Hi, and Welcome to Rob's Cheapass Stuff Series. the Focus of This Series of Articles Will Be on How to Create Good Looking Costumes And/Or Armor to a Low Budget

Home , Armour, Boiled leather, Breastplate, Brigandine, Coat of plates, Cuisses

Hi, and welcome to Rob's Cheapass Stuff series. The focus of this series of articles will be on how to create good looking costumes and/or armor to a low budget. This will differ from the upcoming series I have planned, tenatively titled "Costumes and armor on the Cheap", which will be more of a laundry-list of sources from which you can get LARP gear that both looks good and doesn't suck. For reference, these are still going to cost money (usually around $25-50), but it's going to be a LOT LESS than you'd pay purchasing it new from an online store. Of course, you're going to pay for it in hours of work...but them's the breaks.

Episode 1: Brigandine Armor

Part 1: What the hell is Brigandine?

A brigandine is a form of body armour. It's a cloth garment, generally canvas or leather, lined with small steel plates riveted to the fabric. The form of the brigandine is essentially the same as the civilian doublet, though it is commonly sleeveless. However, depictions of brigandine armour with sleeves are known. Many brigandines appear to have had larger, somewhat 'L-shaped' plates over the lungs. The rivets, or nails, attaching the plates to the fabric are often decorated, being gilt or of latten and often embossed with a design.

"Technically", a brigandine is mainly differentiated from a "Coat of Plates" by the presence of rivets holding the metal plates to the facing/backing fabric, whereas a coat of plates can have said plates sewn with thread directly to the fabric, or even sewn into small pockets inside the material. For all practical purposes, they're identical.

Hopology aside, a Brigandine essentially looks like this:

The top image and bottom left image show the plate layout, while the bottom right image shows the completed product. The following image shows a reproduction image of an actual 15th century Brig:

And this one shows a brigandine with a whole lot of extra kit.

So what does it take to make one?

Well, you're going to need duct tape, two T-shirts you don't care about, a marker, a soldering iron, a bag of rivets (copper or steel, your choice), a hammer, a heavy knife or a good sturdy pair of scissors, and a buddy to help you. Oh, and a Subway place or a Car Wash is gonna be really useful, but a Meijers/Walmart/Target will do in a pinch. Finally, go to Hancock Fabricks or JoAnns and ask for TWO yards of heavy "Duckcloth" in the color you want (I recommend hunter green, burgundy, brown, or black as more "natural" choices, but whatever).

Part 2: Making your pattern

Step 1: Put on the T-shirt you don't care about. Find your buddy. Hand him the duct tape.

Step 2: Have him cover your torso with the duct tape. You don't want it wrapped too tightly (skin- tight=BAD), but you're not going to want it T-shirt-level loose either. Make sure he covers your torso down to about the belt line (or however far you'd like the Brigandine's armor protection to extend, but remember that you need to have a certain percentage of your torso covered by armor to get the NERO armor rating). Additionally, make sure he covers over your collarbones, but NOT over your shoulders or arms. Your T-shirt should have seams which connect the torso fabric to the arm fabric. Make sure those seams stay uncovered by tape at all time and you'll be good. Make a nice thick layer of tape (1/8th" or so). Once you think it's done, make sure you can move your arms without excessive binding from the tape. If you can't, pull tape away from the shoulders until you can.

Step 3: Show your buddy the pattern for the plates illustrated in the last post. Have him draw those plate designs directly onto your torso with the tape/shirt still on you. A wide Sharpie is a good choice. The lines can totally be thick - having a little space between the plates is normal and a good thing (it'll help you move). If you're right-handed, try to ensure that there is no "plate" drawn over the T-shirt seam running from your right armpit down vertically (if you're left-handed, reverse to the other side of your body). I recommend you do NOT try to worry about the horizontal shoulder plates on the top of the shoulders - let there be no plates at all from the collarbone to the top of the shoulderblade behind you - it's WAY easier this way.

Step 4. Have your buddy cut the T-shirt off of you. The easiest way to do this will be to take that seam where, in Step 3, I instructed you to ensure that there was no plate drawn upon it, and cut that seam down vertically. You can then be easily peeled out of the tape/T-shirt monstrosity you've created.

