GBC Mod Part 2 - The BlingBoy Version 1.0

Go here if you would like to read part 1 of the GBC belt buckle mod.

After painting the tops and side of the GBC and let them sit overnight to dry, I noticed that the bottom edges where the two plastic case pieces meet were still green, so I had to flip over the cases, prime, and paint them. But, somehow the primer got under the front piece and when I flipped it over this happened:




After shouting obscenities that would even make a pirate cringe, I calmly repainted and continued with the mod.






Much better. Now to reassemble everything and see if it works:





Everything going to plan :) Now to move onto how to attach it to the belt. Asking around a suggestion was given to me about using velcro. So, I bought a few strips of industrial strength velcro and figured out where to place the pieces. The GBC won't actually hold the belt together, because I'm making it to be detachable.



I took two pieces of velcro (the side with the small hooks on it) and placed them on the back of the GBC. I didn't place one large strip there because it would make it difficult to change the batteries. I also placed three small pieces of velcro near the head of the GBC:



Only the top and right side pieces are pictured, but I also placed another above the link cable port on the other side. Now to make what the GBC will attach to. I took the other side of the velcro (the cloth part) and marked the width of the belt on it back of the velcro and also marked where the holes were to be made.







Are you wondering what the heck that 3-pronged thingamabob is on the right end of the belt? That's the other part that the GBC will attach to.



Once again, pardon the fuzziness of the pictures, but hopefully what I'll be talking about can be made out in the picture. I cut a strap from the shoulder-strap of one of my old backpacks, measured the length it was from one of the top velcro pieces near the head of the GBC, across the back of the GBC, and to the other side and cut a strap that length. I seared the edges of the straps after I cut them so that they wouldn't unravel. I also measured how far it was from the top piece of velcro on the GBC to the strap travelling across the sides of the GBC and cut that distance out of the strap as well, and I then sewed the two pieces together. I attached velcro pieces of approximate dimensions of their GBC counterparts to ends of the straps. Now I had to attach it to the belt. I used another section of strap to fashion together a belt loop and I then sewed it onto the back of the head attachment I had just made (resulting in what you see above).

Now all I have to do is put all the pieces of the big GBC belt buckle mod puzzle together to get this:





I present the BlingBoy! Fully functional and ready to play:





All you have to do is detach it and you're good to go. I've been walking around in it all day and it stays together nicely.

Mind you this is only version 1.0, and much is in line for improvement (maybe an upgrade to where it's the actual belt buckle). If you have suggestions/ideas that can help me in the development process, please send me an e-mail at franklid[at]gmail[dot]com.


*Edit* I just realized how hard it is to tell what I've done for the final product, so here's another picture of me wearing something OTHER than black to show it looks:



*Edit 2* I've placed the pictures on a second host (my photobucket bandwith was exceeded). Thanks for pointing that out one of the anonymous readers, and thanks for the suggestion of ImageShack, Mazz.