Club Obi Wan

After watching Crystal Skull again the other day, I couldn't help notice the apparent "shine" of Indys jacket in most scenes of the film. My Nowak CS jacket lacks this, and from all the pics I've seen, so does everyone elses.

Remembering back when I ordered my jacket from Tony, I recall asking about said shine, and he said that the costuming deptartment did something to the jackets, but he wasn't at liberty to say. Not sure why he couldn't tell me, unless maybe he was unsure of what they actually did.

I also recall _ mentioning something along these lines awhile back, but also not divulging. I even sent him a PM that i got no reply.
Well, now that the movie's here and gone, is there anyway we can find out what was added to the finish of the jackets. I have a feeling it was something to add to the jackets water repellency, since there were so many water scenes in the film, and if my Nowak jacket got completely soaked, there would be zero shine to it, and it would probably weigh a ton, like most Cowhide jackets would. Especially the pre-distressed ones.

So, any ideas or info regarding this? I highly doubt it was just a conditioner, because the jacket on film has a definite "finished" look to it.
I would love to get this look on my TN CS jacket.
Mike

Actually, Orbs latest jacket DOES seem to have the shine to it. Wonder if getting that leather is just luck of the draw?



Still, I want to get a similar appearance out of mine.

Mike

How distressed did you have yours done by Tony?

(MAN, was that lousy sentence structure! )

Regards! Michaelson

LOL, I totally understood that, though.

Anyway, I asked for very minimal distress, and that's what I got. However, the entire jacket has a very "pre-distressed" overall look to it.
Almost a soft, suede like look at first glance. Hard to explain.
'Blues

It's just the flash from the camera. However, the more heavily distressed the jacket is, the less noticeable the shine will be.

I think also too that they used many different jackets throughout the movie......each scene may have used a new jacket....thus, the shine.

I think Orb's jacket is in a different hide than yours. I think he chooses dark cowhide.

Is that jacket brand new? What type of leather is it? I'm wondering if you would down the line post another photo, so we can see just how much those sleeves shrink up. They look way too long for me, but if it's a brand new jacket, they will shrink some.

I do love the look of that jacket though.

Yep! The jacket is brand new. 3 weeks old, cowhide! If you ask me I think it really depends on the lightning how the leather looks. The sleeves are too long at the moment but I will await a few rainshowers and then I decide if I send it back to Tony for some changes. I think the hide of my CS jacket looks like in the scene where Indy & Mutt are on the plane and Indy is lying there.

Regards

orb

Michaelson wrote:How distressed did you have yours done by Tony?

(MAN, was that lousy sentence structure! )

Regards! Michaelson

I just asked for a little bit distressing. Yo can see it good at the pocket flaps and also on the collar seems.

Regards

orb

Two options:

Any chance that it is different leather from the original run? I know there was some controversy about the remaining leather being bought off by some company other than Tony Nowak;

Or at least the same leather from a batch that was tanned or distressed differently?

I am not speaking of how heavy the distressing is, necessarily - but the difference between a leather maker distressing the jacket vs. a costume designer or ager/dyer professionally distressing it. Different methods.

Orb, I really like the length of your sleeves. When you are standing with your arms slightly raised or stretching at all (I mean anything other than posing for a photo ;-) ) they probably look great.

So why the secrecy about the treatment of the movie jackets? Is there some trade secret they don't want let out?

Either way, I definitely prefer the finish on Orbs jacket over mine.
Kind of a bummer, since I asked Tony for the darkest cowhide he had, AND minimal distressing.

Orb, wanna trade for a size 48??? You could just eat alot of ice cream and pasta, and it'll fit you in no time. ;-)
Mike

LOL I let you know when I'm ready for a change

Just to confuse everyone here even more. I've just made some pics of my CS jacket when laying flat. No lightning just with room light over it.



http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/big/7426-13.jpg

As I said before. It looks always a bit different. Depending on the light.
I wouldn't waste too much time about thinking that my jacket isn't dark enough.