Step 5: Take the scissors and your marker. You're going to cut out each of the plates that have been drawn on the shirt. The marker is to label on the back fabric of the T-shirt where each plate will go. I recommend a system such as (top-to bottom) FP1, FP2, FP3...(Front Plate 1, etc), and RSP1 (Right side plate 1, etc) to help you remember. Cut each plate pattern out and cut inside the lines...that is, if there's a 1/4" black line separating FP1 and FP2, ensure that you don't include that black line in your final pattern bits. Once you're done, set your plate pattern pieces aside.

Step 6. Take your second Tshirt, and, following the shoulder seams, cut the sleeves off the shirt to form a "vest". Then, cut down each side seam to separate the "vest" into front and back halves. These will be your pattern pieces for the fabric parts.

Part 3: Making your plates

There are several options for plates in your armor. I'm going to go with the simplest one, then discuss others at the end of the document.

Now that you have your patterns, you need to apply them toward making your plates. The neat thing about Brigandine is that, even though we WANT to be all "in-period" (or at least not as blatantly anachronistic as we currently are), you can totally make the plates out of modern materials, and because they're sandwiched between two layers of stuff that looks period, the whole thing will look good regardless. So what are we gonna use?

Pickle Buckets.

Yeah, that's right. Pickle Buckets. Heavy, plastic barrels in which pickles are often shipped to eateries. See, go to a Subway, and ask if they have any pickle barrels you can take home. Most of the time, they'll hand you a barrel or two, and voila! It's yours for free. Car Washes are good places to go as well. If you can't find anyplace that'll give you a bucket, hit up Meijers or Walmart or something and buy a pair. Just to ensure you have enough plastic to make this work, grab 2 buckets. The neat thing about these buckets is that their plastic is very tough, and yet pretty darn light, so you're not having to worry about weight. Secondarily, no matter how much you sweat into your Brigandine, the bucket plates aren't going to rust.

So, once you've got your buckets, take them home and wash them out. Use soap & water. Then wash them again. Then again. Possibly a fourth time, if you actually got buckets from a Subway, because the smell of pickles will be strong with this plastic. Once you've washed the bejesus out of them, you're going to take your pattern pieces and glue them (using Elmers/PVA glue so you can pull them off later) to the outside of the buckets. Once the glue dries, take your soldering iron and trace around the pattern pieces with the hot tip - this will score a groove into the plastic that will denote the edges of the specific plate. Pull off the pattern pieces and either discard them or save them for the future (your call).

Finally, take either your soldering iron or a saw of some sort (hacksaws are good choices, so are large jigsaws. Ripsaws and most other power saws are not) and start cutting out the plates. Again, make sure you label them as to where on your body they'll go. Once you've cut out all the plates, you need to take your soldering iron and press it through the plastic to create holes for the rivets. Put at leastone hole in each corner of each plate, between 1/4" and 1/2" back from any edge, or use the images above as a guide. Just make sure that multiple holes aren't too close together.

Note that you will have sore arms from cutting through the buckets. This is normal, and not indicative of a defect in your process.

Part 4: Putting the damn thing together

OK, we're almost done.

First, take your Duckcloth and lay it out on the ground. Remember that T-shirt you cut the arms off of and into a front & back half? Lay each half out on the Duckcloth (pinning it to the cloth may help). Then take your scissors and cut around the edges of the T-shirt, staying about 1" away from the edges of the shirt at all times. Yyou're going to do this four times - twice for the front of the T-shirt and twice for the back (incidentally, this is why you've got so much cloth).

Next, lay out your plastic plates onto the cloth in the order you want them. A useful trick is to use PVA or hot glue to glue the fabric to the pieces. Glue the FRONT of the plastic plates to the BACK (inside facing) of the piece of duckcloth that's supposed to go on your chest, and then glue the BACK of the plates to the BACK (inside facing) of the duckcloth that's supposed to go on your back. Once the glue is dry, lay the interior piece of duckcloth inside the curve formed by the glued-together plates/fabric you already have. Match up the edges as best you can and pin three of those edges together. Using the unpinned edge, reach up in there and get some glue on the backs of the plastic plates, and press the duckcloth onto that glue, forming the shell. It should only take a few points of glue this time - you're just locking it in place until you set the rivets.

Next, take a toothpick or an awl or a sharpened chopstick and use it to push through the duckcloth and into each of the rivet holes. Flip the brig, and do it again (so you're always pushing inward, never outward). DO NOT cut the fabric. Now you have holes in which you can set your rivets. Do so in each hole. Make sure your rivets point inward so the nice end is pointing out.

