More Uncharted Leather!

To finish off my Drake costume I also ended up making a belt and a leather cuff. It’s going to be a mishmash of Uncharted 1 Drake and Uncharted 2 Drake. I was able to buy the belt buckles from Uncharted 1 and 3, but the Uncharted 2 buckle doesn’t actually exist in real-life and I didn’t have time to make something. So I went with the Uncharted 1 buckle and made the belt look the same as the Uncharted 2 belt. It works for me, and no one is really going to know the difference. I’ll get some photos of that to post up soon.

Yesterday I had the day off and I spent a few hours making the leather cuff from Uncharted 1. in U2 and U3 he has a leather cuff with a watch and I didn’t want to spend the money on a watch. Therefore, I decided to make the cuff from U1.

I started out with a 2″ buckle from Tandy Leather. It looked about right except for two things. It has a roller and it also had these annoying things that prevented the tongues from moving too far out. They were in the exact spot that I needed to put the tongues to get the proper look.

I started out by cutting the roller apart with my Dremel. It was pretty easy. The metal underneath is not as shiny as the rest of the buckle but it still looks good.

Then I took the Dremel to those metal nubs. I cut them off and then took them to the grinder so I could move the tongues to where I wanted them.

Now it looks much better! Next came the leather. I used 2″ wide leather for the buckle. I really just had to shape it, bevel the edges, dye it, and cut a few small pieces for the little accessories. Then punch a few holes. Very similar to making the holster but much easier and faster.

It’s not as dark as the one in the game, but I like that it matches the other leather I have for my costume. Next I just had to put it all together and cut the holes for the buckle tongues. I first glued the buckle in place. Then I sewed it on for extra strength. I then used more contact cement to attach the belt keeper. The small leather X was just held on with more screw posts. Yay screw posts! Finally I put on the cuff and then figured out where the holes should be made for the buckle tongues for a good fit.

I have to say it looks pretty huge on my wrist, but that might just be because I never wear anything other than a small watch on my wrist. My costume is finally complete! I’ll try to get some photos of the completed costume to put up here soon.