One of my more ambitious armoring assignments to date. (I know. If I keep saying that enough times, it's going to start to lose its meaning.)

The most difficult task in this project were the shoulder pauldrons, the plates of which had to be individually crafted and then fastened together with studs. Another tough task: Figuring out a way of painting the armor so it would look metallicky (which is a tough thing to do if one is working with shiny black paint. Usually it comes off looking plasticky.)

The breastplate was easy to fit together, although figuring out the studded leather fastenings on the sides was a bit of a challenge. (I wound up using straps of a leather belt I had cut up; I put small plastic plates on the tips, and under those I sewed huge, oversized snaps.)

The belts, codpiece and chest dagger holsters I made using a leather-looking non-vinyl fabric (since they had to go over a painted surface which was vinyl-hostile.) The chest daggers themselves were shapes I cut out of 3mm thick craft foam, covered with plastic sheeting, and bent at the middle.

A big challenge was the gauntlet, which I made by wrapping foam and plastic around a glove. (I didn't do the spring and wire elbow assembly, as I figured I'd never be able to do it justice unless I made it using real metal and lots of expensive power tools which I don't have.) I gave the gauntlet a real grungy paint job, so it would look well-worn and gritty like the rest of the armor.

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