Paladin Body Armor

Next, I turn to body armor.

The ideal armor for a crusader look would be chainmail. I just don't want to wear chain because of the weight and it messes up any clothes underneath. Sure, I could wear a gambeson, but I want to reduce layers.

Another option is a cuirass. I actually have a plastic one - the Red Dragon knight errant cuirass.

I just find it a bit bulky.

I then started thinking about an armored surcoat, like this. If you look closely, you can see that the surcoat body has squares. These are plates (presumably sewn in).

I could take a surcoat or tabard and rivet plates to the inside. That may not be very versatile, though.

Instead, I thought about a generic, leather, front-opening brigandine. I could always toss a tabard over it.

One issue I've always had with a brigandine is the outer shell. I like the look of cloth brigs, but I don't sew. That drastically limits me. So I finally decided to make the brig entirely from leather. I would use 2-3 oz leather for the outer shell and 8-9 oz leather for the plates. I started pricing it out and had a shock - the 2-3 oz and the 8-9 oz were pricier than 9-10 oz! And I'd have to buy double the amount.

So then I decided to make a faux brigandine using 9-10 oz leather. There would be no plates. I would just make a cuirass and then put a bunch of rivets in it so it looked like brig. Basically, I'm making studded leather.

Now, I need a pattern. There are brig patterns online, like Armour Archive, but they are mostly for the plates. I need one for the outer layer. The outer layer is basically a vest, so I started researching vest patterns.

I found one from Simplicity, The bottom right one seems like it could work.

I ordered the pattern and am waiting for it to arrive.