The Armour Archive

I did not see any patterns in the pattern section that i could work from. does anyone have some kind of direction to where i can find patterns for a high gothic set of any kind? I have never worked with this type of armour before else i think i could manage to just make my own, would be rather handy to have something to work from.
thanks in advance

Bohdon

how much experiance do you have setting a flute or rolling and edge?

gothic armour take a lot of skill and usualy patterns vary greatly between people makeing the same piece.

my rolled edges are decent and my flutes are progressing well, thats why i was looking for a more advance project to work on.

http://www.eskimo.com/~cwn/armour.html
http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/elbow_darivs/

might be worth looking at
bladeturner.com may have one or two though the content may be out of date.

At one time a nice list of links a few may be dead.
http://annat.net/ac/armor.htm

I'm about to tell you one of the lesser known secrets of high Gothic armour patterns. This is a not-widely-known-fact not because no one is willing to share, but because many poeple are less than willing to listen and believe it.

Here's the big secret-

You won't find patterns for most Gothic armour, because generally, there are no set patterns.

Gothic and Italian armour of the 15thC is not like CoPs and bascinets of the 14thC. A pattern for a CoP or bascinet will fit a lot of people, and if it doesn't, it only takes a very small amount of tinkering to make it fit the person.

Gothic armour, however, is much more tailored to the individual. Pieces of Gothic armour are generally (if you intend on making *good* Gothic armour) made for the individual, to the individual's size.

As everyone is different, every harness is going to have a slightly different flat shape. 12 harnesses for 12 people might look fairly similar when worn, but the shape of the steel to make those harnesses will be quite different.

If you were to go to a sewing forum and ask for a pattern for a fitted suit that will fit you, personally, what sort of response do you think you might get?

The same is true of Gothic armour. Each component is tailored to fit, protect and interact with the particulars of the wearer's anatomy.

So how is anyone supposed to be able to ever make some good looking Gothic armour? Well, follow the steps-

1-Collect as many images as possible of REAL, EXTANT armour that your would like to reproduce.
2-Stare at these images for hours.
3-For each component that you would like to reproduce, get as many images of ONE example, and stare at them for hours.
4-Take pictures of the bodypart you want to cover with armour. Stare at the images of extant armour for hours.
5-Draw over the photo the armour you would like to make. Do this a lot, from different angles. Stare at the images of extant armour for hours.
6-with cardboard and tape or thin steel etc, cut out a rough idea of what you think the pattern should look like, then put it on. Stare at the images of extant armour for hours.
7-Take a picture of this, and compare with the photos of extant examples, and the drawings you made. Stare at the images of extant armour for hours.
8-Where your pattern does not look like the original, change it so that it does. Stare at the images of extant armour for hours.
9-Keep doing this till you're completely happy. Stare at the images of extant armour for hours.
10-Have a go with full thickness steel. Stare at the images of extant armour for hours.

Even doing that, there are many possible avenues to stuff it up. The sooner you get your head around that, the sooner you can resign yourself to the idea.

I'm sorry to have to break it to you like this, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

All that being said, I'm not trying to dissuade you from trying to make some Gothic armour. I just want you to be aware of what you're getting yourself in for.

Also, the three-piece Gothic elbow is probably just as hard, if not harder, and less historically accurate, that making a one-piece floating Gothic elbow. Search through Jiri Lucius' reent thread to see a flat pattern for gothic elbows.

Dave

Ah crap, now I can't stop subconciously adding "Stare at the images of extant armour for hours" at the end of every sentence.

But on a serious note, Stahlgrim posted this pauldron pattern a while back, hope it helps.

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=89244

thanks for all the input guys, much appreciated.

Aussie Yeoman: i had figured that was gonna have to be the course of action, i was just hoping i might find something to help along the way. i have been taking pics of any gothic armour i run across at event to give me ideas. all the pics i'v seen of the "orginals" is usually a little vague in detail and nothing close up.

But i figure if people on here can do it, so can i.

Help along the way... hmmm. What you are going to do is learn how to draw. Photographs are all very well as accurate records of a piece. To get the form well and truly into your noggin, take a mechanical pencil, cheap paper, and a kneaded-rubber eraser (those little gray things you can shape like play-dough and which smell almost as good) and try, and try again and again, to draw that piece you're trying to discover the form of, and reproduce.

(Kneaded rubber erasers don't beat up your paper's surface. Don't rub the line out like you would with an ArtGum or Pink Pearl: press the kneaded rubber to the paper surface and lift it off. Some of the erroneous line will have come off with the eraser. Continue applying until the offending line has disappeared.)

The mental effort of trying to process the image received by your eyes through your brain and then getting it to run out the end of your pencil onto paper should cut down on your sheer staring time, as you will be actively engaged.

If the picture you draw at first is not satisfactory, don't worry about it. The next try will improve on the previous, and THAT is the important result. Some of your drawings you will throw out. This too is just a facet of the same mental, perceptual education you are trying to give yourself.

Even the fellow who isn't quite as artistic as a rawhide mallet can use this and make it work -- for the true product lies not upon the paper he's using up, but inside his skull, as the forms he's trying to get take shape, their various bits in good spatial relationship to each other, obscure half-seen details all being combined or even enhanced for reference. Useful if the original artwork is degraded, eroded, or beat up.