Team Flare Belt Buckle

Around the Time Pokémon X and Pokémon Y came out I wanted to make costumes for the Team Flare Scientists. I focused more on Aliana (orange haired girl on the right) but at the time of writing this I haven't gotten far in making that happen. I did however start and finish a belt buckle portions of the headgears.

While making this buckle I had a lot of time to learn what works and doesn't. 

I started with what I thought would work. Cutting some pieces of foam board and adding clay. This had worked somewhat decently before but I quickly shelved the idea realizing the spray paint would soak in and destroy it and I felt the form was much too wide.

I started out looking at various images namely the one at the top, focusing on the girl in the center. 

I cut and pasted the buckle image into Paint.net I outlined it, and then I resized it to a comfortable size. I chose to get as close to four inches while keeping the shape. I chose 4" because I was referencing the size of a buckle a friend of mine had that I felt was extremely similar in thickness.

After printing the outline out I traced it onto 3/4" MDF I cut the shape out with my Black and Decker Compact Saw, A great tool for small things. Leaving me with a rough cut piece.

After cutting I sanded the edges, smoothing out bumps from the cutting. I then drew two more concentric rounded diamonds. I grabbed my power sander and started a sloping sanding motion. 

Please note: I consume those Peach Sparkling waters any chance I get.

After three days of sanding by a combination of Power Sanding, sanding sponges, and sanding by hand with various grit sand papers, from 60 ending at 2500 grit Automotive Sand paper I was left with a smooth object that my friends who witnessed my constant sanding could only describe as a "rock". 

I painted it with various paints and got it looking acceptable. However I as a newbie to MDF ran into the obvious two problems. Paint Soaks into it like a sponge unless you're using a latex house paint or something like that, and moisture got into it causing it to begin crumbling, I polished it up more and made a quick wax cast of it. I didn't have Smooth On at the time (I do not recommend using wax because most Polyurethanes heat up and melt waxes, I just got lucky)

After my fumbling and luck of the draw work I was able to get a perfect cast out of polyurethane. I sanded off some small bumps and prepped it for painting once more.

I began by painting it 5 to 6 times with white paint sanding any orange peeling away. 

I took my traced symbol and placed it on contact paper which I then placed onto the buckle cutting it out to spray a few coats of red.

After removing the paper I found it was missing something, I didn't like the immediate shift from red to white so I traced around the red portion using a Sharpie. This outline separated the colors and served to clean up some sloppy some of the jagged or sharp areas.

Final Product (Right) Second Copy (Left)

However Sharpie fade and smear purple so I chose to go over that with a 1/8" outline of black paint.

After all was said and done I polished it with a fine grit sand paper and removed any evidence of layering.

Finally I used my Dremel tool to put four small holes in the back and bent two pieces of a wire hanger and placed them in the holes vertically to hold it into a belt not the prettiest solution but it works. I took it out and gave to a few tests for possible failures at conventions. 

I determined between weather, vigorous motion, dropping or color fading there should be no reason it would fail unless someone were to intentionally damage it.

Thanks for Reading,
Stephen

Greetings And Salutations

I'm Stephen, I am an aspiring cosplay designer, motorcycle and moped enthusiast. I also have a passion for Anime, Art, Animals, and Video games I attend comic conventions in the Florida, Georgia, and Alabama area.
I try to recycle when it's applicable, sometimes in my props which I will mention in posts.
When needed I do 3D design for props or to repair things with missing pieces that cannot be found.
If you have suggestions on things I should build or any requests feel free to comment or contact me via this Blog, By Email, Google, or Facebook.
All Items unless otherwise stated were built and designed by me, all symbols and series names in my replicas belong to their respective owners out of respect and admiration for the series.
I trust you will enjoy your time here.
Thank you,
Stephen "Neodymium" Swift
​(Piece Of Scrap Props)