Fixing Ammo Belt to Body Armour

To keep the ammo belt from slipping down and twisting around the torso, the original costumes had a snap fitted to the inside of the belt and again on the ab plate. This is a simple idea to a common problem.

And its something the builder of any accurate costume will want to recreate in the quest for greater accuracy.

So first lets look at how the canvas belt attaches to the ammo belt. Any good replica armour will have rivet covers to go over where you attach the belt. But for those making sandtroopers, please be sure you dont glue these to your ab plate - i joke not - ive seen it done.


Here is where the rivets should be, one centered and the other towards the outer edge - note the small rivet covers ready to hide the rivets.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here is the inside shot, also showing the dropbox held on with elastic.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The snaps to hold the belt to the ab plate should be just inside the last box of the ammo belt and will hold the dropbox elastic in place, sandwiching it between the rivet for the canvas belt like this.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

In this pic you can see the snaps in place on the torso. The are fitted directly to the armour, just measure, drill 2 holes and fit them in.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here the belt is in possition before the rivet covers have been glued on.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And all finished ready to wear.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

this has always been a question i've been wondering with others. when you guys holster your e-11. does your armor sag? mine tends to sag like all the weight pulls the armor down. this is only a hyperfirm also.

Do you have the snaps on the abdominal-plate to "snap" the belt on?

Yes I do 3rd to last picture

firebladejedi wrote:

Yes I do 3rd to last picture

I didn't ask you, Mark :p

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I directed the question to the fellow above my post who asked if your holster sacked when the blaster was in. My thought was that maybe it would do that because he didn't have the abdominal snaps for his belt.

Haha. You guys are hilarious.

I do have snaps on the ab plate. I actually used these photos as reference when I was building my armor. Just for some reason when my blaster is holstered. It pulls the armor down on my left side. I'll have to upload a picture later tonight.

^ Perhaps your lack of butt allows your armor to sag?

Yep pictures will help explain things.. maybe your belt is not stiff enough to hold it up.

Thanks for the pics joey. As I thought you can see the belt giving way under the weight.

were can you get a good belt from?

Dunno Pete i think from that guy who hangs out with Luke Skywalker

What Han Solo??????

No FirebladeSolo

hey guys thanks for the tutorial here.

What kind of rivets are you using to fasten the ammo belt to the canvas belt?