I've recently found myself returning to the fun world of Indy gear after about 10 years away on to other things and I wanted to share a little project I completed the other week. I've been getting into doing leather work myself and when placing an order with Weaver Leather Supply for some dye and other hardware I noticed they had appropriate buckles and metal keepers for a Raiders style gun belt available, so I grabbed one of each to see what I could do with them.
Back when I was putting together my Indy costume over 10 years ago I was never that concerned with the accuracy of the gun belt and just used a somewhat similar belt I already had. The belt itself was a bit narrow and there was no metal keeper on it, but it did the job. It wound up getting pretty worn, so it seemed like a good time to retire it and replace it with something more accurate.
I looked around for some decent reference for the Raiders gun belt and also did some poking around at what other folks had done as far as details for their replicas. I didn't see anyone quite capture all the Raiders details that jumped out at me so I went my own way, using the below photo as my main reference. I figured I'd just pick a particular scene to replicate as I'm sure there were multiple belts used throughout the production of the film.
I used my strap cutter tool to slice off a 1.5" wide strap from a piece of 8-9 oz leather, put in some grooves a little less than 0.25" from the edges (which is one of the details I haven't seen done before, as most replicas have grooves closer to the edges), and punched an oblong hole for the buckle tang.
Then a little test assembly to make sure the buckle tang could rotate fully.
I punched a few holes for some rivets that will hold the metal keeper in place and tested the fit once more.
The other end of the belt got some sizing holes punched matching the spacing from the tip of the belt flap seen in my main reference photo. I also shaped the tip of the belt flap with that particular pointed shape that the Raiders gun belt had.
I determined the over all length of the belt so that it fits me appropriately when the buckle is affixed to the 6th sizing hole from the end, again to match my primary reference photo, perhaps entering into a new level of insanity...
Next up was to dye, oil, and seal the belt to a deep brown colour.
Then I could set the rivets, locking the buckle and keeper into place and test out the function of it all.
I wanted to incorporate the permanently attached whip holder and found this promotional photo to be the best reference for its construction.
A 0.75" wide strip of some 4-5 oz leather, a few rivets, and a line 24 snap did the trick. I used a lighter brown dye that was a little more reddish to get what I felt was an accurate colour in contrast to the main belt.
A little test drive with my holster and whip in place, and we're done!
I will likely do some weathering on it over time to give it a more used look, but for now I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
All in all a fun little afternoon project to inject a little renewed interest in a costume that has sat dormant for years!
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