Armor from improvised materials. "Perfect Armor

Lamellar armor is considered one of the most effective types of ancient armor. The first mention of it refers to biblical times. It is known that this armor surpassed armor in its effectiveness. She took second place after chain mail, which gradually began to lose ground. The lamellar armor completely replaced it and became widely used by nomads, Byzantine soldiers, Chukchi, Koryaks and Germanic tribes.

Name history

The “lamellar” armor got its name due to a peculiar design consisting of many metal plates (Latin lamella - “plate”, “scale”). These steel elements are interconnected with a cord. Lamellar armor in each state had its own distinctive features. But the principle of connecting the plates with a cord was common to the device of all ancient armor.

Bronze armor

In Palestine, Egypt and Mesopotamia, bronze was used to make lamellas. Wide application this metal was received in the east and in the center of Asia. Here, warriors were equipped with lamellar armor until the nineteenth century.

What was the armor in ancient Russia?

Until the middle of the twentieth century, among scientists who studied ancient Russian weapons, there was an opinion that our ancestors used only chain mail. This statement remained unchanged for a long time, despite the fact that lamellar armor was depicted on frescoes, icons, stone carvings and miniatures. Plank armor was considered conditional, and any mention of it was ignored.

Archaeological work 1948-1958

After the end of the Great Patriotic War Soviet archaeologists discovered over 500 burnt lamellar plates on the territory of Novgorod. The find gives grounds to assert that lamellar armor was also widely used by the ancient Russians.

Rus. Mongol invasion years

As a result of archaeological excavations on the territory of Gomel, scientists discovered the largest workshop for the manufacture of armor. It was burned by the Mongols in 1239. Under the rubble, archaeologists found swords, sabers and over twenty types of ready-made lamellar plates. AT separate room defective flake products and blanks were found: they did not have holes and bends, and the edges of the plates contained burrs. The fact of finding a long awl, file, grinding and grinding wheels at first, he pushed scientists to the idea that it was here that lamellar armor was made, assembled and adjusted. Making armor, meanwhile, is only possible with a forge. But this equipment was not found either in the workshop or nearby. The researchers came to the conclusion that an ancient armory was discovered in Gomel, while the production process for the manufacture of armor was carried out elsewhere.

What is lamellar armor?

By connecting small metal plates with laces, the ribbons that make up the lamellar armor are assembled. The photo below shows the features of the combination of steel flakes in the product.

Assembly work should take place in such a way that each plate overlaps the adjacent one with one of its edges. After conducting research on the reconstructed armor different countries scientists came to the conclusion that the plates that made up the lamellar armor of Byzantium did not overlap, but fit snugly against each other and were attached to the skin. The ribbons were tied together first horizontally and then vertically. Forging metal plates was a laborious task. The very process of assembling the armor was not particularly difficult.

Description

The weight of armor made of 1.5 mm thick plates ranged from 14 to 16 kg. Lamellar armor with overlaid plates surpassed chain mail in efficiency. The cuirass, created according to the lamellar pattern, is able to reliably protect against piercing weapons and arrows. The weight this product does not exceed five kilograms. The impact force of the opponent's weapon is dissipated on the surface of the armor, without causing any harm to the warrior dressed in armor.

Mounting methods

In order to prevent damage to the armor, the plates in it were tied with two special cords so that their length on the back was negligible. If one cord broke, the steel elements in the armor were held by the second. This made it possible for the warrior, if necessary, to independently replace the damaged plates. This method of fastening was the main, but not the only one. Metal wire or rivets could also be used. These structures differed high strength. The disadvantage of the second method is the low mobility of the armor.

At first, belts were used to connect steel plates. Over time, this practice was discontinued. This was due to the fact that with chopping blows of the sword, lamellar armor was often damaged. The armor, which used rivets and wire, was able to withstand blows. various types weapons.

The form

The components of the armor are rectangular steel products with paired holes evenly distributed over the entire surface. Some plates in it contain bulges. They are necessary in order to better reflect or weaken the blows of arrows, spears and other weapons.

Where is plate armor found?

