Constructing new armor (Now with pictures)

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

So, I've been struggling with a strategy for cords. Just can't justify buying the minimum order volume from Rice Braid, though it would give me the best color match.
Reading over the odoshi section of sengoku daimyo, yet again, I realized the cords could match the mimi ito.
The laces I'm using for mimi ito are hollow tubes... Cram a length of parachute cord through them... Stylish cords! Did a test and it works, might even be able cram double twisted parachute cords through, to achieve two different thicknesses of cords.

Gotta thank Schindebee yet again for the hint on these laces for mimi ito.

[AJBryant]

NO! DO NOT STUFF CORD!!!

You want FLAT cord (even shoelaces are tubular and hollow, but they work tolerably well for sugake), nothing else.

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Sorry, I wasn't clear.
I don't mean for the sugake. I mean for the few bits of round cord ( at least I'm assuming round) that are mentioned in the very last section of the odoshi chapter. The cinch cords for the dô, and for attaching the sode to the watagami, and so forth.

[AJBryant]

Ah, never mind.

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

So I am dangerously close to needing to finalize my ieji and kote.

I have, on hand, a dark green and dark blue trigger. I prefer the green, subjectively, but have slightly more of the blue. I've done some pretty in depth Analyisis, and have determined that with a little cheating, I can get all the foundation fabric that shows out of the green. I could always purchase trigger in other colors, but this is recycled from a fighting surcoat, which was never fought in. The lady Valoise Von Metz (my mundane mother) purchased it for just that purpose many years ago, so it has sentimental value.

My questions are more about color combinations. Having recently replenished my stash of fabric, I've got a little bit of a palette to choose from.
Here is the palette with the green trigger and some laced kusazuri :


And here it is with the blue trigger and kusazuri:



Some notes on what you see: all of this is linen, from fabric-store.com. The dark blue is medium weight, everything else is heavy weight. The pale turquoise, I dyed myself, and plan on dying the same color one more time, to get it a little more vibrant.

Right now, i am leaning towards, the green for foundation, the blue medium linen for a shitagi, and the lining of fabric sections of armor, and the mustard yellow or light green heavy weight linen for hakama and a kataginu when off the field.

I also have a cotton bed sheet that is almost an exact match for the medium weight blue linen. Though I prefer to use linen for anything close my skin, this could always be used for say, lining sode, if I were to go with the dark blue.

Also, I have pretty much made my mind up about changing direction on the kote. Tsubo kote alone out of this plastic doesn't seem like adequate fore arm protection. I've seen four injuries in heavy weapons which benched the victim for more than the day, a broken thumb, a finger and two forearms. One of the forearms was Duke Inman of Ansteorra. As a visual artist, I take arm and hand protection very seriously. Plus, shino kote seem far more common for the time period, and the look is growing on me.

I spent hours patterning, cutting and shaping the tsubo kote plates. Still not happy with them in terms of protection or looks. Came up with the genius idea of cutting shino from the ribs of the barrels (which would have been wasted otherwise) and in a couple of hours almost have them finished, and think they look pretty good.

Here are the shino on the green trigger:


And on the blue:


And here are all the plates for the kote, on my canvas template:


I haven't done the final finishing to the edges of any of these plates yet, nor obviously punched any holes. The tops and bottoms of the shine also need to be trimmed to have the right lines.

My questions are:

Regardless of my previously mentioned preferences, is there a color combination which is particularly striking AND period, which I may be overlooking?

Has anyone used heavy weight linen for their foundation fabric instead of trigger, and found it acceptable in terms of durability?

I am still floundering with equating SCA titles with traditional Nihonese ranks. I have an AoA, and am assuming that wearing a hitari under my armor would be presumptuous, a shitagi would be more appropriate?

If I incorporate kikko into my armor, what would be the most appropriate color for those sections, if I use the green trigger for foundation? Or if I use the blue trigger?

I know the hiji gane is a little big. Is it too big?

