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I think that the battle of nations teams tend to use 14th century armour. It might be worth looking for the same armourers they use as some of the eastern european armourers have been making stuff for that kind of combat for years, the last thing you want is to spend a fortune on something that wil...

Welcome Walter. With a barbute I'd hazard that you are looking at mid - late 15th century? ...which seems a bit too late for splinted arms and legs, as that seems to refer more to an earlier 14th century style, if I'm not mistaken. Same with a coat of plates as this is a bit outfashioned by the end...

Matt Easton wrote:It will be there - I hope you have a visor for your sallet? .

Nope - but I'm a man with a plan. And a second visored sallet...

Please someone clarify this!!! Clarify what? Tinning the plates? If that's the question, well then, yes. Historical and practical way for preventing the plates from rust. Not to easy, needs some practrice and is time-consuming. I tried it once for practising because I thought about making a brigand...

Way to go Matt!
DOn't forget to get your armour to FC!

I'd love to use 14 gauge steel but it falls down to cost sadly… unless someone out here has some scrap mild steel kicking about? Okay, I hesitated, but I can't help it: don't you have any DIY supermarkets or other suppliers for steel plates in the UK? It shouldn't cost a fortune (it certainly doesn...

im not with a re enactment group but I am studying Western martial arts at the leeds armouries twice a week and we cover some harness work HI, may I recommend attending this year's Fightcamp in August 17th - 19th then?. It will be a fine gathering of all kinds of Historical European Martial Arts pe...

The Methley Archer wrote:Don't be coy about it Wulenganck, tell it how it is.

Some of us are less than svelt and that includes me!

Years of group therapy help me overcome the shame and the bitterness......

rsz_p1010222.jpg My Doublet at the moment. A bit baggy on the shoulders. Okay, the arm/body-joint needs to move waaay up...As has been suggested before. Otherwise you'll lift your hoses each time you'll raise your arms over a certain level (your doublet looks pretty much like my first two attempts ...

I'll have to be brave and plan how to adjust my present doublet if possible, or get a new one made for me. Trust me, it'll pay off! Really, this is one of THE essential elements of male clothing, because once you'll have the shoulder/arm joint correct, the hoses fit just as well - if the shoulder/a...

I second that............. Me too;-) The overwhelming majority of illustrations show some outer-garment like a houpelande, jacket etc. worn over doublet and hoses, very often with slits in the elbow-pit, thus showing sleeves and often collar - that's the main reason for some sort of mi-parti double...

This is the helmet; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170600279119?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 The trader is part of Southern Swords. They say I can try befor I buy. It made by Get Ready For Battle Well, trying it out before buying is definitely reasonable. OT, but: what time period ...

What date are you doing? I am doing 15th century with very occasional dips in to the 13th. Hmm, what sort of portrayal are you doing? Because a Wisby style coat-of-plates seems very outdated for the 15th century (even for the early decades). AFAIK the Wisby finds even were slightly old-fashioned fo...

What was the posibility of the greaves and knee/upper leg not being from the same set/style? Also I have seen illustrations of solders whose only leg protection is plate Knee Cops with just a couple of plates just below and above the knee. The idea of just wearing greaves and knee cops is also a be...

I have been checking a bit more of pictures and illustrations over the last couple of days. The earliest reference I've found so far for the "Full-plate-but-cuisses-only" is a couloured drawing by Albrecht Dürer from 1498 "EIn Reiter im Harnisch" = a rider in harness (by the way a nicre example for ...

Tod wrote:For no other reason than I'ma bit excited about it I've just ordered black armour like the picture .

Yummy!

christine de pizan, livre des faits d' armes et de chevalerie - in a depiction of a siege (not Hussite but from a similar area of what we now know as europe and in correct time era) shows the army attacking to be in padded leg armour and poleyns covering the knee and just above and below and two de...

just to throw in a note that cuisses without greaves or no armour at all on the leg is often more authentic if portraying hussites as the often fought in war wagons nullifying the need for leg or shin protection and in some art work it shows them in full armour and nothing but braies from the waist...

@sempster: I stand corrected! The illustration is from Paur, the poem from Hans FOlz - a bit later than Paur's picture, my mistake, I was a bit hasty yesterday!

There is a lovely illustration by Hanns Paur, done around 1475 and called "Verlobungsbild" = picture for marriage proposal(?); published in: Harry Kühnel (Publisher) "Alltag im Spätmittelalter" (= Commom life in late middle ages), Augsburg, 2006 (one of the "got to have this book" for german reenact...

Just a quick query for any folks who wear these. It might seem a daft question, but I've had apair of these for a while and, whilst they are very comfortable to wear (once I've had the fun of actually getting into them!), they do have a bit of a habit of feeling as though they are 'sliding' down a ...

Never heard the "masterless man"-thing before. WIth all due respect and please believe me, I don't intend to be patronising or trying to put you down, BUT why not start searching for period/prime sources for the period and region of your interest? Don't rely on informatioon solely given from fellow ...

I'll have to have another look through them I thought they only showed people in full clothes/kit doing things (damned good pictures though). No, there is a modern reenacter dressing up in late 15th century civil garment from shirt to houppelande.....there's also mentioning of padded textile armour...

From what I've seen on pictures the long liripipes get out of fashion the later 15th century gets....the chaperon being of course different, but then the whole chaperon is a headdress of its own, isn't it? Should be depending on the region you're portraying, for example there are quite lots of pictu...

What do you mean exactly? Actually AFAIK there is only rare evidence for leather armour in general. The cuir boully (or however that's written) is an example, but for the 15th ct plate, brigandine, mail-shirts and voiders are definitely the majority of armour. YOu'll find lots of examples for covere...

I'd go for handstitching/sewing too. ANother reason for me is as well the fact, that the hobby living history neither starts nor ends with wearing the clothing on an eventside. The research, planning and replicating the stuff is just as well part of the hobby - to be honest, it's probably the much l...

Hi PST, just for cklarification: I guess you're into portraying an englisdh man-at-arms, right? Just because if you're trying to do a soldier of german originb (IIRC there where some german mercenaries fighting in <England in the later years of the Wars of the ROses), don't use a brigantine, there a...

From the picture it does have a slight violett note, so even if not completely woad, it should be possible as a fabric being overdyed with another substance? I'd have to check with my fabric-dyers of trust for the substances-to-be, but I think I have seen experiments from them in overdying with diff...

I picked up a set at Tewkesbury because they were a bargain. Then got them home and thought 'how do I attach them?'. I've gone for stitching short pieces of leather strapping punched with a couple of holes to the outer canvas of the jack and tying them on with points threaded through the holes. It ...

Not seen any either , though I would think it slightly more probable than wearing greaves without cuisses as seen on many reenactors ....That just seems obviously wrong (and looks a bit silly) Okay, that must look odd.....still buggers me not to have any reference for the cuisses-only....keep on lo...