When reproducing historical events of the Middle Ages in feature films, heroes often use lamellar armor. Skyrim is one of the most popular computer games, where a lot of attention is also paid to the topic of plate armor. According to the terms, these armors are worn by mercenaries, marauders and bandit leaders. According to the game, this heavy armor becomes available after passing the eighteenth level, when the hero needs a more serious level of protection. It is able to provide an improved steel plate armor, which in its characteristics significantly exceeds the usual set of steel.

How to make lamellar armor?

There are two ways to become the owner of this heavy armor:

• Use the services of workshops engaged in the manufacture of such armor.
• Get the necessary drawings, diagrams and materials, and then start making lamellar armor with your own hands. You can carry out work with reference to any historical event. Or just make plate armor according to your favorite pattern.

What will be needed for work?

• Steel plates. They are the most important element in armor and must necessarily have a form corresponding to the assembly scheme. The thickness of the hardened plates should not exceed 1 mm. Lamellar armor made of convex plates, which, unlike flat ones, are expensive, will look much more effective. Given the size of the human body, it can be assumed that at least 350-400 plates of 3x9 mm in size will be needed for armor.
• Leather belts. They are necessary for binding metal plates together. The optimal thickness of the belts should be 2 mm. Experienced users recommend not to purchase ready-made belts. Better get some skin sheets desired thickness, and cut the belts yourself. This will allow you to correctly calculate the required length of the cords. It is recommended to cut the straps with a width of 0.5 cm. They are ideal for holes with a diameter of 0.3 cm. You will need 80 m of cord to work. For the manufacture of belts, you can use or silk cord. The strips must be cut lengthwise so that they can hardly pass through the holes in the plates.

How is the process going?

• Prepared steel plates must have paired holes. They are made with a drill. Each hole is stitched with kapron threads. Before proceeding with the firmware, each plate should be sanded, after which its thickness may decrease slightly. Despite the fact that the reduction in thickness is not particularly noticeable, since the plates overlap each other, their thickness is initially recommended at least 1 mm. When testing lamellar armor with 1 mm plates, four arrows fired from a distance of 20 m with a bow weighing 25 kg did not cause serious damage to the armor.

• Breaking plates. The procedure is necessary for the formation of bulges on products. Performed this work on a wooden base with a three-hundred-gram hammer with a rounded head.

• Plate painting. Vegetable oil can be used for bluing the product. Before work, the product is subject to thermal exposure. The surfaces of the plates are processed on both sides. It is recommended to cover the inner part with a special varnish for metal, and simply polish the outer part, and if necessary, tin it and cover it with gilding.
• Belt processing. Before passing the cord through the holes in the plates, the pieces of leather from which it is made must be processed. To do this, the cord is drawn several times over a piece hard wax. If the belt is linen, then it is subject to the waxing procedure. From time to time, it is recommended to wipe the belts with a cloth dampened with vegetable oil. This will protect them from possible drying out. Steel plates are also recommended to be treated with oil. Only a leather belt is recommended for edging.
• It is recommended to use leather straps for work. They are better than silk thread products, as they are able to stretch. This quality is especially important when creating lamellar armor, since the armor, bending around the body, must initially be very tight, stretching after some time.
• At the ends of the plates, ribbons are passed into paired holes, which are subsequently connected. It is necessary to ensure that the binding occurs freely. This will give the steel plates the ability to move over each other like segmented armor.
• To prevent rust from forming on the plates, they must be treated with phosphoric acid. Dull metallic - this is the color that lamellar armor acquires after acid treatment.
• To make homemade lamellar armor, you can use soft galvanized sheet plates.

Handicraft armor, made at home, is mainly intended for beauty, not for protection. It is mainly used as a souvenir.

Let's say you wanted to write a "spec" for the perfect armor. It could be easily made without special tools, the material should be inexpensive and affordable. It should be light, but at the same time durable and not succumb to rust. It should correspond to the period of the Middle Ages, and in addition to look good.

Seems pretty complicated, right? However, such armor exists - it is reinforced leather armor, and how to assemble this miracle of technology and will be discussed in this article!

First, we need the skin itself. It should be unpainted and certainly not varnished, it is also better not to use leatherette, I will wisely keep silent about the reasons for this statement. Skin thickness.
Naturally, it is undesirable to spoil your own leather jacket or an old raincoat, because. firstly, it’s a pity, and secondly, it still won’t work, because the skin there is thin. Ideally, it would be possible to get a raw piece (from thinner leather, you can make inserts in weakly vulnerable places) *.