Regards

orb

Mike, did you want to try Pecards? I put the regular Pecards on my vintage cowhide because it felt too dry and it really improved the leather overall. It does make it a bit more glossy and darker too. It won't last forever like that but after a few month mine still looks 100 times better.

Guess overall I'm not too much a fan of cowhide and it's a big reason why i'm passing on a CS jacket.

Great compario pic, Orb. Yeah, that looks closer to mine, but still more of a "sheen" to it.

Raider S, I just applied some brown tinted Pecards to the underside of my TN collar, and I figure even if the shine wears off, the color in the Pecards will remain enough to add some darkness to it.
I'll post a pic when I finish.
Mike

EDIT: Here are a few of the underside of the collar after brownPecards, in comparison to the yolk panel.

Also remember this statement from Tony:

"WE MADE THIRTY JACKETS FOR THE FILM, IT TOOK FIFTEEN COWS, EACH COW HAD A DIFFERENT DNA, THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME ON THE SCREEN MORE OR LESS, BUT THEY ARE NOT.
KIND REGARDS, TONY NOWAK."

Regards

orb

Blues, that collar looks killer now! I really like the difference!

Looks interesting! But I will leave it alone for the next few years

Regards

orb

Orb, you seriously have the nicest Indy jacket collection I've seen here on COW! You must have a lot of luck, money or patience, or maybe all three! Your CS looks great to me.

Raider S wrote:Blues, that collar looks killer now! I really like the difference!

Thanks RS. That was just a quick application, it's not total coverage as you can see. I am going to wait until it dries thoroughly, and see how it turns out. Either way, I'll do the whole jacket.
Mike

Vast improvement.

So the special sauce is.... (could be, might be) PECARDS!

LOL

Kevin Anderson wrote:Orb, you seriously have the nicest Indy jacket collection I've seen here on COW! You must have a lot of luck, money or patience, or maybe all three! Your CS looks great to me.

Thanks Kevin!
I have bought all jackets in 2009 except for the Todd's which is from 2007. I wouldn't overrate it. Because if you buying from Tony it's really hard not getting satisfied.

Regards

orb

Kt Templar wrote:Vast improvement.

So the special sauce is.... (could be, might be) PECARDS!

LOL

Thanks KT. It does seem a whole lot better. I was hesitant on putting standard Pecards, because pre-d leather usually just reverts back to it's normal state after it dries up. Hopefully the brown tint will help.
Mike

I applied like 3-4 coats of Pecards on my TN CS already......the initial effect was great but after a short time, the jacket returned to its original shade and texture.........Tony was right, it was a waste of time.

Not really. You may not see the results after a period of time, but rest assured, the coat of lubrication applied allows the leather fibers to slide by each other as the leather is flexed. This keeps the leather from cracking over time as it ages......

So, Tony ain't exactly right this time. ;-)

Regards! Michaelson

So you guys are saying that a distressed jacket will return to it's original condition? I'm sure I misread that!

Original color, yes, but not 'condition', as it were.

Regards! Michaelson

I put Pecards on my jacket and the color darkened and the leather grew more shiny. That doesn't last for ever of course, but, like has been said, the leather does look better than untreated imo.

I too treated mine with Pecards, and I think it looks great after the treatment. The biggest motivator for this was that black spot that appeared on that one jacket (I'm sorry, I forget whose off the top of my head)!! The leather without any treatment just feels vulnerable to staining, so I wanted additional protection. The colour does lighten over time, but it's no big deal.

It's interesting though...under the pocket flaps, and inside the pocket, the leather is dark, untreated by Pecards and looks great.

Finally, I find most TN CS jackets to have a shine to them, so I'm a bit surprised to find people don't think they're shiny enough

Baldwyn

It's interesting though...under the pocket flaps, and inside the pocket, the leather is dark, untreated by Pecards and looks great.

That's caused by natural oxidation. The leather under the flap never sees daylight.

Regards! Michaelson

Michaelson wrote:Original color, yes, but not 'condition', as it were.

Regards! Michaelson

Ok, I'll buy that! Thank you.

I wonder, does tony nowak need a new keyboard, one that hasn't got a fixed capslock?

