The Armour Archive

I would like to build some body armor, mostly as something to do, but also because I some buddies that need it.

Oddly, just about everybody seems to be interested in Asian armor.

Now, I am just about flat broke. I don't have any extra money to spend on somebody else's armor. If I had any money, there are much more important things to spend it on.

BUT, I do have a pretty well equipped shop, a mess of paracord, a rather large bag of iron nails (big army six inchers) that nip off quite nicely into rivets, a source of washers, three heavy plastic barrels and a lot of time on my hands.

What can I make with it?

I want it to be as accurate a reproduction as possible (even considering the materials) because I don't want to handicap my newbie friends by having them look horrible.

thanks,
freiman

para cord does not work well unless you remove the white strings inside.
it just does not lay flat.

you will also need knee and elbow cops added
http://www.yamakaminari.com/Armor/Preface.html
Effingham has a web site also but the dementions and tutorial have more options on styles and variations.
http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/katchu.html
the little yellow box links to the patterns

Raito
http://www.j-armour.com/method/1.html
http://www.j-armour.com/method/2.html
http://www.j-armour.com/method/3.html

there was to be more from raito but he went and won crown.
one more but this one does not have any patterns I could find
http://www.rhinohide.cx/tousando/yoriaku/

Use the plastic buckets to store your tools and leather trimmings.

"Asian" is kindof meaningless -
Asia starts in the Caucassus mountains and mid-town Istanbul and goes to the shores of California.

Do you mean Japanese? Chinese? East Asian? Turkish? ...you get the idea.

Barring Japan, a good international style that is easy to make and get newbies to make their own is lamellar --
Here are the How Tos:
http://www.redkaganate.org/martial/armo ... amlr.shtml
http://www.redkaganate.org/martial/armo ... ethr.shtml

Brigandine is good too.
This article is a bit outdated but its a start:
http://www.geocities.com/normlaw/page8.html
An easy Brig pattern is all rectangular plates with three holes - scroll down the following page for photo of "Harened Leather Scales" http://www.geocities.com/normlaw/page6.html

Here is an Italian Golden Horde Briganidne:
http://www.redkaganate.org/martial/armour/tana.shtml

You may want to generaly look at this group - contact me if you want to follow-up
http://www.redkaganate.org

Sorry, I guess that "Asian" is a little vague.

I have one girl moving to Hawaii that wants to do Persian, at the time of the battle of the bridge, just as the army of Mohammed conquered the Sassanids.

I have on guy in New York City that want's to do Japanese, I am unsure of which period he wants to do. I am not too concerned about him, because he seems to be pretty confident and able.

And I have one girl in Pittsburgh that isn't sure, but likes the look of the Chin Dynasty terracottas, from China. She is the one that I was really thinking of.

She bought a set of Bazy's from an armorer that went south, and I am going to stitch something up for her, because she hung drywall for three days to get the money, and now it has taken a powder. I can't make that person into a better person, but I can make the damage go away. And, while I am at it, because I DO have the time and the materials, I can make her something to wear.

I like these folks, and I DO have this stuff hanging around. And they are barrels, not buckets. I managed to pick them up for free, intending to use them for armor eventually, and now is as good a time as any.

f

Freiman, she can do a poor-man's version of the Terracotta rig by taking those plastic plates and putting them directly under a thin, cheap, chrome-tan leather (from scrap if need be), stretching the leather down around the plates, and riveting/sewing them down to a second layer of something marginally more rigid. If she can get up enough newspaper and glue, she could do a ten-layer paper glued backing that would imitate the handling of a very rigid leather, and then mask it as well as possible.

Done really well, it'd be completely unremarkable to look at. Done badly, carpet armor would probably look better..

(all my opinion mind you)
If you have to use the plastic for armour then you've no choice - it's Brigandine all the way.
There is a double layered "pan-Asiatic" Brig. where the scales are riveted to one layer and then a second layer of cloth is sewn over them (it can go either way
- with the scales riveted to the lining so you see no evidence of armouring when the person wears it (I think the Mongol boots in National Geographic a few years ago were done that way)
- or the opposite - much more common - the scales are riveted to the outer cloth so you see the Brigandine rivets but the lining hides them on the inside.
I recently did a Mongol helmet "aventail" like this - see the tiny pic (unfortunately the only one I have available at the moment).

