The Armour Archive

I am going for an Italian 15th century kit (Barbute, gambeson, arms based on the pattern in the archive, spaulders). I am looking to make body/chest protection to fit over the gambeson.
What can I do with my 55-gal blue barrel (and how can I do it) to create chest protection that will match the rest of the kit?
I know that brigandines, corrazina, breastplate and cuirass would fit, but do not know how to make any with the barrel.

Failing finding anything better current plan is to simply to cut it into plates and strap it and cover it with a surcoat.

Thanks in advance!

Mark your pattern on the barrel and cut it out basically. It shouldn't need much shaping since it already has a natural curve. My very first body armor was plastic barrel plates tied together with rope. You can cut the breastplate into pieces and shape with a heat gun for a closer fit.

Should be easy to lay out a pattern in cardboard, work out any fitment issues, then transfer to the plastic. I believe Pitbull still sells patterns as well.

Hi there, Thanks for the referral Sevastian.


Hi Boris, I used to make plastic armor when I first started out, I still sell the patterns for it if your interested you can see the armor here.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=138250&hilit=pitbul ... r+patterns

Have a good week

Pitbull

Hi there, Thanks for the referral Sevastian.


Hi Boris, I used to make plastic armor when I first started out, I still sell the patterns for it if your interested you can see the armor here.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=138250&hilit=pitbul ... r+patterns

Have a good week

Pitbull

After posting this I soon learned how sinful it was to bring up pickle barrel. Please forgive my ignorance

Fear not, worthy Boris... we were ALL there once, now we're just veteran, and have had our personal bars much raised. Happens around here. One merely wants to cover up the p@&$$T%c to make it both more beautiful and more periodlike. Some Kingdoms are insisting on this now... call it Peer pressure if you like, but now we're headed towards the more artful and actually putting the weight of the Society behind that movement.

Plastic has its advantageous properties: cheap to get, easy to work with just a little cheap equipment, doesn't rust. Polypropylene doesn't sink to the bottom of a pond, so it's harder to lose if you get mixed up with ponds, gators, and other distractions. HDPE like you've got... er, look up its density per cubic centimeter and... Two seconds' Google and at a density range of .93 to .97, it floats itself... but not itself plus the rivets and straps holding the armor piece together.

Nothing sinful about plastic as a material. We just want you to cover it up since there is little that you can do to make it look like authentic armor. Some people love thermo-formed plastic as an armor. Some people really dig aluminum. Some people wear as little armor as they can to gain a performance advantage. Use what you have access to. Make it look as good and authentic as you can, and other than trying to help you improve, most folks won't say anything. And remember that every group in the world has its share of jerks and butt heads. If you happen to run into one of those, just remember that they are the exception rather than the rule.

Plastic is great for armor as long as its covered up some way, Tabard, leather, canvas etc, Plastic also has great properties for armor as KtR mentioned,

Anyone have a link to Chris Gilmans Green Transitional suit he built for the Haunted Mansion Movie?


Anyway that was made from plastic plates and is the best example I can think of for plastic armor.

Take care

Pitbull

Take your time and get the armour to fit properly.
Barrels often are very thick at the tops and bottom makeing it difficult to form without looking lumpy.

Try and use those spots for something else.

They say you can get HDPE formable in a boiling-water bath, letting it heat through, which takes a little time because plastic is a lousy conductor. Some strategic work on this hot, stewed plastic with a twenty-buck heat gun and you've got a fair amount of good options open to you for forming your barrel bits to conform better to your contours. You just need a good-size pot and a burner.

On this topic I must ask, could anybody list the names of some of the acceptable plastics for armour building? "Barrel plastic" is hard to find in sheets without knowing the actual name.

Barrel plastic/pickle barrel/ a million other names is just a HDPE plastic barrel. On the high end, you will buy them as "water storage barrels", and pay twice the price. Some folks have been getting soap barrels from car washes.

Another popular plastic is kydex, which is a trade name for a "thermoplastic acrylic-polyvinyl".

I have been using 1/8th inch ABS, as it's cheap and local for me. Is moldable at about 250-275 degrees. Locally it runs under $80 for a 4x8 sheet.

I railed against plastic for years, but for ease getting new folks into armour, and for making a lightweight flying kit, it's hard to beat.

Currently I have been doing cuisses (easy). Recently started working on vambrace splints (inside leather, still in progress), a Wisby CoP (plastic plates cut out, working on the leather shell pattern right now). For new folks, and hidden behind the shield, I've been doing a 3 plate demigauntlet. All out of ABS. If there was one gripe, I think ABS doesn't handle compound curves as well as kydex does. Also, long term wear of ABS, especially in really cold temperatures, is really suspect.

Check your temps 250 will cause some plastics to off gass.

Abs and kydex 100 are the most common for buying sheet plastic for sca armour.
Usually 1/8 .125 or 3/16 .187 for most applications.

Barrels are often uhmw or hdpe these polyethylene plastics work ok but many barrels have printing to work around or have thick portions that can be difficult to use without looking lumpy.

Now how goes it, Boris_?

boris_ wrote:I am going for an Italian 15th century kit (Barbute, gambeson, arms based on the pattern in the archive, spaulders). I am looking to make body/chest protection to fit over the gambeson.
What can I do with my 55-gal blue barrel (and how can I do it) to create chest protection that will match the rest of the kit?
I know that brigandines, corrazina, breastplate and cuirass would fit, but do not know how to make any with the barrel.

Failing finding anything better current plan is to simply to cut it into plates and strap it and cover it with a surcoat.

Thanks in advance!

My suggestion? Don't. A good Gambeson looks better and will do just fine for protecion. Don't ruin a potential good kit with chunks of garbage can.

I gather this was budget-driven, and he's gotta dance with who he brung for at least this while. Pl@$*!c harness that somebody tried to work cleverly, artfully not in desperate improvisation, is always valuable for Shire loaners once the Original/Old Warrior has upgraded to something more ambitious, and spendy. If Boris imitates the lines of a 15th-c brig as close as he can, cutting it like a doublet of that time, he'll be that much ahead of the pile-o'-plastic paradigm. His plates may be pretty durn broad for a brig.

15thC is not budget friendly, this is a fact.

My suggestion, as a fellow money-deficient recreator of the best century, is to do as they did in period, and build up from the base layer till you're at the kit you want.

Your average 15thC grunt Usually started with a thick gambeson, helm, arm protection in the form of jack chains or simple unarticulated defences, a helm and their shield. As they progressed, pay and battlefield loot could improve their harness, and they would add where they needed.

Make or purchase a decent gambeson. Hide some kidney and possibly shomr rib plates out of your plastic inside, and rock the rest of your kit as planned. As funds and acquisitions allow, you can remove the hidden plates and keep the look you're going for.

Have some inspiration.







And a candid shot of my in my current harness, though I just recently finished a simple leather and steel plat brig breast to attach to my placard.

Konstantin the Red wrote:

Now how goes it, Boris_?

Due to life I have not time to cut up my barrel. I have made due with a weight belt that covered my kidneys and my gambeson is the only bit covering my upper body. I end up taking lighter shots to the body for now, but that does not bother me as it just means I have to learn to defend better. (I also will need to add buttons, those keep getting knocked off)

Kilian_the_warlike wrote: My suggestion? Don't. A good Gambeson looks better and will do just fine for protection. Don't ruin a potential good kit with chunks of garbage can.

Heaven forbid. If I get to making the sport stuff it will go under the gambeson, not over.

I am going to try to make the sport gear this week.

Wot 'e sed, tho', about gambys: period, and sporty-light overall.