Hello

[Dead Snow]

Hi everybody!

My name is Mitchel Winney and i am fourteen years of age. I am exited to be in this comunity of leather workers. I'd like to get into leather working but i have no leather but im gonna get it soon. I don't play sports but i do play airsoft and i play in a sport called Boffer and im in a community called Belegarth and i wouldent be surprised if i found a few people in here that are there to. The reason why im here though is because i wanted to make some leather armor. yeah i know it sounds stupid but i really wanted to do this. im also a big halo fan and i wanted to make it look like the armor from halo. I have never worked with leather.. ever.... and id like to know if anybodys in washington that can teach me how do it.

Mitchel Winney

[KWosnig]

Hi Mitchel,

I suggest either joining a Boy/Girl scout troop or going to a Tandy leather store and finding out if they have classes. Making armor or other large projects is a fairly intense activity.

Go online to Tandy Leather Factory, Springfield Leather and others.

Tandy Store in Shoreline(Seattle) has classes once a week, get hold of them.

Update your profile to show where you live, so anyone who lives nearby may be able to assist with answers.

Good luck!

[camano ridge]

Mitchel, your desire does not sound stupid at all. There are several on here that make armor and Cozplay costumes. You will find that you will want to do a few smaller project to learn the basics and to decide if leather work is really for you. You will need to accumulate some tools as well. Where in Washington are you located?

[King's X]

Mitchel......Hello and welcome to the forum! I would also like to throw in YouTube as a great resource especially for armor making. I would also check your local area through Google for a leather guild that you can visit. If you can see if you can arrange for your parents or other relative help you get a subscription to the Leather Crafter's & Saddlers Journal, which is a great magazine for leathercrafters. If you run into any problems, just drop me a message here or on my blog.

Good luck!

[Squirrelly66]

Welcome Mitchel,

Before we get started with this hopeful awesome thing I'm about to write, let me say you are about to embark on a journey that will enthrall and grab you.

I do armor and cos-play costumes and weapon's. I particularly like HALO, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed, Fall Out 3, Fall Out New Vegas. When doing fantasy and vid game armor you can use a lot of different tools for fashioning your armor from leather, eva foam, resin and fiber glass. I too have been toying (and drawing) with the design to do Master Chief from leather. I can give you my thoughts on what leather would be better for most aspects of his armor. If you don't know about this site check them out. they are the HALO costuming community. www.405th.com They tutorials there will help you with the armor making process no matter what material you choose to work with. If you have questions please feel free to contact me.

As for learning to work with leather I agree with everyone that taking a class at the local Tandy's would benefit you greatly. Also doing small projects like archery arm guards , cowboy cuffs, shoulder satchel bag and many other thing's will help you on how to custom the fit to your body. If you go to the re-enactment section of the forum You'll find The gauntlets I'm building for a ORC armor set from Skyrim. Its title Armor In Progress. Also since you Masterchief doesn't have any tooling on his armor and you want it to look used, selecting leather with blemishes that can be seen as battle damage would be good, when selecting leather for armor I don't need the best stuff so getting the "bashed and Thrashed " bargain leather is sometimes useful and cheap. Just depends on your needs.

I could go on and on but I might bog down your mind,

I'll say this doing armor is simple, working with leather is simple, Don't over analyze the process and you will have fun build great things.

Good Luck,

Squirrelly66