Newbie needs help for breastplate

[Gil-Galadh]

Hello everyone.
I'm sorry that my questions might sound stupid,but after all i'm a noob.And also i do not know anyone else here in Bulgaria,but a few people that are making armour,and neither of them could help me.
So...I'm starting a Gothic cuirass much like this one:http://www.armourdesign.dial.pipex.com/ftas1.jpg from armourdesign.
The questions:
1)How is the plackard connected to the breastplate and the lamels?
2) Is the entire plate "mobile" or is it solid?
3) How about the backplate-is it mobile,or again is ti solid
4)Is there anything special about the dishing?

Thats all i can think up for now.I would apreciate any help and advice you could offer me.
Thanks in advance

[Halberds]

Welcome to the archive Gil-Galadh.

I never made a breastplate like that before but I think someone here can be of help.

Dishing can be done with a teradrop hammer and a dishing bag like this from the Eastwood Co.
[img]http://www.eastwoodco.com/images/us//local/products/detail/p767.jpg[/img]
Item#28045
Panelbeater Sandbag And Teardrop Mallet Kit

Hal

Ps: No I do not work for them

[Gil-Galadh]

Well I know how dishing is done.What interests me is wether there is something special when dishing the cuirass.
Thanks anyway

[Ideval]

Well I know how dishing is done. What interests me is w[h]ether there is something special when dishing the cuirass.

Yeah, it's a bigger surface of metal.
And the whole surface has some work to it, no matter how subtle.
A shallow dish and a larger radius hammer might help.
It'll generally save you bouging or planishing in the end,
which can be tedious when working a broad surface.

Secondly, you say you know how dishing is done,
but have you ever dished before?

What's your pattern like?


Idëval

[Gil-Galadh]

About the patterns-I'm making them as i post this.Unfortunately i have no scanner,so i canot post them.

Yes I have dished before.I have made one chapel de ferre, a pair of pauldrons,and some other thiings as segments for Spangen helm etc.

Anyway,somehow i'll manage to do this part.What really interests me are questions number 2,3,and how is the connection between the plackard(in my case a lamel-the plackard is two or three9have not decided yet(now arent those too many brackets)) lamels away from the upper plate) done-i mean if it is by a solid,or a sliding rivet

[Konstantin the Red]

As to questions two and three, I think both breast- and back-plates are articulated, or mobile. The rivet you can see in the center point, or cusp, of the plackart should be an articulation rivet, which allows your body to do that little bend from side to side that it can make above your waist -- try it, each of your shoulders will go up and down.

Breast and plackart articulating with each other using a lame in between was done in the late fifteenth century: see the Archduke Sigismund and Archduke Maximilan suits of around 1480 AD. Pivoting or sliding articulation rivet? Hmm -- good question. Either one would work.

(Parentheses? (Brackets are like this [ ] or this { }.) Hmm. If you can find it (depends on where you live in Bulgaria, I suppose), get a copy of The Medusa And The Snail by Lewis Thomas, and read his "Notes on Punctuation" essay, a nice clear exposition on how English is punctuated (and quietly funny too (particularly the part about parentheses)). Here is a link to some excerpts from that essay: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/punctuation.html)

[Gundo]

My advice:
Articulating/sliding rivets over the hips. Hidden rivets to hidden straps near the center of the lames, so they can move a bit but not droop. The center rivet allows the piece to pivot/rotate so you can bend to the sides.

[Gil-Galadh]

Thank you all for the help.