The Armour Archive

Josh W

I wanted to like this movie when I first saw it on VHS back in the '80s, but I concluded that it sucked based on the absence of any plate body protection being worn with those plate limbs. It was this film that turned me irrevocably against the 14th century.

Josh W

I am deeply embarrassed to post this, and I almost reconsidered. I had thought this page of photos had long since vanished into the depths of the internet, never again to see the light of day. Then, the other day, in a discussion on a gaming board in a thread about armour and mobility, a foreign fel...

Josh W

We had a local girl who was just like that. She was president of the university's anime & manga society. She evidently wanted to be just like some badass anime heroine. She would scream and cuss and throw things, and then go sulk when she lost, which was often; she'd even scream in Japanese at h...

Josh W

St. Olof's Gillet, I think...

http://www.olofsgillet.org/

Josh W

My family kept horses when I was growing up, Gwen. I know how to ride, but it's been a long time...

Josh W

I never get tired of these photos. Someday soon, that's what I want to do in my harness.

Josh W

Everyone in attendance at your practice hails from the 14th century?

Josh W

I'll second that; the barbarian fellow is smarter than he looks. I've known him for a couple of years. He runs foam weapons tournaments in Lawrence and sometimes attends our local gaming convention. The most common question I get asked by fair-goers is, "How much does that weigh?" "Yo...

Josh W

Spiffy!

Nice suit, by the way. My wife wants to know what the song playing in the background is...

Josh W

...the early Khazar segmented breastplate... What's this? I recall reading about some Khazar lamellar armour in which all the lamellae had apparently riveted together, but if they had segmented breastplates, then the Khazars are going to rise to first place among first-millennium cultures in my est...

Josh W

On Saturday I went to the Great Plains Renaissance Festival in Wichita, Kansas with a couple of friends. The weather was nice--sunny, but not too hot, so I wore my full harness. I had arranged to meet Patrick Kelly there, having talked with him on various forums for years, and it was nice to finally...

Josh W

I like these. What do you charge for them?

Josh W

I like your harness, MJBlazek. The cuirass in particular is fine. All you need to do is strap the tassets a little higher.

Josh W

Sir Gaston wrote:Where is this piece? What do we know about it, any one?

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... =corazzina

If I were ever to do a late 14th century impression, I'd make one of these.

Josh W

http://ursus.smugmug.com/gallery/2686344#142260831-L-LB

http://ursus.smugmug.com/gallery/2686344#142256492-L-LB

This is surely one of the most badass SCA kits I have ever seen. Who is this? Who made his harness? How did he make that pavise?

Josh W

It's been mentioned that spring steel resists denting much better than mild; is it also significantly more resistant to penetration?

Josh W

I have a 110-pound longbow on the way. I don't think I'll ever be able to pull the thing without sitting down and bracing my feet against it, but I'll have one. I've even got the correct arrows for it, with a selection of heads. I would be most willing to loan these things out for this purpose. Also...

Josh W

...the quality of the armor and of the steel is AMAZINGLY heterogenous, and the historical record is a very, very mixed bag. So, I imagine, is the quality of the archery tackle, the bow's poundage, and the performance of various arrows/head designs utilized by various cultures. Not all bows were En...

Josh W

Was that bump present in the pavises from the 14th century? I'd always understood that earlier pavises were plainer and that bump came along later.

Josh W

Ã†iric Ã˜rvender wrote:Sigh... no Celts... no Romans... just a buch 'o folks in pretty shiny armor

And what's wrong with that? The celts and Romans and such get enough attention from other media...

Josh W

I made that poster and posted it on a gaming forum last year. The armour is the Evil Twin of my own suit.

Josh W

Tell your friend to read up on the battles of Flodden, Patay, and Brouwershaven. The English archers failed to deliver against armoured men on each of those occasions. In the case of Browershaven, it's noted that their oh-so-deadly arrows "...did about as much harm as a shower of rotten apples....

Josh W

When my armour grows up, it wants to look a lot like Jeff Hedgecock's harness...

Josh W

Still a work in progress...

Josh W

So what kind of armour class bonus does a madu provide?

Josh W

So why not stick to what is provable instead of indulging in whimsy?

Josh W

Dude, you're really reaching here. On what do you base your assumption that "...it is possible that someone did..." use such a weapon style? Do you want to be a medieval Norwegian or a Dungeons and Dragons character? You aren't really making a good case for medieval Norwegians using madus ...

Josh W

What's up with the very odd-looking, angular gauntlets I see on some combatants?

http://gawin.awehail.org/index.cfm?page ... &image=302

I've never seen that pattern before...

Josh W

Does either Ix or Otaktay hail from an ethnic background that features Aztec/North American Indian heritage? If so, I can see why they might want to explore that in the SCA. If not, then...why? It's not their heritage--it's somebody else's. That'd be just as incongruous as six-foot blond samurai. Pu...

Josh W

Sure SCA fighting is fun. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be made more fun. There's room for improvement...

Josh W

http://ursus.smugmug.com/gallery/251294 ... 504/Medium

Who is this? I honestly hold the 14th century in a fair degree of disdain, but this guy's armour just jumps out at me. Unlike most SCA 14th century guys, he wears the mail he ought to be wearing under his plate bits.

14th century or not, his is the best SCA kit I've seen in a while.

Josh W

Truss/tie plates from Home Depot (or the looted remains of any hardware store, for that matter), either laced together as crude lamellar, or riveted with roofing nails into a vest made from a canvas tarp as a sort of brigandine. I think coats of plates or chahar-aina made from road signs would be in...

Josh W

Es el mejor idioma en todo el mundo.

This almost makes me want to buy a 16th century armour. It'd be awesome to have been a rodelero during that period...

Josh W

Bump.

Did either Klaus the Red's or Kel Rekuta's projects ever get finished? I'd dearly love to see photos of any reproductions of these back-opening defenses...

Josh W

I always seem to get hit on the left side of the head when facing a right-hander. Right thigh when facing a lefty.

Where do I never get hit? The torso, except for thrusts. Even so, my torso armour is by far the heaviest part of my harness because that's what was heaviest on the real thing.

My visit to the Great Plains RenFest