1. Let's start with measurements. Measure your wrist circumference (a), elbow circumference (b), and wrist to elbow distance (c) according to the figure (dimensions shown are approximate only).

2. Cut out a suitable piece of leather, according to the formulas shown in the figure.

3. We need a bowl of cold water in which you need to place the resulting workpiece so that it is soaked (you can use, for example, a sink or bath) and leave it for half an hour.

4. After the skin has enough moisture and becomes flexible and elastic, it should be removed from the water and covered with a damp towel, leaving it in this state for 8 hours.

5. Next, the resulting piece needs to be shaped. You can make a blank for these purposes that resembles your hand in shape (which is naturally more convenient), or you can use this same hand (which is certainly easier). A piece of still wet skin should be fixed on a blank, tightly fixed with a retaining bandage and left to dry for several hours.
The trick is that when the skin dries, it will keep its shape.
The main difficulty at this stage is, of course, the formation of that part of the bracer that will cover the elbow. As you can see from the picture, it has a round shape. It is better to use any object for these purposes. round shape, suitable enough in diameter.

6. When the skin dries up, you should remove it from the workpiece and try it on your hand. So it's easier to notice whether the future bracer fits snugly to the hand and whether it presses.
At this stage, it's time to make corrections and adjustments, and when they are done with, you should re-fix the workpiece on the blank. Don't move on to the next step until the skin is completely dry (and this can take several days), this can only ruin everything!

7. The blank is in our hands and now it's time to soak it with wax. At home, the easiest way to do this is in the following way: take a large pan, baking sheet or sheet of foil and put the workpiece on it.
Put a piece of wax inside the workpiece, it will take 300 grams and put this whole structure into the oven. Wax melts very quickly, so the temperature should not be high at all (be careful - firstly, you can ruin the workpiece, and secondly, start a fire!)

8. When the skin is warm enough, the wax will start to melt, don't waste time! Remove the pan from the oven and quickly rub the wax over the entire surface of the skin, on both sides (Naturally, you should not do this with your bare hands).
Once the wax begins to set, put the pan back into the oven and repeat the process for about half an hour until almost all of the wax has been absorbed.

9. After the wax has been absorbed, remove the workpiece from the oven and remove the remaining wax, put it to cool.
Now it remains to pierce the holes for the fasteners and carry out "cosmetic" work.

10. We make the second part of the bracer, which will “close” the hand from the side of the wrist.
We cut out from the skin (you don’t even need to “strengthen” this piece in the ways described above) a rectangular piece. We pierce a series of holes in it and, in accordance with Figure 3, connect both parts with the help of a leather strip with two rows of holes (to get a kind of door hinge).

11. Bracers of this type are usually fastened with two straps with clasps, but they can be made and strengthened without any instructions, based only on figures 3 and 4.
Figure 4 shows more practical option bracer, you can experiment with scissors.

If, after prolonged use and taking on a fair amount of blows, the bracer has become softer, it should be placed in the oven as before, the wax will melt and “strengthen” it again. In the most severe cases just add fresh wax and repeat the operation.

The technique shown above is universal, in this way it is possible to make not only bracers, but also embossed leggings, like ancient Greek and other armored parts.

Everything! Actually, the first element of the “perfect” armor is made, and therefore, without delay, we move on!

Scale armor is made by analogy with metal from a large number small plates. This type of shell was widely used all over the world, from Scandinavia to Japan, and now we will try to collect this one.

Is leather armor really that good? It depends on what exactly you are going to do in it. For an ordinary warrior armed with a shield and a sword, leading mostly single battles, it is certainly good.
If your fight is a series of fights not for life, but almost literally to death, where both you and you are “chopped” from the heart, then it is recommended to increase protection.

For example, use even thicker skin in the most vulnerable places, or “dilute” the armor with steel scales. You can also make holes on individual scales away from the edge, this will increase the number of elements used, but also significantly strengthen the armor, because. increase the impact area

We will use leather that is equal in characteristics to that used in the construction of the bracer, with the only difference being that we will need much more leather.
Figure 5 shows the size and shape of the scales that we will use (a) and a number of others, both historical and not so (b) For a sleeveless vest, the author of the article took approximately 180 scales.