At this point, you've got two shells - a front and a back. How to make them stick together? You've got several options. The easiest way to do so is to find some grommets, install those in the shoulders and down the flanks, and lace up your shoulders and sides. You could just stitch the fabric shoulder pieces together, although you'll want to ensure that these are HEAVILY stitched - 1 go-over isn't going to do it. You could rivet your shoulder parts together - though I wouldn't recommend it since you'll have hard metal bits biting into your shoulder. However you do it, grommeting and "corset lacing" the sides of your armor is probably the long-term smartest way to do it. Your call.

The last step is to trim down the edges of the fabric to your taste. If you can sew, roll it over on itself and use a whip stitch to hold it in place. Alternatively, fold some bias tape over the edges and run a stitch down that. You don't actually HAVE to finish the edges - the rivets will hold your garment together, but it'll look a LOT better if you do. Heck, even if you CAN'T sew, google "whip stitch" and go it by hand. It'll take about an hour or two and look WAY better.

Part 5: Alternative Techniques

1) You can use metal instead of cutting out the pickle-barrel plastic. This will require you to have access to both scrap metal AND somebody who can cut it, as well as punch holes in it.

2) Some home improvement stores (Lowes, Home Depot) sell construction ties or other such small plates - usually in the Hardware Department (near the screws/nails). They tend to come between 20ga and 16ga steel, and often have holes pre-set in them. They tend to be fairly inexpensive per plate ($0.50-1.00), but it can take 35+ plates to make a brig, so it can add up.

3) If you're looking for different patterns of scales (including one that's going to protect your thighs and groin, have nice mobility, AND includes an easy-to-print pattern, try this one here: http://www.eskimo.com/~cwn/brig_craig1.html

4) You can do an entire Brig out of leather if you want. Just be aware that leather that is going to last you any time at all is going to be somewhat expensive - garment leather won't work for this. I HIGHLY recommend going and buying vegetable-tanned leather from the Tandy Leather Factory up in Tri-county in Ohio. As for an easy-to-do leather pattern, I recommend this tutorial right here: http://www.diycostume.com/article/leather-armor/

5) Something cool to do is put velvet or suede on the outside of your Brig (as seen in the first post). If you want to do this, this adds an additional layer to the garment - it does NOT replace any of the duckcloth layers.

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Cheapass Stuff Ep2: Lamellar Armor

by Darrian Wolffe » Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:07 pm

Episode 2: Lamellar Armor

Part 1: What the hell is Lamellar?

Lamellar armour is a kind of personal armour consisting of small plates (lames) which are laced together in parallel rows. Lamellar armour evolved from scale armour,from which it differs by not needing a backing for the scales. It is made from pieces of lacquered leather, iron, steel or horn laced directly together with silk, leather thongs, or cotton thread. When the lames are made of leather they would often be hardened by a process such as cuir bouilli or lacquering.

Lamellar Armor made of leather lames:

Lamellar Armor made of plastic (!) lames:

Lamellar made of steel lames:

Lamellar is pretty awesome for NERO, in that it's easy as all hell to actually make. The tough/time-consuming part is getting all the bloody lames together. For a 6' person weighing about 220lbs and with an average build, you''re looking at something like 300-400 lames just for the chest/back. Lacing it all up will take...a while. But they look badass (as long as yo don't do something that would break the "anachronism rule" of NERO like getting pink plastic lames), and they serve as an excellent way to get good armor points without the sheer shoulder-crushing weight of chainmail or having to go track down honest-to-god real metal breastplates.

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Re: Cheapass Stuff Ep2: Lamellar Armor

by Darrian Wolffe » Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:07 pm

Part 2: Getting the Lames:

Well, you've got a lot of options here.

Leather Plates The cheapest way to do this is to get leather, cut it into lames yourself, and then harden it. Why harden it when it's not going to get you any more armor points? Simple answer - durability. If you don't harden leather, you're going to need to take care of it - oiling it and all - which is something that's going to take continuing time, effort, and money.

So, where to get the leather? As always I recommend you go to the Tandy Leather Factory in Tri-county and buy a bunch of vegetable-tanned leather. If you can't do that, or don't want to, the other way to do it is to go up there over a period of several weeks and pick through their leather scrap bin.

Once you've got a quantity of leather, you'll need to shape it into scales. Choose a scale design you like; the two most useful designs are the tombstone scale, and the heater scale (named after the shape of a "heater" shield). Other shapes are possible - notably ovals - but these two are the most common and generally easy to work with.

