20160206 Belt Varnish Scabbard

Belt Varnish Scabbard

Belt

One of my projects has been making white belts for each new knight as they are given their accolade. In many cases a white belt is given that has an impressive history. The belt I was knighted with is called the Uber belt, and has it's origins from a knight who was knighted the year I was born, 1971, and has an illustrious history of about 30 knights since that time. It is called a relic, and the young knights have strict instructions to wear it once, and then hand it on to the next knight. SO: What do you wear after that once? My gift was to help them with that issue. Our game covers many years of history, roughly 600 to 1600. I make a simple belt for the later time period knights that would not seem out of place around your jeans today. For the earlier time period knights, they are a different beast. 

This on is based on designs from roughly 300 - 1000 A.D. 

Previously I had cut the thin and thick leather, and attached the buckle and tip, and painted it white. Today I made the large belt terminators from sheet brass, attached the knife scabbard attachments, sewed the thin strips to the thick ones, and finished the leather in hide sealer. Done! Maybe a final polish of the brass before good photo time.

Varnish 

The Khador force received it's Quickshade varnish today. Miniatures are painted with 'passes' such as assembly, undercoat, base colour, highlights, ink washes, shading, and varnishing. Quickshade is a mix of varnish and ink that lets you do a couple of steps at once. It is great for Bulk painting. Quickshade is a product made by the company "Army Painter".

Being a varnish, it means that there is a Mineral Turpentine cleanup, but it is worth even that for the time it saves. It is weather dependent, luckily today was dry, warm and still.

Setup is critical. I use a loose paint covered board, and put the Quickshade tin in a saucepan to catch any mess. I heavily 'sploosh' more than paint on the product with the miniature upside down.

I then put the brush down across the saucepan, and then grab the figure, and put my whole right hand and miniature deep  into a cardboard box and then shake any excess off the figure onto the walls of the box. 

I then set the figure to dry, which takes several hours to touch dry, and sometimes two days for a complete dry.

Glossy Wet

Close up and smile

Three hours of drying

Aerial shot freshly varnished

Back in the box, three hours later.

Scabbard

While Tig and I were entertaining friends who helped with many things, I did the basic cutting and part of the sewing for a VERY simple sword scabbard. It was a little awkward as the blade is a falchion, which is fatter at the base than the neck, so is a little awkward to fit to a scabbard. It was very quick, and I forgot to get a photo. Maybe next session, closer to being finished.