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Making progress on ieji (foundation fabric) and egawa.

Stenciled white and gold dragonflies on green trigger.


Here is a close up of a single kote:



Pretty happy with this. Just need to finish up the plates and assemble the kote and haidate. Suneate have more work ahead. Planning on creating a hidden pocket in the upper arm section of the kote, so that a zoombang pad can be slipped in when using the armor without sode.

Egawa beginnings:



Initially tried to transfer the pattern onto the leather using blender markers, as I mentioned in the Egawa thread. But this melted the toner TOO much. Image ran and smeared. Then used an iron on the highest setting, with just barely acceptable results. What you see here are some of the best transfers, and the beginning of filling them in with sharpies. After working on them for a while, I've gotten an intuitive feel for the pattern, so only the barest of outlines are enough to get passable results.

Thanks to Yagyu-dono for the tip on using heat to transfer the laser prints. I bet if I had used laser prints on transparency film, the transfers would be darker with better definition. If I ever attempt this again, I may try that. Of course, after coloring these all manually, I may find myself more inclined to try Yagyu-dono's experiments with laminated paper.

[roninpenguin]

Even if it is a pain that looks like it is turning out well.

[AJBryant]

That is turning out splendidly. You are rockin that thing.

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Thank you both!
Yagyu-dono, your work has been a big inspiration.
And of course, Effingham-Sensei, your work is beyond an inspiration. This project just wouldn't have gotten off the ground without constantly revisiting your site.

[AJBryant]

Well, you're doing us proud, son. Keep it up.

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Egawa finished.



Here are supporting leathers for the haidate laid out.


Some lessons learned:

You don't need that high of a heat setting on your iron to do the transfer. I started on Linen, but ended up using the lowest setting, which worked better.

Slightly clearer transfer using transparencies. The real plus to using them is the ease of aligning tiles for long strips.

I started out trying to replicate every little nook and crany of the design. Ended up stream lining the design, and was much happier. You would have to be like a foot away to tell the difference.

Don't bother with ultra fine sharpies. Use a brand new regular one, and replace it if it gets mushy and gives you problems with details.

Next time I'll try iron on transfer paper.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Nice. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!

[tsuchi]

This is awesome.

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

File under: same song, second verse.
Punched holes in my tsubo suneate last night. Tonight fired up the propane torch to edge some various pieces before lacing and assembling them.
Seriously unhappy with the suneate. Going to start them over as Shinto suneate.
On the plus side, my kote is ready for assembly, and the dô just needs final edging done with the torch. All holes have been punched in everything, except of course the suneate shino. Oh, and the kanagu mawari, which haven't even been shaped yet, waiting until the rest of the dô is assembled to tailor those bits. Oh and the nodowa.

Some other things that are in the research and planing stages:
Having a hard time finding paint that matches my plastic plates. So I'm thinking painting the bachi of my kabuto black, with the shikoro being the terra cotta red. I've found a few examples of zunari with that color scheme, though russet bachi with black shikoro seems to be more common for a duo tone kabuto. My kabuto commission is still in progress, but I want to have a good idea of the finishing touches for when it arrives.
I cut some lames for kohire, but think I will do a kikko kohire that is integrated with kikko tate eri, instead.
Got some light green trigger for the suneate tateage and other kikko bits. Got enough to do fighting hakama, but think it would look weird. Also got more of the darker green trigger that I'm using for the sangu, and could do hakama out of that. Would it be weird if my hakama are the same color as the sangu?

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Got a lot of edging, and shaping done over the long weekend. Just about ready to begin lacing the dô.
But before I started that, I figured I'd do a dry run on some tomegawa, and make sure the fit is good, and I don't need to do any more shaping.

Trying it awkwardly on...


Dô by itself


The back. The "M" shaping doesn't show up great in this photo, but it is there. I'm particularly proud of the shaping to the bottom back plate.


The front.


New beginnings on the suneate. Haven't stenciled the fabric or started assembling kikko yet, obviously.