Artyom's Journal

This is a tutorial on Artyom's journal, as seen in Metro 2033 and Last Light. It consists of a leather case, with a compass, some pencil holders and various small pouches other than the space where the objectives are held. I've only seen one other of these and there was no instructions, until now.

Hotglue
Faux leather or brown fabric
Tacky glue
Acylic Paint or Spray paint
Thick one ply cardboard
Scissors/knife/razor
Elastic bands
Pencils
Paper
Compass
Twine or Yarn
Yellow food coloring or yellow paint
(if you don't have a compass)
Cardboard
Medicine Bottle
Clear plastic sheet

Cut a piece of the cardboard just a bit bigger than the computer paper. My measurements were 11 3/4"x 9 1/4". Cut a piece of the desired fabric an inch or so bigger than the cardboard. Glue the front of the cardboard to the fabric with tacky glue or mod podge and the back with hot glue, trimming the corners to fit correctly.

Cut the bottom out of the medicine bottle. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit inside and a piece of clear plastic to fit over it. Paint the cardboard like a compass face and cut an arrow. Glue the compass face inside the medicine bottle and glue the arrow onto the compass face. When it cools and dries, glue the plastic piece over top of the compass body. Ta-Da, it's done.

Break a couple of pencils. Sharpen the smaller pencils with a knife, chew them, char them, cut them, sand them. Just make them look abused. Cut a small strip of the fabric onto the base on the upper right hand side. Pinch and glue a few times to make three places for pencils to go. Make these slots tight enough to keep the pencils or glue them in. Glue the compass on the opposite side.

Put the two straps on the front, about half an inch from the edges and just long enough to hold half a sheet of paper. Cut some paper in half and distress them.

Cut a 5 inch by 2 inch piece of cardboard and cover in the fabric of choice. Glue small elastic pieces onto the back on both the sides and the bottom. Fold the pieces of elastic and glue to the basic shape to create an expanding pocket.

Take your bowl of water and add some yellow food coloring or yellow paint, stir to even the color. Dry and wrinkle these pages, I used 4. Glue their tops together and glue a strip of fabric to it. Pierce 2 holes in the top and run some twine through. Tie in a neat bow.

Glue a piece of paper on, rough it up. Age an elastic strap and glue to each side to hold the paper on. Glue the bunch of paper to the back, only glue the top, use the elastic to hold the bottom down.

Now you have a complete journal, write as you please. Just remember to change your filters often and stay away from the swamp.