thegirlsclub

[Isabella E]

A lot of people throw out cost as prohibiting them from looking good on the field. The truth is though that there's not much excuse anymore for looking like a bag of smashed assholes. You can make a good covered kit for any time period now with little investment. Your armor doesn't have to look awesome necessarily because you can cover it UP with awesome.

Cover Thy Self! Looking Good on the SCA Field
aka A Stick Jock's Guide to Fashion
by Kenric FitzAlan

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=110066&highlight=profile

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=111168&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=cover+thy+self&start=35
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It's not the most powerful animal that survives. It's the most efficient. -Georges St-Pierre
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[katarina_vand_kettlingr]

That was very helpfull. Thank you for posting it.

I started last year making a leather kidney belt...I'm such a procrastinator it takes me forever to finish anything...and just finished it a few weeks ago, only to realize that by the time I added all the padding this thing is going to be a real sweat lodge for my torso mid summer.

Got me to thinking more about the armor I plan to make for my son.

One of the guys here just showed me his armor this summer, and it's just a barrel plastic get up he wears under. My current body armor was barrel plastic covered in sued. And although this guy is three or four times my size, his armor weighs less than half what mine does. It's the suede mostly. Well you don't need that if you wear it under cloths.

I've been trying to get my son interested in getting involved in the sca. (He's 20) He's reluctant because he would rather spend his money on car stuff than armor. So I showed him this guys armor and told him I can easily make him the same. Long story short, that day we got him armored up in loaner gear, and with the added incentive of Mom will make most of your armor for free...he's in! WOO HOO

I went into all that to point out this... There are a couple of reason this kind of armor is a great idea, in addition to looking good (because it's not seen). It's cheap as hell, and it is super light weight, and (depending on how it's built) cooler to wear than some of the alternatives.

But in thinking about making some for myself, to beat the heat, I face much more shaping than for a 20 year old male who's built like a noodle.

Do you think you could find something instuctional on how to form barrell plastic to make a chest plate that conforms to breasts? The men tell me, "well you shape that stuff by heating it in the oven, covering the area with a towel, then pressing the hot plastic to the area"....they just don't understand how that wouldn't quite work with breasts, lol. Maybe it would with big honkin bazongas....I don't know, I'm only a C cup. Too big to not need some room in the armor, but way too small to make the process easy.

[Isabella E]

It works just fine. It sounds kind of weird but that's pretty much how you do it. My first armor was a cheaaaaaap Coat of PLates a friend of mine helped me make out of abs plastic. I just taped a towel onto myself and took the hot plastic and formed it over myself with a pair of oven mitts. To make my greaves and vambraces I did the same thing. You literally don't have to have any experience to make plastic armor. It's super cheap. I got 30 square feet of abs plastic on ebay for $30. I have enough left over to outfit an entire person with it. And if your shape doesn't come out right you can heat it again and reform it.

Another option for heating is to use a heat gun like you can get for removing paint and stuff. They're like $20-$30 at Wal Mart in the paint section. You can use it to heat the plastic and work it at the same time. I am gonna pick one up eventually but I have been too cheap up til now and have been using the grill in the back yard.

Another alternative might be something like lamellar, which I know some err bustier ladies are pretty happy with. I am not well endowed at all so I wear an orthopedic back brace that I trimmed and covered with fabric. Also, I have a whole gallery of women in armor if you need ideas that I gathered from various sources. The variety of armor worn is pretty impressive.

http://s538.photobucket.com/albums/ff347/isabellaevangelista/Female%20Armored%20Combat%20Fighters%20SCA/
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It's not the most powerful animal that survives. It's the most efficient. -Georges St-Pierre
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[katarina_vand_kettlingr]

I did get some ideas from your photos on how to protect my hips and ars. Thanks.

I have three barrels standing at the ready that I got for only $5 each. One black (for my son's armor cause that's what he wanted), and two white. I figure the white will hide better under what I wear.

My "gambeson" is a heavily quilted bodice. Kinda like wearing a pot holder if you think about it, lol. That would work as well or better than a towel, wouldn't it?

If you heat it in the oven what temp? And is there going to be an odor that will run us out?

[Jesmond]

I would use an old towel. So if you do it wrong you won't end up staining your gambeson with plastic residue.

There is a how to series here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpkBKJLjEvI

I'm sure there are others. Google and the Armour Archive are your friends http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/

[Isabella E]

I've never used plastic barrel, I always use abs since it gives off little in the way of fumes and it's pretty cheap, but also flat without any creases or whatnot that you get with barrels. I would ventilate your house well if you're going to heat barrel plastic inside.