Once you've chosen a plate pattern, find something to use as a tracing blank. Ensure that the lacing holes are included on the blank. Cardboard works well for this. The lacing holes should be more or less identical to those shown in the "tombstone scale" above, regardless of the specific shape of the plates. Take a sharpie and trace out your plates, several hundred times. Ensure that you use the sharpie to indicate where the holes are as well. This will take a while.

A note on plate size: It's going to be VERY tempting to make big-ass plates about this step, so you don't have to cut out between 2 and 4 hundred of the bloody things. Resist this urge. The larger you make the scales, the less mobility you're going to have once the whole thing is done. Your plates should be about 2 inches wide and between 3.25-3.5 inches long. This means that 10 plates will cover about 1 foot of length, and each row will give you about 3" worth of height (from this, you can figure out an approximate number of scales it will take to cover your torso).

Done with cutting out all the plates? Good. Cut out about 50 more to act as spares, just in case you've missed a measurement somewhere.

Next, we're going to harden your leather. Hardened armor is also called Boiled Leather Armor. Although it's not actually boiled, it is put into very hot water in order to produce a chemical change that transforms it from pliable saddle leather into something much harder and more rigid. Boiled leather also has the advantage that, while it is immersed in the hot water and before it dries, it is extremely pliable. As it dries, it holds the shape.

So, grab some plates, and heat a pot of water to just under simmering. The hotter the water, the faster the reaction will be, but the more brittle the leather will become. Setting the water to simmering (NOT boiling!) will ensure that the leather will harden quickly but not get excessively brittle. Take a stack of about 10-20 plates and, one-by-one, immerse them in the water. The plates will darken a bit, and just as they begin to curl up you want to remove them from the water. For the next 15-20 minutes or so, they'll be very pliable. Take this time to punch the lacing holes in your plates (I recommend a Rotary Leather Punch - it's about $10 at Tandy). Re-flatten them and set weights on them (full soda cans set on their SIDES - not ends - work well) and let them dry for about two hours. You can put them in the refrigerator to help them dry quicker. As above, repeat many, many times. This is not something you'll finish in a day or two. Do 10-20 plates a day for a few weeks. In the end, you'll have a crapton of leather plates, ready for assembly. Yay!

If you want to do leather lamellar without all the work, you can buy leather lames. They're easy as heck to find on eBay, but are almost universally unhardened (going rate is about 100 plates for $15-20).

Alternatively, I rather like this guys stuff (which is wax-hardened). Loose plates are $25 for 50 plates, and he sells a shirt "kit" of 300 plates and all the lacing and strapping you need for $250. http://skaldic.com/bodyArmor-lamellar.htm

Metal Plates

You're really only got one option here: buy the plates. If you could make them, that means you've got a forge or equivalent equipment and can shell out that sort of cash, so you don't really need to be reading something entitled "Cheapass Stuff" anyway.

So where to buy them?

The simplest solution is to go buy plates. Good sources are: http://www.mefario.com/eldesar/lamellar.htm http://www.polarbearforge.com/lamellar.htm http://whitemountainarmoury.com/lamella.php

Generally speaking, purchasing metal plates is going to run you about $0.55-0.75 per plate. That sounds cheap...until you recall that you're going to need about 300 plates for just torso armor. So this is somewhat outside the realm of "cheapass stuff" - I include it as a resource for your edification only.

Alternatives to buying purpose-built metal plates are pretty slim. About your only option is to find construction ties or something equivalent at a home improvement store. It's possible; this guy here managed to pull it off. It's not "horrible", but the big honking holes in the ties MIGHT be big enough to catch a finger or something in and create a safety hazard that might DQ the armor.

Your call.

Plastic Plates

There's really only one awesome source for plastic lamellar plates anymore: Noble Plastics Inc. They sell their stuff here: http://www.plasticlamellar.com/

Prices are between $0.25-0.50 per plate. Upsides to plastic are the lack of maintenance required and the light weight. Downsides are that it looks plastic. Even their "metallic" ones don't look all that much unlike plastic. Their "muted" colors are much brighter (fake-looking) in person; I suppose that they use specific lighting or post-shot color correction on the website. So some hard-ass Armor Marshal might someday take that look into account when grading your armor. Again, your call.

