5th Century Frank kit (needs help)

Wolf · Post by **Wolf** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:24 pm

working on this kit. have some ideas from research but I need help in some areas.

spangenhelm of 2 halves. much like the St. Vid hat.

Tunic: green with red trim. round hole neck. tight sleeves. no gores. (how wide should this be made?)

Trousers: Much like the thorsjberg. (winningas???)

belt: http://www.quietpress.com/frankish.html#A10 W-90Both (should there be any other decoration on these semi-wide belts?)

shoes: need help here for design and construction

weapons: smaller spear head. small vertical hanging saex (need help finding blade) Axe http://www.kultofathena.com/product~ite ... ca+Axe.htm
simple short sword like a spatha? hangs on baldric

shield: round shield with shield boss - (allemanic http://www.rudis-kuenstlerwerkstatt.de/ ... m-engl.htm )

cloak: not sure on color but with W-89 broach http://www.quietpress.com/frankish.html#A10

help?

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:11 am

Overall good choices. I'd go for the Frankish buckle in preference to the Viking one.

Have you seen the thread http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=46634 ? The races of the Migration period seem to have had great similarities, and since we know very little overall, in the absence of data to the contrary, withinn reason you're probably quite within your rights to use artefacts from one group in portraying another.

I'd go with a 4 or 6 panel spangenhelm, though, with cheek-guards.

Wolf · Post by **Wolf** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:19 am

i was wondering about that. as for the helmet my st vid is almost done so i can add a spangen later i guess.

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:18 pm

Yep. We are REALLY short of reliable information for this period, which forces us to make compromises we'd far rather not make. I'm sure there were plenty of differences between Franks and Alemans and Goths and Lombards (who got their name because of their long beards!). But we don't know what these differences were.

Add to that the fact that we have just SO little surviving pictorial and archaeological information on any of these groups, and we're pretty much forced to portray "generic" Migration Period Germanic warriors, mixing and matching features from various different races.

It's a bit of a bugger, but we're stuck with it. I've got some photos of some Frankish statuettes somewhere which may help with soft kit. I'll see if I can find it.

Wolf · Post by **Wolf** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:20 pm

ya. thank you so much for your help. you've always supplied great online and literal sources.