1. We cut out a certain number of scales and “strengthen” them in the way we already know. Because the elements of the future armor are flat and small, it is easier to put them on a baking sheet, like cakes and put a piece of wax on top. When the wax melts, let them soak in, then take them out and leave to cool.

2. We punch holes in the scales. Can do it different ways, but it is better to use an ordinary drill, which will significantly automate this tedious process.

3. Pay attention to Figure 6, showing a group of 9 scales assembled together and in what order to collect them. Based on the reconstruction of Bengt Thordeman, described in "The armies of Byzantium 886-1118."
A leather strap is used for fastening.
First, horizontal rows are assembled, and then these rows are attached to each other.

Figure 7, shows the already assembled armor in expanded form. To be honest, I do not know how the ancients wore such a shell, but I took the path of least resistance.
First we fasten it on the shoulders (points A and B) using either straps or lacing, and then fasten it from the sides in the same way ( points C,D,E,F). Note that the front of the armor has an extra row of scales at the very bottom to match the shape of the body. This feature is clearly visible in all the images of that period.

For additional protection of the neck and shoulders, you can make a "collar" of plain, unreinforced leather, worn over the head. For additional protection of the shoulders and upper arms, you can use "feathers" - long rectangular pieces of skin.
To further improve protection, an additional block of plates was also widely used, fastened at the waist and covering ..uh .. the lower back or thigh 🙂 To better imagine what it looks like, remember the Japanese samurai.

After the final assembly, you need another one, finishing touch. Put the armor in the oven and warm it up a little. Put on the underarmor, pull the armor out into the light of day and let it cool a little (be careful, don't burn yourself!) put it on.
Attention - cool down completely, the armor should already be dressed, this will help it take the shape of your body and become your "second skin" 🙂

Mittens

Figure 8 shows a mitten made of reinforced leather, in the form of parts and already assembled.
It is made of 4 pieces of reinforced leather and a piece of regular leather, from which the "loop" of fastening is made.

The loop (U) holds the "fingers" (S) and the base of the mitten (R) together. Element (T) is attached to the junction of elements (S) and (R) and provides protection for the joint. The foundation thumb(Q) attached to the main body (R) with a leather loop through one hole in (Q) and two holes in (R).

"Fortified" areas must first be shaped. The easiest way is to use a steel glove that will serve as a blank for us. But since steel gloves are a rarity in our time, you will have to use improvised means as usual.

The author suggests choosing the desired thickness of the skin like this - “One ounce corresponds to a thickness of 1/64″; what is actually measured is usually thickness rather than weight. Ideally you should use at least 12 or 13 ounce leather. Leather as light as 8 or 9 ounces can be used for armor, at least over places that are not too vulnerable ”- I probably didn’t understand something, but an ounce, this is weight, not length ... in general, if someone understands better , unsubscribe 🙂

Translation — Malfis K.
By David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook, 1988, 1990, 1992(www.pbm.com)

This article will walk you through the creation process their hands light and durable armor made of a material called Wonderflex.

Wonderflex is a very versatile material, but there are certain limitations to its use.

In the images above, all armor pieces except for the helmet were made from a combination of Wonderflex and Apoxie.

Step 1: What is Wonderflex?

Wonderflex is a low melting thermoplastic (150°-170°F "activation" temperature), with a woven fiber backing on one side. When heated, the material can stretch, repeat the shape of the workpiece.

Wonderflex sheets can be joined together. The more you heat the material, the stronger the bond will be. For heating, I recommend using heat guns, but you can also warm up in microwave oven smaller pieces.

Let's take the “conditional” that most people have at home: markers, rulers, well-lit workplaces. I would like to offer a set of tools for working with Wonderflex:

• Heat gun;
• Trauma scissors (they have a serrated edge that allows you to cut 3 layers of Wonderflex fairly easily)
• Hand punch (Wonderflex is pretty bad at drilling. For clean holes, a punch is best);
• Roller - for gluing sheets together;

• Blanks for molding armor elements;
• Grinding sponges - to smooth the texture of the material;
• Polyester filler and primer;
• soldering iron;
• Respirator, gloves and goggles;

For volumetric parts, we will use a material called Apoxie Sculpt (clay), which hardens overnight, dries, almost no shrinkage and is easy to sand. When working with Apoxie, some clay tools may come in handy.

