Froggie
Well-Known Member
Sandpaper glued to a pipe could work really well. Be careful not to sand your fingers though.
Shoe polish could work but it could also just look like shoe polish. Do you know if the leather in the belts is vegetable tanned?
If so you can use leather oil, water and sunlight to age them rapidly. Sunlight darkens leather naturally but if it's chrome tanned it won't react much at all.
Here's a link with some examples and more information. If you can use this method it will look the most authentic as it is pretty much the process that ages leather normally.
How to Age Vegetable Tanned Leather | Devotism - Barrett Alley News and Articles
Another way is to melt wax and rub it into the leather.
(Girl's) Leather Armor Tutorial - CLOTHING
Scroll down some to get to the darkening process.
Pants: You can start by dyeing the pants a bit darker. Then hang it up and splash washed out red color on it with a bucket (don't paint it on, it wont look the same) or take a really big paintbrush and soak it in the red color, then splatter paint the pants with it.
Here's a link:
HOW TO THROW PAINT - YouTube
And here's a thread about fake blood stains. There's probably more on the site.
http://www.therpf.com/f24/what-fake-blood-use-fabric-50921/
After that you can put it all on and throw ash at it and shake or handwash that off. If you do it in the complete getup it will leave the parts under the armor cleaner, which could look good.
Remember though, the more extreme you age the pants the more you'll have to do the rest too in the same way, otherwise it can easily look kind of odd.
Jacket:
I understand that you don't want to mess up the jacket after putting all the time and care into making it.
From now on, whenever you work with this, wear the parts of the entire suit that you are not currently working on.
*To start you can oil the belts every day and wear it while moving around. That will rub the oil from the belts into the jacket.
*Another thing is to grease the gloves and then take off and put on the jacket several times a day. This will add grease in the places where you'd normally find it.
*Put your hands in mud and fake blood and then wipe it off on the jacket front like one would in a hurry.
*You have a chainsaw weapon, so there's bound to have been some messy kills. Try splattering one or two splashes of diluted red paint onto the front when it's propped up on some kind of dummy.
*Making it more dirty and beaten up at the cuffs is generally a classic way of showing age in a garment, as we put that part everywhere our hands touch.
If you do have some scarps of the fabric left it's a good idea to start experimenting with effects of different materials. Diluted bleach sprayed on lightly can work wonders, but test it on a scrap piece first to make sure it doesn't dissolve it.:wacko/styles/smilies/lol.gif
Other parts that need some work:
The leather shoulder armor needs darkening. It's in a very exposed spot, so it could use some grease and sandpaper.
The white padding on the vambraces/arm guards and on the back seem to bright, so you could darken that with dye and grime.
The chainsaw also seems a bit clean, so adding dried out blood could be good.
Another thing could be a gorget to protect the neck. The jacket seems to be pretty tough and would really help protecting your from bites and scratches, which is the main way zombies attack after all. The neck does seem to be exposed though, and since zombies seem to like going for the jugular it could be a good idea to have some protection there. Just thinking of what he might make to protect himself because with the gloves, shin guards and helmet added to this he's pretty much decked out and well protected, but the neck is still a weak spot. Just a thought.
Another thing to consider is adding a gladiator belt.
This could allow for more gadgets and makeshift weapons, and it adds another layer to the costume. It's also a callback to the gladiators of rome, which are often depicted with these. It doesn't need to be fancy. Here's one that was used in the movie "Gladiator"
Battle damaged spectacles could add a really nice effect. Don't worry about damaging your own pair, just buy a pair cheap from a second hand store or a gas station. Glasses are one of those things that people try to take care of, and as such they can distract from a heavily aged costume like this if they look too unscathed, but you can use this to your advantage. If you get a pair that you can damage and scratch they can enhance the effect because they don't look like what people are used to.
If you want only one shin guard then it should probably be on the leg that faces the enemy the most. It seems to be the left for you judging by how you grip the chainsaw. This would also move the bandage from the left leg to the right leg, as that's the one that does not have protection, and that's where it'll be the most visible.
Adding padding on the arm guards/vambraces could add to the look. The jacket already has some padding but some handmade extra padding made of rags can't hurt.
I also suggest you add something with a color that is not a variation on red or brown. Such a contrast can really make the rest of the costume come to life, especially one that has unsymmetrical designs in it.
Okay, I'll do one more and then I'll stop, I promise.
The lower back could use some more padding. The padding on the back stops before the sheath does, and as that is made of metal the edge could hurt you if it banged into you or if you were knocked on your back. This part could be made of leather to contrast the upper padding on the back. Here I made it another contrasting blue color that I thought worked well with the rest of the color scheme, and which helps to show the paintjob and details of the lower armor, which is great and deserves to be noticed.
You could also use a rag rug underneath for extra extra padding.
