Chewie-changa!: Bandoleer

The bandolier (or bandoleer) was pretty straight forward. I had worked with leather before when I had made a pair of authentic 14th century shoes and kidney pouch, so this wasn't going to be too troublesome. The only problem I had was the type of leather. I had a huge box of leather scraps that I wanted to use, because I am trying to keep my costs reasonable.

For the measurements, I created the silver boxes and layed them out in a line, as they would rest on the leather belt. Not much math involved, so I hope I don't get it wrong hehe.

The bag was made from the same thicker ounce leather, even though Chewie's bag looks to be of a lighter weight leather. I used what I had. I created a pattern with bristol board and started cutting.

This is a plaster mold I used to form the silicone mold:

The current boxes on the bandoleer do not a have post in them, they are completely hollow-cast.

Originally I thought the leather strap would hold...It won't.

Then I thought hot glue would hold...It doesn't work very well.

So I had to go back and modify the mold to put in posts so I can rivet the boxes to the leather.

So now I have to decide if I want to cast 19 more boxes and paint them all again. Ugh. More costs.

Until I do that (and I probably will, because it is a better design) I am thinking about using some remaining resin I have left over and using a clay damn to cast some ghetto posts in the boxes I have.

I tried it on one box that fell out. The good news is that it works. The bad news is that the hot glue strips all the silver metallic paint from the resin box. Grrr.