[Armor] Dusting off the forge (so to speak)
After a several-year hiatus, I'm back to working on the samurai armor. I pulled out the boxes, dusted things off, and took a fresh look on things. Here's where things stand:
- Thigh plates (haidate): Completed. (Hurray!) I stitched on the last bits last night. I'll need to test it when the whole suit is complete to see if I need to add suspenders, but I doubt it, since it's so lightweight. Looks good, fairly easy to move in.
- Chestplate (do): The one I got from eBay "way back when" has been cleaned up, but is *way* too small for someone my size. As much as I think it would look cooler, I'm skipping making a new one out of Sintra (thermoplastic PVC). It would be easier to give it the whole "lacquered armor" look, but that's a lot of cutting, sanding, and painting, and I don't have a suitable workspace for that. Instead, I think I'm going with a lamellar chestpiece, using the same plates (Auk 7-hole plates) as the thighs. 2 bags of plates and a pack of cording should be enough for the main body. Holding it all together will be a bit more of a challenge... I think I'm going to need to get some buckles and leather straps to hold the front & back together. I'm going back and forth on the size of the strapping at the moment, but that should be a breeze to order, once I've decided. Also need to run to the craft store to look for more buttons - I used about a dozen gold buttons for embellishment on the thigh plates, and I'll probably want to use them on the chest as well. Looking at all the stuff I need to make, I'm probably going to need several dozen buttons, which may be a problem with their supply. I think I may need to look online to find enough of them.
- Shoulder pieces (watagami): A big concern, now that I'm going with the lamellar. I can probably get by with just a section of wide belt leather, but that might seem a little lame. I'm also trying to figure out how to connect it so that it's secure. Still up in the air on that. May end up trying to do Sintra for this, despite the lack of workshop.
- Chestplate skirt (kusazuri): Think I'm going to have to skip this entirely. With the chestpiece being plated, I'm not 100% sure how I'd even do it... I've got the skirting from the chestplate I got on eBay, I *could* try to suspend it from the one I'm making, but with it being obviously different materials, I think it would look bad.
- Shoulders (sode): Again, the ones from eBay make great display pieces, but aren't going to work. Even skipping the weight, they're pointy, which is just asking for trouble. Plus, there's the whole "unlace, paint, relace" thing going on. Assuming I've got extra Auk plates left over, I can put together some smaller ones, but they're getting lower priority because I'm looking to put chain on the upper arms. So, might be nice for looks, but not 100% necessary at this time.
- Arms (kote): Hosed. I'm not quite back to square one on this, but not doing too good. Checked the cloth backing - it almost seems looser than before? Maybe it's because I wasn't wearing the full costuming. Regardless, I've got a couple of things to wrap up with that first, including the elastic on the left hand. The upper arms should be easy to take care of - once I've locked down the number of links it's going to take, I can order some anodized aluminum chain, which is about $5 for a bag of 200. The Japanese chainmail weave is pretty simple, so it'll just be a question of putting that together while watching TV or something like that. Two sections roughly the size of a piece of paper, then attaching it to the cloth backing. The forearms and hands, I'm currently at a loss. The spint pieces I had, I don't think they're going to cut it. Not only did the paint job not come out as well as I'd hoped, but it looks like I've got 2 sets for the right arm, and none for the left, so back to the drawing board. Current options are to go with chain, or order some Sintra and cut/sand/drill/paint some new splints. Or, I suppose, if I'm really lucky, I could find some hardshell soccer shinguards and cannibalize them.
- Shins (suneate): About ready to start the tough part. Cloth backing is ready (complete with an embedded honeycomb of washers that no one will ever notice, I'm guessing). The plates I got from eBay should do the trick. A couple of them need some sanding (damned rust), but it's not that bad, and the bulk of the plates are in phenomenal shape. However, they're painted black - so I need to do sanding and spraypainting. Not sure yet how I'm going to pull this one off. Once I've got them ready, though, stitching them to the backing, then adding straps to tie them on.
- Helmet (kabuto): My nightmare. The one I got from eBay is *way* too heavy, and doesn't fit my noggin. I haven't been able to find one for sale online that meets my requirements, so I'm stuck with making one - or, at least, attempting to do so. There's no way in hell I can avoid the Sintra on this one. I've found a recommendation to use one of those plastic army helmets from a toy store as the base of the helmet, which may be enough to save me. Will still involve some Sintra (but in mostly straight strips), so this might have gone from "impossible" to "mildly insane to even contemplate".
- Face mask (mempo): A headache. I've got a simple, open-faced mask (not technically a mempo, per se) that covers the forehead and cheeks. It needs some paint, but would be ready to roll very quickly. Not sure it would quite fit with a helmet. Wearing options are a little weird, though - it's got a single strap at the top, which, while not terribly uncomfortable, is weird, and leaves the bottom to be a lit loose. Not sure if I like it, or how to easily fix it. The other option is to create the traditional mempo (demon's mouth half-mask) - of which, attempts have failed miserably before. However, I got a tip to use a Halloween mask as a base, and to use Mod Podge hard coat to make it sturdy. That *might* be enough... but I'm concerned about not being able to breathe/speak easily with something like that.