Part 3: Putting it all together

So, regardless of what type of plates you have, at this moment, you've got a big stack of them waiting to be laced into armor. Should be a snap, right?

Well...not so much. My very first suit of armor was made of metal lamellar scales, laced together with boot laces. It took me about two weeks to lace it all together. This will take some time - although probably not as long as for me because I didn't have a load of internet resources telling me what to do.

Luckily, you have those. So I get to be kind of lazy and link you to them: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/perfect_armor.html (scroll down till you see the lames) http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/l ... emplarbob/ http://skaldic.com/lamellarlacing.htm (probably the best instructions of these 3)

Any of these will work from a utilitarian standpoint. Don't use boot/shoe laces. Use something like parachute cord to lace everything up; leather cord works too. Something I will point out that that you need to leave your shield side open. That is, don't lace the lames all the way around your body - you'll have no way to get into the armor!

Once you've finished your "belt&chest" see the 3rd link, above, for terms), go grab a couple of cheap leather belts from the Goodwill store or something. Make sure they're leather belts - not the multi-layer belts that are faced with leather. If there's no stitching down the sides holding the belt together, you're probably good to go. Take these belts and cut em in half. Punch some holes in the belts and affix them to your lames (use the lacing and the holes you've already been provided in the plates). The "buckle" half of the belt should be attached to your back armor. Do the same thing to form shoulder straps to hold the armor up over your shoulders (if you decided to not just use lames turned at a 90-degree angle to form shoulder pieces).

Bang. You're done.

If you want a little more authenticity, grab some garment leather and, using the holes in the lames you haven't filled yet (the outermost holes), wrap about an inch and a half of leather around the edges of the armor. This will help hold it together and looks pretty awesome:

If you want large shoulder plates (or upper legs, or something), just take some additional plates and make squares, about 4-5 rows tall and 6-8 plates across. Use the lacing to attach them to your existing armor, or use the belt trick I described above. Lamellar is quite easy to work with; once you've figured out how to make the plates and lace them, the only limits are going to be the shapes you can think of and how to suspend them from you. Have fun!

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Cheapass Stuff Ep3: Splint Armor

by Darrian Wolffe » Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:53 pm

Episode 3: Splint Armor

Part 1: What the hell is Splint Armor?

Splint armor, also referred to as splinted armor, is a form of armor primarily from Medieval Europe. The armor consists of strips of metal, or splints, which are attached to a fabric or leather backing or covering. Splint armor is related to scale armor but distinguished by long, narrow strips of metal. The splints are narrow metal strips arranged longitudinally. The splints are pierced for riveting or sewing to a backing of straps, a foundation or a covering.

Splint armour seems to have never been a widely used form of armor or used as a primary form of armor. It was not used as a form of torso armor unless one considers the 'pairs of plates' or coat of plates to be in this category, as they are both segmented style armors. It differs from a Brigandine or coat of plates in that the metal is "open-faced", ie, not covered by any other material. Depictions of splinted armor typically show it on the limbs of a person wearing mail, scale armor, a coat of plates or other plate harness.

In short, during the first two episodes of "Cheapass Stuff", we showed you how to make nice torso protection; either Brigandine or Lamellar armor. Now we're showing you how to protect your limbs.

Splinted Greaves

To make Cheapass-brand splinted armor, you're going to need some leather, some rivets, a hammer, a leather hole punch, and some strips of metal. Part 2: How the hell do I make this stuff?

Well, this one's easy. Once you've got the materials, you can pump out a reasonable-looking set of vambraces or greaves in about two hours.

Step 1: Find your materials. This one's pretty easy. The hardest part is going to be finding the metal strips. Long construction ties or metal strips are easily available at Lowes and/or Home Depot; some of them even come with pre-drilled holes on the ends. If you get ones that don't have pre-drilled holes, grab a power drill and a good drill bit (buy one that is specifically for drilling through metal! - about $4) and just drill one hole in either end of the strip. For leather, I once again recommend Tandy Leather, but something like an old leather jacket or pants can work in a pinch, as long as you're willing to cut the requisite parts off the garment.

Step 2: Measure and cut to fit

Metal Splints For vambraces: the strips need to be shorter than your forearm. Put one along the back of your forearm and bend your wrist backwards. If the wrist touches the metal, it's too long. Likewise, put the strips along the inside of the forearm and bend your wrist and elbow forward. The strips should be short enough to not contact either joint.

