The Armour Archive

I am working on a coat of plates so that I can get back to fighting. This is the last major body armour component.

This is a prototype, so I made the jupon out of two layers of cotton duck canvas. The plates are made of 20GA (.03") thick mild steel.

I patterned the arm hole opening to follow the inset sleeve of my arming coat. However, I believe this may have been a mistake as the chest plate seems to narrow - my nipples are exposed on either side. The last coat of plates I made had too wide a chest, and consequently it restricted the movement of my arms as I tried to bring them together in front of me. This time I think I erred too narrow. But, this is a prototype.

I will be wearing this over a shirt of maille.




Full size pictures here:
http://www.forth-armoury.com/photo_gall ... es/cop.htm

I am wondering how to treat the plates so that they do not rust. I am not quite ready to tackle tinning yet. I'm afraid paint will scrape off rather quickly against the maille, at least spray paint. What about brush-on paint? I could even get them powder coated.

Steve

Looking good but I see what you're saying about it being too thin over the chest. If you would for instance do the chest plates in the Kussnach style I believe you would be able to have it full width but still be able to move your arms well. As you probably know the Kussnach(t?) style of coats of plates has three plates that are aligned vertically over the chest that can collapse towards the centre when you move the arms forward.

My original coat of plates had a segmented breast, but it did not articulate well enough to not restrict movement of my arms, which is why I went with a smaller breastplate.

Steve