Weathering my new 99centTaco ammo belt

Hi all!
I got a terrific new ROTJ style ammo belt from 99centTaco from his most recent run and just wanted to show some pics of what I'm doing to it. (Insert evil laughter here )
It's a beautiful leather belt! The quality of the materials and the workmanship is amazing. I'm really pleased with it and don't see that I'll have a need to upgrade this belt at any time!
Here are a couple of shots of the belt as received. I didn't think it would be so hard to photograph leather! There are some subleties in the color of the dye that just don't come through in these pics.





I wanted my belt to show some wear, like in the MoM and AoSW ref pics.
I used a couple of different tools/supplies to do this. I first put some of the scratches in physically, using a sharp X-acto blade and an old dental pick. By varying the pressure I was able to vary the effect from "smudge" all the way to "scrape."
To add some of the white scuffs seen in the ref pics I used white liquid shoe polish. I applied it with the cut-off end of a plastic microbrush, dabbing very small dots and lines onto the pouches.
For the small number of black/gray scuffs, I used black Citadel ink and some gray acrylic paint.
So here's how the pouches look now.





I tried to get these shots in natural light as much as possible so some of the dye variation shows up.
You can see how the color shifts depending on the angle of the lighting, which is really cool!





Next I'll be adding some damage and scuffs to the belt itself. Mostly some more white scuffs around the back portions.

wow that looks really good!
I love weathering. Makes the costume looks so much more believable.

THAT IS ONE FINE BELT YOU HAVE THERE!!!8)8)8)

Thanks! Here's the second stage of doing the belt. . . the back.





I'm gonna have to check through my references and try to find some clear shots of the sides of the belt to see how closely I can simulate the remaining portions. Hopefully I'll have a couple of shots somewhere.

Man, I applaud your efforts. I like my belt so much I would hate to even try on it.

Lookin' good!

WoW!!! SuperJedi that looks amazing!!! I'm glad you like it, but you make it look soo much better!

Well, I said it before but I'll say it again, you do some beautiful leather work!
It's so nice to be able to start with a great base to work from.

i have my ESB belt i recently weathered. 99cents you really did a great job on these belts. i am very pleased with it.

Has anyone used any type of chemical weathering rather than physical? Rather than specific gouges, maybe this changes the overall appearance in addition to scuff marks? Any input? Thanks.

that looks great! Awesome job brother!
As for taco's belts.....
BEST....BELT....EVER!! I LOVE mine also!!

I was moving parts around, organizing them, and on a whim I grabbed the Taco belt and started at it with an exacto, and then some steel wool. The steel wool works pretty well for the scoffs, and it's not TOO abrasive, so you can change the pressure you apply to get different looks. I'll probably take a bit of paint to a few spots to affect the color.


Nice work Superjedi !!