The Armour Archive

Now that I have ya here, I need help! My son's CUB scout troup wants to do the annual blue-gold banquet with a "Knights of the Round Table" theme (please don't flame about KIng arthur and his validity- this is for 7-10 yr. olds!)

They want to spend the next several den meetings making cardboard or light plastic "armour" as craft projects. Any ideas? Tips? For little helms I was thinking making a *frame* out of cardboard that looks like the bands on a spangen. Or maybe use old clean milk jugs. Then cover in aluminum foil, and then glue alum. foil to the inside. For body armour I was thinking of having them bring an old t-shirt, cut off the sleeves, cover with double-sided tape, stick alum. foil all around, split up the sides, punch holes in and lace back up.

ANy other ideas? Improvements on these ideas? We have until the end of February to make stuff so we are running out of time.

Thanks in advance for your help!

In Service,
Aidan

There are some books out there that have punch out patterns for helms and the like. Get one of those, punch out the patterns, then copy them onto your own posterboard and decorate as you wish. Viola.

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Do not go gentle into that good night - Dylan Thomas

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All i can say is raid your local car washes for plastic, have a oven ready at 350 and a pot of boiling water with salt in it

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Omg! she swallowed a Quarter, old man says:ahh buh! children swallow Quarters all the time, the lady answers: They Do? , Yeah its when they crap out 2 dimes and a nickel is when you have to worry

form fitting plastic is not an option.. remember- these are 7 yr olds!!!! besides...

PLASTIC SUCKS -- THATS WHY!!!

How about the round pillows for round shields and all foam daggers?

I don't think they want to actually "fight", I think the idea is that the whole bue-gold banquet will have a king srthur theme, and a few of the nicely armoured sca people might come and stand around and look cool, and the kids will be dressed in "armour" and sit around eating and playing.

In Service,
Aidan

You can make helms, of a fashion, out of milk jugs. Spray paint them silver.

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Aidan Cambel:
I don't think they want to actually "fight"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

*snickers*
...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

They don't want to fight, and you don't want to win the lotto...
A... long time... ago, when my troop had our blue&gold banquet, my brother and I did the whole armour thing. We used cardboard and duct tape for pretty much the entire thing. We put thin dowels through our swords to act as stiffeners (just cardboard was too floppy, we found, after fighting for a couple minutes)... I can't, for the life of me, remember what our armour was like... maybe I'll try to get my mom to find and scan some pictures...
--tom

if you arein a rural area find some fresh hids and tan them use a simple cop patern and watch macbeth the armour is a lot easyer and looks better made out of card board and hide also check out the local hard ware for aluminum flashing you can probibly find it in a role about 18 inches wide it comes in different lenths it will look better than the foil but you need to tape down the edges
also get some help if you are doing this on your own with 4 or more children you are asking for truble you will have better luck with mothers then fathers. for the most part fathers will want to do most of the work in stead of supervise and help the scouts will get more out of this if they do most of the work also have a varity of styles in helms and armour try to have a finished product of each set before you start some styles work better than others for this age group if they are going to have truble using certain tools make shure to read the package so that it will wash off also paint does not always stick to plastic well so do a sample before investing to much time
encurage them to be creative and saport them even if it looks poor

I can't remember the title but ther is a book at amazon .com theat runs about $9 that has some great patterns for paper helms.

Use balloons that are blown up to the size of a kid's head, then cover with papier mache. (Just strips of newspaper that get dipped in a flour/water paste) Let dry, cut to the right shape, spray-paint silver.

I would give them all tabards in a simple, 2-color look. Use cord to belt the tabards and that gives them some more coverage. Then, a little wooden shield and sword each will take care of the rest. The shield can be 1/4" plywood with a coat of blue paint and two leather straps for handles. The swords can be made pretty easily out of cheap lath. Silver spray paint is still our friend.

It won't cost much more than all the t-shirts and duct tape, but it will take a little longer. Still, if you get cracking right now, you will probably have enough time.

Let us know how it turns out!

-Patrick

Aidan, Try looking at this web site--it has instructions for making costume armor out of posterboard. If nothing else, it might give you some ideas.

http://www.talisweb.com/halloween/

Good luck!

Thorfinn A.D.



[This message has been edited by Thorfinn af Dyflinn (edited 01-16-2001).]

Nine years ago I found myself in the same boat. I found that white poster board about 15" x 30" and a dinner sized "Chinette"brand paper plate make an easy to assemble "great helm". First cut a "T" shaped opening in the center of the poster board.(sure the "T" shape isnt right for a great helm, but it's easier for parents to see the kid, and gives lots of breathing room too!) Overlap, by about 1", the ends of the poster board into a tube shape and with white glue, glue on the plate. Sray paint silver. Top with a decorated toliet paper tube (We found some white tissue paper feather stuff). For tunics each boy brought a large mens t-shirt. We traced a shield pattern onto the front and each boy designed his own "coat of arms" based on his favorite things. The Cub scout "How to" book also had some good ideas for games. We evan built a Quintain(sic) and the boys rode thier dads piggy-back and used a foam covered broom stick (can you say pole arm?)

For "brass rivets" you can use those paper-binder things...like a rivet head with two flat tails...punch it through and spead the tails out to hold it in.

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Forgot about those...round head brass fasteners. And if you have time...a glue gun can add all sorts of curly-ques.
this is a good project to have parents involved with. Fabric paint, glue cutting out cardboard...Yeah, parents

You might want to try using craft foam to make some armor parts. It is pliable, formable and can be sewn if needed. Milk jugs work great for helms. I recommend silver spray paint instead of foil though- the foil does not hold up well at all and can get gacked before the armor is even put on.

Not that I've ever made toy armor out of foil or anything <cough cough>.



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-Tonwen
Gyldenholt, Caid

thanks for all your help.. i think the mache' balloons/silver spray paint is a great idea! I had thought about the paper binder things, even called my wife to see if her office had any - spent 10 minutes trying to explain what they were because I couldn't remember what they were called. I kept saying "you know, those things ... ummm.. they are like paper clips for papers with holes in them... you know those THINGS!!!! "

You'd think as long as we have been together she could read my mind by now!!!

Thanks for all your help guys...

In Service,
Aidan

Try getting som eof that sparkley mesh fabric from a craft store cut it like hauburkes and coifs.

I think that and some little helms made of poster board painted silver would rock.

when is this thing? If ya want i polish up every thing and bring some other stuff for desplay. I would'nt put it to the general group though, for obvious reasons. i luv scouting.

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"Honor Mea Vita Mea Est."

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;"

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William Shakespeare, Henry V

Scouting rules, man i had so much fun doing that stuff

id agreee witht he past few posts, cardboard helms painted silver, but maybe barrel helms? like yers sorta Aidan, prolly be alot easyer to put together, nad wear and the like

yeah id say get some black knit material and silver spray paint, chainmail! if its good enough for Hollywood? or maybe just find some cheap black sweaters at like walmart in a 2X size so theyle be nice and long on em

then maybe pool noodles for swords if ya want to do those, adn cardboard shileds, with cardboard handles stapled on the back of them, then painted, heaters would prolly be the easyert to mass produce

Ld. Murdock,

This thing is towards the end of february. Its during the week, but I think its from like 7-9 on a Monday night. I will have to check my schedule to make sure (if memory serves me, its Feb 26)

In Service,
AIdan