For Greaves: Meaure from 1" above the ball of your ankle upwards to 2" below the base of your kneecap. That's the longest the splints should be.

For cuisses: Measure from 2" above the knee to 4-6" below the hip joint. That's the longest the splint should be.

Leather Parts If you're using leather pants/coat/etc, just cut the requisite parts off the garment. Cut at least one 2" wide longitudinal strip out of it (you'll end up lacing this back over to make it fit tightly later).

If you've got raw leather, really all you need to do for greaves and vambraces is follow this pattern:

A Cuisse is a little more complicated, because you have to allow for the curve of the hip. This is a simple pattern that can be used for cuisses - the short side goes along your inseam. Just flip it over for the other leg.

Step 3: Assembly

Once you've got your leather cutouts, take your leather punch and put some holes in it. First, you'll want to put a half-dozen holes or so along the edges (about 1/2" back from the edges) so you can corset-lace lace it up and ensure that your piece fits you tightly. Greaves and vambraces will generally stay on by themselves - cuisses will need a bit of extra help. Punch two pairs of holes in the top end of the cuisse leather - through these holes, you'll put lacing that will loop around a belt and hold your cuisses up.

Once you've ensured that everything fits, lay out your strips along the leather. Take a sharpie or something and mark through to the leather where the holes in the strips are. Each strip should have about 1/2" between itself and the strips to either side - less and it'll get expensive, more space and you may not cover enough of your body to get the armor points. Take the strips back off and go back to your leather punch; punch out the holes you just marked. Last, take your hammer and attach the strips of metal to your leather using rivets.

Extra Awesomeness...

1) If you're comfortable with hardening leather (say, if you've water-hardened 300 lamellar plates...), you can shape the leather to you for a better fit (especially useful on greaves, which have a tendency to shift). Just put the cut-out piece of leather in the simmering water, and when you pull it out, it'll be pliable. Use that pliability and mold it to your leg directly. I recommend doing this over pants - if it starts to hurt, pull it off by grabbing the edges and lifting it off of you; this will best preserve the shape you've already established. I am not responsible for you being stupid. If you burn yourself, the only thing you'll get from me is tears of laughter.

2) Since you've got those holes punched in the leather already, the hard work is already done. Throw some grommets in there to make your lace-holes really look good.

3) If you don't want to use lacing to hold them on, the leather belt trick I described in Ep2: Lamellar will still work here. Cut the belts down, rivet them to the leather, and you've got instant buckles!

Cheapass Stuff Ep4: Costume Plate Armor

by Darrian Wolffe » Sun Sep 12, 2010 1:53 pm

Episode 4: Costume Plate Armor

I've gotten a huge number of requests to do a Cheapass Stuff article regarding "how can I get mediveal plate armor the Cheapass way?". Plate armor (that is, armor that looks like medieval plate in the Milanese or Gothic tradition - alternatively, the single-piece breastplates and/or Lorica Segmenta of ancient Rome) is probably the single most expensive and difficult-to-manage kit you can possibly choose to use in NERO. To do it at all, your choices have essentially been to:

1) Become a smith and make your own plate (which is actually more expensive than buying a suit, when you add in the cost of things like forges and anvils) 2) Buy an "off-the-rack" suit of armor (if you JUST want a metal breastplate, you'll be dropping in the $200-1200 range) 3) Buy a "custom-made" suit (that breastplate we were discussing just went from the $200-1200 range up to the $600-2000 range) 4) Buy costume armor.

In the context of Cheapass Stuff, the only really viable option is to buy costume armor. The trick about buying costume armor is that is incredibly difficult to make costume armor look good. Plastic is extremely difficult to disguise as metal, and foam rubber is only marginally better (plus has the added issue of actually being hotter to wear than the real thing). For the longest time, we'd see, with some regularity, people come to NERO events with the children's plastic armor (usually a breastplate with no back, a set of vambraces, and a set of greaves) and try to make a case for getting full plate armor points from it. Under the original 8e rules, those people were laughed out of the shack. Under the current smithing playtest, technically it might count if it covers enough of the body...but rest assured that if you choose to go this route, and you're older than 13 (which should be ALL OF YOU), you're still going to get laughed at. A lot. It may be behind your back, but it's still gonna happen.

And that's not the point of the Cheapass Stuff series. The whole idea here is to hook you up with the information you need to make and/or acquire armor that not only protects you in-game, but looks good doing it.