Step 3: Create Armor Templates

Any project always starts with drawings. There are many ways to get them. First of all, if the image of the desired cue is in a video game, experienced master will be able to extract files in the form of a 3D model, which can be manipulated.

I had a mannequin that matched the size of my torso. After printing out the set of armor templates, tape the pieces together to visualize the shape of the armor. If the pieces don't match and further adjustments are needed, make the necessary changes to the template and then print a new piece.

Paper is good analogue for wonderflex. Spend time customizing templates. If you can set up all the elements properly, you can save a lot of time and frustration later on when trying to mold Wonderflex.

Step 4: Thicken the Sheets

Once the templates are sorted, it's time to transfer them to Wonderflex.

The thickness of one layer is actually quite small and the material will not hold the given shape under any impact on it. In addition, when forming parts from only one layer, the material will wrinkle along those areas that are stretched. To solve this problem, we will connect several sheets together before forming parts of the costume from them.

For large areas, such as chest and back, it was decided to use three layers. We heat them with a heat gun, and then roll them with a roller. In order to pre-fasten the sheets together and they do not move during rolling, you can use a pin or similar object. However, I recommend that you first make sure that the heated Wonderflex will not stick to the surface of the roller. My roller has a silicone drum, so that wasn't a problem.

For other parts that don't wear as much (shoulders and hips), use 2 sheets each to make a preliminary base for the armor elements.

Step 5: Basic Components

After the sheets are compacted, it's time to cut the blanks.

It is much easier to cut out a shape from a pre-formed piece. After all, if you cut a piece and then stretch it in shape, then in the end the result will be “crooked”.

The first picture shows an "empty" panel. This part was made with 2 layers of Wonderflex. Let's use the old plastic pipe(you can take any non-porous and heat-resistant material) to achieve the desired curvature. You can use large adapters from PVC pipes- strict lines and high temperature resistance will make them an excellent tool for Wonderflex molding. In order to prevent sticking, cover part of the sheet with metallic tape.

For cooling simple shapes use a bucket of cold water.

After heating the sheet, give it the desired shape, then immerse it in water. It takes about 5 minutes to cool completely (in air), but with the bucket method, the process takes seconds.

After we got the desired shape, take the pattern and circle it on the workpiece. We use small clamps to fix the template while drawing.

After transferring the contours of the template, simply cut out the desired shape. As I wrote earlier, Wonderflex used trauma scissors for cutting. Although a stationery knife also works great.

Step 6: Grease, Shape, Bend, Repeat...

There are some pieces of armor that cannot be obtained in the above way.

Unlike the previous stage, you first need to transfer the drawing and only after that gradually form the element of the costume.

Starting from the lower leg, I formed the main details using the leg of the mannequin. While this allowed me to achieve fairly accurate basic shapes, fine lines and wavy edges remained. In this case, to smooth them out, you need to concentrate on one area, heat it, form curves, and then soak in a bucket of ice water.

Step 7:

In picture 2 you can see the method of forming the sections of the back and chest. Since these parts are too big to fit in a bucket of ice water, it's worth starting the heating process by placing a sheet of damp towel on top. After completion, the workpiece is covered with a second towel dipped in ice water.

We repeat this process several times until we reach the desired shape. It took several passes and stretching around the corners and edges to get to this "point".

In the picture, you can see the front chest plate after molding. Let's make small cuts along the arms and neck in order to stretch the shape along the edges and increase the curvature. Then we will cover them with thin strips of Wonderflex to strengthen the seams. If the armor needs to be smooth in these areas, you can close these cuts on the back to give the finish a smooth look.

Once the pieces are shaped, it's a good idea to try them on on a mannequin to make sure all the seams line up.

Step 8: Add Overlay Details

Wonderflex works great with large surfaces and wide shapes, but for more defined areas and crisp details, you will need to use a different material.

I prefer to use Apoxie Sculpt 2-component epoxy clay. All volumetric details, with the exception of the details of the shoulder pads, were molded from it.

