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Astanael — LARP Armor - v3
Published: 2010-09-14 22:50:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 94876; Favourites: 1186; Downloads: 6660
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Description
Still in progress.Except for the sword and the daggers, everything in this outfit is hand made. Most of the leather plate are made for croupon 3-5mm thick. No paint, only neat oil and forming. The overall is not really heavy.
I'm proud of the gautlets, you can find the blueprints on my gallery. The amber stone comes from a belt fond in garbage. The helmet is an historical aberration, mixing scales, celtic and greek inspirations. The rings around my belly are realy useful to hang various items.
I need to add legs protections. Working on it.
The main trouble I have is to get this nice rounded and burned effect ont the edges of my leather plates. How did you pros do it ? I've tried dremel, wood lissettes, plastic formoirs, direct burning, sand paper...
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Comments: 192
Thanks ^^
I did spend a lot of time in Morrowind.
Halas, I dind't play skyrim
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Doesn't look like a person is wearing it, is this a manikin?
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I assure you I'm wearing it. And that I am a person.
It would be easier to take the photos with a mannequin but I only have a female one and a squeleton.
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Thanks for the info, and again very nice work!
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i love the armor my most favorite part of it is the greek style mask. so awesome! and handmade! briliant!
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Thanks a lot ^^
Yeah, I had a great pleasure working on this helmet. And the effect with the black voilage gives a really eerie look.
Had to review my work quite a few time though... Helmet are very hard to build correctely. Vision, head shape, fixation... So many parameters to account for !
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That is really awesome! I'm no expert but that looks like top-notch craftsmanship to me!
Really inspiring. Thanks for sharing!
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Many thanks, this goes right through my hearth. ^^
Have you check the improved 4th version ?
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Damn I had totally missed it!
The earholes sound like a smart move haha
I really dig the poses! That would make for some great drawing references!
Personally, I kinda liked the layout for the v3 a little better; I find the white seperations in v4 distract the eye from the armor which pops out a lot better when set on a darker background as in v3. My two cents anyway.
Keep it up mate. Cheers!
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I agree with you on the color and layout.
All things considered, I like the v3 photo more than the v4. The separations makes it look like a comic, segregating the whole.
Thanks for your two cents, to me it is worth a golden Louis.
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Combien coûte environ une commande d'une armure pareille ?
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Difficile à estimer...
Une armure complète, c'est un ensemble de pièces à concevoir. Celle-ci est entièrement modulaire, il est possible d'ajouter, remplacer ou enlever des parties afin d'ajuster le rendu général. Si je devais donner un coût total réel du temps que ça m'a pris, en comptant la main d'oeuvre, ce serait aux alentours de 3000€.
Ce qui est complétement irréaliste car je crafte principalement par passion et j'utilise beaucoup de matériaux de récupération. Les fourrures proviennent de vieux manteaux, le cuir de chutes de croupon, les décorations de restes de vielles ceintures trouvées en chiffonerie, etc.
Bref, tout ça pour dire que je peux difficilement mettre un prix sur un set complet, je préfère travailler pièce par pièce.
N'hésitez pas si vous avez d'autres questions à me contacter par mp ^^
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Great work man. Quick question: Did you harden the leather or is it sill in it's natural form?
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Many thanks ^^
The leather is not hardened, excepted for the pauldrons which comes from an old pair of graves which were formed.
I mostly use a thick sturdy croupon, so I do not have to use such techniques. That and the fact it is very time consuming.
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Cool. Thanks. I've been trying to find different ways to shape leather besides the basic water/wax hardening techniques that everyone keeps using.
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Mostly, I made shapes by assembling straight pieces by riveting and sewing.
I would love to learn the "cuir bouilli" technique, halas I lack the materials and space to do so.
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Cuir-Bouilli isn't that hard and it doesn't take up much space. All you need is a decent size pot to hold the water. How I was taught was to let the water get to nice and warm to the touch, not boiling, drop the piece of leather into the water and let it sit for about ten minutes. Stir it every couple of minutes so that it doesn't sit on the bottom. After the ten minutes pull the piece out and begin to shape it how you want it. Just a heads up the piece will shrink a bit after being the water so it's a good idea to cut it a little larger then what you plan it to be. Also I found using a wooden or rubber mallet helps to shape the piece.
The only big problem about doing cuir-bouilli in the house is that leather dose give off an order when it's cooking. It's not a bad smell to me but I know people who really don't like it.
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I see, we weren't talking about the same technique. What you call Cuir-bouilli is what I call simply molding.
I thought cuir-bouilly required a wooden mould to press and form the leather, wich I don't have the time and patience to carve myself.
