Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

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Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Sun Nov 07, 2010 7:37 pm

I've been mulling over ideas for an elaborate suit of armor for quite some time now and am finally getting around to making it. I'm starting from the ground up (LOL PUNS). I'll update this thread as this particular piece progresses; other pieces will likely be a while and get their own threads, but for now, enjoy.

I can't say that I've ever seen anyone wearing any kind of foot armor in my entire fighting career. It's pretty pointless from a gameplay perspective, but **** that. I'm a proud shoefag and am building some sabatons. Brightly colored, tooled, and carved. They'll look rad and be approximately 6.24x10^135 times more awesome than a pair of New Balances.

I'm a huge fan of fighting in my KSOs, so that's where I'm starting:

Image

Because the foot is shaped, frankly, **** insane, I'm building a ghetto mold to work off of. I took an old sock, put it over my shod foot, wrapped the hell out of it with packing tape, and cut it off.

Image

Next, I took some measurements and looked at a few of my many pairs of shoes to get an idea of what kind of ankle clearance I'd need. To start with, I patterned out a heel and first lame from fun foam. After that, I did a second lame and the toe box.

Image
Image

I should note that it's pretty much impossible to form or dish fun foam in any way. The actual armor probably won't be folded over and riveted as the toe box is here. I'm also doing two more pieces on top of the toe box to give the sabatons more character, but I couldn't think of any way to actually do them in foam, and as they're aesthetic rather than structural, I'm waiting on those until I move to leather.

Here's a few more angles of the semi-finished model:

Image
Image

And a final shot of the pieces by themselves:

Image

I have a few pieces cut out at this time. Expect more pictures tomorrow night; hopefully with some actual leather mockups. If I'm especially productive, I'll even be able to show you some tooling.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Caleidah » Sun Nov 07, 2010 8:28 pm

Man, those look pretty *'. Can't wait to see them in leather.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Tiercel » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:13 pm

They'll be cool to see, and not totally pointless from a game perspective, either, if you're treating them like armor. My younger teammates are sometimes timid in a bridge battle, but become more useful when I can tie up the enemy's weapons for them. I'll use my foot to press down on a spear's shaft while keeping my swords free to block. With an armored foot, you could lead with your foot to press the spear and keep physical contact with it before pinning it, and in that way defend against their obvious response- stabbing the leg. Heck- assuming they're using the spear one-handed, you could even kick the thing out of the way before charging in. I'm excited to see how these turn out for you.

By the way- although I know what sabatons are, aren't most leather boots thick enough to count for Bel armor? I've just never thought of calling armor on my foot before this thread. :eek: I may have to grapple less because of this...
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:34 pm

No, most boots aren't thick enough. You'd have to have the thickness plus fairly high boots to meet the 1/3rd target zone coverage rule for it to actually count as armor.

As for kicking spears out of the way, sabatons almost always have no bottom, like such:

Image

It's probably much easier to simply step on the haft, armor or no.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Arrakis » Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:52 am

I've never ever seen a pair of boots thick enough to count as armor. Ever.

Derian, this ish looks insane and I cannot wait to see what these look like in leather.

PS: Most (read: all?) sabatons had no bottoms because otherwise walking became, shall we say... problematic?
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Thorondor » Mon Nov 08, 2010 10:31 am

1) You're crazy

2) I like this idea

3) 1+2=I'm crazy??
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:13 pm

As promised:

All of the pieces cut out, edges beveled and a 1/4" border:

Image

Next, we need to prepare the pattern we're carving from. Because we're lazy as **** and, as a higher order of life, capable of planning, we're going to put packing tape over our pattern to allow us to reuse it over and over:

Image

Lay it out over your wetted leather and trace it on with a modeling stylus. Go over it again because two layers of packing tape plus a layer of paper takes a lot of the depth out:

Image

Swivel knife the **** out of it. Next, we'll take our trusty beveller (sorry for the blurry pic):

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* around with the piece a good bit more to give it some more character without spending 4 hours on an 8"^2 piece and making it too busy:

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Continue the themes through the rest of the piece, making sure to skip the toe box because you're not entirely certain how you want to proceed with this, even knowing that you'll likely form, dye and finish an entire piece only to throw it away in the end after you change your mind. Oh, look, here everything is with the shoe in question after toasting it in your (POS) temperamental oven for a couple hours:

Image

Decide that you have entirely too much clearance between the end of your toes and the beginning of the armor and that adding another layer of 3/8" thick leather (Protip: I don't **** around) on top of that for aesthetic reasons on an entirely aesthetic piece is just too much. Realize that you can just cut into the original piece, which gives you a legitimate excuse to use stitching on a piece. Cut. Don't forget the piece of black latigo that goes underneath.

Image

Next: The oft neglected red headed stepchild of armoring: edge burnishing.

Edge burnishing is, frankly, rad as ****. The basics of it are that you take a tree sap mixed with water (gum tragacanth), coat your edges with it and rub the **** out of it until the friction causes it to melt and fill the leather's pores creating a watertight, smooth glossy surface on your piece's edges.