Dutch_jones wrote:I wonder, does tony nowak need a new keyboard, one that hasn't got a fixed capslock?

I hear it's his number one priority. It's really killing his business...

dutch, please.. its old...

let the man write in the way he writes..

Dutch_jones wrote:I wonder, does tony nowak need a new keyboard, one that hasn't got a fixed capslock?

Did he post something in this thread ??

I don't care how he types as long as he keeps making leather jackets the same way.

I found a few pictures online, taken of a FIDM Oscar Costume Exhibition. This is interesting because there are shots of what is presumably screen-used costumes of the Jones's in KotCS.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skarlettfe ... 2973535937

Depending on what you think of how accurate the photos are, I suppose you could use this to judge how shiny, and what color an arguably screen-used Nowak Indy looks like from a 'regular' camera!

And if these photos are anything to go by, I'd venture to say that we're worrying about nothing here- the jacket on display looks to have the same amount of shine as the rest of us Nowak-owners! Probably the shine on screen that we're scratching our heads over is just a result of the harsh studio-lights in my opinion.

Mystery solved?

Wow, just look at the colour matching on the sleeve!

I recall asking about said shine, and he said that the costuming deptartment did something to the jackets, but he wasn't at liberty to say.

Wha? Is there a patent on whatever it is they did? It just seems a little too extreme to think that it must be some sort of super-secret info. I just don't get it.

Castor Dioscuri wrote:I found a few pictures online, taken of a FIDM Oscar Costume Exhibition. This is interesting because there are shots of what is presumably screen-used costumes of the Jones's in KotCS.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skarlettfe ... 2973535937

Depending on what you think of how accurate the photos are, I suppose you could use this to judge how shiny, and what color an arguably screen-used Nowak Indy looks like from a 'regular' camera!

And if these photos are anything to go by, I'd venture to say that we're worrying about nothing here- the jacket on display looks to have the same amount of shine as the rest of us Nowak-owners! Probably the shine on screen that we're scratching our heads over is just a result of the harsh studio-lights in my opinion.

Mystery solved?

I agree, it's worry for nothing.
That jacket is one of 30, and we know from the view in the DVD extras of the jacket rack that they all look different colours etc.

Do we really want each of our jackets to be 100% identical in 'shine' etc?

Oh, I didn't read it as being any degree of 'worry' regarding this question. The question was just posted as a matter of discussion and nothing more.

Regards! Michaelson

Kt Templar wrote:Wow, just look at the colour matching on the sleeve!

!!! It almost looks like they just missed that one panel when they Pecarded it

Nice find, Castor!

Anyone tried "Armorall" (obviously first on undersuface to to see what effect would be).....just a thought.......

There is 'Armorall' for leather. Never used it on a jacket though.

It's all about lighting, I tend to think that my TN CS looks a bit too light and matt in real life...
but when I look at actual pics taken outside using natural light, it does look darker and a little shiny.

Just a little bump in contrast in post-production would explain why we see a darker and shinier jacket on screen.

Awesome jacket, chagwa! Killer Indy shirt, too! Where'd you get it? Nice pendant, btw. It looks like the St. Brynach's Cross in sterling silver that I got from David Morgan back in the 90's. To stay on-topic, I wonder if there is a Pecards liquid oil that might replicate that leather shine, because I've used standard Pecards paste on my Wested CS for over a year, and it darkens the leather quite nicely, but only provides a temporary shine. Any thoughts?

chagwa wrote:It's all about lighting, I tend to think that my TN CS looks a bit too light and matt in real life...
but when I look at actual pics taken outside using natural light, it does look darker and a little shiny.

That's exactly it. In certain lighting a bit of shine is apparent, in photos it stands out much more.
In 'real time' the TNCS doesn't have much 'shine' at least mine doesn't.

Thanks for the nice comments whipwarrior

As far as my Nowak jacket goes, nothing was applied to it except being caught in the rain a few times...

My silver cross pendant was actually handmade in silver by my very talented girlfriend.
The Indy shirt is from a company called Junk Food, I also own a Raiders shirt made by them them that looks pretty cool...

Cheers,

wow. cool. send me 5 of those please. size large