my butt ugly armor

[Lash]

I have been fighting in my butt ugly fireplug looking armor for 5 years .
I built it without any knowledge on how other than looking at pictures and muddling my way thrue with a drill , saw and torch .
Up until a year ago when I first joined tousando i thought it was OK armor . then seeing what all the craftsmen and women here can accomplish I got armor envy .
I have been trying to come up with a suit that i could use the materials from my old suit so that I could pay tribute to , although ugly , a suit of armor that has kept me bruiseless for 5 years and recycle expensiv materials .
I have hit shield walls at a dead run from 20 yards and have came thru unscathed .

I dont necessarily need to have kamakura period .
any acceptable sca timeframe would be fine .
Take a look at a few pics and please give me your opinions on the type and style of Do I could make out of it.
I have haidate that I have made that are really nice and sode for the new style .









any advice , and diagrams lol , other than scrap it and start over would be greatly appreciated .

Domo Origato Gozaimashita
Lash

[tengumoon]

I am no expert but been playing with my own armour in plastic

I would solidify your body plates - maybe hinge them together or just tie them together so they but aginst each other (or overlap a little) down to the waist line.. at the moment it looks like your skirt plates start at your nipples (can anyone say samurai baby doll dress armour?)

I would add some different colour laces - to the very edges of the plates (forgot the name of them)

I would think of adding a little more curve to your sode as well

Maybe even an armour coat over it (haori!)

Hope that helps

Honestly - I am jealous cause you have armour and are on the field... I am yet to put on a full kit and even start my journey top authorization

James / Kenji

[AJBryant]

To be perfectly honest, that would fall under "mistakes of the eye."

It's clearly inspired by Japanese armours, but I can't point to a specific school that it follows. That means, it seems like you did it from a memory of pictures, rather than actually studying the armours photographed in books and trying to reproduce or recreate one of them.

To that end, have you seen my website? It should give you some ideas of what direction to go, and the importance of training the *eye* to see detail, and then to reproduce those details.

That being said, it's *far* from the worst first effort I've seen. Actually, as first efforts go, it's not that bad. But that is, AS A START. You have to move upward from there.

To that end, you have to be willing to say "this thing has gotten me this far, but it is time to grow." You really need to start anew -- otherwise, you're just perpetuating error.


Effingham

[Kôriki Ryuushirô Hiroshige]

Feb 28, 2009 0:50:49 GMT -5 tengumoon said:

<snip> at the moment it looks like your skirt plates start at your nipples (can anyone say samurai baby doll dress armour?) <snip>
James / Kenji

OMG, that'a an image. Now it stuck in my head..... I'm seeing it in a Fredericks of Hollywood catalog......

thank you,

[Lash]

At the time I made that armor I dint have access to internet or even a library the closest one was 30 miles away and was woefully small .
There idea of japanese history books were world war II books LOL!
So yes it was done from memory or what I hoped was close .
And when , 4 years later , I rejoined civilization and saw the sendoku web site I felt like a dumbass in half ass armor lol .

I dont have the funds to start another suit so I thought I would just alter this one to get it close to looking nice .
If I did i would buy the red effingham plates and make a haramaki-do or buy the materials to make a sendai-do.
I dont so I will have to use what is available , my old armor .
I will be cutting down and reshaping the sode. lacing it correctly .
I am going to try and rebend and contour the Do lames to a better looking shape and over lap them also may experiment with some leather to cover the chest plate with lames to match the lower ones . relace .
reshape the kusazuri and rehang them correctly . relace
Adding correct watagami and takehimo.
my new haidate , kote and suneate will help a bit .
so that is where i am at now . I have one month before Highlands war so hopefully most will be done by then.

[konrad]

I think you will rapidly run into a point of diminishing returns where the amount of effort that you'll be spending to try and fix the old stuff will be better spent building new stuff. Like you mentioned there are a few things that you could do to improve things in the next few weeks, but after that I think starting a new suit would be the best plan of attack.

As far as cost goes, there are plenty of things you can do to save money. Start small and swap things out a piece at a time so you can keep practicing. You can make some real progress even at 20 bucks a month.

[AJBryant]

And we're always hearing how cheap and readily available those barrels are supposed to be....

[Saionji Shonagon]

Mar 2, 2009 14:49:39 GMT -5 AJBryant said:

And we're always hearing how cheap and readily available those barrels are supposed to be....

Well, thanks to efforts to be a bit greener, companies are now cleaning/recycling these things for industrial re-use so they're not as cheap as they used to be.

(I've been pondering a pickel barrel O-daiko, what can I say?)

[konrad]

Off topic, but:

(I've been pondering a pickel barrel O-daiko, what can I say?)

I should think that you could pick up a few empty wine barrels in your part of the world that would finish up nicer than an old plastic pickle barrel. (and smell nicer to boot)

[Saionji Shonagon]

But then I would have to try to lift it.

And take it apart.

And scrape it down.

And sand it.

And rout each slat to accept biscuits.

And glue it all back together.

And saw the ends off.....

(Why yes, I DO know what goes into building taiko from wine barrels, which is why I built these: www.wodefordhall.com/taiko2.htm )

[augifertangtang]

I am currently making kits......They are relatively in-expensive. Comes with everything including 5 lames in the skirt plates.....Custom built too! Other than rivets however, will be extra if you're interested, you can see my handi-work on my other thread.

[Imagawa Tadamori]

Mar 3, 2009 0:11:48 GMT -5 augifertangtang said:

I am currently making kits......They are relatively in-expensive. Comes with everything including 5 lames in the skirt plates.....Custom built too! Other than rivets however, will be extra if you're interested, you can see my handi-work on my other thread.

As someone who has seen / laid hands on / photographed August's armor for this very forum, I will tell you that this is a good idea (should you choose to buy as opposed to build). August does quality work.

- Imagawa

[AJBryant]

Mar 3, 2009 0:11:48 GMT -5 augifertangtang said:

I am currently making kits......They are relatively in-expensive. Comes with everything including 5 lames in the skirt plates.....Custom built too! Other than rivets however, will be extra if you're interested, you can see my handi-work on my other thread.

You might want to create a link there, or even a specific thread just on that aspect and a link to it.

C'mon, guy. Make it *easy* for people to get yer stuff -- don't make em hunt for it.


Effingham

[Saionji Shonagon]

Mar 3, 2009 15:13:50 GMT -5 AJBryant said:

C'mon, guy. Make it *easy* for people to get yer stuff -- don't make em hunt for it.

Does that mean we dare hope all those "under construction" placeholders on A Certain Website may actually be filled with useful information during our lifetimes, Sensei?

[AJBryant]

Funny you should ask that. As soon as I finish a current translation project (I hope in one more week), I have a *major* garb-info-related project in the works.

I believe the necessary phraseology is, "Mwa ha ha ha!"


Effingham