Nesting

Nesting is what you call it when you lay out your templates in an efficient a way as possible. I think I have achieved this. I suspect I might have been able to save a couple of square centimeters over in the far corner though!

This is a slightly new style for me....an armour based on Richard Beauchamp's effigy.
Lots of people have fallen in love with Beauchamp's armour. In fact, the armour I made for Eric D. was the "Beauchamp" armour.
The Beauchamp armour is an over the top version of a fairly standard Italian style...Starkey Gardner's book has a great picture of the more "fightable" version of this armour. I think that is what we are going to "go for" rather than the over priced, over the top Beauchamp Armour. But without the fluting...grin!

Drawbacks? well, there is almost no room for "crunch" above the plaquart (what...two inches or so, and less with the strap?) so the armour needs to be super high waisted in order to not drive that plaquart up into your throat when the horse breaks into a canter. Straps are high and hidden away under the shoulders. Plusses...a very functional armour. Looks stunning.

I am making this armour for Phil S. and he knows all the drawbacks and is still okay with going with that style. We will come up with something different, more manoeverable than those big honking shoulders, and drop the waist a little lower in front. As you can see by the layout, I have made the plaquart an unusual length...a good eleven inches. His natural waist is 14 inches from waist to collarbone, so the long plaquart will certainly look good. I know...it doesn't look so long in the picture does it? Well, they never DO until you bend 'em around the body!
What you don't see in the layout drawing above is the back plate. Beauchamp's back plate is a mirror image of the breast plate, well, maybe a little less scooped out on top. Wow! That IS unusual. I made one like that years ago for a guy who was generously proportioned. I didn't show the layout there because the back will be a 18 gauge piece of metal, not the heavy 16 gauge that the front is. The back plate and greaves of course will be eighteen gauge, as will the vambraces, rerebraces and gauntlets.

(I have never found out who did those really nice drawings...if you know, let me know, and I will provide links, or remove them if the owner desires. I find them to be so amazingly useful as a reference that I continually refer to them. I think they were all sent to me as a set several years ago sans info.)