Becoming Darth Revan: Part II, The Belt Straps

[L Kamino]

I ordered the Deluxe Darth Revan from My Wicked Armor.  The suspended bands holding the large O ring were made out of painted vinyl.  I tore one of the edges while taking the armor on and off trying to adjust the fit.  Not a fault of the the quality, but rather due to my not being as careful as I should.  I was interested in adding some length anyhow to give myself more flexibility with the fit and suspension of the large O ring.  With that, I asked a saddle maker to make some new strap pieces for me out of leather with Velcro attached to the backside of the long pieces.  I only replaced the suspension straps and left the original dark pieces that are adjacent to the adornment lighter silver pieces.  I kept the 6" length on the long pieces and increased the short pieces to 3 3/4".  He tried to give me a sprayed color match to the original dark grey, but they came out too light.  This meant painting the pieces.  Lucky for me, my mom is an artist and has loads of metallic paints.  She made a mixture of Folk Art Metallic Sequin Black and Decoart Dazzling Metallic Shimmering Silver to get the right shade.

 

http://www.mywickedarmor.com/

 

http://www.plaidonline.com/folkart-metallics-2-oz/58/product.htm?keyword=sequin%20black%20paint   

 

 

https://decoart.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=75b4e90e3a6be765d9ccda1914c1671c&

 

 

 

To make painting and drying easy, I used wire coat hangers, untwisting the wires away from the hanger hooks.  Both ends of the short straps and one end of the long straps were folded under to create a gap to attach to the small rings on the belt (attached later and described in Part III.)  I slid the straps onto the wire through the gaps in the folds and reattached the end of the hanger wire to the hanger hook.  I bent the hanger wires to make small dips to prevent the straps from sliding.  The straps were sponge-painted while they were hanging on the wires and the hangers were hung up to let them dry.  (This photo was from the first attempt of paint mix which was too black, but just showing the drying method.) 

 

 

After the right mix, here's how they looked after they dried.  (Lighting better on comparison photo below.)

 

 

In comparison to the original pieces, these are a fairly good match.  (The original vinyl piece is on the bottom right with small ring attached.  An original piece is also connected to the large O ring.)

 

 

Due to the saddle maker's attempts as well as my own attempts to get a good color match, I do have more paint on these new straps than what is needed.  I realize this may cause some stretching or stiffness in the leather, and time will tell me how they hold up.  I did need to be careful how they lay when stored to avoid misshaping. 

Edited July 13, 2023 by L Kamino

[L Kamino]

Many years later, the painted pieces have not stretched and are in excellent condition. 

Edited July 13, 2023 by L Kamino