What you're going to want to do first is make some patterns out of paper though before you start cutting stuff up. I went through 3 different paper patterns before I got the shape of my cuisses and greaves right. Once you have your pattern down, then cut everything out and heat it in the over at about 250 degrees on a cookie sheet or something. You don't want to end up with melted plastic all over the inside and if your plastic gets too hot it will melt. It only takes 5 - 10 minutes depending on the plastic to get it pliable so you need to just sit there and babysit it. Once it's bendy take it out and form it, quickly! It will cool enough to harden again very fast. Then you can quench it in water to make it cool enough to handle with your bare hands.

Then just cover thy plastic so you don't look like a walking soap barrel. Depending on what you're making you can glue fabric or leather to it, or just make a nice tunic or surcoat or whatever for your persona and cover it up.
_________________
It's not the most powerful animal that survives. It's the most efficient. -Georges St-Pierre
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[Cunian]

Pattern out of cardboard box, since it's more the thickness and stiffness of the barrel.

[Hakon]

and put something you're happy to throw away between the baking sheet and the plastic ...


H

[Jesmond]

A lot of alum foil lining your baking sheet (that can be thrown away) is a good idea. Also, those disposable foil oven liners are good. You can even cut them up and make forms with them fairly easily if you are trying to get a more complex curve.

Mainly you just have to stay with it and watch it the entire time so you can yank it out of the oven and cool it down if it is getting too hot and too soft. You do not want a puddle of plastic goo in your oven. After you do it a little bit, you will acquire an eye for when the material is ready. It has a different visual appearance, not exactly a sheen, but there are some visual clues that it is ready to be molded that you will get an eye for.

If you are going to use barrel plastic (I did because it was free), try to lay out your pieces so the shapes go with the curve of the barrel, instead of having to fight against it.

[Isabella E]

[katarina_vand_kettlingr]

Thanks everyone.

I hadn't thought about possible ick transfer to my gambeson. I think I'll pin a piece of scrap matterial to it. Seems less awkward than a towel.

I already made a pattern. I always use poster board and store the patterns under the guestroom mattress so they stay flat. (I was keeping my quilt block cutting mat under there anyway, so it was an obvious place.) This one though I started out with paper so that I could kind of form it and see how the plastic might form.

This piece will be completely conceiled under my gambeson (over my shirt), so no need to glue fabric or anything to it. It's breast armor only. A one piece unit basicaly the same as the hockey piece I've seen links to here in the frorums. The only difference is it won't come up and over the chest above the breasts. I already have that area covered.

I have made a kidney belt to wear on the outside. It's a nice one with tooled leather. Once I got the padding into it I realized this thing is going to be HOT to wear mid summer. So after I get this first breast plate made to wear with the belt, I'm planning to make a second one and attach plates to make a full body armor of the barrel plastic. (So two sets of body armor, one for cool weather and one for hot.) The hot weather set I will cover with a tunic or tabard. (My old armor is barrel covered in suede and the suede makes it so friggin heavy that I want nothing to do with that kind of get up again.)

Question...those disposable foil oven liners..."You can even cut them up and make forms with them fairly easily if you are trying to get a more complex curve." Are you saying that I could construct a model of my frontal area out of disposable oven liners, lay the plastic on it, and it would just melt to the shape of the form in the oven???

[katarina_vand_kettlingr]

Oh, btw, on that youtube how to video....I had found that before and the whole series isn't there. Only the first one that covers only cutting out the pieces and smoothing the edges, nothing on shaping.

[Hakon]

[katarina_vand_kettlingr]

The shape I'll be aiming for isn't super complex. I'm not as big around as the barrel the plastic is getting cut from, lol, so that's one curve. Then a bit of copping in the front. And a bit of a bend at the bottom edge.

I'll have some assitance from big ol man hands. Can you reheat and not loose shaping you've already done to it?

[katarina_vand_kettlingr]

This is the same style/pattern as my old armor. If mine were this well made and fit like this one does her, I likely wouldn't be switching. Because it is like wearing a tank as far as protection, and you sure get good ventalation. Her's looks really nice.



Here's mine. Aside from it being ugly... The breast plate doesn't look as big in the photo as it really is. My C cup girls are swimming around in there like olives in a punch bowl.

[img]http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=75517536&albumID=2001115&imageID=25680821[/img][/img]