Mark's Armour

[baby_astons]

superb progress mark!
maybe you could replace the central stand foot by a longer affair so you could extend the whole affair to fit the length of the armor...

[Mark]

What ? and deprive myself of 3 tins of biscuits ??

Actually, it would be a fairly good idea if I was in the UK and had access to all my tools. However, living in a small apartment with no garage hampers my woodworking ability somewhat !

[baby_astons]

when back home you'll need to find a better excuse for those biscuits

[Mark]

Made quite a bit of progress on this, but hadn't got round to updating my build diary. Anyway, here's the first update.

There is a pole of some sort that goes up the back of the armour. Not quite sure what or why yet, but no doubt all will become clear in due course.
Anyway, there is a pad that sits at the bottom of the armour back. The instructions say to tie it tight, but I've left it loose for now so it's easier to fix the rear tassets.



The top is a decorative plate with a hole in it, which is held in place with 4 lengths of yellow suede. There were tied in a know (needed tweezers as they weren't overly generous with the length) and sealed with diluted PVA.

[Mark]

Here's a shot of where I am with the tassets. As you can see, there are a couple that still need the gold thread up the sides, and still 2 to do.

[casper]

taking shape and looking good Mark
casp

[Mark]

Thanks Casper. On the that helmet lining now. This proved to be one of the more difficult parts of the build so far.
The lining consists of a piece of cloth with a spiral of thread sewn through it. The idea is that you pull the threads until it forms a dome shape. This is somewhat tedious, and involves a lot of trial and error. My dome ended up slightly smaller than the helmet inside, but never mind......



Then there is a suede band. Unfortunately the instructions don't tell you what length to cut it too. I looked at the instructions, cut off what looked like the same amount of left-over (there is supposed to be some spare to cover some rivet heads) and tried that. Wrong !! It was far too short It wasn't too difficult to fix. I just added the spare back in and carefully placed it at the front so it looked like it was supposed to be a separate piece (my story and I'm sticking to it !!)



However, that didn't leave any spare to cover the river heads. Those are to hold the neck shield in place. I didn't like the patched anyway, so I devised plan B. Glue the river heads in place with PVA first, then glue the hat band and lining in, and then glue the rivets from the outside.

The band is actually just glued in place. It mostly overlaps the edge of the helmet and is glued on the outside. That is covered by the neck armour. The front is glued to the inside of the helmet.

This is what the instructions suggest.



This is what I ended up with. I think I got away with it OK.



The whole thing was a real pain to do to be frank. I just need to add the neck armour and it's finished (for now anyway).

[casper]

You have done a great job Mark, looks very neat
casp

[Mark]

Plodding on slowly with this. I've finished all the tassets now, and added the neck guard to the helmet.



I've given up trying to keep finger marks off it. It's like painting the Forth Bridge ! It will get polished when it's finished !

[steve131]

Awesome looking hungry Samurai

[Mark]

Thanks Steve. Not only hungry, but I think he's been drinking. He's legless (sorry )

[baby_astons]

surely only a flesh wound, mark nothing to be worried about...

[Mark]

I dug this out again, as I had some time where I could only grab half an hours here and there. No painting, no gluing, so it's easy to pick up and put down.

This is part of the gauntlet. The metal plates are beautifully made, but the rings come in a long length 3 rings wide, by about 30 long. They need twisting open to separate the few that you need, which then need closing up again. Fiddly is an understatement !!



After a while (keep your young kids out of the way or they learn new words.... ones that young kids will learn instantly, unlike please and thank you !) you end up with this.

[Mark]

Next is a chain mail part of the sleeve. At least, I think it's the sleeve - I haven't looked too far ahead in the instructions.

This starts life as a flat rectangle of chain mail fixed to a 1:1 card template. The template has a very accurate print of the mail, with the links to be removed marked in red. This was fiddly !!



Stabbing it with cocktail sticks helped keep it under control.... This was recommended in the instructions.



Finally, I ended up with this !!

[wingnut]

Lovely job Mark you must have the patients of a saint !
Cheers Mike.

[Mark]

Thanks Mike.

I think the chain mail is the upper arm and the metal strakes are the forearm. There is a separate glove to go on, and then fabric to hold the whole thing in place.
I'm on stage 31 out of 55 so far - over half way !!

[casper]

The template is a great idea but a good eye and a steady hand needed
great job Mark

[Mark]

Continuing with the sleeve and gauntlet, what I've decided is the fore arm guard is fixed to the chain mail.



The the glove is made. More fiddling with little metal rings.



which is attached to the sleeve guard, to complete the armour for the arm.



It gets a bit trickier now. The shoulder part and glove part are stitched to the fabric sleeve.
The making tape is just to tame things a little.......



Then the chain mail and metal parts are stitched in place to make sure they don't fall out of place. I guess this is the same as the real armour, but it's only a guess.
It's black thread on a black material, holding black metal parts. Surprisingly, that doesn't show up on a photo very well.......
so here's a photo of the rear side, just to show what the stitching looks like.



I'm going to push on and finish this sleeve, and then I'll take a break to do something else. There is still a lot of detail to add to the sleeve though.

[wingnut]

Hello Mark, I always wanted to learn the art of "Kendo" as I respect the discipline and the "way" but there wasn't a "Dojo" near enough for me to travel to so i took up Karate and ended up becoming a 2nd dan black belt, but that was many years ago.
Cheers Mike.