The Armour Archive

I need to come up with some breathes for this visor, but so far I haven't been able to come up with anything that I like the looks of, SO, I'm coming to you all for a bit of assistance.

The fellow I'm building this helm for wanted to move away from a bar grill, while maintaining as much visibility as possible. To that end we settled on the idea of building the visor from 10 ga. and cutting big breathes in it.

That said, lets see your photo-shop skills and hear your recommendations.





<a href="http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/armourkris/recent%20projects/?action=view&amp;current=P2271531.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/armourkris/recent%20projects/th_P2271531.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

What about the pattern seen here?

http://effigiesandbrasses.com/monuments/richard_pembridge/image/6281/large/

If you use less and bigger holes, it could provide some visibility.
I also think it would suit the helmet you have.

Is it a visored Italian sallet? Helmet type does not happen to be readily distinguishable. I can see a short, articulated tail and double-arched brow, but the visor hides almost every distinguishing frontal feature.

Which in its turn suggests a visor/ventail of a more sculpted sort of shape might better fit this whatchamajigger hat.

I would love to do a bunch breaths that look like heraldic ermine spots (the filework would take months i would imagine). But as aside of that, I'm curious if the wearer has tried it on with the cardboard mock-up visor and some padding, ensure the sightline is okay.
The sighting out of that helmet looks like it will be a bit high since the opening for viewing is from the gap between the forehead of the helm and the top of the visor. My initial thought is that the wearer must either have a very short forehead or he/she is looking out of his/her eyebrows (always looking up).
I'm probably 100% wrong. People have different shaped heads and all. But I just wanted to make sure before you start cutting. I had to make a couple of cardboard mock-ups for the exact same reason. Below is one that has the metal visor fitted (after getting the cardboard prototype visor comfortable to look through), but before opening up the eye-slots or adding breaths.
Looking through breaths, no matter how big they are, is problematic unless they are lining up just ever so with where you are wanting to look. Some individuals get used to it though.
-Cian

yea, i guess they really aren't the best pics. I'll see if i can get some better ones up, just need better light than my living room allows, and recharged camera batteries.

Anyways, to answer the questions that have popped up...

It is more or less shaped like an Italian salet, however, it's built with riveted construction. the skull is made from 2 halves, the brow reinforce continues up the top and along the sides to make the frame they are attached in to. the sides and part of the back are made from a third plate, and it has an articulating tail made with 3 lames.
The visor looks a bit long for 2 reasons, 1, it's about an inch longer than it needs to be, by customer request, and 2, again by request, the dome is closely fitted to the head, giving it a bit of a squashed look and making the face look that much longer.

The customer hasn't tried it on with this visor pattern yet, but it's made from one he has tried on, with the changes he asked for. the eye slot lines up the same on both of them, this one was just made a bit longer and leaves a bit more nose space. so I'm pretty sure he'll be able to see out of it. I'll have him try it on before i start in steel in any case.
Lastly, the visor will be more fittted to the helm once it's metal, I just cant but compound curves in cardboard