Duke's Skyrim Nightingale Armor

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It's not like she is going to sit and watch me build this thing. Just that if I work while she's in the house I can bug her for advice. She's been too busy lately anyway. But, she did give me a good tip to use Christmas paper to help pattern the leather or cloth.


Progress:

Something went wrong in my last scaling of the cuirass so I redid it. This time I took advantage of ArmorSmith's non uniform scaling function.

Here's a second printout mock up.
20181205_201407.jpg

We're definitely getting closer. Now I'll have to scale down the knees, forearms and biceps.
 
Looks great! You going to make each piece a little bigger than the paper? To help sew it together?
A lot of it is like scales, so they will be longer on the top in order to be glued to the piece that overlaps them.

But I do have to make the templates a little bigger just like with foam, to account for thickness.
 
Not a lot of progress lately. Work has been murder. Some people say I should give up being a hitman, but it's just so rewarding and profitable. Anyhoo

Time to show off a little bit. Here I've got my setup. Box of leather supplies, box of leather and a marble slab for tooling.
20190107_165024.jpg

Next up are my stamping tools. You use to get one free a month if you were a card carrying Tandy Leather member, but no more. Now they are $5-$10 apiece.
20190107_171629.jpg

I've finished patterning all of the leather pieces. It might not look different than the previous mock up, so here is a comparison (right is current)
20181205_201407.jpg 20190107_191257.jpg
The biggest goal with the final pattern was to make sure there are no gaps and to pattern where the leather overlaps.

Next is determining how I want to tool the leather. Game graphics are just paint jobs, there are several ways I can go about manifesting that look.

One aspect is the shape of the details. Traditionally you cut the pattern in and hammer around the parts you want to stand out using a background tool. But, in the game it looks more like they just hammered around without cutting. I'll test both to see.
Here are two possibilities:
20190107_185942.jpg

Now, we won't know what looks better until we see how it takes to dye. You may think there are black skinned cows out there, but that is just their hair. Underneath they are all brown. I could just dye it straight black, but that would be boring right? So flat and hard to see the designs. Now, take a look at the reference. Tell me you don't see a lot of brown in there?

Here's what I think the game was going for, quickly dyed black leather that has been worn and faded so much the original brown is showing through. How do I recreate that?

Two theories so far: One, seal the undyed leather then dye black. The sealant will make it hard for the leather to really soak in the thin black dye. Two, dye a nice chestnut color. Then apply an antique black gel. The gel is thick and will really only stick in crevices and valleys.

I'll post tomorrow the results of the dye tests and I look forward to your opinions.
 
Not a lot of progress lately. Work has been murder. Some people say I should give up being a hitman, but it's just so rewarding and profitable. Anyhoo

Time to show off a little bit. Here I've got my setup. Box of leather supplies, box of leather and a marble slab for tooling.
View attachment 263908

Next up are my stamping tools. You use to get one free a month if you were a card carrying Tandy Leather member, but no more. Now they are $5-$10 apiece.
View attachment 263907

I've finished patterning all of the leather pieces. It might not look different than the previous mock up, so here is a comparison (right is current)
View attachment 263910 View attachment 263909
The biggest goal with the final pattern was to make sure there are no gaps and to pattern where the leather overlaps.

Next is determining how I want to tool the leather. Game graphics are just paint jobs, there are several ways I can go about manifesting that look.

One aspect is the shape of the details. Traditionally you cut the pattern in and hammer around the parts you want to stand out using a background tool. But, in the game it looks more like they just hammered around without cutting. I'll test both to see.
Here are two possibilities:
View attachment 263906

Now, we won't know what looks better until we see how it takes to dye. You may think there are black skinned cows out there, but that is just their hair. Underneath they are all brown. I could just dye it straight black, but that would be boring right? So flat and hard to see the designs. Now, take a look at the reference. Tell me you don't see a lot of brown in there?

Here's what I think the game was going for, quickly dyed black leather that has been worn and faded so much the original brown is showing through. How do I recreate that?

Two theories so far: One, seal the undyed leather then dye black. The sealant will make it hard for the leather to really soak in the thin black dye. Two, dye a nice chestnut color. Then apply an antique black gel. The gel is thick and will really only stick in crevices and valleys.

I'll post tomorrow the results of the dye tests and I look forward to your opinions.
I dont care what you said. I think the second one looks better! And dang, you must have been collecting those leather stamps since your were 6! A minimum of 70 months worth! That my friend, is dedication i dont have!
 
I think that you could use both types of detailing. To me looking at the your first reference image looks like there’s a bit of the sharp details and a bit of the softer subtle stuff as well. Look forward to seeing the colors!!
 
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I dont care what you said. I think the second one looks better! And dang, you must have been collecting those leather stamps since your were 6! A minimum of 70 months worth! That my friend, is dedication i dont have!

:) I inherited many of them from my grandfather.

I think that you could use both types of detailing. To me looking at the your first reference image looks like there’s a bit of the sharp details and a bit of the softer subtle stuff as well. Look forward to seeing the colors!!

I think I see what you mean and I believe we're looking at just the softer stuff. Most of the sharp details will be created by layering separate pieces of leather. Or am I misunderstanding your idea?


Update:

I'm pretty disappointed with my color tests. They are far too brown for my liking.
20190108_181835.jpg

Looks like I may have to go with pure black. I'll try a few more tests first.
 
I was talking how you shaped your details there on that test piece. But the layering i see working too. As for your colors is there some way to “dry brush” on the leather to highlight details? Or if you were to scuff it maybe?
 
I was talking how you shaped your details there on that test piece. But the layering i see working too. As for your colors is there some way to “dry brush” on the leather to highlight details? Or if you were to scuff it maybe?

Gotcha. Yes, you can paint leather and I probably will a little to add the scratches, but I have to dye it as well.

Update:

Second color run is better.
Here are four different ones and two close ups of the in game leather.
20190108_191553.jpg
Screenshot_20190107-212004_Gallery.jpg Screenshot_20190107-195718_Gallery.jpg

Any votes?
 
I missed the vote so I will just nod my head and grunt ambiguously. “Ghuurr”.
Never too late!

It is going to be awhile till I actually dye the leather, but this is a big part of the process so I'd like to have my game plan squared away.

I've put all my tests overtop of the game model (keep in mind we also just want something that looks cool. The action figure is pure black and he looks awesome!) Each pieces I've scuffed on one side with 150 grit and the other side lightly with 60grit.
Color Test1.jpg


I've also started an affair... Male Nightingale Armor Skyrim - WIP
 
I dig 6, the scuffing really brought the samples to life!! Maybe a little some brown rubbed in areas like the game model? Give that little hint of brown you were looking for? Unless your going for the action figure looks of just black
 
I think that 3 and 6 look great!! Keep up the good work, I know how hard leather can be to work with if it gets a little too dry in one spot and not another. What leather dye are you going to use? You need to be careful with some of it from overseas, a friend of mine got his jacket dyed at the leather shop locally and it "ruined" the texture on it. Good luck and keep it up!!!
 
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