I'm a little uncomfortible on the period for the Persians but Gorelik does say Brig starts quite early on - as early as 6th cent. maybe.
And - there is a Persian mitten gauntlet from the 5th century that (guessing from the rivet arangement) was cloth on the outside with plates riveted to it!
Unfortunately certainly the Chinese Terracotta figures are too early for Brig.(although - they are alltogether too early for SCA altogether)

If you were going leather or steel I'd say go with lamellar all around for the Persian (skirts, pauldrons... the whole bit) (even better mail Hauberk with Lamellar over it)
The Chinese Terracotta figures are definitely wearing a form of lamellar (though somewhat different from the normal pattern).
But the Chinese went all out for Brigandine just a wee bit later so if you are going with the plastic, I hope that this is the road you take.

I don't know if it bears adding but --
The Ancient Persian "Immortals" are supposed to have worn scale under an outer tunic
and likewise it is currently believed that the Babas (grave statues) in the Russian steppes circa 10-12 century - the ones showing warriors in coats with two "Brassier" plates (or Phaelerae) represent the same thing -- they are wearing scale/lamellar (they've found plates inside the graves), covered by a coat.

The Phalerae are a suspension system for heavy leather armor, at least as I understood it.

Ugh. One of these days I have GOT to pick up some Russian.

Would be VERY interested in seeing where this is supposed to represent lamellar, instead. I'm not saying that lamellar plates couldn't be underneath the leather (with a layer of felt underneath, this would be a very steppe thing to do)... but I've never seen the literature and would like to (as I often portray Cumans). What kind of plates did they find?

Russ Mitchell wrote:The Phalerae are a suspension system for heavy leather armor, at least as I understood it.

You're thinking of the "Varangian Bra" discussion. There, the interpretation is that you have artists starting with fairly normal representations of armour with shoulder straps - and in the process of copying from one artist to the next the shoulder straps and upper border of the breastplate transform into shoulder straps and a belt running across the chest.

The Phaelerae (the disks) on Cuman Babas are often quite clear down to the buckles - it is variation on the Mirrors armour - often there is a central disk at the back, belt straps run up to the shoulders and under the arm.
At the front they all join up like on the picture titled "12th Century Steppes Warrior" here:
http://www.geocities.com/normlaw/page3.html
(if I remember correctly, I quite faithfuly reconstructed that fellow from one particular Baba)

Russ Mitchell wrote:...Would be VERY interested in seeing where this is supposed to represent lamellar, instead. I'm not saying that lamellar plates couldn't be underneath the leather (with a layer of felt underneath, this would be a very steppe thing to do)... but I've never seen the literature and would like to (as I often portray Cumans). What kind of plates did they find?

No - its not that the disks that represent lamellar, rather scales were commonly found in graves with such Babas leading people to theorise that the armour was commonly worn under the coat.
ALthough I do remember seeing at least one Baba wearing a front only harness which was clearly some form of scale/lamellar.
I don't remember reading precisely what kind of plates they were that were found in these graves (but I think there are well known Kuman lamellars no?).

As for reading Russian ...I'm pretty sure the little green book on Steppes Armour in English ...what was it called (I'm sorry - I haven't looked at this stuff in years)
I'm pretty sure that book mentioned this factoid.

You're talking about Swietoszlawski. yeah, I know it. My own basic mock-ups showed the three-disk setup (including the back) really did a bang-up job of securing an upper arming caftan, without inhibiting mobility through the shoulder, which is why I think it's a variation of the varangian bra. But I don't have all the detail shots you do.

S. doesn't mention the front-only scale harness. Poo. If you can track that down, I'm interested.

Lamallar is a very versatile Armour type... Depending on the profile of the lamae and how its mounted (where each section starts and stops) you can get Persian, Norse, varangian, Chinese, early Japanese etc...
for simple Nihonese the sendai Do pattern on Effingham Sama's site is very translatable to flat or Minimally shaped plastic.

Altho Basic Barrel plastic can be shaped in the oven. Ive made simple Knee and Elbow cops by heating the plastic blank and clamping it beteween 2 steel cops (one slightly smaller than the other)