This is THE belt that basically every Imperial wears – which makes it a very iconic Star Wars Thing to have for cosplay purposes even if you don’t have a costume in mind.
Imperial Bridge Crew CRL for reference
- Buckle: Tandy makes a perfect one! Just use sandpaper in a careful up/down motion to get the right finish. (A file is too rough) and maybe shop for one in person to make sure there aren’t too many imperfections. Someone at an armor workshop suggested Never Dull cloths to make it even shinier.
- Buckle greeblie: Pretty much everyone buys them from ElvisTrooper but there’s lots of other options, especially if you’re not going 501st.
- Belt Screw: I used a chicago screw from Tandy because I like the flexibility of being able to take the belt apart. (Like if I need to open a beer)
- Belt Blank: “2 inch Black Belt Blank” is a good set of Ebay keywords. (Say that three times fast!) You can usually find ones that have already been dyed that are still cheaper than Tandy. Just make sure it’s 8-9oz leather instead of a thinner variety like 3-5oz. (Here’s mine, in case you can’t find anything better)
- Thing to make the hole in the belt: Search “Leather Punch” (they have handles like pliers) And remember to rotate the belt all the way around as you apply pressure, so it gets punched evenly. Or you could use a drill or something more powerful if you have it or if you can borrow one.
To put it together…
- Sand and polish the buckle in that vertical brushed sort of way.
- Glue the buckle greeblie onto the buckle.
- Use the Chicago screw (or rivet or snap) to both attach the buckle and become the screen accurate silver dot located 1″ away from the buckle.
- Now that the buckle’s on, you can measure where the hole needs to be punched.
Note: When I was building mine, the most helpful resource I came across was this post by the Nerdista, but my belt ended up being a lot cheaper and simpler, so I wrote this instead of just linking people to her post.