Putting together a new kit: 14th cent BC, or 15th cent AD?
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:49 pm
Long-time lurker on AA, very infrequent poster. I’m getting back in SCA fighting after well over a year of work-and-family imposed exile, and am looking to re-do my kit.
The period I was portraying before was roughly SCA 2009-ish , and, while I’m not as historically-accurately inclined as many here, in putting together something new, I want to make a bit more of a reasonable effort at portraying at least the general idea of a particular period than I have in the past.
I have a Clang Corinthian barbute that I want to base my kit around, and was looking for some advice as what to do with it – It’s a beautiful kick-ass helm that I love to death, and I’m well aware that Mark takes perhaps a little bit of artistic license in some of his helms, and as such it has 15th cent elements without being 100% accurate.
I had two ideas and wanted to see if either of them are too far-fetched (also on a limited student budget which places some constraints on what I can do, so no plate armour for the moment…).
The first strikes me as the pretty obvious one: Italian militia circa 15th cent, padded jack hiding the required protection, mail standard/bishops collar hiding the gorget, hidden legs. The jack would hide the arms and elbow cop, and maybe later on down the road I could add (decorative) jack-chains.
The second one allows me to be a bit more creative in putting together the new kit, and have a bit more fun in putting this together, but I don’t know if I can get away with it with this helm: Scythian, circa 1400 BC. Body armour would be mostly leather scale or lamellar, with the back plate on the helm hidden with a leather or leather-scale drape (to mimic the Scythian practice of modifying Greek helms by cutting off the back section).
I’m not sure if this helm with the right kit could pass as an approximation of a greek Corinthian or if it is unquestionably 15th century. I found a couple of museum pieces of greek Corinthians that do have something of a fore-to-aft crest rather than the more common rounded “phallus-top” (I attached a pic below), so I don’t think it’s a completely ridiculous idea, but wanted to get other opinions beforehand.
Once again, not looking for a completely historically accurate kit for the time being (otherwise I would be saving my spare change for either an actual Corinthian or Barbute), but would like to look as though I’m making an effort by being inspired by a particular period in my creative anachronisms.
Thoughts?
The period I was portraying before was roughly SCA 2009-ish , and, while I’m not as historically-accurately inclined as many here, in putting together something new, I want to make a bit more of a reasonable effort at portraying at least the general idea of a particular period than I have in the past.
I have a Clang Corinthian barbute that I want to base my kit around, and was looking for some advice as what to do with it – It’s a beautiful kick-ass helm that I love to death, and I’m well aware that Mark takes perhaps a little bit of artistic license in some of his helms, and as such it has 15th cent elements without being 100% accurate.
I had two ideas and wanted to see if either of them are too far-fetched (also on a limited student budget which places some constraints on what I can do, so no plate armour for the moment…).
The first strikes me as the pretty obvious one: Italian militia circa 15th cent, padded jack hiding the required protection, mail standard/bishops collar hiding the gorget, hidden legs. The jack would hide the arms and elbow cop, and maybe later on down the road I could add (decorative) jack-chains.
The second one allows me to be a bit more creative in putting together the new kit, and have a bit more fun in putting this together, but I don’t know if I can get away with it with this helm: Scythian, circa 1400 BC. Body armour would be mostly leather scale or lamellar, with the back plate on the helm hidden with a leather or leather-scale drape (to mimic the Scythian practice of modifying Greek helms by cutting off the back section).
I’m not sure if this helm with the right kit could pass as an approximation of a greek Corinthian or if it is unquestionably 15th century. I found a couple of museum pieces of greek Corinthians that do have something of a fore-to-aft crest rather than the more common rounded “phallus-top” (I attached a pic below), so I don’t think it’s a completely ridiculous idea, but wanted to get other opinions beforehand.
Once again, not looking for a completely historically accurate kit for the time being (otherwise I would be saving my spare change for either an actual Corinthian or Barbute), but would like to look as though I’m making an effort by being inspired by a particular period in my creative anachronisms.
Thoughts?
