The Armour Archive

okay I have a dilema here, I bought these arms years ago. http://www.mackenziesmith.com/Our_Products/Plate_Armor/Defenses_for_the_Arm/Articulated_Vambraces/articulated_vambraces.html

and what I'd like to do is figure out what I can wear with them to really complete the look. My knowlege on 14th century Italian armour is nil. did only Italians wear Italian armour?
here is what I was planning on to complete the rig.
A bascinet/klappvisor
Churburg Breastplate
splinted legs
realistic or anachronistic?
please give me your ideas.

I think that would be a reasonable complete rig for the late 14th/early 15th Cs.

First nice work on the arm harness
Second No the Italians weren't the only ones who wore "Italian Armour". Many armourers 'exported' to other countries. My persona is Scottish of the late 14th early 15th Century so my harness has elements of both Italian and some German designs, so yes because of the trade through Italian ports the harness you are designing would work for most anyone dealing with the Italians of that era.

cheers

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Malcolm MacRobert de Moffat, Barony of Caer Mear, Kingdom of Atlantia, Lieutenant of the Black Company, Sole Squire to Sir Edward Tanner of Cambria.

The splint legs are a jarring note -- I'd go for plate to match or coordinate with the arms, or a covered cuisse. And frankly, I'm not so sure that plate legs would be any more difficult to make.

However, you could model your gear upon that of Sir Miles Stapleton, obit 1346, if you want to keep splint lower legs. His arms are the earlier 14th-c. style, though, and you are clearly basing your proposed harness on a composite worked up in the Churburg Armory. Not to say composites are bad -- I daresay in its working period, most harness was composite from the git-go. That Churburg item's approximate dates, though, are decades after Sir Miles.

To use the arms you have to approximate the Stapleton would involve building an integral spaudler on top of the rerebrace.

The Klappvisiers were less sturdy than side-hinged hounskulls, and their period of popularity was shorter.

The seg -- your other likely choice would be a solid globose breast -- is a matter of taste. A one-piece globose may actually be less fiddly to do. You're not saying exactly which Churburg breastplate you have in mind, and that armoury has one of each (maybe more globoses, the seg is unique).

Another late-fourteenth idea to consider is the covered breast and back, aka corazzina. That takes care of your kidneys and is no worse trouble to make than any other piece of body armor because you don't have to mess with fine-finishing the metal; they are fundamentally simple. They go with covered-plate cuisses, too.

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"The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone..."

thanks for your input guys!

for the record I did not make the arms and will not be making my armour..I can make some decent garb and simple turnshoes but I havent tried my hand at armouring...yet
I'd really like to get into armouring soon though.

I thought the splints might look a little out of place with plate arms. plate legs are only a few dollars more so I will probly be buying those instead.

my reasons for wanting a klappvisor is that it seems to have been popular in the areas in what is now modern Germany, which is where I would like to have my personna come from.
I also had no clue about there being more then one churburg brestplate, I was only aware of the segmented one. I will look into the other ones.
again, Thanks.
Chris Knight