My replica Mad Max 2 Road Warrior boots

[Max Replica]

I'm going to make several posts at once about Max's boots, but I'm going to separate them into different threads in order to keep the discussion (and future searches) better organized.

The boots Max wears in the second movie are a modified version of his boots from film one. See my film one boots here (as well as info about buying on eBay and sizing):
http://www.madmaxmovies.com/forum/viewt ... f=6&t=8973

MODIFICATIONS:
The changes from the film one boots are that the two top straps are removed, a pair of boot harnesses (or "boot bracelets") are added, and the right boot has the top right loop removed, two rivets on the right side of the right boot added and a sewn-up cut on the right side of the right boot added.
The cuts and rivets on the right boot are probably related to the fact that Max carries his Gerber boot knife on that side.

Here are the Russian boots I had modified into MM2 boots.

wearing boots.jpg (73.39 KiB) Viewed 3126 times

(The leg brace can be seen attached to the left boot in the following picture, that brace was covered in detail in another thread).

rw boot wbrace.jpg (41.43 KiB) Viewed 3126 times

(Max's Gerber boot knife can be seen in the right boot in the following photo. For full info on the knife, go here: http://www.madmaxcostumes.com/C2/max-boots.htm)

boot knife.jpg (27.14 KiB) Viewed 3126 times

[Max Replica]

CONTINUED:
HARNESSES:
Some detail on the boot harnesses:
Max's harnesses use either a D-ring or an O-ring to hold them together. I am 90% convinced that it's a D-ring because I believe I can see a bottom corner of the ring in some screen shots. Karol is only 75% convinced, I think. But one thing is for certain, the rings are definitely rounded at the top and not triangular.

On the back of each harness is a row of metal points. We believe these to be the ends of rivets. The large rivets I used have holes in their ends. I believe I see holes like these in one of the HD screenshots, helping support the rivet theory. Also, it looked from at least one screenshot like the ends of the metal points dimple in, also like large rivets do.

The riveted part of the strap has a line of stitching top and bottom, this is because two pieces of leather are sandwiched to hold the rivets in place.

Detail photo:

boot spike closeup.jpg (36.04 KiB) Viewed 3125 times

The buckles of the harnesses have a rectangular wire piece that holds the extra strap in place. The buckles used on my straps are not 100% the same as Max's but they were the closest I could find (Matching all of the vintage buckles on the various parts of Max's costume 100% is virtually impossible these days).

harness cu.jpg (33.93 KiB) Viewed 3125 times

NOTE: I've got my boot harnesses on the wrong feet in all of these pictures. They need to be swapped so that the buckles are on the inside. Must have got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

THE BOOT KNIFE SIDE:
The two rivets on the side of the boot in the movie are probably used in some way to hold the knife sheath in place. There are often times in the movie when Max's knife shifts forward and falls toward the front of his boot. Probably related to the fact that he has a rivet toward the back, and one on the bottom, but no rivet toward the front to hold the knife there.

I added some hidden velcro in my boot to hold the knife sheath in place better.

boot knife cu.jpg (34.21 KiB) Viewed 3125 times

The cut and knot are a bit hard to see in the movie, so this is my best approximation of it. I think it's pretty close.

[Max Replica]

CONTINUED

WEATHERING:
Like all of the Max's film two gear, the boots are dirty and weathered. In the movie, in addition to the dirt, it appears that the toes of Max's boots have scuffed down to the brown leather beneath the black dye. It's possible that this is just dirt, but it looks like scuffing in this screenshot for example:

boots and brace bottom CU.jpg (184.1 KiB) Viewed 3125 times

The problem is that the Russian boots (and most modern black leather items) are not brown leather with just a layer of black dye on them. The black dye goes straight through, and if you scuff the leather or use acetone to rub off the dye, all you'll reveal is more black, or possibly a bluish/grayish color underneath.
For this reason, after trying some acetone, I hit the boots with a bit of sandpaper (go easy with the sandpaper, it really damages leather) and made enough scuffing on the toes that it would really grab hold of the fuller's earth I would be using to dirty everything up. The fullers earth on the toes gave me a very similar look to what was in the movie.

wearing boots.jpg (73.39 KiB) Viewed 3125 times

In general, fuller's earth (or something like it) will tend to fall off of leather during normal wear, but the slight texture created by the sand paper helps to hold on to it. I mixed my own color of fuller's earth using three different kinds (their standard natural which is sort of a beige, their cocoa brown and their reddish Georgia clay color). This was my approximation of the dirt seen in the movie. It should be noted that the dirt color on his costume in the movie varies from scene to scene and looks different in the blueray version vs. the DVD version. I went with something that I thought was sort of an average.

custom fullers earth.jpg (25.1 KiB) Viewed 3125 times

If you're interested in having me help you with getting your own boots made, look here:
http://www.madmaxmovies.com/forum/viewt ... f=6&t=8975