The Armour Archive

Anyone have any experience with them? How well do their plates hold up to SCA use?

They're good to deal with and the lamellar holds up quite well.

i have the copper Auk plates for my current suit.

The good: they are light, its like 4 pounds for my suit. They are also pretty damn cheap. The copper ones at least, look nice. Most people think they are metal, until a really close inspection - which usually includes me telling them what they are made of.

The bad: Well, they are plastic. The auks plates are pretty thin and break fairly easily. I have to replace them a little more regularly than I would like. The Newcastle plates they sell are much thicker and hold up quite well.

They have served me well, but for the next suit I will get aluminum plates.

YMMV

oh, forgot: Noble Plastics were a really nice company to deal with. There was an issue with my first order (they sent me black plates). I sent an email to let them know and asked what we should do to correct it. Then after about 30 minutes I thought "we'll they look ok. I'll just keep them and tell them not to worry about it..." I checked my email and in that 30 minutes of me thinking about it, they already had my box of 700 plates dropped off at the post office and provided the tracking number in the email

The smaller Auk plates might crack in heavy abuse areas and without a padded gambeson the Auk plates allow more of the shot in.

In my opinion. from 10' they look okay. Much closer than that and they look like plastic.

They were used in the film "Ball's of Fury".

I've also heard of great success with them being used in a kind of 'Jack-of-Plates set up, also to stiffen up gamboised quises(sp?).

-Ivan

Good option for hidden armor?

Halbrust wrote:Good option for hidden armor?

Very good. Especially if you use the smaller AUK plates. They conform to the body better than the NewCastle style and make it easier to hide with garb.

I have body armor laced from the larger Newcastle plates and ordered them in caramel. 3 years of fighting later and it still looks like leather plates from 10' away.
I wear a padded gambeson my wife and I made underneath it, and usually cover it (now) with a waffenrock.

buddy of mine had a silver lamallar made out of the noble plastics plates. it looked pretty good, like tarnished alum, and he loved the way they took a hit. we do however live in arizona. he left his armour in his truck for a day or two after one of our summer events. the entire suit warped heavily with a large number of the plates cracking and breaking. not the company's fault, just something to be aware of.

Been fighting in them (Auk) for about five years..the first three years in the suit were very regular practices (2 a week plus events), not so much these days. I have two or three cracked plates (all named Euric,lol).

As for padding I have a piece of camping foam over my chest area and that is it. Everywhere else I sure feel it and It usually stings, but I dont want to miss any shots.

The price and durability are good IMO.

My 2 cents YMMV

Livia

thanks everyone, got the Auk plates my buddy wanted in last week and already have his breastplate made.

oh yeah, and they go together quick

I am making my 7 year old son his first kit...copper auk lamellar...sweet..left over from a set I had years ago...great for youth combat.

I have used the newcastle plates for several years and love the abuse they can take. Major downfall is the look, I hide them and while I look 15lbs heavier it works out great. I know several people with the auk plates and the only complaint they have is the breakage ratio versus the tougher newcastles. I have attached a picture of Sir Bart and Big Jon fighting, as you can see it is hard to tell which is plastic and which is metal.