And here's the problem: even if you choose to go the "homebuild" route and build your own styrene or foam-rubber plate armor (a la "cosplay-style), it's still going to run you a few hundred dollars in materials. The "accepted" route to do this right now is via a process called Vaccuum Forming. A quick perusal at the vacuform machines on "Google Shopping" puts the cheapest vacuform machine that's at least 12"x18" (big enough to make a breastplate) at $179.95. Thats...a bit outside our price range.

So, let me be clear: It is NOT POSSIBLE to do medieval-style plate, that looks good, on the cheap. Stop asking.

With that said, what we CAN do it look at some of the suppliers of foam-rubber or plastic costume armor that you can flat-out buy. We may go a little outside the normal price range for Cheapass Stuff...but when you compare it against the prices of getting this stuff for real (or even making it yourself), I feel it still qualifies as "Cheapass" in comparison. The hard part will be getting stuff that looks good. All I can do is link you to images of stuff that looks halfway decent, and let you make up your own mind.

1) eBay. Use it. Search for "armor" under the "costumes and re-enactment attire" sub-directory. This will do two things. First, it'll show all the costume armor on the site, and let you pick through it for looks and via cost. Easy enough. The OTHER reason is that, by using such a generic search string under that sub-directory, it'll ALSO show a great deal of "real" (or more "real", at least) armor, and you may get lucky and find somebody selling off some good stuff on the cheap. Given how individual users use eBay more and more rarely these days, in lieu of dedicated companies using eBay as a cheap online store, you probably won't...but it's worth the shot.

2) Search through cosplay online stores. Not "costume" stores - "cosplay" stores. Cosplayers generally care about looking good doing what they do, as opposed to somebody buying a Halloween costume who wants it to look "OK" for one night. Keywords to avoid are going to be things like "Vinyl, pleather, polyester" and so forth. This costume, for example, not only looks...developmentally disabled...but isn't going to last more than a couple of events. The vinyl armor simply won't hold up. Instead, look for things like "styrene" or "foam rubber". If you were to pull off the vinyl skirting of this costume so you're left with JUST the breastplate, shoulders, bracers, and greaves, it would be perfectly serviceable, look decent, and last for a while. Try and avoid things like "tie closures" or "thin straps" - you want buckles, heavy snaps, and similar. Having the armor stay ON you is just as important as looking good while you're in it.

3) Hit up dedicated LARP stores for armor. LARP places tend to have slightly lower prices than full-on "armorers" such as Illusion Armoring and Historic Enterprises; they know their market. IF you're dead-set on metal armor, I recommend going through our chapter ownership, who are distributors for Larp Distribution. Only bother looking at the complete suits if you can help it - you get a price break on them. Yeah, you're still going to pay a few hundred bucks, which sucks. Save up the money you were spending on attending events every month over the winter when nobody wants to be camping outside anyway (and when NERO Cincy doesn't have any events) and order a suit next spring.

4) If you're dead-set on making your own rubber/foam/styrene stuff, just go here and follow the directions: http://amethyst-angel.com/armormaking.html

5) This one is way, Way, WAY out of the normal price range of "Cheapass stuff", but I want to mention it so hopefully none of you runs across it by accident and steals my thunder. So, I've got a leg injury from the Army, and a permanent "summer armor rule" when I want to use it, since I wear a full-weight plate harness. But I HATE doing that, so I'm trying to track down a plate harness that'll look just as good or better, but not weigh as much. Norton Armories is a British- based company that does foam rubber and foam latex props for both Larpers and film companies (it's far easier to deck background characters out in rubber armor than the real thing). Under their "full sets" section in their shop, they sell a set of Gothic Plate for £970 that I've been eyeing for some time. Get it, and I'll have to stab you. HOWEVER...they also have a LOT of other things that look gorgeous that are available for sale there (ti's all movie-prop quality). Yeah, it's all expensive, but look at it. This is the level of quality we should all be striving for, people.

Conclusion:

I feel bad about this particular article, because it's not "helpful" in the way I want the Cheapass Stuff series to be. I'd love it if, like Splint Plate or Lamellar, you could bust out an awesome- looking set of plate armor for 50-ish bucks in a dorm room or something. But these things require a LOT of resources to pull off, and while it's technically possible to make one wholesale, I have to level with you and tell you that, if this is where you want your character to go, there's no substitute for shelling out some cash. All I can do is point you in the directions to make that cash help you the most.