I tried the process you described once, with mitiged results : astanael.deviantart.com/art/Gu… . The whole became quite fragile afterward and I needed to oint it heavily to be usable. Water washes the collagen insides the fibres thus requiring filling it up again. Furthermore, prewaxing prevents water to go in and out.
I will try again, for I must have miss something.
Thanks again for the tips ! I really appreciate it.
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We're actually both right. Cuir-bouilli is just the boiling of the leather how one shape it is really how one feels comfortable doing it. I know guys that cut the shape, boil it and then molded it free hand when it's harden, like metal, others use, as you stated, use an anology to shape it.
Like I said I've had both good and bad experiences with boiling leather. Like you, some came out very fragile; other times it came out quit nice. Now that you mention it. I do remember reading how after the hardening process some people would dip the leather into the beeswax to prevent water damage. I wonder if it was also used to fill in for the collagen that is washed away by the water.
Honestly, I think making proper harden leather is much harder then what many people think.
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Indeed, i have also very bad experiences with forming, this is why I mostly assemble my pieces with thread and rivets.
Leather is a live material, changing with time.
I confirm the waxing methods fills in the pores and render the whole waterproof. This is how you can make bottles and glass from leather. I periodicaly wax my armor to stand rain, and it does.
I think the medieval method of cuir bouilli require medieval treatements of leather, which is hard to find. You're right in sayin' the only way to know is testing. As soon I've finished working on my current project (mostly mastering gimp and latex prosthetics) I will try again to make some masks.
I think I read somewhere that somes techniques requires to glue some clothing behind the leather to reinforce it.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk techniques and timps with me, I really appreciate it.
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I also heard of the use of cloth to help reinforce the leather, I also read the Greeks did the opposite with their armor, a leather core with cloth glued to it. Either way I can see it giving it a good toughness but not hindering movement, and more importantly allowing your body to breath and not over heat.
Well one way we can relive the medieval style of hardening leather is the Mongolia way. It requires a bucket and lots of horse urine 
Thanks also for talking shop. It's been fun and if you want to do it again I'm always here. Good luck with Latex and gimp project. I've actually been thinking about trying to make stuff out of latex and stuff you can find at the hardware store.
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Seems to me that mixing layers of different materials is a common occurrence in armoring, as an attempt to get the advantages of both. From the brigantine to the brick layers of late castle against cannon boulders, there are many example of this.
curiously, this is also a way to make robust and quick cosplay armors, using light fabric and thin craft foam. The rendering is quite nice after paint job and can be formed into any unrealistic shape of animation.
I rather stick with original methods. Well, not too original, I don't see myself bringing buckets of horse urine in my flat :/ Water is fine for me. And bee wax. I friggin love the smell of beewax. That or I'm high with therebentin.
I think multilayered materials are very sturdy and impact resilient. but quite rigid compared to their homogeneous counterparts. In fine, it all comes to testing, as always.
Crafting foam and making latex prosthetic is really fun, I recommend it.
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Nope, they are not connected to the armor.
Wrist are very mobile articulation and require to turn around to nearly 360°, therefore they cannot be connected to the forearms.
Tight leather gauntlets and a thin strap under the palm (search for the gauntlet bluerint in my gallery)
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Experimenting, failing and testing. Lots of fails.
Seeing beautiful crafts always makes me want to fist copy and then inspire from it to create something new.
The tips and technique I have mostly comes from my own experiments, for the Internet only provides visuals clues that not replace the feel and touch when it require to acquire new techniques.
Takes a lot of dedication and patience, 'though,
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Halas I would'nt know. Never played the game.
Thanks ^^
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Nice progress on the suit of armor by the way. I was wondering about the burnt edges as well and found a YouTube video about it. Not sure if you have seen this one yet, but I'll post it any way. "Making a leather edge burning tool."
Would you mind if I used your design as a prototype for the suit of armor that I am working on? Yours is very similar to what I'm looking for, as it is very form fitted, stylish yet rugged look. I will give credit when ever I post a picture, though it might be awhile. I'm new to the LARP stuff, but not to leather working.
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Thanks a lot for the tip, I must try it asap !
You can copy/use/redraw my designs as you want, please post the result once finished.
Just keep in mind the plastron pattern is inspired from an armor of a larp online shop names LRP Store I would gladly give you a link but the website is currently down. which is quite a surprise for me.
This set keeps evolving, although I think it's coming to an end. Not much to add.
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Nice, thanks! I did take a look at the larp shop armor and saw which one your was mimicked from. I know you said that v3 pictures turned out better than v4 pictures, but was it the same color of stain on the leather?
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There was no color change between v3 and v4. Ligthning and color balance are the culprits.
I'm a real amateur when it comes to photography, and tend to correct things when editing. Bad habit, I know.
I rarely use dyed leather and only use neat oil to darken and polish the results, thus the nice "patine" aspect.
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