In search of a piece of armor

[Groenendael72]

I'm putting a set of armor together for SCA use, and i'm trying to cover all necessary areas. i have plans for all places except a small area between my lorica segmentata, and an upper leg contraption (not sure what to call it), where there is about a 4-inch gap. I was hoping someone had ideas of what I could use that would not look odd, and would provide adequate protection. I was hoping to avoid just making a huge belt with some metal plates on it.
Thanks in advance.

[Jason Grimes]

Historically that area might have been covered with pteruges made of cloth or leather. You could hide some more SCA appropriate equipment under them?

http://www.romainteractive.com/immagini ... cae/01.jpg

[Konstantin the Red]

Groenendael72, welcome and well come.

So you've some kind of cuisse in your harness. Really don't see or know how strange a cuisse could get. SCAdia has probably come up with stranger thigh protection than anything the Medievals actually used. Like knitted nylon rope -- that was one.

This might be a good application for some variation of the garden-hose cuisse, or similar garden-hose reinforcement to hip protection that otherwise sketches pteruges. Garden hose longwise down your leg can absorb a lot of thwack. There is also other rubber/plastic flexible tubing available in various diameters and degrees of stiffness from auto supply places.

[Sevastian]

Historically that area might have been covered with pteruges made of cloth or leather. You could hide some more SCA appropriate equipment under them?

http://www.romainteractive.com/immagini ... cae/01.jpg

Note the long toga(?) and knee length trouser like garment. Those could easily conceal thigh protection. A good set of shovel greaves to protect the shins and the three points of the knees and you're set.

[Groenendael72]

Thanks for all the help. I will probably end up making very short ptergues, as Jason suggusted. My only concern is if they are going to protect me if I get a direct hit. I've never done SCA before, so hopefully someone can tell me if they will be stiff enough. Also, a link to how the garden hose cuisses were made would be nice, but I was hoping to stick to period materials for most things.

[Sevastian]

Pain and how each of us experiences it is relative. If Duke Hammersmasher short sticks you good in the thigh, dangling leather might as well be made of lace and good will. If you are just starting out then low profile(hardened leather for example) thigh protection is a damn good idea. Just my 2 cents.

[Myron]

I think you are talking about the area on your hips between your lorica and whatever you are wearing on your thigh. I never did Roman, but back when I fought a lot and first started I took a lot of hits there and it hurt a lot - especially if you are a skinny bony guy. My immediate reaction was to armor it up, but after a couple months of learning how to use a shield properly I ditched the armor because it wasn't an area I was hit in much anymore. If you are using some type of big Roman shield, you may not need armor there. If you feel you do really need it, I might try to make a curved plastic plate or 2 that covers the hip area and make a pocket for it to go into on the inside of your tunic.

[Konstantin the Red]

Garden hose gets incorporated into something -- we usually heard about it used in cuisses -- like a thicker version of splint reinforced fabric: tubes into which to slide cut lengths of hose. Pteruges so built and reinforced would end up pretty stiff for pteruges. Myron's idea is a good one.

[Groenendael72]

Yeah "skinny bony guy" is pretty much me. I like the idea of the garden hose pteruges. I might end up buying some hose this weekend. I'll also be using a shield, but with my limited expirience, i might not be able to block well, i am worried about being hit by some of these guys, since one of them is literally twice my size.

Thanks again.

[Konstantin the Red]

Well, they're supposed to *not break the newbie.* They're very good about it. The properly chivalrous fighter is supposed to accept lighter than he hits.

Your big deal will be diligently seeking from each and every one of these big guys tips on shield work, and lots and lots and lots of suitable shield drill -- not necessarily drilling with the scutum, at that. New guys need correct shieldwork even more than swordwork. You also need strength and endurance in your shieldside deltoid muscle. It does more than any other to hold your shield up where it belongs. Takes a bit to build it, and new fighters generally get taken out when their deltoid tires and their shield droops just a little bit -- and the other guy slips in a temple shot on him, clonk to the shieldside temple. Well, at least your head is the best armored part of you! Most new fighters would rather get a telling shot to the helm than anywhere else.

Correct shieldwork for your shield type is better than armoring too much. If your armor reduces big-guy hard whops to bearable stings, you've got it about right. Stings and reddenings okay, bruises where your armor wasn't okay too -- hematoma not. Your thighs and your butt can take quite a pounding without permanent damage. Knobby bony processes -- armoring those is a good idea. I like to see to it that there's some hard over the points of my shoulders and on the great trochanter of each thigh -- that hard place in your hip joint. Coverage of bony shins is a lot more optional, since SCA doesn't target those. Torso harness is nice and covers the kidney-plate minimums in period style. You know about 3-sides/points coverage of knees and elbows, sufficient coverage to your throat, and arming your wrists and hands.

You can button up behind a big shield for a moment while thinking what to do next. But try and advance beyond thinking-what-to-do-next as soon as you can -- like within a month after you start out fighting. Drill heavily on multi-shot combos, hi/low, far-out/close-in. In footwork, if you're pushed back never simply back up; go to one side or the other while you're at it even in preference to backpedaling. If you displace to the other fighter's shieldside, for a moment he will have trouble reaching you -- while in that same moment, you don't have trouble reaching him.

All these moments pass quickly. The local experienced guys can teach you how to exploit them, and how to set them up. Tactics.

[Konstantin the Red]

I don't think Romans used visibly splinted anything, nor did any of Rome's enemies.

From properly bent splints with sections like a parenthesis ) to complete sheet metal really isn't a big step if you can already cut metal somehow. There's just a bunch of people who think it is. All they need to get is just one bigger hammer. That's about it, really.