help on tsubo suneate

[Notmyrealyt]

hello this is my first time making armor and I'm already stuck on making my first piece. The first image is just me test fitting them. I have two questions my first one has to do with the two side plates but mainly the inside plate because when I bend my knee the corner will dig into my thigh, I don't know if I should dish it out more so that doesn't happen or if I should cut it, but then that would mess with my tateage. Then my second question is about the tateage I know that they are mounted on the inside of each plate but when they are in place wont it mess with the fit of the suneate plates, and on sengoku daimyo it dosent show the holes that need to be drilled in order the cross lace the tateage to the suneate. Also no matter how much I hammer I can never get the suneate plates to sit f

lush any tips or should I just not worry about it to much.

[Mac]

First of all, this is an ambitious first project. Armor for the lower legs is always difficult. Making pieces of steel fit together is difficult. Making pieces of lower leg armor fit together is more difficult that the sum of the difficulties.

It's been decades since I made any suneate, but I remember that my second pair went more smoothly than the first, and the third pair was a lot less trouble.

That said, I hope you will persevere and work calmly through the problems.

The particular problem where the steel is poking you in the leg looks to me like you need to flare metal away from the body. The plates need to follow the curves of your leg, and those shapes are not necessarily what you think they are. Most people do not really think about the three dimensional shapes of their limbs, but it's a thing you have to learn to do. Once you start thinking of the shapes of the body, you will begin to see how those shapes are represented in the armor plates. Each plate should lay comfortably against the leg in the place where it will go.

The locations for the holes to lace on the tateage plates can probably be copied and adapted from images of extant suneate. I would not punch the holes till I was pretty sure I had the plates shaped correctly. It may be useful to tape the parts together with duck tape while you mess with the shapes.

Mac