Scrap any of my suggested helmet ideas, a modded baseball helmet is way better. :thumbsup
Shoe polish could work but it could also just look like shoe polish. Do you know if the leather in the belts is vegetable tanned?
If so you can use leather oil, water and sunlight to age them rapidly. Sunlight darkens leather naturally but if it's chrome tanned it won't react much at all.
Here's a link with some examples and more information. If you can use this method it will look the most authentic as it is pretty much the process that ages leather normally.
How to Age Vegetable Tanned Leather | Devotism - Barrett Alley News and Articles
Another way is to melt wax and rub it into the leather.
(Girl's) Leather Armor Tutorial - CLOTHING
Scroll down some to get to the darkening process.
Pants: You can start by dyeing the pants a bit darker. Then hang it up and splash washed out red color on it with a bucket (don't paint it on, it wont look the same) or take a really big paintbrush and soak it in the red color, then splatter paint the pants with it.
Here's a link:
HOW TO THROW PAINT - YouTube
And here's a thread about fake blood stains. There's probably more on the site.
http://www.therpf.com/f24/what-fake-blood-use-fabric-50921/
After that you can put it all on and throw ash at it and shake or handwash that off. If you do it in the complete getup it will leave the parts under the armor cleaner, which could look good.
Remember though, the more extreme you age the pants the more you'll have to do the rest too in the same way, otherwise it can easily look kind of odd.
Jacket:
I understand that you don't want to mess up the jacket after putting all the time and care into making it.
From now on, whenever you work with this, wear the parts of the entire suit that you are not currently working on.
*To start you can oil the belts every day and wear it while moving around. That will rub the oil from the belts into the jacket.
*Another thing is to grease the gloves and then take off and put on the jacket several times a day. This will add grease in the places where you'd normally find it.
*Put your hands in mud and fake blood and then wipe it off on the jacket front like one would in a hurry.
*You have a chainsaw weapon, so there's bound to have been some messy kills. Try splattering one or two splashes of diluted red paint onto the front when it's propped up on some kind of dummy.
*Making it more dirty and beaten up at the cuffs is generally a classic way of showing age in a garment, as we put that part everywhere our hands touch.
If you do have some scarps of the fabric left it's a good idea to start experimenting with effects of different materials. Diluted bleach sprayed on lightly can work wonders, but test it on a scrap piece first to make sure it doesn't dissolve it.:wacko/styles/smilies/lol.gif
Other parts that need some work:
The leather shoulder armor needs darkening. It's in a very exposed spot, so it could use some grease and sandpaper.
The white padding on the vambraces/arm guards and on the back seem to bright, so you could darken that with dye and grime.
The chainsaw also seems a bit clean, so adding dried out blood could be good.
Another thing could be a gorget to protect the neck. The jacket seems to be pretty tough and would really help protecting your from bites and scratches, which is the main way zombies attack after all. The neck does seem to be exposed though, and since zombies seem to like going for the jugular it could be a good idea to have some protection there. Just thinking of what he might make to protect himself because with the gloves, shin guards and helmet added to this he's pretty much decked out and well protected, but the neck is still a weak spot. Just a thought.
Another thing to consider is adding a gladiator belt.
This could allow for more gadgets and makeshift weapons, and it adds another layer to the costume. It's also a callback to the gladiators of rome, which are often depicted with these. It doesn't need to be fancy. Here's one that was used in the movie "Gladiator"
Battle damaged spectacles could add a really nice effect. Don't worry about damaging your own pair, just buy a pair cheap from a second hand store or a gas station. Glasses are one of those things that people try to take care of, and as such they can distract from a heavily aged costume like this if they look too unscathed, but you can use this to your advantage. If you get a pair that you can damage and scratch they can enhance the effect because they don't look like what people are used to.
If you want only one shin guard then it should probably be on the leg that faces the enemy the most. It seems to be the left for you judging by how you grip the chainsaw. This would also move the bandage from the left leg to the right leg, as that's the one that does not have protection, and that's where it'll be the most visible.
Adding padding on the arm guards/vambraces could add to the look. The jacket already has some padding but some handmade extra padding made of rags can't hurt.
I also suggest you add something with a color that is not a variation on red or brown. Such a contrast can really make the rest of the costume come to life, especially one that has unsymmetrical designs in it.
Okay, I'll do one more and then I'll stop, I promise.
The lower back could use some more padding. The padding on the back stops before the sheath does, and as that is made of metal the edge could hurt you if it banged into you or if you were knocked on your back. This part could be made of leather to contrast the upper padding on the back. Here I made it another contrasting blue color that I thought worked well with the rest of the color scheme, and which helps to show the paintjob and details of the lower armor, which is great and deserves to be noticed.
You could also use a rag rug underneath for extra extra padding.
Scrap any of my suggested helmet ideas, a modded baseball helmet is way better. :thumbsup
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