Although made in army workshops and probably a required item of equipment, it was perhaps not issued at random but more carefully chosen by the soldier according to his own tastes, and budget. Beltplates are generally described as either narrow or wide. The narrow plates are the older style, the narrow belts often being worn in pairs. These plates are either cast brass or cut from sheet, and frequently tinned or silvered, and inlaid with niello. This would be much quicker than casting the plates individually.
Many narrow plates are plain, though they are still often tinned.
Some are tinned but with an untinned brass border. Another example has a punch-work design of a vine with leaves, very simple to do with a hammer and nail. Frequently the ends are rolled, sometimes with ball-headed pins inserted in the resulting tubes. Belt plates often had just concentric rings. You can use socket wrench heads of varying diameters to stamp the rings, working first from the back and then from the front.