Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Quinn's Armour


I'm breaking a rule about "web marketing" here in that I am putting up some pictures of armour which are not quite finished, and not quite ready to put in the box and ship. On the other hand, it shows some of the construction details, and thats what it is all about eh? By now, they have been detailed and warped and added to, and are ready to ship.
Above is a full frontal. ( This armour does SO NOT fit my top apprentice, it would have almost been better to hang it on a stand. But, at least you can see that it does all fit together.) Quinn wanted a subtle line up the middle of the plaquart, which I had forgotten about until it was all assembled. The process of beating that line in there spread the placquart open a bit. It is all closed up now, but it gives you a chance to see the picadills (leather strips) just inside the top edge. Out of site, normally. Of course, by now, the plaquart has been warped back into place and it fits as well as the middle piece fits the breastplate.
The top buckles are solid brass with one inch buffalo leather straps. They will hold up better than most.

The side view shows that I have to make some belt holes which are a bit tighter, to pull the breastplate up higher towards the neck. And the startling lack of belts to attach to the buckles I cleverly installed on the back. When the belts are tightened on, the individual plates front and back will match up, and overlap. The slightly unusual nature of this armour is immediately apparent...the plaquarts are nearly flat and all the space in the breastplate is taken up by the chest. This armour will make Quinn look really trim and fit. If you look closely at the bottom flange, you can see the armour point eyelets which will lace the faulds into place.


Above you can see the back plate. Fairly standard backplate, with space for the shoulder blades and a dome over his spine up top where it might be vulnerable. Hard to see in that harsh shop light, it looks like a zebra! But the vertical zebra stripes are all carefully sculpted in and serve a purpose. The bottom of the back is a simple roll, instead of a flange. A flange simply makes it impossible to sit down on a chair with a back to it, and a roll is perfectly period and acceptable, though admittedly, a flange (or flare such as you see on the bottom edge of the breastplate) might be a bit more comfortable after an hour of standing.
The side buckles are made from zinc 3/4 inch buckles on 7 oz straps. A good place to use the less expensive zinc since they never get hit! And if they DO get flattened (once in a while, that happens), well, they are cheap and easy to replace.

And these are the faulds and tassets. Sharp eye'd visitors will notice that the straps are cinched up too tight! Oh well, easily fixed. The pelvic arch should have been more continuous instead of placing his genitals into parentheses like this. Dooh! Teach me to rush the picture portion of the job!
The faulds all neatly fold up to three inches, the width of one of the fauld lames. They are made with the english wheel to form a gentle 12 inch diameter globe. This will provide a good solid lame which should stand up to years of even heavy SCA combat, though as we all know, nothing will last forever. They will fit Quinn's hips perfectly, still allow him movement, and the tassets are rounded and the flare will ensure they won't dig into his thigh. The points match up to the breastplate. And the nice thing about tassets is that changing out the tassets can change the whole look of the armour.
These buckles are 3/4 inch solid brass with 7 oz leather straps, the heavy brass is good for a place which will get stressed a lot. And tassets get stressed a lot.


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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Roman Army Multi Tool


From the web site http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/11/2000-year-old-roman-multi-tool/

This is just too cool for words. Lets see...there is a spoon and a blade, making this clearly a mess kit, a hoof pick, and two tools I have no freakin' idea what they are for!

More on the FitzWilliam Museum web site...

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opac/search/cataloguedetail.html?_function_=xslt&_limit_=10&priref=70534