Before I start let me say that a great portion of the design considerations that we used for this project were the result of a long interactive conversation with Duchess Ariel from Calontir. I hope that we have managed to capture the lion’s share of her amazing guidance and feedback.

Ok, I have been asked on numerous occasions to post the design elements and finished body for Valora’s lamellar armor that we made. SO with that here’s the basics of it. (btw Age of Hero’s Armoury sells this kind of armor on a customer by customer basis… see the statement at the bottom of the blog for information)

OK, so the dilemma when armoring a fighter is how to mesh strong protective characteristics with the fighter’s body type and have the following:

Armor that is effective in SCA combat

Armor that allows proper movement while offering effective protection

Armor that is non cost prohibitive and can allow through design elements a certain flair or appeal to the wearer.

Armor that will last and requires nominal maintenance.

While we do not make gender distinctions regarding fighters… a fighter is a fighter is a fighter. We must make gender distinctions regarding protection (different parts ‘n such), movement (women move differently than men), and mechanics (because women move differently from men some parts of the armor must fit differently so that power can be generated)

In Valora’s case we were dealing with the concepts that she wanted something Byzantine/Persian. Because she is relatively new to the SCA we didn’t have a huge amount of persona information to work with we discover is that she wanted to be some form of Persian/Middle Eastern without being completely immersed in that society.

Our thinking at Age of Heroes Armory was work out a way that as she transitions into different realms of growth both in physical skill and persona style that she could have armor that would transition with her.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a history lesson. This is just an example of using some contemporary materials to have a result that *could* have been used in period. Our goal was to have a new fighter get into armor (body and arms initially) for under 200.00 in material costs and to have that fighter have strong aesthetics on the field. Another goal is that we wanted to develop some sport armor that had some semblance to something in period.

Lamellar…. yep it’s the “in” amour these days. In fact it’s been “in” amour for a very large part of history… and here a few reasons why:

Easy to make from materials readily available.

Can be produced as munition grade, able to be quickly adjusted to fit most body styles

Very comfortable… we fight, in the summer in 110-120 degree weather out in Atenveldt… this armor, in addition to our version of brigadine, allows for ventilation.

In the current middle ages this type of armor can be made for kits worn over or under some form of tabbard, tunic, or fighting coat.

If done right, very low maintenance. Repairs often take 5 minutes and even in the worse case scenario under an hour.

Favorable to any environment. (we have made armor like this for folks in the east coast, west coast, southwest and northeast… and guess what! they still fight in it today!)

So on with the show..

 

Here’s the link to Valora’s finished kit, front and back …

 

Front (and no… the sunglasses were not included in the original concept art!)

 

As you can see the armor fits nicely (women have all sorts of groovy shapes that we have to consider when designing armor…) has strong aesthetics, and the fact that Valora is a Steward in my household I know first hand that the armor protects her.

 

You will also note that in the breast area that the lamellar stops a bit short of the sides of the breast. This was a design feature because she opted to wear sub-tunic breast protection (basically karate protection that we beefed up).

 

We have also made this kind of breast under armor for other students as well.

 

This suit was made, in majority, by Valora. She cut the plates, drilled the holes, set the brass accent pieces, sewed the lamellar, etc. If you were to look at a close up of this rig you would see that it has been very well done.

 

The tassets and shoulders are free flowing and are set the the natural body lines of the customer. We chose to attach the tassets to the body and opted to use smaller tassets because she was going to be wearing some form of upper leg armor regardless of body armor. While we lost some modularity in break down, the addition of a belt to which the tassets were attached did not fit the scope of what she wanted.

 

Currently her leg armor is designed to be hidden under trousers, I believe she will be modifying this to be either over the pants cuises with some form of knee cop or quite possibly some form of Mediterranean greave and knee combination.

 

So now to the arms.. well one common approach to arm equipment in the SCA is something like – Elbow Cops… some form of vambrace (for many new fighters this is usually a softball batting guard, shin guard, commercial arm pad, or worse… nothing).

 

For about the same price as a set of metal cops (no lames) and a set of athletic batting guards she was able to afford our Bazubands.

 

From the side –

 

and here’s her wearing one…

 

When we show these pictures to people most commonly familiar with the elbow cop/vambrace configuration the very first thing they usually say after they ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over them is “Oh but I like being able to turn my fore-arm and wrist…” This is THE MOST COMFORTABLE and EASY armor that allows full range of motion for the price. Not trying to force feed this concept to anyone but if you have yet to try something along these lines that has been properly fit for you…. you should. I doubt you will go back.

Again this was made by Valora… she did all the labor… we just provided the design and materials and we dare say that the results are very positive. This kind of arm can be made to fit any number of types of kits (we have people that wear these under tabbards as well as over tunics). These can be tooled with devices, adjusted and tailored specifically to the wearer etc. Very functional and very accessible.

We have designs where etched/chased brass and aluminum replace the leather roundel and fore-arm regions. We have designs with celtic knotwork, coptics, Norse animals, crusader crosses, mottos etc.

SO … that’s about it for this session.

For those that asked me to post this so that you could see what we were doing… there ya go!

For those who asked, and for those who have yet to inquire, regarding cost and materials…

Age of Heroes Armory makes this armor as a compliment to other ongoing operations in our shop (the head of this shop runs a high end prototype/fabrication/design business and is a master welder by trade).

We tend to work on a case by case basis. We have a number of pre-constructed armor solutions, make mid grade helms (450.00 and under) and a number of other options for you if yer interested.

We do not intentionally carry stock with the exception of some helms, but ya just never know… we just might have what ya need.

We know… it sucks to wait for something that you want to purchase. We are the exact same way. BUT we will not subsidize safety to accommodate impulse purchasing, and as we are all Knights in the SCA, we strongly recommend that you avoid doing so as well.

SCA fighting, even for the war enthusiast is rigorous, can be dangerous and is a full contact sport (to say the least). Our customers understand that there will be time in construction.

They can do the construction or we can do the construction, and logically if we do the construction we will charge for labor in addition to materials.

Likewise we will charge for accent and detail work. But we are very reasonable and find that while we are not into making munition grade armor we choose not to sell in the high end market either.

Our main focus is the fighter that needs aesthetically pleasing armor that will last, is made here in the US (yes, we are very happy that the market is flooded with cheap Chinese and Indian crap armor… most of those buyers end up in our shop getting either the junk repaired, which we charge for, or getting something new, which we charge for).