Oh ****, here it is:

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Note that Tandy sells things like edge slickers and bone folders that are supposed to be designed to melt down tragacanth for these purposes. They're almost wholly useless. I use the * end of a Sharpie marker; you can use any plastic, bone, ivory (HAH) or heavy cloth you might have lying around.

Here's a picture of what unfinished leather edges look like (sorry, no macro, deal with it):

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And here is the edges after burnishing:

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Note how glossy and amazing they are? Of course you do.

Here's a final angle of everything (very, very loosely) put together after hardening, tooling and burnishing:

Image

I'm not sure when I'll be able to get some more work in on this piece, but expect the next picture update to contain (at the very least) dye and paint. I'd love to have a completely finished piece next, but promising such would be, uh, irresponsible.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Arrakis » Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:23 pm

Gangster.

Also, WAAH I WANT MACRO WAAAAAAAAAHHHH.


I don't understand swivel knives. ****' swivel knives, how do they work?
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:26 pm

What don't you understand? There's a piece that is anchored to your index finder and a piece that can rotate freely attached below that. This second piece is where the blade is located.

Will pics help?
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:28 pm

Arrakis wrote: WAAH I WANT MACRO WAAAAAAAAAHHHH


I could oblige if I was smart enough to turn my camera off after uploading pictures from the last time I used it.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Arrakis » Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:29 am

Oh, I see how it fits on your hand. I just don't understand what you're supposed to do with it then. Just slice along the lines? Dig out a trench? I just don't get it.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Forkbeard » Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:25 am

Nice work man. I love the devil feet.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Skeith, the Forsaken » Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:33 am

Ballin fo sho' Derian

I'm so gonna need to make myself a pair over the winter.

Break some sabatons off in someone's *.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:03 pm

Arrakis wrote:Just slice along the lines?


Pretty much. You make a fairly shallow cut. This allows a beveller to push down one section giving the impression that the opposite is raised.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Arrakis » Tue Nov 09, 2010 1:59 pm

Derian wrote:
Arrakis wrote:Just slice along the lines?


Pretty much. You make a fairly shallow cut. This allows a beveller to push down one section giving the impression that the opposite is raised.



Ahhhh. I guess I need a beveller, then.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Bortas » Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:20 pm

Arrakis wrote:Ahhhh. I guess I need a beveller, then.
Beveler - the first tool you should buy after a swivel knife.

Derian - * idea, I dig what you've done.

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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:31 pm

I'm having much more difficulty getting the right color than I expected, so unfortunately I won't be able to post any more pictures until I can fix this.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Arrakis » Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:50 pm

Dying hardened leather is a process with which it is difficult to achieve the colors you think you should be achieving.

Bort: I'll keep that in mind. I, strictly speaking, haven't bought a swivel knife, yet, either (mmm, Exacto), so, there's that, I guess.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:55 pm

Oh, I'm well aware.

I believe I've found a dye manufacturer that's a lot better than Fiebings; for lighter colors, at least. I'll report back if I have any luck.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Solusar » Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:27 pm

I hate you Derian, oh so much. What a good idea this is.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Bortas » Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:27 pm

Arrakis, get a swivel, you will cry over all the long hours with an exacto... trust me.

Derian, I want to hear about fiebings alternatives.

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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Plithut » Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:58 am

For lighter colors I use Eco-Flo dye (which is really just acrylic paint made for leather). The difference between Eco-Flo and regular acrylic paint is that Eco-Flo doesn't crack as easily as your generic paint. IF you REALLY want to use Fiebings, get dye thinner... but the dye to thinner portioning is quite... ridiculous. Trying to get my LIGHT blue even lighter took 3/4 of a bottle of thinner to about a table spoon of dye. It is not the most cost-efficient way to get light/bright colors.

Also remember when dying, you don't want your brush/wad/cloth TOO damp with dye. After dipping it into the dye, make sure to wipe off the excess. Also, do not dye in stripe-like pattern, do little circles, as if you are brushing your teeth.

After the dye has dried for about an hour or two, take an old cloth (the finer the material the better) and buff off the excess dye on the leather, this will take care of MOST streaking on leather. After a while (which SHOULD be 24 hours, I wait like an hour though) seal the leather pores to make sure the leather is protected.


Also Derian, did you use a pair-shader to do the background? Or are you using a backgrounder. Either way, I am very excited about this project that you are doing. Seriously, need to sit down and work leather with you sometime.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:14 pm

It is most definitely a pear shader.
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Siggard » Sat Nov 27, 2010 4:38 pm

holy ****! those are the most badass leather shoes ive seen in my life, kickass job man :D
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Dacian » Sat Nov 27, 2010 11:11 pm

the masses demand more updates.

we're done masterbating to these pictures.


almost...
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Derian » Sun Nov 28, 2010 1:16 pm

I haven't sorted out my dye yet. :(
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Re: Rad New Kicks (56K GTFO)

Postby Skeith, the Forsaken » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:32 am

Pretty interested in the finished product as well.
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