I would like to note that the placement of additional parts (on the lower leg) will hide the seam line between the two halves of the Wonderflex and make the surface of the armor element a single whole. Apoxie works pretty well with abrasive.

For the manufacture of rivets for armor, we will use furniture nails. Pre-drill a hole, cut off the pointed end and superglue them in place.

Step 9: Sand and Smooth the Surface

Don't forget to wear a respirator first. All work should be carried out outdoors or in a well-ventilated area.

The first step is to process the rough sandpaper formed armor parts. Depending on how well you have sculpted the shapes, the process can be either very short or very long.

After the surface of the clay is leveled, cover the parts with a car primer in three layers. All small bumps and ripples will need to be smoothed out. For small defects, we will use putty as a filler. It is important to apply small layers of putty to parts that will be subject to folds, because it can break during kinks.

For the chest and back, which have many small dents, we use the sponge sanding method.

If you have areas with deep defects or large dents, you can use polyester filler. This padding can flex slightly, which allows the Wonderflex to not become completely rigid.

After applying the filler, apply a couple more layers of primer. If you are going to age the surface of the armor, you may leave some external defects.

When sanding Wonderflex, you can get edges that stick out of the fibers. A quick pass with a hot knife or soldering iron will fix this problem.

I have been cosplaying for only a year, and this is the second full-fledged armor in my life that I made on my own and with my own hand, of course.

Daedric was my first armor, I did everything on a whim, shoveled tons of tutorials, snatched information where I could, but generally wandered in the dark, asking idiotic questions to consultants in hardware stores. Therefore, my first armor was made of fiberglass (body kits for cars are made from this material) based on a paper model made of pepakura, which is certainly very strong, but at the same time very heavy and incredibly restrictive (for example, it was impossible to bend your back or raise your arms higher shoulders Yes, and weight - 15 kg.

Plus a terribly smelly, time-consuming and painstaking process of its creation, tons of putty and dust during grinding. In general, all these moments led me to a more detailed study of the world of cosplay and I learned about the special materials that cosplayers use. So I became friends with EVA FOAM. This is a material that resembles ordinary tourist foam, only more dense and takes the desired shape when heated.

As far as I know, this material is produced in several places in Russia. Personally, I ordered from a supplier from Togliatti. There are sheets of different thickness - 1,2,3,4,5, 10 mm. I took 5 mm as the base and 2 mm for the relief.

In general, unlike pepakura, where the program makes a pattern for you according to a 3D model and then you glue it out of paper, with eva foam you make your own pattern. In some cases, you can not do without a partner or your own mannequin. So how is it done.
First, you take a picture of the image that you want to bring to life.

Secondly, you start making patterns. For example, a bib. You wrap yourself with cling film, glue masking tape on top of the strips (just in strips, without wrapping, otherwise everything will be pinched and the part will come out small). Directly on yourself you mark where the necessary detail begins and ends, you mark some important points, joints, patterns, etc. You carefully cut the masking tape and now you have a sketch of the part. Now it can be defined more evenly, figure out how and what.

Cut the part into several parts so that after gluing them together we get a full-fledged and voluminous part (of course, eva foam can also be bent by heating, but not endlessly). Next, you transfer the detail to paper (I used the method - put a sketch on a tablet screen glowing white and redraw the contours over the sketch with paper).

Paper cutting necessary elements, we must try to connect them together on the same masking tape and try on the result. It will be much more offensive to immediately cut the eva foam and screw it up. Then you pin the paper with patterns to the eva foam with pins and outline the contours, cut it out. Eva foam is cut with an ordinary clerical knife. When cutting, it is better to consider how the parts will fit together and cut them at the appropriate angle in relation to each other. And then, for example, I got a kind of "comb" on top of the helmet, which I then had to grind off. Although the irregularities in any case after gluing will have to be grinded off with an engraver or sandpaper.

As for the glue... there is different variants. I have personally tried three. 1. Hot glue from a glue gun. A huge minus - if it's hot, there is a chance that the glue will float and the suit will disperse. 2. Second glue. Instantly glues everything and holds perfectly. But terribly harmful and stinks. In the process of work, I generally discovered an allergy to it and angioedema occurred. 3.Good old glue moment. You have to fiddle with it longer than with a second, but tolerable. Smear both sides to be glued, wait 10 minutes and glue. Holds up great.

