Personal armor building

04crewvt · Post by **04crewvt** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:50 pm

I guess my armor building knowledge comes in handy here as well.

Post by **HenryJ** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:00 pm

I want a set! Body armor from the movie Mad Max.

04crewvt · Post by **04crewvt** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:06 pm

Pretty close, mine was built for SCA heavy list fighting. Body made from black plastic barrel and nylon straps with leather and steel arms with hockey pads for shoulders and baseball legs with thigh extensions of leather that attach to a belt. No longer have the helmet it is now is S.A. but was basically a football helmet built of 16 gauge steel spun top 18 gauge sides and 1/4 inch welded bar grill.

Post by **HenryJ** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:13 pm

Any pictures?

04crewvt · Post by **04crewvt** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:21 pm

None I can easily come up with of me in mine . I could shoot a couple of shots of just the armor but as with all clothing not worn in a while it seems to have shrunk since the last time I was in it, at least thats the story I am going with.

Post by **HenryJ** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:58 pm

I have done some little stuff. Mostly costume props.
I have a nice head piece.

Last two pictures in this album
It is made from a cow hip bone that I found hiking to the big cave on Dry Creek many years ago.

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:00 pm

All I see is broken links.

Right click and "view image" to cache it, or use the album link I added -HJ

04crewvt · Post by **04crewvt** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:01 pm

Me in Viking garb sans armor Pardon the shades.

04crewvt · Post by **04crewvt** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:45 pm

Pulled out what I could find it hasn't been used in at least 10 years and needs lots of work if it was ever to be used again.

Post by **HenryJ** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:55 pm

Nice!

04crewvt · Post by **04crewvt** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:51 pm

Thanks, when I was using it it was all shiny and other fighters lived how flexible it was. I could sit down, bend over at the waist and touch the ground put my arms behind my back and could put the entire set on by myself many couldn't. We used solid bamboo (Rattan) as our weapons and this stuff could really take some heavy blows with ease, many times metal armor would dent but the plastic wouldn't have a scratch. It had enough coverage and was built well enough so I never got what we call armor bites( where your own armor pinches you and leaves a mark) and very few bruises.

Post by **HenryJ** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:59 pm

I would like to do some heavy leather. Maybe kevlar and plate inserts for some real protection.

There is some good looking movie quality classic stuff here: TheHorrorDome.com costumes

04crewvt · Post by **04crewvt** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:23 pm

We tried Kydex but it's to fragile over time and repeated abuse especially when it's frozen. If you want to see some fancy leather armor search on SCA leather armor there is a lot of sweet stuff out there. To harden leather we occasionally use Futura acrylic floor wax, it penetrates the grain of the leather and basically plasticizes it. That;s what the thigh armor I have is done with that. I have quite a bit of 11-13oz leather which is good armor grade stuff, generally sold as saddle skirting leather. We use 2nds not the high grade carving leather since it gets beaten up pretty bad.