How should I go about measurements?

[alepoudes]

I'm very new to armour smithing and would like to make a spangenhelm and brigandine using the website's patterns, but I'm curious as to how to find out what the measurements of the pieces should be. The spangenhelm seems easier but I'm not sure what to do for the brigandine, I'd obviously measure my own waist and chest but I don't really know how to translate that to the actual armor's measurements. Right now I'm thinking of making a "prototype" brigandine out of paper and seeing what works then basing the armour's measurements on that, but paper doesn't seem really reliable. What do you usually do to figure out what the measurement of your amour should be?

[Keegan Ingrassia]

First of all, welcome! Glad to have you here.

Template Material Choice
Your instinct to mock up a prototype out of inexpensive material is a good one; it's much faster and easier to iterate, and mistakes don't set you back in time or money. I've found, for pieces that need relatively simple shaping, that paperboard (cereal boxes) works very well. It's stiff enough to take a curve, can be taped/stapled/paper brad together, holds up well to handling and test fits, and can be used as a template afterward.

For pieces that need more compound curves—say, a breastplate or a knee—you can piece the paperboard together with tape. Eg., shapes like this [) (] taped together along the curved edges...a bit like the panels of a basketball. How you build your pattern from there, would be determined by how you are shaping your material: you'd start out differently, depending on whether you were mainly stretching (dishing) or compressing (raising) the piece.

For tightly-fitted pieces, like greaves, the easy and low-cost approach is to wrap the limb in Saran Wrap (cling wrap), then cover it with a layer of tape (duct tape or painter's tape are common choices). From there, you can carefully cut the material free, and press it flat for an approximate template.

One more thing to mention: a common practice is to start with a bit more material than you will need, and then trim the excess material away after you've gotten it to shape. This prevents any irregular or missing material along the edges.

Armor Measurements
So this one is a much broader question, and really gets to one of the fundamental practices in making armor in general. We'll start with your immediate project, and work our way deeper as you care to. We could talk a lot about this aspect.

For the Brig: Once you know your waist and chest measurements, you can compare that to the corresponding plates (keep in mind that for the brig, all of the plates overlap one another a little bit), and scale the pattern up or down to match. That should get you close, and mocking up a prototype and doing a test fitting will refine things from there.

[alepoudes]

First of all, welcome! Glad to have you here.

Template Material Choice
Your instinct to mock up a prototype out of inexpensive material is a good one; it's much faster and easier to iterate, and mistakes don't set you back in time or money. I've found, for pieces that need relatively simple shaping, that paperboard (cereal boxes) works very well. It's stiff enough to take a curve, can be taped/stapled/paper brad together, holds up well to handling and test fits, and can be used as a template afterward.

For pieces that need more compound curves—say, a breastplate or a knee—you can piece the paperboard together with tape. Eg., shapes like this [) (] taped together along the curved edges...a bit like the panels of a basketball. How you build your pattern from there, would be determined by how you are shaping your material: you'd start out differently, depending on whether you were mainly stretching (dishing) or compressing (raising) the piece.

For tightly-fitted pieces, like greaves, the easy and low-cost approach is to wrap the limb in Saran Wrap (cling wrap), then cover it with a layer of tape (duct tape or painter's tape are common choices). From there, you can carefully cut the material free, and press it flat for an approximate template.

One more thing to mention: a common practice is to start with a bit more material than you will need, and then trim the excess material away after you've gotten it to shape. This prevents any irregular or missing material along the edges.

Armor Measurements
So this one is a much broader question, and really gets to one of the fundamental practices in making armor in general. We'll start with your immediate project, and work our way deeper as you care to. We could talk a lot about this aspect.

For the Brig: Once you know your waist and chest measurements, you can compare that to the corresponding plates (keep in mind that for the brig, all of the plates overlap one another a little bit), and scale the pattern up or down to match. That should get you close, and mocking up a prototype and doing a test fitting will refine things from there.

Thanks a lot for the info, paperboard definitely sounds like a much better material than paper to make it out of, and then for the brigandine I guess I can just use tape to simulate the cloth holding the plates together

[Mac]

What do you usually do to figure out what the measurement of your amour should be?

Let me recommend a video which discusses some important aspects of planning out an armor. I'm sorry the sound quality is poor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLGTRVk ... =2&t=3241s

Mac