Resurrecting old armor

[Mac]

Mac - I think you're safe on the great pumpkin armour. The last owner hasn't been seen in two decades and at that time he wore it very rarely. As to the dragon - winged onion top - I think the Lord of Melnibone of whom you speak hasn't been seen for at least a decade and a half. The basinet that you made me , that is a contemporary to the dragon winged spectacle is still in service , thought it is starting to look its age. BTW- I didn't think the great purple one's neck was that small. Go figure.

Take care,

D-wayne

Duane,

Are you sure we are thinking of the same "great pumpkin"? This thing I mean was a breast and back in flat, utterly undished facet-like segments. It hinged on the left with a couple of vintage fleur-de-lis cabinet hinges. It had a V shaped stop rib which Freidric of Holland obliged me to pad with duct tape "pasties" when I first appeared in it at an Ice Dragon back in the spring of 79(?). (I must keep reminding myself that I am not bitter about that) The waist was shortened sort of tragically to make it fit with a sort of hooped waist lame and fauld assembly. It became part of the Myrkfaelinn municipal armor and remained that way for years. I really can't remember what became of it. I might have flattened it out and thrown it in a dumpster in the 90s. I certainly hope that's what I did anyway.

Confusion might creep in because that same fauld was subsequently used in conjunction with a more conventional sort of Churburg 13 thing. It was a bit hinky, but not nearly so heinous as the original pumpkin. The fauld went under the red velveteen coat, and the segmented breast went over it. All of that was sold to Arval B. when I stepped up to my first kastenbrust (which I believe Wade still has).

As the the Purple One's neck... It was that size for sure in the Spring of '85.

Mac

[Duane W]

So Arval had mk. 2 . That was the one I was thinking of, sorry about the confusion.

IN the meantime - check this out. Do you know who is wearing the armour in the lower right hand photo?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

[Konstantin the Red]

Permissions!

[Duane W]

That was for Mac - He has permission to see that particular photo from 1979.

[Mac]

Duane,

I get "content currently unavailable".

Mac

[Duane W]

Mac,

Please try again from your FB B&C account. I just set that album to public.

[Mac]

Oh my!.... That's humiliating. That's the Sunday supplement from the Buffalo Evening News, isn't it? I think my Mom has a copy of that as well, but merciful time had all be erased it from my memory.

Yes. That's the Great Pumpkin in it's white paint job. It was my first piece of armor. I built it in my folks basement in Depew NY during the 78/79 winter break. The material was some .042" (that's 16ga, isn't it? ) steel from a scrap yard and tinner's rivets from Winiewicz hardware. The tools consisted of a hammer, an aviation snips, a drill, and a piece of I-beam. I still use that hammer, which I re-hafted in the mid 80s. The snips are pretty well whipped from using them on heavy stuff.

I had hoped and planned to make a full armor over that break, but that was ridiculous, of course. I did also make some closed cuisses and a great helm out of the same stuff. As you can well imagine, a 19ga great helm did not hold up well in fighting practice. It spent the next decade or so as an impromptu "head" for the damaged plaster cast statue of Athena that resided in the nook outside the shop door in Risley at Cornell. If I recall correctly, the helm was stolen by frat boys in the late 80s. I suppose that means it could possibly surface some sad day on Ebay.

Mac

[wcallen]

All of that was sold to Arval B. when I stepped up to my first kastenbrust (which I believe Wade still has).

Mac

Yup. You had a garage sale at Pennsic sometime in the early-mid 80's and I saw a full kastenbrust cuirass for sale for $100 (it might have been 125, but no more than that) so I bought it. One of 2 pieces of Mac armour I have - neither a piece that does you justice. It is currently in the guest bedroom, so people were very near it (probably without recognizing what was there) when they came for the study session.

It hung in our shop for years as part of the interior decoration. In that incarnation it appears behind my head in figure 4.4 in Tomar. Boy, we were young in that picture.

Wade

[Signo]

Don't worry Mac, probably even master armourers of old had the same problem, I think that is the real reason for them to travel all across europe to open new shops! The occasional view of their first pieces in town was simply unbearable.

[Duane W]

Yup, that's the Sunday supplement. I won't point out who the clown is in the blue Freon can helm with the carpet armour and what looks to be a Geologist's pick.

Take care,

D-wayne

[Konstantin the Red]

The one way in the b/g of the lady in red with the drop spindle?

[pmeagher]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Pax Interuptus happened. And I've been working on the coat of plates. Which is very boring rivet removal. And slow, because I'm lazy .

But the MKV showed up from Boston to get padded & strapped. It left three years ago, unstrapped & padded... Ah, well, it's 90% complete now

Sorry no before pictures. It had developed a nice patina like the rest of the kit. I removed that with a wire wheel.



