Drac

download paint.net and the circle text plug in. see if that will do what you're looking for.

easiest way I can think of doing it is to use an airbrush or regular brush and do wide wavy dye areas. an airbrush would let you blend a bit better and get more of a tie dye look though, I'd imagine.

okay, that does it. no more leatherwork for you. you're putting my meager skills to shame and setting the bar too high.

in me ton of research I've done, if ya can't find a good used mannequin and gotta buy a new one, go here. good selection, great prices, great customer service and fast shipping. 2 of the 3 current mannequins I'm using to mold armor I got from here and as soon as I can gonna order at least one more from 'em. if ya do order from here tell 'em Drac Kelley sent ya. I don't get incentives from 'em, but hoping I'll get sumpin if enough peeps do say I sent 'em! *L* and if I don't get anything, oh well, they're still the best I've found. now if I can just find a plus sized female and male mannequin that have a square stance instead of a cocked hip or one foot forward I'll have all the ones I need. any ideas on those? bueller? bueller? anyone?

yep, wore it friday night and most of the day saturday while I was at me booth. know there were a bunch of pics taken, but have only found 2 of 'em online so far. yeah ya do need to get out of there more often. there's a whole 'nother room downstairs! *L* wish I coulda gotten around at least that one though. anyway, here's some mo' bettah pics along with a couple of the "Batman Before" armor. oh yeah, and next year I'm planning to do... Moon Knight! and maybe an oriental based Wolverine too.

you're using bellies, so that leather is gonna be a bit softer and stretchier than, say, a shoulder of the same weight. and look at it this way, using that weight means your bag is gonna outlast most others! *L* as far as stitching versus lacing, depends on what look you're going for and what style bag.

here's everything together with crappy lighting. I'll do some better ones later

the greaves are now done. again tooled the symbols and the dividing lines between the colors. they go about halfway down the foot with an understrap. rider style so they buckle on the inside.

thanks guys. the last 2 pieces should be done tonight and on here. might even decide to try to get everything together and take a piccy with it on.

and here's the mask

gauntlets are now done. tooled the line between the colors on the forearm sections and the symbols on the hand pieces.

adding weight (up to a point) requires less work to crack it and it rolls out smoother and straighter (very important for target cracking) with a quality made one.

depends on what type of whip. snakewhips and signal whips have a shotbag for the core that's filled and goes most of the length. some bullwhips are weighted and the shotbag for those goes about 2/3 to 4/5 the length.

the problem with using tungsten for whips is that it's not as soft as lead which can cause the whip to not have a good flex.

golf suppliers carry lead dust and lead strips for weighting under the turkshead.

so a couple of years ago I decided to make some medieval styled armor that was based on the "Batman Beyond" cartoon version of Batman to wear at Dragoncon and possibly renfaires (which I still need to get pics of). I really liked the way it turned out, so decided to start doing a new one each year. even though I came up with this idea last year, I didn't have time to do it so I'm doing it this year. here's the start of the Hal Jordan Green Lantern armor. I'll be wearing a black puffy shirt under it, black leather pants, bracers and greaves. later on I might add more, but that's all I'm doing for now. the cape is actually a dark green leather even though it looks sort of black in the pic. the symbol is tooled and I did the scales individually and riveted them onto a vinyl backing. most the dying was done with an airbrush then using a brush for the black around the symbol. the black was usmc black so of course had to buff it afterwards. sealed with resoline.

another reason is it's metal, if the metal comes into contact with the leather it can and usually will (depending on the metal) cause discoloration.

after putting the clear box tape on the backside, I put some REMOVABLE double sided tape onto it. works very well.

yeah I am, and thanks. that and more is needed.

heavy rubber mallet (heavy enough so that on 4-5oz vegtan leather all I gotta do is drop the head onto the punch from a few inches and it punches the hole for me). no one's gonna notice dimples on the underside of the belt/strap/whatever unless you're stitching 2 pieces together back to back so that it's smooth on both sides in which case use either the cereal box or black hard rubber poundo mat. make a template out of poster board with your holes punched in it. lay that on top of your strap, place hole punch in the template hole and press the hole punch to the leather to make an impression. remove the posterboard, punch holes in leather. do NOT punch your holes with the template sitting on the leather coz you'll make the holes in the template larger since the hole punch tapers and then your template holes will be off.

the complete set of councelor and prize armor for Camp Half Blood (a literary day camp in austin, tx put on yearly by the store "book people" and based on the "percy jackson and the olympians" series of books. yep, the same series that the movie "percy jackson and the lightning thief" was based on, which was book one of the series).

an update from me if anyone cares. made the move to texas and the alternator went out on the way and a hose broke. what was supposed to be a temporary pit stop in austin has turned out much longer. currently all me stuff is in a storage unit which I'm also using as a workspace. unemployment ran out and I got screwed on a check from it. the move to houston got delayed because of the transmission going out on the van and had to get it fixed which took the money I had saved plus had to borrow the rest and now the steering is messing up and I can't take it to a shop since I'm sleeping in the van coz I don't have anywhere else to stay. worse probs sleeping than usual, not really eating, wah wah wah. of course there's more, but that's the highlights.

I THINK I get what you're saying, and if so, that's what I learned as a square braid.

nah, they're all gonna be just the chest piece with straps and a small back plate. everything had to be done cheap but still look decent for the camp.

actually, it's not that much work. figure out your pattern, cut it out, mold it on a form, dye, seal, done. except for punching holes and adding straps, of course. mostly just time consuming from dyeing and sealing. thanks for the compliment! the first one's actually is dyed. dyed the whole thing, then went a little heavier to highlight the musculature. just need to punch holes, seal and add straps. the second's getting dyed right now. danke! yep, busy busy busy! not sure if that's good or not! *L*