Making Progress

I've been making progress on my new armor. Here is my status at the end of this week.

Cuirass

I started work on my faux lamellar cuirass.

The back plates have been cut out and punched.

Same for the front plates.

One thing I need to do is to cut creases between the individual "plates." This accentuates the illusion that the armor is made up of multiple lamellar plates instead of larger strips.

I cut the creases for one front panel. I need to finish the other front panel and the back.

Change of Plans

But then I decided to change my plans, a bit.

I was thinking that the best order for making the armor would be

1. greaves
2. tassets
3. cuirass
4. helmet

I need to order leather for the greaves, but I have enough to make tassets. So I put aside my cuirass, for the time being, and started working on tassets.

Tassets

I cut and punched plates for the tassets for one side. I still need to cut creases.

I plan to add a couple of loops of leather that I can put on a belt.

Greaves

I need to place an order for leather to make the greaves.

I have a template ready. It includes knee protection.

Painting

I want to paint the armor so it looks like metal.

I painted my first leather cuirass in gold leather paint. It looks fine, albeit a little flat.

I tried an experiment on a spare plate. I dyed it black then daubed on silver paint. I think it looks much more realistic.

My Plans Firm Up

After much pondering, I have come up with a plan for my new paladin kit.

As mentioned last time, I have been inspired by the Carolingian armor in the Stuttgart Psalter. So I plan to make faux scale - basically the same pattern as my faux lamellar, but with the rounded part facing down.

Here is an AI concept.

I will do a few things differently.

• No bracers. My gloves are enough
• I have a different design for the pauldrons
• Going to have the chimera logo on the shield
• No nasal on the helmet

Speaking of helmets, I was toying with buying this helmet from By the Sword.

But I pivoted, and plan to make one out of leather, using this Skill Tree video as a guide.