If there is a chance of getting confused in the cut out details, it is better to number them, otherwise it will be too late later.

After creating my black armor, I began to advocate that the suit could move normally and be more or less comfortable. Moreover, I have a habit of walking my cosplay images in hard modes - skiing or boarding at a ski carnival, riding a bike.

Therefore, this time I paid great attention to the mobility of parts and fasteners. For good bending of the knees, I put their elements on iron rivets. Excellent mobility of parts and everything is firmly held. On the same rivets I attached a plate with feathers to the helmet. You saw off the extra pieces of iron with an engraver and everything is fine.

What did you use for armor mounts. Rubber bands, Velcro, buttons, hooks. All this is quite comfortably sewn to eva foam and hides somewhere under patterns or joints.

A lot of questions I have caused and causes the processing of edges and slices. I did it with the grinding attachments of the engraver. Some people just do it with sandpaper. In any case, after such processing, many irregularities and roughness remain. I tried to smooth them out with a hair dryer. It got better, but not perfect. I was recommended to use a burner and next time I will try this method. To smooth joints and seams, it is necessary to use putty. For me the best option is a finishing two-component auto-filler. It stays on tight and polishes well.

But it cannot cover the entire armor, and the material is porous ... In short, we will now talk about the primer. And here the opinions of all the cosplayers I interviewed differ. The trick is that eva foam is a fairly flexible material and the applied paint wrinkles and cracks when bent. How to avoid this completely, I personally did not think of it, and if you know, I will be very glad for advice. In general, at first, according to the recommendations, I tried pva glue as a primer. I don't know why, but after applying acrylic black paint on it, it gave such an effect. And the paint completely peeled off.

After that, after reading various sources, I decided to prime simply acrylic paint, that is, put more layers and due to this, close the pores and level the material. Painted with a brush. Then spray for an even color.

Then with a silver brush and a little silver spray for an even color. Then in some places finishing with gold acrylic. Varnish. Also a separate big question. I didn't quite figure it out for myself either. Tried to cover with a brush acrylic varnish. It dries for a very long time and if the parts are put side by side, they stick together and spoil each other. Spat and covered with aerosol varnish.

Why do I care so much about priming, painting and varnishing? Because as you can see in the picture below, a slight bending of the part leads to cracks... I don't know how to solve this problem. Here, both the primer and the paint and varnish should be elastic ... and not peel off ... probably next time I will try liquid rubber.

Sword. Made from wood for rigidity. The wings are epoxy glued on the sides. Grinding, embossing with pieces of eva foam, putty and sanding. "Stones" on the sword and armor made of two-component cold welding. Primer, paint, varnish.

To my great regret, the artist from me is so-so and I did not succeed in giving the volume to my armor as I wanted to the full extent. I have yet to learn this.

About armor mounts. Upwards. The top of the boot is held at the back by a very wide elastic band, the lining on the boot is also on elastic bands on the toe of the boot and between the heel and toe on the elastic band from the top. Knee pads with elastic bands and buttons. Plus, I forgot to film the production of the top of the knee pads and armor under the breastplate. This is faux black leather as the base. On top of it, cut-out pieces of the same leather are glued on for a moment and all this is tinted with silver acrylic. So. On the legs, the leather part of the knee pads is attached to the back of the hooks, on the hooks with a small strip of leather, they are attached to the corset so that they do not slip. Also, thigh pads are attached to the corset on the sides with Velcro. By the way, under one of the leggings there is a tricky pocket for a phone and money.

Corset at the back with Velcro and hooks. Belt with hooks. Bib with elastic and hooks at the back like a bodice. Now it's more difficult. The shoulder pads are fastened to the bib on fastexes in front, on the back with an elastic band between them, on an elastic band with hooks to the upper bracers, on a button to the elbow pads. The lower bracers are two-piece. The bottom is like a bracelet with an elastic band, the top is with an elastic band with buttons.
Cloak on hooks in front of the armor and on the buttons to the shoulder pads.

By the way, I forgot to write about gloves. These are simple fabric gloves (100 r in a fabric store), cut out pieces of thin eva on top of the hot glue.
Well, in principle, that's all, I made it all in about 2 months.

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