Mostly finished kit... So far

[meskeram]

Here are a few shots of my mostly finished kit. I was planning on adding leather wakita to the dou, but decided to commission a dou from Black Hydra Armouries instead. The kote are a little floppy looking in the photo, because I forgot the closure cords. The Momonari was made by Black Hydra and I made everything else. My next project will be to do a complete overhaul from the ground up, so that the rest of my armour can match my kabuto. 

And pay no attention to the New Balance shoes.  I desperately need to get some footwear.

Any tips or ideas on improving round two would be appreciated. 

[Saionji Shonagon]

NICE! I will defer to those with more expertise on armor, but I think you look great.

I believe some of our people are fighting in steel toed safety tabi, which would make a nice replacement for the athletic shoes. (I do rapier in plain tabi boots, but I'm not at risk of someone in steel knee cops dropping onto my toes.)

[Lash]

by looking at your kit your doing boffer fighting ? ie foam sword analogs. not rattan sca fighting? your kit looks good.I would suggest you read this site over and over again.
www.sengokudaimyo.com/ great site.
I would add some nice linen rolled wraps to cover the rivets showing on your suneate . www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/graphics/14graphs/suneateset6L.jpg
I actually like wraps bigger than that because I just like the looks of them.
I also like my haidate to sit higher and closer together you can wear hidden protection to make up for any loss of coverage. www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/graphics/13graphs/haidateset11L.jpg
on your kote you can sew on bias tape on the edges to hold everything together and make it look sharp.
keep up the good work.!!!

[meskeram]

Thanks. I have been involved with a foam group for about 11 years or so and have been slowly transitioning into SCA heavy combat.

Unfortunately, my schedule has become somewhat erratic and will probably continue to be until January, so making it to my local practice has become nearly impossible. However, I am going to continue working on my kit until I can free up my Wednesday nights.

Adam

[roninpenguin]

It looks really good but it also looks like you are missing the Wakiita (the armor bits that go under he arms and attach to the Nagagawa and Tateage) which may not be a big deal when playing with foam but if you use it for Rattan it will help as those ribs are tender places to get whacked.

[meskeram]

Oh yeah, so true about the ribs. I did have hardened leather wakita in place, but I had to remove them when I changed the lacing color on my dou. I haven't had the time to put them back in yet.

I also discovered that, while wearing a zoombang shirt, I am well protected in an 18 gauge mild steel dou, but it dents like an empty beer can at a frat party. So I commissions a spring steel dou from black hydra armouries.

Adam

[roninpenguin]

Yeah, I'm trying to get set up to do spring steel as well for that specific reason. The hardest part at this point is getting the steel without having to pay a huge shipping cost.