The Armour Archive

Great transaction, all around. Matt, in addition to being a talented armourer, responds to e-mails promptly and sends lots of progress pictures. Great sense of humor as well.

I could say all sorts of good things about him, but I think I'll summarize:

I highly recommend that anyone who can get him to make a helm does so. Mine is sweet.

Pictures here:
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... 43&start=0

Sorry no action pictures yet.

Adam

That is one hell of an impressive helm... wooohboooy...

That's not a helm... That's a piece of art.

And uh... Can I have it when you die?

I owe Adamo a review, as this was a trade. It makes sense for me to put it here.

This was a bit wierd from my end as I am reviewing a customer, and also sort of a seller.

The story:

I sold several helmets. Adamo had admired them, and been interested in a few, but the details never really worked out. It was the wrong size, or the wrong style or just.. not the right helmet for him. I try to pay attention to this kind of stuff. There are a few other guys I want to make helmets for too.

So I ran into a bit of a dead spot inspirationaly. I wanted to be doing something but I didn't know what. I PM'd Adamo and we started talking. He picked out something that I hadn't ever really done before, and I decided that this would be the next thing to try.

Shortly after that he was attempting to sell a riveted chain haubergeon here on the classifieds. I've wanted just such a monkey for a while now. It's one of the few things in the kit I want to finish next for myself will need, and that I don't feel like making. The size he listed should have fit me pretty good (and it does). So I inquired about a trade, and we talked about that.

Later on, Adamo requested some additional work done on the helmet. Namely he wanted me to mount the mail on it for him. He offered what we believe to be one of Atlanta-Armories aventails as trade for that. Cool.

As a seller/trader:

Adamo has been super awesome.

Everything that came from his end as part of the transaction was in immaculate shape.

Moreover, in the descriptions of it, he was absolutely accurate and truthful. If he's got more stuff, and I got money and desire for it, I know I can buy and get what he says it is I'm getting.

He was johny on the spot with shipping in both parts of the game. I don't remember if he had a tracking number on the first package or not, but it was the aventails, one of which ended up on his helmet. I wasn't ready to put it on the helmet yet, so it wasn't something that needed to get here in a hurry. I do know that he sent it out the day after I gave him the shipping information. The second shipment he had a tracking number for me the day after I shipped him the helmet. In both cases it was packed just right. Neither really required much, but the second heavier shipment had extra tape, where it was needed and things like that.

He's been great at answering all of my questions about the origins, and maintaining the stuff, and given me by as far as I can tell excellent advice there.

5 by 5 all the way.

As a customer:

I've done a few custom things in the past. It's always an adventure.

With Adamo it was just cool.

He knew what he wanted. He knew what he didn't want. He was always able to express this clearly and concisely so that I understood exactly what his needs and desires were.

He checked in regularly, but without nagging or getting on my case about stuff not being done. Usualy on Mondays, "How's it coming" or "any new pictures". Mondays because he knew I was still working my day job through most of this, and weekends were when I made progress.

He overstates my timliness and frequency of response. There are a few that slipped past me, and I ended up just getting back to him when the next one came in. I usually don't send as many pictures as I do, but I wanted to make him something super cool. I made something really cool, but I wanted to to be [b]HIS[/i] super cool. I threw a lot of ideas at him, and explained how I was putting it all together to make sure that it was matching up with his vision... or at least his tastes and preferences.

He was very understanding when I had several rashes of life. The truck blew up, then the van blew up, then the truck blew up again, then the kid blew up, then my head blew up. He just came back with "Man, That's rough! Well keep me posted." It was truly awesome. I was a person, and not a transaction.

I don't know that I'll make anything else for him again. I can't see the future, and I'm a lot busy with my own projects and life. But other merchants may want to keep in mind, that Adamo is a great customer, and deserves the platinum service package if you deal with him.

All the way around, I am tickled and thrilled with the exchange. The only thing that could possibly make me happier would be if I had finished the helmet much sooner.