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| The Buckle |
| My belt buckle is made from two electric outlet blanking tiles and pieces of thin wood painted with gunmetal silver paint. |
| At my local DIY store, I found some electric outlet covers that were already done in black plastic. I picked up the kind that had the least amount of holes in it...blanking tiles, I think they are called. They are used to cover up a "no longer in use" outlet. All they have are the two screw holes to attach them to the wall. They are placed back to back and attached to the belt with screws.. Before attaching The silver D to the front tile, I first inserted the screws through the front tile and glued them into their holes. (The screws need to be long enough to pass trough the thickness of the front tile, the back tile, then the thickness of the belt. ) Now the silver D can be attached to the front tile using GOOP adhesive. Once this is secure, slip the back tile on over the protruding screws. Use GOOP in between the tiles to hold them together, back to back. You should be left with just enough screw length sticking out to puncture the belt and thread on the nuts to hold it into place in the desired spot. See photo below: |
| The "silver elongated D with circle" is made from some thin wood that I found in a craft store. The circle came premade in a package, so that was easy. I just sanded it down to make it a slightly thinner wafer. The silver D started out as a thin piece of pine. I drew the shape onto the wood and cut out by hand with a hacksaw, then fine tuned the edges with sandpaper and a sanding wheel on my *Sears Rotary tool. (*I didn't get that Dremel brand that I hear so much about.) Since I don't own a router attachment, I had to make the slots by using a drill. I marked off the slots with pencil, then drilled several consecutive holes. I went back in with a file and smoothed out the slots. I used wood glue and a clamp to attach the circle to the D. Once secure, I applied several coats of gunmetal silver acrylic enamel to the wood. (You'll find some reference photos with the four ovular slots, and others with the five thinner rectangular slots. Although I did the four slot version, I believe that the thin, five -slotter is more true to the movie suit. I think the four-slotter came along in more recent re-makes of the suit for publicity events.) |
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| Oooops! I forgot to mention on the last page that the belt itself should be made out of wide leather. I cheated and used nylon strapping instead. Not much really shows, and if your belt boxes are light enough, you can use the strapping as a temporary measure as I have. To attach the boxes to the belt, I cut two pieces of metal flashing and screwed them onto each belt box on the rear. This gives the belt something to slip through. That "double sided wicked sticky tape" (Indoor/Outdoor Carpet tape by Manco, Inc.) placed on the inside of the flashing helps keep them from sliding around on the belt itself. |
| Darth Vader's fashionable and functional belt is finished off with a stylish silver buckle. Big buckles are IN!! Everyone in the Empire will be wearing one of these this fall! |
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| Buckle attachment |
| Box attachment |