I've had worse.



'Tis but a scratch.



Just a flesh wound!



I'll bite your legs off! (Sorry, I'll stop )



Ooh! A makers mark!

Stay tuned for a few more updates... Well at least one before War.

- Pete

Thescorre
House Three Swans

** All pictures taken with iPotato**

[Mac]

Thank you for this blast from the past, Pete!

I will try to remember to look in the templatorium tomorrow and see if I still have the patterns for that hat.

Mac

[pmeagher]

Thank you for this blast from the past, Pete!

I will try to remember to look in the templatorium tomorrow and see if I still have the patterns for that hat.

Mac

Excellent! It's a very attractive design. It also does not ring like a bell when struck. I'm looking forward to seeing the patterns.

- Pete

Thescorre
House Three Swans

[Mac]

It turns out that I must have gotten rid of those templates long ago. I don't have anything earlier than MK XIII or so.

I am pretty sure that this is the MKV. It shares some of its lines with its immediate predecessor; the ill conceived MKIVs..."the puppies"

There is a story in the MKIVs. They were a production run of for the Municipal armor closest. The idea was that they would be a group effort, with several people of various skill and ability levels participating in their production. They were the worst thing ever to come out of the Shop. Everything went wrong. Some was attributable to the enthusiastic inexperience of the the labor, but in the end, I must take the blame myself.

...The steel stock was unusually soft and just barely .060" (bad luck, poor judgement to use it anyway)
...The sights were too wide; leaving too little support (bad design... my fault)
...The rivets were too few and far between (bad design, I thought it would make it easier for the crew...my fault)
...The plates were badly curved and had a lot of flat spots. (bad work by the crew...I was trying not to be too bossy...so, my fault through not bitching)
...The rivets were badly set (see above)

The stars were all in misalignment and the results were disastrous. The first time the Myrkies took the field with them, three of the helms had to be taken out of use for the day. They just wanted to get flat across the left eye. In a "controlled" experiment latter, (in which I put fully padded helms on a heavy ball stake and walloped them for all I was worth with a rattan sword) I found that I could inflict more damage on a MKIV in three blows than I could on a MKIII in thirty.

What was done can not be undone, and there was nothing to do but try to make the best of it. There were six helms in that sad run. I ended up putting reenforcing plates on the foreheads of five of them. That made them sort-of-usable, but even less attractive; and they still needed more frequent maintenance than they deserved. The sixth one got a different treatment. Having noticed that the riveted joints were where most of the deformation was being realized, I thought to remedy that by brazing all of the seams up. The result was "brasso the wonder dog". It worked better, but looked like hell. I am not sure what ever happened to the MkIVs. I am pretty sure that I put at least one in a dumpster when no one was looking.

I learned a lot from the painful experience of the MkIVs. They helped to shape me as an Armorer. I learned to plan cautiously and anticipate trouble. I learned that one is judged by what comes out of his Shop, for good or ill. I learned not to let anyone help me do anything more mission-critical in the Shop than sweeping the floor.

Mac

[Konstantin the Red]

An effective cautionary tale!

Eh, have the noobs hit 12 gauge plate so they can't mess a piece up in a hurry. And the use of a 20-ton or 50-ton hydraulic press suggests itself, to make the work effective, and not have to struggle up a steep learning curve -- hardwood tools and dies, designed around pressing dishing into the piece with multiple placements, moving the work about as wanted.

[pmeagher]

So I've been away for a while...

Oops.

Pennsic happened, then work. Yeah... Excuses happened .

So I am back to it.



I was able to remove the back, with some grinding, the help of a center punch, and a drill! Yay power tools!



Mac, what the hell are these rivets made of? I had to get the cutting oil out to keep my bit from seizing.

Riveting the straps to the plate was a good idea! It adds a ton more strength, as the 30 year old strap can attest.



I didn't like the pitting here. The wire wheel just wasn't cutting it. Not that I needed to make it shiny, I just wanted to knock the existing rust off.



I've found that paper towel helps keep everything moist, even when soaking.



Evapo-Rust for the win!



12 hours later & I've saved myself a lot of elbow grease.



Rust Restorer to the rescue! I'd like this to last another 30 years.



Time for a bit of experimentation. I don't know if this will shatter, crack or flake, when getting hit. Rustoleum also makes another product specifically for tools.

I think that I'll do a 50/50 split on my helm, and come back here with an after-action report .



But I think it did come out fairly well.



So disaster has struck! I killed my drill, which was doing double duty as the wire wheel as well. Too many rust and metal flakes have gotten into the motor. And it's done for.

So shopping time. For a proper buffing wheel & a new drill!

I'm not really heart broken.

- Pete

Thescorre
House Three Swans