharted 1. in U2 and U3 he has a leather cuff with a watch and I didn't want to spend the money on a watch. Therefore, I decided to make the cuff from U1.

I started out with a 2" buckle from Tandy Leather. It looked about right except for two things. It has a roller and it also had these annoying things that prevented the tongues from moving too far out. They were in the exact spot that I needed to put the tongues to get the proper look.

View attachment 398104
I started out by cutting the roller apart with my Dremel. It was pretty easy. The metal underneath is not as shiny as the rest of the buckle but it still looks good.

View attachment 398105
Then I took the Dremel to those metal nubs. I cut them off and then took them to the grinder so I could move the tongues to where I wanted them.

View attachment 398106
Now it looks much better! Next came the leather. I used 2" wide leather for the buckle. I really just had to shape it, bevel the edges, dye it, and cut a few small pieces for the little accessories. Then punch a few holes. Very similar to making the holster but much easier and faster.

View attachment 398108
View attachment 398109
View attachment 398110
View attachment 398111

It's not as dark as the one in the game, but I like that it matches the other leather I have for my costume.

I should have some photos of the completed costume up after tonight! It's nice to finally be done with this several month long project.

- - - Updated - - -

Accidentally double posted. Sorry about that. I'd delete one if I knew how!

 

[jimmydellamorte]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

Ya know, if you threw an ammo pouch on the holster and ditched the tape, you'd have a pretty legit UC1 getup

 

[ricosgoo]

Re: Uncharted 2 Shoulder Holster WIP - My first replica prop project

The U1 and U2 holsters are pretty similar. I kind of want to make the U1 holster now. I'd love to make the Spanish one from U3 but that would take a lot more work and I'm not sure I'm skilled enough yet.

I finally got the whole costume together and took some photos. I figured I'd throw them in here to finish out the thread. If anyone has any questions just let me know and I'll be happy to answer them. I'm likely going to figure out what it would cost for me to produce more of these and get back to the people who asked earlier. I have a feeling it will be too expensive though considering the amount of time that goes in. We'll see.

I've also chronicled the entire project in a bit more detail on my blog. You can find a page linking to all of the relevant posts here if you are interested: http://www.richardosgood.com/blog/projects/uncharted-2-shoulder-holster/

 

[ricosgoo]

I had a couple people ask me about selling another replica of this prop. I've put together a rough estimate to see how much it would cost me to produce another Uncharted 2 holster. I made a little bill of materials with price estimates for each thing and then added a little bit for a buffer for things I may have forgotten. The main cost is the time that goes into it. If I were a master leather worker I think it could be made much faster, but I'm still an amateur so I have to take my time in order to make it right.

I think the total price would be $400. That's with the custom 3D printed stainless steel buckles. The buckles alone cost about $65 on Shapeways. If I were to make this with generic off-the-shelf buckles I could bring the price down by about $60. Unfortunately then it would not be as accurate, though most people probably wouldn't notice. I could also have Shapeways print me the buckles in plastic, which would also bring the cost down. But that wouldn't be very strong and it might not look like metal.

The other issue with this project would be time. I have to make it in my spare time so it might take me 2-3 months to re-make it in my free time.

I think I could bring the cost down a bit if I made a couple of them at once. If I add more buckles to the Shapeways order, then the price per buckle would probably go down significantly. I wouldn't feasibly be able to do more than 2-3 at a time, though just because I don't have a lot of time and I wouldn't want anyone waiting a ridiculous amount of time.

One last thought is the size and fit. I made mine based on a mannequin of myself, so that made it easier to get right. If I don't have a mannequin of your body then I'd have to go by measurements and try to make the holster fit you by guessing. If you want to wear it, that might be a problem. If you just want it as a display piece then it might not concern you. There's also the fit of the gun. I wet-molded the holster for a Beretta 92FS airsoft gun. If you wanted a different gun, I'd have to have a model of that gun to do the wet molding.

If anyone is still interested, let me know and I'll get a more accurate estimate and we can talk about specifics.

 

[jimmydellamorte]

Hit me up at doyouhoodoovoodoo@gmail.com