The Armour Archive

I've been working on a new leather breast and backplate. Supposed to mimic the anime of the polish hussars (but while it will protect me, will probably suck in terms of creating the hussar look)

Anyway, now that I've got the upper body formed and hardened (soaked it, then baked in the car), I should probably pad it a little.


For the short term, I don't mind using blue camping foam to pad out my collarbones and ribs. But I'd like to upgrade to something a little better. So I'd like to ask the hivemind what pads they recommend for this.

Current pads I know of are:
Blue camping foam.
Black windrose foam. (I own 1.5-2 sheets of each thickness)
McDavid hexpads. (Looking at the website, don't see any individual pads for sale besides the hip extensions)
Zoombang. (Looking at the website, don't see any individual pads for sale)

So, in terms of cost, effectiveness, and heat, where do you guys rate your pads? (On a 1-5 scale)

Thanks,
Aniol

Zoombang
cost 1 it aint cheap
effectiveness 5 it is legal minimum all by itself
heat 3 not bad but in the area where the pads are you sweat.

I use black foam from OSH (orchard supply & hardware) It is a 4-5 on cost, you can buy it by the foot as little or as much as you want. 4 on effectiveness, you can get it in differing thicknesses and it has protection slightly better than camp foam. 3 on heat, it does retain heat but not so bad i can't use it.

I wear a gambeson that is 4 layers of linen canvas and 1/4" of cotton batting under my 6oz leather and 16 ga aluminum coat of plates. I also have a butted aventail over my shoulders. It is also possible that part of my gorget also covers my collar bones, it'd be about 6 oz also. In 15 years I've never felt the need for more padding even when one time I ended up with a bruise the perfect shape of a heel print on my shouderblade where it was only leather and padding. Sometimes I'll also get small bruiseing if a shot lands between the spaulder and cop.

Forgot to mention, I don't currently fight with a gambeson. I want to make a linen one (a polish zupan) where I can attach some pads, but that's a ways in the future.
So, I'm currently intending for these pads to be glued/taped/riveted to the inside of the armor.

Padded linen/cotton Pourpoint, padded gambeson, riveted chainmaille, and canvas over tunic. Good all round. Worked for our ancestors against steel and working well for me. Heat wise great airflow and as I sweat it gets cooler. If it is too hot I take off the canvas over tunic. ~

Believe me Proxus, if I could sew, I'd already have a gambeson (zupan style). And hidden armor pointed to it. All in all, I'd look like an awesome polish hussar. http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/stani ... enth-c.jpg I can do the sewing, if I have a more talented person standing over me telling me what to do at each step. So at the moment, it means I can't do the sewing.

Wendall,
Do you lay the linen pieces together, sew parallel lines into it, then stuff the spaces between the lines with padding? Or is the padding sandwiched between the linen before sewing the lines?

Ender,
I checked, OSH seems to be a california thing according to the store locater on their website. Since the foam doesn't seem to be listed on their site, I'm going to have remove them from the list.

Nissan,
I think the zoombang pads I'll need will be just the collarbone and ribs. MAYBE the sternum, depending on how well the new anime takes a spearthrust. Do you know if it's possible to just buy the individual pads? I'd rather do that, than buy a shirt like this and cut the pads off of it. http://www.final-score.com/product/mode ... 24&size=XL Although, that one seems a lot cheaper than most zoombang gear I've seen. I hope that price and website isn't a scam of some sort.

my helm liner is stuffed, everything else is sandwhiched.

Cloth padding is awesome, it wicks your sweat away to keep you cool, and once it soaks thru it is even cooler. foam padding traps heat.

Under Armour MPZ football gear. I use a UA compression shirt with shock pads on it, made by Under Armour (UA). It has should protection, ribs and kidney, lower spine, I also have the compression shorts, with the hip, and thigh protection. Cost is about half maybe a bit more than the Zoombang, but is cooler, and lacks the chest protection of the Zoombang. But I like it better, mainly because of my football background.

The UA MPZ shirt is about 50-70bucks depending on which one you get. I got mine on sale at the end of the football season and paid 40 for mine. The compression shorts were 60bucks again, depending on which ones you get and when you get them.


My UA shirt has lasted 3 years now, I wear it directly under my rivited chainmail with nothing else, and its ONLY just torn a hole in the armpit, and thats because I took it off wrong.

Zoombang lacrosse shirt, covers the shoulders and the upper ribs. Cost about $80.00, comfortable to wear as well.

Under armour and niker now make game day and combat gear, more heavily padded than the hex pads but cheaper than zoom bang, it fills the gaps in my rig and takes the sting out of the shots on the point of the hip and shoulder